Office of University Communications 

Political science professor honored with Fulbright Award

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Dr. Dennis Hickey, professor of political science at Missouri State University, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture on American politics and American foreign policy at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. The grant was announced by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The China Foreign Affairs University is responsible for training the nation’s future diplomats and is the only institution of higher learning in China that is under the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I requested this assignment because the astounding rise of China is unparalleled in world history and it is important to help influence the future trajectory the country will take,” Hickey explained. “Moreover, it has been almost 20 years since I was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for U.S.-China Relations in Nanjing, China. It is time to return.”

Hickey has also agreed to deliver guest lectures at more than a dozen of China’s leading universities. Topics will include Sino-American relations, U.S.-China-Taiwan relations and the forthcoming presidential election in the United States.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 279,500 people – including students, scholars and teachers from America and other countries – the opportunity to observe the political, economic, educational and cultural climates throughout the world.

For the past two years, Hickey has organized international symposiums at Missouri State to assess a broad range of topics associated with China and Taiwan. He has just returned from Taipei where he interviewed President Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s president, about China’s recent call for a peace agreement with Taiwan.

An expert on Asian politics and policy, Hickey has published dozens of refereed articles and contributed chapters to 10 edited books. He is also the author of four books and numerous editorials in newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Taipei Times, Kansas City Star and Los Angeles Times. Hickey joined Missouri State University in 1991 and currently serves as director of the university’s graduate program in international affairs.