Dr. Henold receives Fulbright fellowship to Hungary

Dr. Mary Henold, John R. Turbyfill Professor of History at Roanoke College, will spend the 2020 spring semester teaching in Hungary as a Fulbright scholar.

Dr. Henold will be teaching courses at the Institute of English and American Studies at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary. Teaching there will offer “what I believe will be an enriching mid-career challenge: adapting my established approaches for students who are non-native speakers, non-history majors and have not been trained to the particular narrative of American history common in our K-12 educational system,” Henold says. She also hopes to see American historical narratives through the eyes of Hungarian students.

In the classroom, Henold says she will focus primarily on questions concerning American identity formation and motivation, “key themes for those seeking to understand what Americans say and why.”

Henold, who has taught history at Roanoke since 2005, chose Hungary and Pázmány Péter because of her family ties to the country.

“My great-grandparents came to the United States from Hungary in the late 19th century,” Henold says. “I’m excited to explore my own origins, but as a historian of Catholicism I’m also looking forward to observing the Catholic community in Hungary from which my great-grandmother emigrated 125 years ago.”