In many ways, diversity is an integral part of the Fulbright mission that Fulbright Austria has promoted for the last 70 years. Much has changed in Austria and in the US over the last seven decades, and each change brings with it a chance to adapt, an opportunity to continuously explore and expand our ability to reach the broadest possible cross-section of Austrian and US societies. As we prepare for future generations of Fulbright Austria alums, we’re sitting down with members of the wider Fulbright community to discuss diversity.

A number of Fulbright alum-led organizations have come together as the Fulbright Diversity Collective, and representatives of these alum-led organizations will join us on Zoom. We believe that it is important to learn from the experiences of the many alums who have contributed to the Fulbright mission throughout the Fulbright Program’s 75-year history, and we look forward to learning from them. We hope you’ll join us!

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Miranda Patterson is the cultural attaché at the US Embassy Vienna. Before arriving in Vienna in 2020, Miranda served as consular officer at US Embassy Islamabad and Mexico City. Miranda is a recipient of the State Department’s distinguished Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship, having prior experience at US Embassy Bangkok and the Bureau of European Affairs. Miranda holds a master’s degree in intercultural communication from American University and a bachelor’s degree in global studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to German, she speaks Spanish and Urdu. She is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Roberta Maierhofer is a professor of American studies and director of the University of Graz’s Center for Inter-American Studies. She is also currently the chair of the board of trustees of the Afro-Asian Institute. Her research focuses on (inter-)American literature and cultural studies, gender studies, transatlantic cooperation in education, digitalization, diversity and interculturality, narrative didactics, and age/aging studies. For three decades, Roberta has been serving the academic community as a present and past member of editorial boards, committees, and forums, and she developed a theoretical approach to gender and aging in her publication Salty Old Women: Gender and Aging in American Culture.