B R I G I T T E.  H.  S C H U L Z.

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in April, 2000.

Developing a compassionate global vision

Growing up in a small village in postwar Germany, Associate Professor of Political Science Brigitte H. Schulz developed an abiding global outlook early in life. When she was a young child, a U.S. military base opened close to her village and dozens of Americans moved into her neighborhood. At about the same time hundreds of refugees streamed in from nearby communist countries. Religious education called on her to pray for "pagan children" in Africa and Asia, which further opened her eyes and led her at age eight to decide to become a missionary. When as a teenager she read Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter from his jail cell in Birmingham, her interest in understanding the world broadened and evolved into an interest in how to make it better.

At Trinity, Schulz shares her compassionate global vision with her students. Her course in "International Political Economy," for example, examines the extreme financial disparities between countries. "There are real economic structures that make societies what they are," she notes. "I try to teach students about those structures, and I encourage them also to look at the wealth and poverty of nations from the perspective of race and gender, and not simply economics."

Schulz believes that these structures have a major impact on why some societies have developed successfully while others have not. This question has also been the focus of most of her research. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Maryland and earning her master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics, Schulz pursued her interest in development issues through her doctoral dissertation (at the African Studies Center of Boston University), which examined how aid from developed countries was influenced more by economic self-interest on the part of the donors than for self-sustaining development in the recipient countries.

Schulz has elaborated her ideas on global development in numerous articles, book chapters, symposium papers, and, perhaps most notably, in her book Development Policy in the Cold War Era. Schulz also co-edited The Soviet Bloc and the Third World: The Political Economy of East-South Relations, selected by Choice as an outstanding book in 1989. In addition, Schulz recently had an article, which examines the impact of unification and globalization on Germany, published in six major world languages in the International Social Science Journal. She is now working on a comparative study of responses to globalization in the global north and south, using Germany and Tanzania as her case studies.

Engaged outside the classroom
Mark Franklin, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science at Trinity and department chair, says Schulz "is among Trinity’s very best teachers. She is clearly perfect for Trinity because she cares so deeply about her students, and Trinity is a place where people care deeply about one another. Her commitment to students is so strong that she is usually engaged in some sort of activity with them outside the classroom." As an example, Franklin notes that Schulz takes her students to the United Nations in New York every year.

Schulz also takes her interest in globalization beyond her classroom doors in more conventionally academic ways. In April, Schulz organized a weekend conference, "Globalization: Issues and Perspectives." A collaborative effort co-sponsored by Trinity and a number of other area educational and political institutions, the two-day event gathered national and international scholars, advisers, students, and activists to discuss some of the most important political and economic issues facing the world.

Making the global local and personal
Schulz explains her educational approach by describing the personal impact of global events and systems. "When people think of globalization," she observes, "they frequently fail to see how it affects them personally. Our pension funds, for example, rely very heavily on investments in so-called emerging markets. Likewise, when I talk to students about hunger and malnutrition as a significant concern of policymakers in the developing countries, we look at that same issue in the city of Hartford."

An "ideal liberal arts professor"
Students say Schulz’s approach to understanding the causes of poverty and wealth make her classes an extraordinary experience. Stephanie L. Olijnyk ’00, a political science major, is taking her senior seminar with Schulz and is examining the vast disparities in the political, economic, and social circumstances of countries in the northern and southern hemispheres. "Professor Schulz has pushed me to be better and to expect more of myself. She is always available to meet and discuss projects and issues, inside and outside the classroom, and arranges conferences and seminars for our benefit."

Svilen I. Karaivanov ’02, a political science and Spanish double-major in Schulz’s "International Political Economy" class echoes Olijnyk. "Professor Schulz’s genuine excitement about these subjects, her encompassing knowledge, and her ability to integrate real-life situations with history, economics, and political theory make her classes lively and tremendously informative. She embodies the ideal liberal arts professor – one who combines academic expertise, an integrated teaching style, and a commitment to help students enrich their critical understanding of the forces shaping contemporary international politics."

Schulz hopes her students will develop the ability to celebrate what’s good about their civilization and to acknowledge what’s wrong. "I was born in postwar, post-Holocaust Germany, and I always blamed my parents for not having stood up to Hitler and genocide," she reflects. "It instilled in me a commitment to speak out against injustice. It’s not simply about looking out for just your own kind. It’s about guarding against injustice toward anyone."

-Andrea Comer