MAY 2026

April was happily busy with two projects and some exciting news.

Beginning with the projects, I returned to Milwaukee as director and designer for John McGivern’s Mother Stories & Other Stories at Oak Creek Performing Arts Center. Once again, I served as John’s sounding board for his text and performance and designed projections, the space and music. We’ve been working together for many years now and it’s surprisingly easy for us. The show was lovely.

My other big project over the past month was completing an application for a grant called CDAF (Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund. These are small grants from the State Department specifically for alumni of U.S. Exchange Programs. Matt Schultz and I received a CDAF grant in 2024 for Qusar Youth Leadership Camp, which took place in a Lezgi village called Imamgulukend in northeast Azerbaijan. Our partner was an organization called Camping Azerbaijan and it was a really wonderful experience for everyone involved. Several folks from the U.S. Embassy in Baku visited the camp and were impressed and subsequently invited us to apply for an embassy grant to mount the camp again the following summer (2025). But then the U.S. Aid funds were cut, so that didn’t happen.

This year, however, the CDAF grant was reinstated, so Matt and I decided to reapply. Our local partner this time is Rise Education Center in Zaqatala, and our camp is called Zaqatala English Camp. It will take place in a Tsakhur village called Yeni Suvagil in the northwest corner of the country. Matt works for the Peace Corps now, just across the border from Zaqatala in Georgia, and if we receive the grant he’ll be there on vacation time. We have a great team assembled with four U.S. Exchange program alumni and also both university students who worked with us in 2024, so it’s a great mix of new and returning staff. Our thematic focus is somewhat different this year but we have the blueprint of two years ago as a model. We’ll find out in a month or so if our project is approved, and if so, we will be in Zaqatala in the first half of August.

But whether or not the CDAF grant comes through, I'll soon be in Azerbaijan, because I’ve received another Fulbright Scholar Award. I began the Fulbright application shortly after the embassy funds were cut because i was determined to return. I’d made good contacts among Azerbaijani educators and embassy staff and I felt confident that a variation on my Kyrgyz Fulbright program could be effective in Baku. Thankfully, the various review committees agreed.

It's a Teaching/Research Flex Grant to teach future English teachers with a creative pedagogy, to give presentations of various kinds at other universities, and also to assess the impact of my teaching over two fall semesters (2026 and 2027). My host university will be Baku Eurasian University. I’ll work in English of course, but I’ve begun to study some Azerbaijani. It's a Turkish language and a new grammatical structure for me, but I'll certainly have time and oopportunity to practice. And I continue to study Russian, as there are many Azerbaijanis who speak Russian. I’m excited and grateful for the coming months.