Mexico: My upcoming trip, women and philanthropy, and other fun stuff

In March, I received word that I would be representing the University of Illinois at Chicago as the Fulbright-García Robles US Studies chair at the Universidad de Guadalajara for the winter semester.

Along with escaping a Chicago winter, I will be teaching a course on business and American culture (FIN 435 in the UIC catalogue), helping to set up a study abroad program for UIC students, and working on a side project about women and philanthropy in Mexico by affiliating with the Junior League de Guadalajara.

Philanthropy is one of the unique aspects of the American economy, by the way, and it was one of the first ways that educated, middle-class women were allowed to make economic contributions outside of the home. The Jane Addams’ Hull-House is on the UIC campus, too, and that was one of the first institutions that approached philanthropy from a scientific perspective.

The Fulbright program has a huge range of fellowships. I was in Mexico City a few weeks ago for an orientation, and I met a high school Spanish teacher who will be developing a curriculum on Afro-Mexicans to help make Spanish more interesting to African-American high school students; a writer who is working on post-apocalyptic novel set on the US-Mexican border, and librarian who will be working at the Mexican Ministry of Culture. Although many of the placements are for traditional academics, not all of them are.

The orientation covered all sorts of things, from how to use the Achivo General de la Nación to how what to do if kidnapped (leave hairs everywhere, try to make friends with the kidnappers). It was in both English and Spanish. I was holding my own in Spanish until we had a presentation by two political scientists about the relationship between the US and Mexico, and it was way over my head. (I’ll be teaching in English but am studying Spanish now, working through verb tenses – so many verb tenses!)

And I’ll be posting more about getting ready for the adventure!