CofC Professor Awarded Prestigious Fulbright Grant

CofC’s Rene Mueller is trading in the Lowcountry for the Austrian Alps.

Mueller, the director of the International Business Program at the School of Business, was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to teach marketing and international business at the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI), University of Applied Sciences in Innsbruck, Austria.

Rene Mueller

“I am honored to be chosen to represent the School of Business as a visiting marketing and international business professor with MCI and look forward to further exploring cross-cultural marketing, global commerce and other business-related topics in the heart of Europe,” she says.

Mueller was nominated by Fulbright Austria and selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board — a 12-member committee appointed by the president of the United States — to become a visiting professor at MCI.

“The Fulbright Scholar Program seeks to expand international understanding by sharing knowledge and culture among scholars, and this goal is consistent with the School of Business’ global vision,” says Alan Shao, dean of the School of Business. “I am delighted that Rene has joined some of her colleagues — John Crotts, Steve Litvin and Mark Witte — as a global scholar to share her expertise in international business.”

It will not be Mueller’s first trip to the Austrian city renowned as a winter sports destination — she has been a visiting professor at Management Center Innsbruck since 2006.

Mueller’s accomplishments include two publications in the Journal of International Business Studies; five research awards as well as the 2015 Howard F. Rudd Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award for Service Leadership and nine U.S. Department of Education International Education grants.

Established in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Scholar Program is the federal government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. It provides grants in a variety of disciplines for teaching and research positions in more than 150 countries.

Photos by Reese Moore