Every year Montclair State University hosts approximately 100 visiting scholars from all over the world, and their reasons for being here are as diverse as the countries from which they come.

"Visiting scholars bring new cultural dimensions to campus," said Marina Cunningham, director of the Global Education Center. "They also introduce new subject areas to the University."

Global Ed cultivates scholars who are specialists in topics of study Montclair State does not offer because "those new subject areas benefit the professors as well as the students," Cunningham said. "It also opens travel opportunities for faculty and students to visit the scholars we've hosted. These visits are conduits for other relationships with these universities."

Richard Gigliotti, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, agrees that all visiting scholars bring a depth of knowledge and accomplishment to the University. "In the ideal, these scholars bring an expertise or perspective that is missing or limited on our campus," he said.

Another aspect to the visiting scholar program is having host members from the campus community. Gigliotti, who has hosted several international scholars, knows firsthand how valuable the program is to the Montclair State community. Three visiting scholars and their sponsors recently shared their multicultural experiences.

Hyun-wook Jung and Richard Gigliotti

Hyun-wook Jung
Gigliotti is hosting the 2003-04 Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Dr. Hyun-wook Jung, chair of the Department of Public Administration and a sociology professor at Wongkwang University in Korea, with which MSU has an exchange program. Jung, who did his graduate work in the United States from 1986-1993, is teaching two courses in the Sociology Department on statistics and applied sociology, as well as continuing his research on gender-related Korean culture.

In his role as host, Gigliotti worked with Wongkwang University and the Global EducationCenter to arrange for the visit, and he gathered information and materials needed to complete immigration paperwork. Gigliotti has been the formal host for other visiting scholars, but admits that his responsibilities this time are greater because Jung has been a friend and colleague for 20 years.

"When Dr. Jung, his wife Dr. Kim, and daughter Kathy arrived, we picked them up at the airport and took them to temporary quarters on campus, which we stocked with food and the essentials," Gigliotti said. "During the first few weeks we hovered over them until they got settled into their regular apartment, got a car and got acclimated. Since then we get together periodically for dinners or to celebrate birthdays. I am always available to answer questions or help."

Gigliotti said he gets personal satisfaction from making intercultural contact, but the University and students benefit as well. "Dr. Jung is teaching two courses each semester including a graduate level course on evaluation research. Next semester he will teach a course on Korean society. He is an evaluation and policy researcher with considerable experience having worked in the United States, Iraq and Korea. In addition, he has traveled all over the world as the director of International Studies for his university. He already has a sophisticated understanding of the United States having lived here for about seven years and having traveled here many times since. He has always been an important and respected interpreter of American culture and society to colleagues back in Korea."

Jung's previous experience helped prepare him for his year at Montclair State. Because he understands American society, he did not have difficulty getting acclimated to the campus. "I have taught college students for 10 years at my home university," he said. "There is not much difference in higher education in the United States from college education in Korea. However, American students study within a more culturally diversified environment. I give credit to Montclair State's environment."

Jung said he is impressed with the Sociology Department and the activities it hosts. "When I return to Wongkwang I will suggest to the decision makers that we need a movement toward globalization in all fields of academia," he said. "I will teach students to have open minds and turn their eyes to the world."

Jung will get an opportunity to act as host in the spring when President Susan A. Cole and a delegation from Montclair State visit Wongkwang University to initiate collaborations there.

Gigliotti has already spent a few days in the Iksan Province of South Korea visiting Wonkwang. During that time he gave a lecture to 150 students. "My four-day visit to South Korea was eye opening," he said. "The country is beautiful, the economy is roaring and the people are admirable."

David Witten (left) of Music is hosting visiting scholar Helga Bartus (center), who is studying American organ repertoire with professor Ken Hamrick.

Helga Bartus
Visiting scholar Helga Bartus, a Musician-in-Residence and research scholar for 2003-04, is attending graduate music history and performance classes as well as giving guest performances on the organ. Her scholarship is funded by the Terplan Family Foundation, a Hungarian foundation that supports young artists.

"Through the largesse of the Terplan Foundation (Dr. Kornel Terplan, founder), Montclair State has had the good fortune to host Hungarian art students and music students," said David Witten of Music, Bartus's host. "Helga already holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. While she's at Montclair State, she is studying with Professor Ken Hamrick, working on American organ repertoire, including works of Charles Ives and William Albright."

In addition to her class work, Bartus also is conducting research on the history of the organ in the United States in the 18th century. Because of Montclair State's proximity to New York, she will have opportunities to get to know some of the more spectacular organs in churches there and will perform in several concerts both in New York and New Jersey. "My husband and I spent a week in New York last year and we fell in love with the city," she said. "I chose to visit the United States because it is the most developed country in the world, which means it is the center of diverse cultures where the most important trends of the entire world meet. As in all professions, even in the art of organ, it is particularly important to obtain foreign experiences and get to know the most developed professional trends of the world."

Bartus said the method of American education is different from her country. "In America the professor first acknowledges all the positive aspects about the student before constructively critiquing," she said. "This is important because the teacher has to encourage and inspire the student. When I go back to Hungary I would like to apply this method in my school."

She also is enjoying the freedom she is afforded in America. "Hungary was a communist country for 40 years. I was 15 when communism fell, but you can still feel the impact of communism in Hungary. Freedom is important for an artist because you are not able to create under oppression, repression. Many highly qualified professional musicians, artists and scientists left Hungary for that reason."

Bartus hopes she and her husband will have the opportunity to stay for another year. "One year is not enough to learn the many good and valuable things Montclair State University and the United States have to offer," she said. "I am grateful for this opportunity from the Terplan Family Foundation, Marina Cunningham, Wendy Gilbert-Simon and Tracy Hogan of the Global Education Center, who help us, and for Dr. Hamrick and Dr. Witten for their invaluable musical insight."

Hamrick said Montclair State is just as grateful. "It's amazing what we learn about ourselves in having to explain our society to someone from a different culture. It shows how different we are yet how alike we are. That is the most important experience of having Helga with us, not only for me but for my studio and the entire Music Department."

Witten is looking forward to the spring when the Music Department will host Klaudia Vida, a piano student of the Franz Liszt Academy. "Klaudia will have the opportunity to study piano works of Aaron Copland with me, and she also will participate in our Chamber Music Program," he said. Next year, through the Terplan Foundation, three Hungarian students--two pianists, and one tuba player--will be in residence at Montclair State.

"The advantages work both ways," Witten explained. "Our students get to meet and know Hungarians and learn about their excellent training and methods of practice and work, and the Hungarians learn American repertoire that they otherwise might not hear about. We look forward to enhanced exchange opportunities between our university and the renowned Franz Liszt Academy in the coming years."

Because of his involvement with these Hungarian connections, Witten will present a piano recital and a photography exhibition in Budapest in June.

Veronique Mouilleseaux
Lois Oppenheim of French, German and Russian enjoys having international scholars in her department on several levels. "The research scholar works with our students in a variety of ways," she said. "I teach French Perspectives, a course on the history of ideas in France since 1945, and it is worthwhile to have the research scholar attend that class to discuss issues of interest to my students from his or her own perspective. When we were talking about the educational system in France last month, for instance, it was useful for my students to have Veronique Mouilleseaux, a French graduate student, participate in the discussion."

Mouilleseaux came to Montclair State to tutor as part of a program conducted every year between the French Department and the English Department at the University of Nice. She sees students who need help in French and teaches Beginning French.

In 1994-94 Mouilleseaux spent 10 months in Florida where she lived with an American host family while attending classes at Seminole High School "as a normal 12th grader."

"When I arrived on campus in September I already knew how Americans live and work. I had already personally experienced what American students experience in high school, and I was familiar with the American teaching methods from the perspective of a student," she said. "This has helped me greatly in making the transition from student to teacher."

The University, Oppenheim said, benefits in multiple ways from Mouilleseaux. "The students have a walking language lab in the form of Veronique and those who have preceded her," she said. "Our students speak only French with her; they interact with her socially; they get extra help with their courses; and those in need of remedial work have weekly sessions with her."

In the past, Oppenheim selected her annual international research scholar from candidates whose files were sent to the University via the Cultural Services office of the French Embassy in New York City. "I called them in France to interview them and then the entire department would loom over each file and we made our selection," she said. "This was enormously difficult and, though all our experiences were positive, we were most pleased to have a scholar from the University of Nice who had come to us via a colleague I have long worked with there. We then began regularly using their committee to conduct preliminary on-site interviews with those of their students applying to work in this capacity abroad. We have had excellent scholars with us every year since."

Mouilleseaux explained that higher education in France and in the United States are very different. "In the United States there's true interaction between the students and the teachers," she said. "Students ask questions in class and they often debate topics among themselves and with their professor during class, while in France professors are less available: they pass on their knowledge to their students, but there's no real interaction. On the other hand, because teachers are so demanding in France, and because the amount of information and knowledge students need to digest in order to pass is much more important than it is here, French students learn to be more autonomous than American students. To me, the perfect higher education system should combine the French and American systems. It should combine the autonomy of French students with the American perception of student/teacher and student/student relationships."

Mouilleseaux finds that people here are more open to other cultures and less judgmental, and always feels she can be herself in the United States. "The sentiment of freedom that exists here is not a myth," she said. "It is very real and ever-present. I believe it to be something quite unique and precious.

"I've loved the United States for as long as I can remember, and although I love France very much, I feel so lucky to be allowed to live here for a while that I don't want to spend any time thinking about home or about what I left behind."