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The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences recently announced the creation of a new office to further support and enhance student success in the college: the Office of Undergraduate Excellence and Global Engagement.
The new office will help bolster excellence across the undergraduate academic experience for Fulbright College students by including and encouraging a focus on study abroad, on-campus global engagement, undergraduate research and general education, while also encompassing the existing high-caliber work of the accomplished Fulbright College Honors Program.
Kathryn Sloan, interim dean of Fulbright College, announced the new office alongside the appointment of Laurence Hare as its first executive director. Hare, previously the chair of the Department of History, began his role as executive director of Undergraduate Excellence and Global Engagement on Nov. 17.
“This office embodies Fulbright College’s mission of peace through education by connecting areas and resources across the college and providing an emphasis on global exploration as well,” Sloan said. “As we work alongside our students and researchers to promote discovery and belonging, and as we work to build truly transformational experiences for our students, I can think of no better way to do that than with a strategic focus on connecting our undergraduate experience and international education.”
“Likewise, Laurence was a natural fit for leading this new effort,” Sloan added. “His experience as a teacher, researcher and mentor – especially related to undergraduate excellence – position him and Fulbright College to be leaders in this work on campus, statewide and even nationally.”
Hare joined the U of A faculty in 2010 as an assistant professor of history before being appointed to associate professor in 2015. Prior to his appointment as department chair in 2021, Hare also served Fulbright College as the director of European Studies and the director of International and Global Studies.
“We have the potential to make a real difference for Fulbright College and the University of Arkansas with this new initiative,” Hare said. “I’m eager to bring an inclusive, collaborative approach to fuel high-impact learning and undergraduate excellence.
“Together, we can enhance the visibility and impact of the remarkable, time-proven interdisciplinary and globally focused programs that Fulbright College offers, expanding the impact of our university’s mission as a land-grant institution for all of Arkansas,” Hare added.
During Hare’s leadership of International and Global Studies and the Department of History, he helped develop B.A. programs that integrated mentorship opportunities across the curriculum and incorporated a “branched capstone” model, in which students apply their learning through multiple experiential opportunities, including internships, research, service learning and study abroad.
He is also the co-founder of Arkansas Global Changemakers, which is an educational and applied research initiative that strengthens local approaches to global solutions by training students to connect organizations in Arkansas communities with counterparts around the world.
“Changemakers is a model for the potential of university-wide initiatives on global learning that demonstrate the tremendous importance of global engagement,” Hare said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how this model can be connected with our new office to underscore international education as foundational to the Fulbright College experience.”
With funding from the U.S. Department of State, World Learning, the U of A Service Learning Initiative and the Arkansas Humanities Center, Changemakers now includes collaborative courses across the university; a faculty-led study abroad program with partners in Barcelona, Spain; a standing program at the U of A Rome Center; two programs in development in the United Kingdom and Indonesia; the P4 Project registered student organization; and a national podcast produced by KUAF Public Radio.
In addition, Hare received the Faculty Gold Medal from the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards in 2014 and the Distinguished Research and Teaching Faculty Award from the Honors College in 2017. His commitment to undergraduate research is also demonstrated in his direction of 34 honors theses and service as a member of the Fulbright College Honors Council.
His undergraduate mentees have included, among others, Marshall, Rhodes and Truman Scholarship finalists and winners of Boren and Fulbright Scholarships, along with recipients of internships with the Peace Corps and U.S. Department of State.
Beyond the U of A, Hare is also a program mentor and grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of State’s IDEAS Program, which advocates for inclusive excellence and national issues engagement in study abroad.
Hare holds a B.A. in history and a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Office of Undergraduate Excellence and Global Engagement will be housed in the existing Fulbright College Honors Program space in Old Main 525.