UNM Professor Tiffany Bourelle earns Fulbright Award

Tiffany Bourelle, a professor of writing and rhetoric in The University of New Mexico's department of English Language and Literature, recently received a Fulbright Award for the 2026-27 school year.

The Fulbright Program is one of the most prestigious awards available in higher education, offering both students and faculty the opportunity to complete an exchange program in another country with an aim to advance their work in research on a topic of their choosing while teaching courses at a foreign university.

Bourelle will spend the year in Strasbourg, France, with research focusing on ethics in artificial intelligence. The European Union created the world's first legal framework for dealing with AI in 2024, an act that was drafted in part in Strasbourg. Bourelle has previously taught a course on AI theory and ethics at the graduate level at UNM.

She attended a symposium on UX design in Strasbourg in the spring of 2025 which is where the idea to apply for the Fulbright first came about.

"I had been feeling like my research should shift to AI," Bourelle said. "My research has always been around what it is like to teach in the 21st century and what that means, whether its online or multimodal projects. So, AI is the next thing that I'm thinking about."

Bourelle will be looking at how those working with AI software, either in development or writing documents regarding use, interface with the EU AI Act during those processes and how ethics is approached within that framework.

"The idea is to come back to the United States, where we don't have a national policy dealing with AI and help people draft policies at the local level and wherever else it may go," Bourelle said. "I also want to help teachers consider how we teach the future of the work force to consider ethics in AI."

Bourelle has previously worked with the University of Strasbourg, where she will complete her Fulbright. She has previously taught two classes there.

This will be Bourelle's first experience with Fulbright, and one of the things that appealed to her about this opportunity was the cultural exchange that takes place.

"The question for me is what can I do for Strasbourg and what can I take from the experience that I will be able to bring back with me and share here at UNM," Bourelle said.

There is also opportunity for cultural outings, with the award providing opportunities to connect with other scholars working on similar topics who Bourelle can interface with throughout the year.

"There are so many more opportunities that people don't know of when you're a Fulbrighter," she said. "These little intercultural exchanges are there for you, too."