UM Professor to Promote German as Exchange Ambassador

Petrescu planning campus events, presenting at national conferences this academic year

By Edwin Smith

A University of Mississippi faculty member is the first from the state selected for a national program that promotes research and funding opportunities for American students and professors.

The German Academic Exchange Services, known as DAAD, named Corina L. Petrescu, professor of German, as one of its 50 research ambassadors for the 2024-25 academic year. She recently joined nine other new ambassadors at a two-day workshop in New York.

“I take being the first (ambassador from Mississippi) not only as an honor, but also as a big responsibility,” Petrescu said. “I want to reach as many undergraduates, graduates and faculty members as possible and encourage them to apply for the different scholarships, fellowships and grants the German state offers.”

DAAD has supported several of Petrescu’s studies over the years. She said she would like to see others at Ole Miss take advantage of the opportunities available in Germany.

Because English is the default language of the natural sciences, knowledge of German is not a requirement anymore for scientists applying to Germany, she said.

This fall, Petrescu spoke to civil engineering students about opportunities for funding through DAAD and is planning a Christmas-themed event with the Ole Miss German Club.

Aside from DAAD, her own research has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, in 2016-19, and by the Fulbright Commission, in 2023. She has also been named a 2025-26 fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Petrescu’s overall research interest examines subversion under authoritarian regimes. In her latest project, she is studying the subversive potential of Yiddish stagecraft before World War II by researching the life and creative trajectory of the late director Yankev Shternberg.

In November, she is set to participate in a panel discussion on the impact of secret police files on people’s lives during the Cold War and beyond at the annual conference of the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasia Studies.

The following month, she will discuss Shternberg’s efforts to champion the integration of Yiddish culture into the national culture of Romania after World War I at the annual conference of the Association of Jewish Studies.