Law department professor awarded ‘flagship’ scholarship grant to research, teach in Europe

Douglas McKechnie, a full professor in the Academy’s law department

By Ray Bowden, Nov. 21, 2019

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — A legal expert at the Air Force Academy is getting ready to go on sabbatical in Europe next year, courtesy of a Fulbright scholar grant.

Douglas McKechnie, a full professor in the Academy’s law department, will spend his spring months at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, teaching in the university’s Constitutional Law department.

Col. Kristine Keunzli, head of the Academy’s law department, said McKechnie’s selection for the grant was “spot on.”

“It properly portrays Professor McKechnie and the quality of our faculty in the Department of Law and at the Air Force Academy,” she said. “We are all excited for this opportunity for Professor McKechnie, both for what he will gain from his experiences and for what he will bring back our institution.”

McKechnie expects to team up with the Comenius faculty to teach comparative constitutional law and human rights courses. He’s also been invited to participate in guest lectures and conferences.

“This will be an ideal opportunity to continue my studies Central and Eastern European constitutional law and jurisprudence,” he said.

Fulbright Chair Jeffry Bleich welcomed McKechnie into the Fulbright program in a January letter.

“The Fulbright Program, which aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government,” Bleich wrote.

Fulbright scholars include 59 Nobel Laureates, 84 Pulitzer Prize winners, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients and thousands of other recipients from across the private, public and nonprofit sectors.