Fulbright Recipient from Penn State Behrend
to Teach U.S. Pop Culture in Tunisia
Penn State Behrend associate professor John Champagne (second from left) teaches one of his English classes. He will be spending the next academic year in Tunisia as a Fulbright Scholar.
Louis Vuitton and Madonna to 9/11 and “Bowling for Columbine,” and how each influences the average American family, easily could summarize Pop Culture 101 at myriad universities throughout the United States. However, John Champagne, program chair and associate professor of English at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, proposed he teach this Americanized course to Generation Y’s counterparts in Tunisia. Beginning this fall, he will.
Champagne has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture in American Studies at the University of La Manouba in Tunisia for the 2006-07 academic year. He will teach courses in mass media, ethnic minorities in the United States, and advanced writing.
As a member of the English faculty in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences for 13 years, Champagne has taught a range of English, literature, composition, and film courses. He is the author of myriad publications, including books, articles, poems and short stories, and has presented at numerous professional meetings. Champagne is a past recipient of Penn State’s Alumni Teaching Fellow, a University-wide award, the Penn State Behrend Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award and the Benjamin A. Lane Outstanding Service Award. He earned a Ph.D. in English, critical and cultural studies from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Arts in cinema studies from New York University.
In preparation, Champagne drew on his experiences at Penn State Behrend, where he teaches courses in American literature and culture regularly, as well as trips to Morocco and Tunisia fewer than six months after September 11. “These trips forever changed my perceptions of Arab culture,” he said. “Wherever I went, people expressed to me their sympathy for what had occurred recently in the United States, while I did my best to show respect for their customs.”
It was during this time in Tunisia that Champagne noticed the prevalence of U.S. popular culture in the form of fashion, films, cuisine and music, and how the culture intertwined local and American customs.
Because of its geography, Tunisia’s rich cultural history includes both the Arab-Islamic and European worlds. This contact has shaped contemporary Tunisian culture and society in a variety of ways. Champagne’s courses will provide knowledge of American literature and culture while empowering the students to critically study Tunisian literature and culture with the same methods.
“Analytical approaches to U.S. popular culture” is a mass media course that will provide undergraduate students in Tunisia with current methods of analyzing popular culture. By studying the cultural forms that surround them daily, students will learn about American culture and how to think critically about the choices they make as consumers of that culture. Students also will discuss how to adapt the methods to suit and critique Tunisian popular culture.
Also derived from that 2001 trip is Champagne’s second course, a seminar titled “United States minority/ethnic literature in an international frame” for undergraduates.
“I was particularly delighted by popular Tunisian dance music, with its incorporation of elements from such diverse sources as American rap, French pop music, and indigenous musical genres,” Champagne said. “While Tunisian pop music and ethnic literature in the United States both borrow from the cultural mainstream, they each adapt and transform what is borrowed to create unique art forms with their own aesthetic.” The course will examine this trend.
To confirm that these courses would be relevant to the Tunisian curriculum, Champagne collaborated with Hichem Hlioui, head of the department of English at the University of La Manouba. Champagne noted that “the courses are a logical addition” as both institutions have revised their curriculums to reflect efforts by the English discipline to study literature within broader cultural and historical parameters.
Champagne is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 150 countries for the 2006-07 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the purpose of the program is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.
The Fulbright Scholar grant is sponsored by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields. They are among more than 266,600 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in Fulbright exchange programs.
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Behrend offers one associate and eight baccalaureate degree programs, a pre-law curriculum, a fifth-year teaching certification, seven minors and a study abroad program in cooperation with University College in Northampton, England. Students often collaborate with faculty on research and outreach programs, have access to technology-enhanced classrooms, including state-of-the art digital editing and psychology laboratories, and publish “Lake Effect,” a nationally recognized literary magazine edited by students. The school hosts the Creative Writer’s Speaker Series and both the International and Women’s Film Series, plus offers various musical and theater opportunities to its students.