Fulbright Scholar from 
Oglethorpe University

ATLANTA (April 28, 2008) – The Fulbright Program for U.S. Students announced this week that Rachel Renz, 2007 Oglethorpe University alumnae, from Dallas, Texas, won a prestigious scholarship to conduct research in Romania.

   “The German minority in Transylvania represents a group whose history, while of great significance, has been largely forgotten. Rachel's proposed ethnographic study strikes me as immensely sophisticated and raises serious questions appropriate in this era of European integration,” said Oglethorpe history professor Brad Smith. 

   Renz, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, will spend a year recording the stories of and investigating questions of cultural identity formation and maintenance among the dwindling ethnic German minority in the Transylvania region. Based at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Renz will spend time with a community that dates back to the 12th century. Her interest in the region and its people grew out of her study-abroad experience at Oglethorpe’s partner institution, the University of Dortmund in Germany.

   “Ms. Renz’s research project is fascinating. In a world marked by mobility and – in the West at least – by individual choice, it’s both easy and hard to imagine a communal identity persisting for almost a millennium. This particular case seems not to have been studied that much or that closely, so she has the opportunity to break some new ground,” said Joseph M. Knippenberg, Oglethorpe’s Fulbright Program Adviser and professor of politics.

T   he Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and is the largest international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research and teaching. The program was established in 1946 to enable the U.S. government to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.