Professor receives Fulbright to help study-abroad, international students

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — University of Louisville theater professor and administrator Nefertiti Burton will travel to France and Germany this fall through a Fulbright award to improve services for prospective study-abroad and international students.

Burton is the College of Arts and Sciences’ associate dean for international, diversity and outreach programs and an associate professor of theater arts. She earned a Fulbright International Education Administrators Award for a two-week seminar in Paris and Mainz.

The October seminar is intended to help U.S. international education professionals connect with the cultural, societal and higher education systems of other countries and set up networks of U.S. and international colleagues. The Fulbright program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

While in France, Burton said, she plans to make connections for future research on how present-day French-speaking immigrants from the African diaspora use theater to interpret social, political and economic conditions there.

Burton came to UofL in 1999 as co-director of UofL’s African American Theater Program. She has performed in regional theater, film and television and has produced and directed university, community and professional theater. She earned her master of fine arts degree in directing from University of Massachusetts-Amherst and has researched the oral storytelling tradition of Nigeria’s Yoruba people.

For more information, contact Burton at 502-852-7802 or nefertiti.burton@louisville.edu