Southeastern history professor awarded Fulbright Scholar grant to teach, research in Ireland
Contact: Rene Abadie
Date: March 26, 2013 
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University Professor of History Harry S. Laver has been
named a Fulbright Scholar, which will allow him to perform research and graduate level
teaching in Ireland the next academic year.
Established in 1946, the Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department
of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and allows American scholars
and professionals to lecture and research in a wide range of fields.
"This is a huge and very well-deserved honor for Dr. Harry Laver, one of the
hardest working and most productive faculty members at Southeastern," said William
Robison, head of the Department of History and Political Science. "It is also a great
point of prestige for the university. There is no higher honor a scholar can receive
than the opportunity to teach and conduct research abroad under the auspices of a
Fulbright Fellowship. We in the department are extraordinarily proud of his achievement."
A specialist in military history, Laver will be working at the National University
of Ireland (NUIM) in Maynooth, where he will offer a series of new classes to complement
the institution's existing curriculum. Among the offerings being considered are graduate
courses in the American Revolutionary era, the American Civil War, Vietnam and a survey
of U.S. military history.
"NUIM has an alliance with the Military College at the Irish Defense Forces Training
Center, and it's likely I will teach classes on military history and leadership in
various courses for cadets and for junior and senior commanders," Laver said. "My
particular specialization in historic military leadership studies will be especially
appropriate, as I anticipate teaching at least one course in leadership theory and
practice coupled with analyses of past commanders' leadership successes and shortcomings."
Laver conducts study abroad trips for Southeastern, where students visit World
War II sites such as Normandy and the World War I battlefields of northern France,
experiences he thinks will enhance similar trips already offered by NUIM.
Laver's research will involve a study of Irish-American Civil War veterans who
returned to their home country after the war.
"Many of these veterans returned to Ireland intending to employ their recently
gained political and military experience in support of Fenianism, which was a form
of Irish nationalism," he said. "This research will further illuminate Irish-American
war veterans' participation in post-1865 Fenianism within Ireland, specifically their
ideological and military contributions and their participation in the Rising of 1867,
a failed attempt to throw off British rule."
As the director of Graduate Studies in Southeastern's Department of History and
Political Science, Laver said he will participate extensively with colleagues in the
NUIM graduate program in history, providing experience he has gained in the role.
"Conversely, I expect that observing their practices and methods of graduate
education will also give me a different and international perspective that will improve
my abilities to advise our students at Southeastern," he said.
