Michelle Metro-Roland

Dr. Michelle Metro-Roland (she/her) works on issues of international student inclusion and is the campus representative for the Fulbright program. She is the Program Advisor for domestic students wishing to apply for Fulbright grants and the ISA (International Student Advisor) for Fellows pursuing their graduate degrees at WMU. As the Scholar Liaison she assists WMU faculty interested in applying for Fulbright awards and international scholars who are being hosted by the university. She is also the university contact for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) grant. Dr. Metro-Roland advises for other nationally competitive grants for study abroad including the Boren Awards and Critical Language Scholarship.

Dr. Metro-Roland is a Cultural Geographer and an Affiliate Professor in the School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability. Her research explores landscape, place, and material culture and is concerned with questions of interpretation and embodied experience. Her recent work has investigated the ways in which various scales of local, national, and global culture interact in the built and natural environment. Dr. Metro-Roland has published numerous articles and book chapters, and a monograph, Tourists, Signs and the City: The Semiotics of Culture in an Urban Landscape, and is co-author of Tourism, Performance, and Place: A Geographic Perspective, and co-editor of Landscape, Tourism, and Meaning. She has collaborated on research with scholars in the US, Romania, and Brazil. She is a co-founder of the Landscape Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.

Dr. Metro-Roland has studied, researched, and taught internationally. She has studied Classics at the University of Nottingham, and Latin in Rome, taught English in a technical high school in Budapest, Hungary, and North American Civilization at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia, and she received a Fulbright-Hays DDRA award for field work in Budapest.

As the Associate Director for External Scholarships and Faculty Development, Dr. Metro-Roland's primary responsibilities include:

· Facilitate admission of Fulbright students by liaising with Fulbright placement officers and WMU academic departments; provide continued support to Fulbright students

· Assist WMU students and faculty in applying for scholarships such as Fulbright, Boren, Critical Language Scholarship and others

· Support global engagement for faculty through faculty exchange, Global Classrooms (COIL) initiatives, and other programming

· Work with other units on campus as well as community partners to support international students at WMU

· Advise and advocate on behalf of international students in crisis. Work with academic departments, offices, and agencies both on and off campus to help students find the assistance they need.