On Sept. 8, 2016, the Center for Global Engagement held a welcoming introduction at the Rooney House for Dr. Annette Forster, Rooney Scholar for fall 2016.

Forster, a professor at the Aachen University in Germany, will be teaching a class at Robert Morris University for the fall 2016 semester. Although her focus of teaching was in the political science department at Aachen, she will be teaching in the education department at Robert Morris. The specific class that she will teach is “Torture and Democracy,” discussing what torture is and how it relates to democracy.

When asked about her teaching style, Forster said, “I try to get the students involved as much as possible so they can decide on topics that they want to cover and presentations they want to make and to present different perspectives on a topic as possible.”

It should also be noted that she is the author of the book “Peace, Justice, and International Order,” she also co-edited the book “Supranationality and Democracy” and wrote many other numerous articles on torture and democracy. All of this was learned from an email sent by the Center for Global Engagement.

When asked about what it was like to work on her books, she said, “It’s a great experience and takes a lot of time and basically I think it’s the best experience I can ever have, like working on it and having the book in hand, it’s great prose.”

Jesse Phillips, the manager of immigration, exchange and study abroad services at the Office of Global Engagement, talked about the expectations of Forster and what it was like to get her here.

“I think it is going to be really great, she has a lot of energy and is really friendly, and she is always happy to talk to us about politics or anything else,” Phillips said. “We’re excited that she’ll be getting the opportunity, and the rest of campus too.”

For more information on Rooney Scholars and any upcoming events, visit to the Center for Global Engagement website.