Professor Judy Richardson receives Fulbright Scholar grant to teach literacy, research instructional changes in schools in Macedonia

Judy Richardson, adjunct assistant professor of education in the University of Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar grant.

She will teach a class on methods in teaching literacy at the South Eastern European University in Tetovo, Macedonia and conduct workshops on content area literacy in three different cities in Macedonia during the spring 2015 semester. Richardson has visited and taught in Macedonia since 2004; she also received a Fulbright Scholar grant in 2008. Her research will focus on evaluating materials and data from teachers and students she has worked with from 2004 to the present.

“The education system is shaky since Macedonia is a post-communist nation moving toward democracy. They are constantly switching programs,” Richardson said. “I will be conducting mostly qualitative research on teachers’ and students’ use of literacy strategies in their instruction.”

Richardson earned her B.A. at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is one of about 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program during this academic year and the only one chosen to work in Macedonia.

“Besides teaching, I am most looking forward to once again being with colleagues with whom I have formed long distance relationships,” Richardson said.

Also this academic year, Elizabeth Baughan, associate professor of classics and archaeology at UR, received a Fulbright Scholar grant to support her archaeological research in Turkey. Peter Lurie, associate professor of English and film studies at Richmond, was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies teaching fellowship at the University of Warsaw, Poland.

The Fulbright Program is an educational exchange program that fosters communication and learning between people of the United States and people of other nations. The program is primarily funded by the U.S. government and currently operates in 155 different countries globally.

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