PROF. DR. ASTRID M. FELLNER

ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, UDS

Prof. Dr. Astrid M. Fellner is Professor and Chair of North American Literary and Cultural Studies and Head of the English and American Studies Department at Saarland University. She is the director of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies at the same university, where she contributes to advancing border research.

From 2014 to 2017, she served as Vice-President for Europe and International Affairs at Saarland University. From 2020 to 2024, she was Dean of Studies of the Philosophical Faculty. Currently, she is a member of the Senate at Saarland University.

Alongside her leadership roles, Dr. Fellner’s research interests include Border Studies, Gender Studies, Popular Culture, Latinx literatures, and Canadian literatures. The author of several books and articles in these fields, she is co-editing together with Eva Nossem a trilingual Border Glossary, a handbook of key terms in Border Studies in English, French, and German.

Dr. Fellner has great international expertise, having spent several years researching and teaching in the U.S. Holding a PhD and a “Habilitation” in American Studies from the University of Vienna, she was Distinguished Visiting Austrian Chair in the Forum of Contemporary Europe and Visiting Professor in the Dept. of Comparative Literature at Stanford University from 2008-2009. In 2019, she held the University of the Greater Region Chair of Border Studies at the University of Luxembourg, where she continues to teach Cultural Border Studies as an Adjunct Professor. She has been involved in the DAAD-Eastpartnership project with Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv since 2014 and is the project leader at Saarland University of the project “Border-Chronotopes” together with Mykolaiv and Lviv in Ukraine, and the University of Katowice in Poland.

PROF. DR. JOAQUÍN MARHUENDA

ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, UA

Joaquín Marhuenda, former Academic Director of Institutional Projects at the University of Alicante, is the Academic Director of the IDC Latin America at the University of Alicante, and responsible for different international projects such as the Havana Project. From 2012 to 2019 he was Responsible for the Science Park of Alicante. Between 2006 and 2012, he was Vice- Chancellor of Planning Studies, period in which the European Higher Education Framework was implemented. Moreover, at the University of Alicante, Marhuenda has been Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences (2002-2006) and Director of the Department of Financial Economy, Accounting and Marketing (1998-2002).

PROF. DR. JUAN LLOPIS

INSTITUTIONAL DIRECTOR, UA

Juan Llopis is Director of Institutional Relations and Projects at the University of Alicante. He Graduated in Business Studies (with honours; best student of the promotion) and holds a Ph.D. Degree. (Selected as the best Faculty Thesis of the year 1991).He is author or co-author of 15 books, 32 chapters in books, 160 papers published in academic and professional journals, and 120 papers in national and international academic and professional workshops and conferences on Management and Business topics (Human Resources Management, Information Systems Management, Tourism Management, Total Quality Management, Entrepreneurship & Firm Creation, Management Skills, and Public & Local Administration Management). Member of 15 international research projects, 20 public research projects,100 private research projects and 20 International Editorial Advisory Boards. Llopis is also Referee in 40 International Business Management Journals and has 34 years of experience in lectures at the university level.

YVONNE VISARIUS

PROGRAMME REPRESENTATIVE

Yvonne Visarius is team leader for higher education management in the section Development Cooperation: Partnership Programmes, Alumni Projects and Higher Education Management at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She is responsible for the development and coordination of training courses in the field of higher education management for developing countries. Yvonne joined the DAAD headquarters in 2010, initially working in the department for transnational education and cooperation programmes. Prior to her current position she was assigned as DAAD programme manager for the university-business-partnerships. Yvonne holds a diploma in educational sciences from the University of Münster, Germany. After graduation she lived for 2,5 years in Mexico City, Mexico, where she worked for the first time for the DAAD. 

IRIS DANOWSKI

PROGRAMME REPRESENTATIVE

Iris Danowski, M.A. is Head of Section Latin America within the International Department of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK). Iris joined the HRK in 1994. In the second half of the 1990s, she began to establish cooperation with Latin American partners for the HRK. Since then, she has been responsible for planning and coordinating the HRK's Latin American activities and has been involved in many bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects with Latin American partners. In addition, she is part of the team at the HRK that advises German universities on internationalisation issues as part of the audit "Internationalisation of German Universities". Before joining the HRK, she was ERAMUS coordinator of the University of Cologne. Iris studied Spanish and French Language and Literature as well as History of Art at the University of Cologne, Germany, and the University of Seville, Spain, and she holds a M. A. degree.

MOSTAFA FATHY

PROGRAMME SUPPORT

Mostafa Fathy is a Project administrator in the section Development Cooperation: Partnership Programmes, Alumni Projects and Higher Education Management at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He is responsible for the administration of several DIES Trainings Courses preparations and assists with the DIES financial monitoring. Mostafa had his first contact with the DAAD in 2013 where he worked as a Coordinator for the Alumni activities at the DAAD Regional office in Cairo, Egypt before he moved to the headquarters in Bonn in 2019 as a Programme administrator for the standard scholarships in the MENA Region. Later on he joined the DIES Team since the beginning of 2023. Mostafa holds a bachelor degree in German studies from the University of Ain Shams, Egypt.