EMU professor Denise Pilato earns Fulbright to teach in Croatia

Two recent EMU graduates win Fulbright scholarships to teach in Germany, Mexico

EMU professor Denise Pilato earns Fulbright to teach in Croatia
Rijeka is located on an inlet in the Adriatic Sea and is home to Rijeka University, where EMU professor Denise Pilato is teaching this year on a Fulbright Award.
Denise Pilato
Denise Pilato

YPSILANTI – Throughout a distinguished academic career, Denise Pilato has studied the intersection between technology and culture, how we as humans react to the myriad inventions that ostensibly represent progress.

Pilato, a professor of Technology Studies at Eastern Michigan University, will share her expertise on the social impact of technology in Croatia this year on a Fulbright Award to teach at Rijeka University, located in the city of Rijeka, on the Adriatic Sea.

She is one of three EMU Fulbright awardees—a faculty member and two recent graduates—for the coming year. Jessica Wenzel, a secondary education April graduate from Ann Arbor who majored in English (with a minor in German), is teaching English in Germany. Emily Hoffer, an International Affairs major from Grand Haven who also graduated last April, is teaching English in Mexico.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, and is designed to build lasting connections between people of the United States and other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Pilato is excited about both the timing and substance of her fellowship, her second Fulbright award. In 2008, she taught at the University of Catania in Sicily.

“At this point in my career, this opportunity presents a new and energizing teaching and learning experience ,” says Pilato, who has taught at Eastern since 2000. “This is a terrific jump start in a different direction for me.”

Jessica Wenzel
Jessica Wenzel

Her Fulbright grant topic, “Muted Boundaries: Exploring American Technology and Human Values,” will address how and why historical patterns related to the social impact of technology address critical issues about human values that remain relevant in contemporary society.

Pilato makes an important distinction: More than ever, people today engage with technology in a global context, as international citizens. Said another way – despite our perceived differences, we share the same basic needs as humans, needs that technology helps to fulfill.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” Pilato says simply.

For the past ten years, Pilato has served as the program coordinator for the graduate program in Technology Studies in the EMU College of Technology, responsible for curriculum development, assessment and recruitment, among other program needs.

Her research focuses on American women inventors and their contributions to the history of technology. Pilato, a social historian among the many mechanically focused faculty members in the COT, distinguishes herself as “someone who is interested in why and how technology affects social values and human behavior.”

She chose Croatia as her host country for its rich variety of ancient Roman technology sites, along with its recent post-war technological adaptations. Croatia offers an interdisciplinary opportunity to understand how and why technology contributed to the making of a nation, Pilato says.  

“I’m interested in understanding how people adapt to technology in an effort to better understand and bridge gaps regarding cultural differences,” Pilato wrote in her Fulbright proposal.

Emilly Hoffer
Emily Hoffer

Pilato earned her masters and doctorate in American Studies at Michigan State University and her bachelors at Oakland University. She is excited at the prospect of this second fellowship, and hopes to initiate a study abroad program in Croatia, creating lasting relationships between American and Croatian students and faculty.

She has led an EMU graduate study abroad since 2005 in southern Italy and Sicily, where students examine the social impact of ancient technologies that continue to have a contemporary relevance. Pilato looks forward to building on this successful study abroad model while in Croatia.

“This (award) represents personal, professional and institutional opportunities and challenges that promise to energize my academic career on all levels,” Pilato says. “Being a positive agent of change is more appealing than simply being an example of sustained excellence.”

As a student “Fulbrighter” in Germany, Wenzel says she hopes to broaden her world view and promote cultural understanding through her collaboration with educators and students.

“I am grateful to have this incredible opportunity ahead of me,” she says. “The Fulbright program represents a doorway to new possibilities and experiences that I can share with my future students.

“The purpose of Fulbright – to promote international goodwill and to exchange ideas and knowledge in order to nurture understanding and diplomacy – is especially important today.”

Hoffer says her Fulbright award exemplifies the type of positive interaction the United States should be pursuing with its neighbors.

“I hope that as a goodwill ambassador and English teaching assistant I can make a difference in my community abroad,” she says. “I'm also curious and excited to learn more about Mexico, develop my Spanish and grow as a teacher, and academic.

“I couldn't have done this without the help of the amazing faculty at EMU, encouragement of friends, and support of my family. It is a huge honor to be part of the Fulbright community and, I consider this as one step towards my future in international affairs.”

See the website for further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State, or contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Press Office by telephone at 202-632-6452, or e-mail ECA-Press@state.gov.

January 17, 2018

Written by:
Geoff Larcom

Media Contact:
Geoff Larcom
glarcom@emich.edu
734-487-4400