West Virginia Universityprofessors CharlesSandyBaldwin, Ph.D., and Rebecca M. Chory, Ph.D., have been awardedFulbright Scholargrants by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Fulbright award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Baldwin and Chory are two of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program.

I am honored to receive this award,said Baldwin, who, through the Fulbright program, will be a visiting lecturer in cultural studies at the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria.Their (the institutes) strength in media studies and literature meets my interests. Ill be introducing some new topics and approaches to their department. Ill also be working with faculty in Austria to seek out future collaborations. This is a tremendous chance to act as an ambassador for WVU and for our nation. Of course, I hope to learn a great deal as well.

Baldwin is an associate professor in WVU sDepartment of Englishin theEberly College of Arts and Sciencesand director of the WVU Center for Literary Computing. He specializes in the interrelations between literature and media technology, avant-garde writing, 20th century American literature and critical theory. His work imagines the future of literary studies in a digital age. As director of the Center for Literary Computing, Baldwin facilitates interdisciplinary research projects in the poetics of new media and the media ecology of literary institutions, using Web technologies, multimedia, hypertext, audio/video and virtual environments.

Baldwins scholarly work explores media technologies as rhetorical and aesthetic objects, asking how media structure our thought and experience. His particular focus is on continuities and borrowings between literary theory and theories of digital multimedia. Current research areas include Internet art as a literary genre, avant-garde writing as a precursor of multimedia, narrative of computer games, and the cultural implications of nanotechnology.

Sandy Baldwin has a unique and brilliant mind,said Mary Ellen Mazey, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.His ability to analyze, distill and explain the connections between digital technology, creative writing and art are on the cutting-edge. His research delves deeply into how technology is shaping and changing human interaction and communication, positioning WVU as a leader in this emerging field.

Baldwin is one of the organizers of the international E-Poetry Festival, a celebration and exploration of digital poetry, and is on the board of directors of the Electronic Literature Organization and of UbuWeb, the Webs largest resources for visual, sound and concrete poetry.

In addition, Baldwin directs many collaborative projects at WVU , such as the University 101 game, a pioneering computer game orienting WVU undergraduate students, andA Map of Home,a multimedia snapshot of peoples relation to Morgantown as home. During the past year he has directed theCodework Project,an exploration of intersections between creative writing and computer programming funded by a $119,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. A collection of Baldwins creative writing, entitledI Did the Weird Motor Drive,is available at Amazon.com.

Baldwin earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his doctorate from New York University, both in English and American literature. He taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology before coming to WVU .

Chory is an associate professor in WVU s Department of Communication Studiesin the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. She is the first professor from the communication studies department to receive a Fulbright award. Through the Fulbright program, Chory will be a visiting lecturer on American media entertainment in Hungary at the Budapest College of Communication and Business.

An expert in her field, Chory specializes in entertainment media portrayals and effects, media violence, public communication campaigns, organizational communication and research methods. Her work in Hungary will emphasize how messages found in entertainment programs influence beliefs, feelings and behaviors.

As the Hungarian mass media system assumes more democratic functions and becomes increasingly market-driven, entertainment media content is mirroring that of American content,Chory said.This is a relatively new phenomenon for Central and Eastern European countries that were formerly under Soviet rule. I hope to help Hungarians understand the effects of this type of entertainment media on their culture and themselves.

As my paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Hungary to the U.S., teaching in Hungary was my top priority,Chory noted.I want to give something back to the country of my familys origin.

Professor Chorys work underscores the importance of an internationalized curriculum and her receipt of this award is a testament to the value of cross-cultural research, partnership and communication,Mazey said.

Since joining the WVU faculty in 2000, Chory has taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses, particularly in media effects and organizational communication. She has published over 25 peer-reviewed research articles in international, national and regional scholarly journals and serves on the editorial board of five professional journals.

Chory is also the current research chair of the National Communication Associations Mass Communication Division. Her past research explores the effects of violent video games on young adults, TV viewersinvolvement with their favorite characters and aggressive communication in the workplace.

Chory received her bachelors and masters degrees in communication studies from WVU in 1994 and 1995, and studied European history and humanities in France and England with the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She received a doctoral degree in communication from Michigan State University.

TheFulbright Program, Americas flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The programs purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world. The Fulbright Program operates in over 150 countries worldwide.