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Two visiting professors from Montana/USA visit Aschaffenburg

Gruppenfoto mit Gastprofessorinnen, Studierenden und blau-gelber Flagge der Montana State University

Faculty-Led Programmes: Universities in Aschaffenburg and Billings connect students

In June, Assistant Professor Dr. Jessica Perius and Assistant Professor Dr. Karen Washburn from the US-American TH-AB partner university Montana State University (MSU) in Billings visited the Aschaffenburg campus - Dr. Perius as part of the Bavarian Visiting Professor Programme and Dr. Washburn as part of a research stay.

Workshops on sustainability and indigenous peoples

At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Renate Link, both professors organized workshops in the subject “International Competencies: Intercultural Cooperation and Communication” in the Master of International Management.

After an introduction to Montana as a business location, management professor Dr. Perius tasked the students with the following question: “Bringing a Sustainable European Business to the US”. The students worked on this challenge interactively in small groups.

  • 7 Studierende stehen nebeneinander vor der Leinwand mit Post-its in der Hand
  • die beiden Gastprofessorinnen, Professorin Link und Vizepräsident Schäfer stehen nebeneinander vor der Leinwand mit dem Vortragstitel

    f.l.t.r.: Assistant Prof. Dr. Karen Washburn, Prof. Dr. Ivo Schäfer (Vice President for Studies, Teaching and International Affairs), Prof. Dr. Renate Link and Assistant Prof. Dr. Jessica Perius

Dr. Washburn gave insights into the life of “Montana's 12 Tribal Nations”. She is a proven expert in the field of Native Americans and had already lectured virtually on this topic in the current summer semester in the general science elective (compulsory) module “Perspectives of Global Citizenship” (see p. 64ff. on Module Manual) taught by Marcel Rother and Prof. Dr. Renate Link.

In addition, the two guest lecturers held talks with representatives of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law in order to intensify cooperation with MSU Billings. There are plans for reciprocal faculty-led programmes in Aschaffenburg and Billings. These are short-term programmes in which small groups of students are accompanied by a professor from the traveling university.

  • Gastprofessorin steht am Rednerpult vor der Leinwand

    Assistant Professor Dr. Jessica Perius

In her presentation, Dr. Perius quoted the famous US author Mark Twain, who visited Montana several times, with the following words: 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Mark Twain

She emphasized the importance of thinking outside the box to gain intercultural competence through such programmes.

MSU Billings and TH AB have many similarities in terms of the population of their campuses and their student numbers. Similar to the Rhine-Main region, the banking and finance industry is also strongly represented in the Billings area. Furthermore, Billings, located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, is characterized by its proximity to two US national parks - Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park.

Prof. Dr. Renate Link established the contact with MSU Billings at the NAFSA Conference & Expo 2016 in Denver through the joint university partner Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences.