Dr. Jacquelene M. Robeck, professor and coordinator of the Fashion Design and Merchandising program in the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette received the Fulbright Core Scholar Award for 2010-2011.
She will be sharing her expertise in textiles and clothing with the country of Mauritius. Robeck has been on the UL Lafayette’s faculty since 1998.
The Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education. It is designed to increase mutual understanding and cooperation between the U.S. and other countries.
The Core Fulbright Scholar Program annually chooses grantees for their academic merit and leadership potential to lecture and/or conduct research. There were only two awards in Textiles and Clothing for 2010-2011.
Robeck will expand the fashion program via teaching, research and service at the University of Mauritius (Faculty of Engineering, Department of Textile Technology) and will further a Fashion and Design Institute formed by the Mauritius Ministry of Industry, Science and Research.
She will live in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, from January through June 2011. Mauritius is 1,000 miles east of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean and has a population of 1.3 million people.
“By better understanding a similar program of academic study at the University of Mauritius and immersing myself in that country’s apparel-retailing economic sector, I can make a valuable contribution to the U.S. understanding of apparel production and distribution in the global economy. An immediate contribution to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, upon my return, would be to disseminate facts about Mauritius’ clothing and culture in the classroom and share of my experiences via formal lectures in the Lafayette community,” said Robeck.