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Fulbright trip to Germany for Cal State L.A. professor
Dark to explore ‘Nation-State and European Identity’
LOS ANGELES – Taylor Dark III, a professor of political science at California State University, Los Angeles, has recently been selected for a 2012 Fulbright German Studies Seminar award by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
A Pasadena resident, Dark will travel from Berlin, Germany, to Brussels, Belgium, in the summer to participate in this year’s seminar, “Nation-State and European Identity,” conducted by the Fulbright Commission.
“I’m excited about this opportunity to study how Europeans are grappling with struggles over both national identity and the rise of a common European identity,” said Dark. “With the current crisis over the future of the Euro, this is a particularly appropriate time to consider the process of European integration, as well as resistance to it.”
The seminar will provide Dark and other scholars a first-hand look into how Germany’s political, economic and cultural systems deal with contemporary issues. According to the Fulbright Commission, the engagement in substantive dialogue with political, academic, scientific, journalistic and cultural leaders in Germany can strengthen research and teaching for U.S. scholars.
An expert on labor unions in national politics, Dark is knowledgeable in the areas of the U.S. presidency, Congress, party politics, and federal elections. He authored numerous articles on labor unions in American politics, and national electoral politics (especially the Democratic Party). He published The Unions and Democrats: An Enduring Alliance, with Cornell University Press, 2001. Previously, he was associate professor and associate dean in the Graduate School of American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from UC Berkeley.
From a letter by Tom Healy, chair of the Fulbright Board, to Professor Dark, it stated: “Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. … As a representative of your country in Germany, you will help fulfill the principal purpose of the Fulbright Program, which is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of more than 150 countries that currently participate in the Fulbright Program.”
The Fulbright Program has provided almost 300,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—academic opportunities in other countries. For more about the Fulbright scholarship to Germany, go to http://www.cies.org/GSS or http://www.fulbright.de/togermany/grants/german-studies-seminar/german-studies-seminar-2012/.
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