A transformed Jay Nathan returns from Hungary

Jay Nathan, Ph.D., Professor of Management at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, recently returned from Hungary, where he was awarded a 15-day Fulbright Foreign Scholarship at the University of Pecs in late February.

During his whirlwind two-week stay in the country, Nathan delivered a series of lectures and seminars, nine in total, on a variety of topics concerning issues in international business and international relations. His audiences included MBA students and corporate executives.

“This was very intense,” Nathan said. “I slept about two hours a night and was always on the move.”

The University of Pecs proposed this project to the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission, which then invited applications from members of the Fulbright Specialist roster. Nathan, who has been a member of there roster since 2015, was selected.

Nathan had previously been a Fulbright Scholar to Thailand, Poland, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. He called this opportunity “a dream come true,” due to his longstanding interest in the history and culture of central Europe.

“Hungary is a strategically located country that straddles both east and west,” he said, likening the nation to a “ferry boat” between the two sides of the former Iron Curtain.

“I see the challenges and opportunities for Hungary and neighboring countries to think proactively about trade, culture and education,” he said. To encourage his students to consider those issues, he assigned them a project to write a scholarly paper on how the nation has evolved since the collapse of communism in 1989.

The University of Pecs, which celebrated its 650^th anniversary last year, is Hungary’s first university. It has 10 faculties and more than 20,000 students.

Spending time at such an institution was particularly gratifying for Nathan, who has traveled extensively to share his passion for international business education with students and faculty all over the world.

“I have been transformed,” he said of this most recent sojourn abroad. “Seeing today’s modern Hungary…has had an impact on my scholarship.”