Three University of Missouri-Kansas City faculty members, Brian Frehner, Ph.D.; Clara Irazábal-Zurita, Ph.D.; and Charles Inboriboon, M.D.; have received prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Fulbright program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational program. Award recipients teach, conduct research and provide expertise abroad in a program designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and other countries.

Frehner, associate professor in the UMKC History Department, received an award to Germany where he plans to teach and conduct research for three months. Much of his time will be spent working with colleagues at the University of Hamburg to expand upon an online course that examines themes in transatlantic history and German migration from Hamburg to St. Louis, Missouri..

He will also travel to Munich to review documents in the Deutsches Museum relating to the acquisition of oil exploration technology related to geophysicial oil exploration. The research is for a book he is working on that details the science and technology of exploration geophysics that seres as the basis for oil discovery throughout the world.

Irazábal-Zurita, director of the Latinx and Latin American Studies program and professor of planning in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design, received an award to lecture and conduct research at the Universidad de Costa Rica. She will focus on selective (dis)affiliations and (sub)urban implications of middle-class Venezuelan migration to Costa Rica.

The project is an extension of her study of migration and urban planning in U.S. Latinx/immigrant communities and in Latin America, including Costa Rica and Venezuela. Irazábal-Zurita plans to conduct her work in Costa Rica during the summers of 2021 and 2022.

Inboriboon, director of International Emergency Medicine Programs at the School of Medicine and associate professor of emergency medicine, received an award to Thailand where he plans to spend six months teaching at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. His project will enhance emergency medicine education by incorporating active learning into the didactic curriculum. He will also be developing online learning resources and enhancing individual learner feedback.

Inboriboon has led several programs in Thailand during the country’s transition to competency-based medical education.

Fulbright award recipients are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. Funded through the U.S. Department of State, the program is also supported by and operates in more than 160 countries throughout the world.