Brian James Baer, Ph.D., a professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to Estonia for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
He will be teaching and conducting research on the relationship between semiotics and translation theory at the University of Tartu. Founded in 1632, the University of Tartu is the oldest university in Estonia and home to the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School and the archives of Juri Lotman, whose works Baer has translated.
About Brian James Baer
Baer is founding editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies, and co-editor of the Bloomsbury book series Literatures, Cultures, Translation, with Michelle Woods, and of the Routledge book series Translation Studies in Translation, with Yifan Zhu. He publishes widely on translation history, translation pedagogy and translation theory. His most recent publications include the monographs Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature and Queer Theory and Translation Studies: Language, Politics, Desire; the collected volumes Researching Translation and Interpreting, with Claudia Angelelli (2015), Translation in Russian Contexts, with Susanna Witt (2018), and Queering Translation, Translating the Queer, with Klaus Kaindl (2018); and the translations Culture, Memory and History: Essays in Cultural Semiotics, by Juri Lotman, and Introduction to Translation Theory, by Andrei Fedorov. He is current president of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association and sits on the international advisory board of the Mona Baker Centre for Translation Studies at Shanghai International Studies University.
Baer is among over 800 U.S. citizens who will teach and/or conduct research abroad for the 2023-2024 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.
As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Notable Fulbright alumni include 62 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, 78 MacArthur Fellows, and 41 who have served as a head of state or government. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants from over 160 countries - chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential - with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and our world.
More about the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program.
More than 800 U.S. scholars -- faculty, artists, and professionals from all backgrounds -- teach or conduct research overseas through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. Additionally, over 2,000 diverse U.S. students, artists, and early career professionals in more than 100 different fields of study receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards annually to study, teach English, and conduct research overseas.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education supports the implementation of the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit: https://fulbrightprogram.org.
# # #
Media Contact:
Jim Maxwell, 330-672-8028, jmaxwel2@kent.edu