Profesora de Mexico

By Pia Roser

It's about 9,700 kilometers from Mexico City to Reutlingen. In the summer semester of 2022, Dr Elizabeth Salamanca from the Universidad de Las Ámericas Puebla (UDLAP) ventured across the pond. Thus, the BSc International Management Double Degree (IMX) programme welcomed its first international guest lecturer on campus. Dr Salamanca teaches and conducts research at UDLAP in the area of human resource management, particularly on the topic of emerging markets. During her stay, she offered IMX students deeper insights into employer branding and Latin American markets.

Dr Elizabeth Salamanca had a clear motivation for her stay at ESB Business School - internationalization. "I feel it is very important and enriching to experience different university environments. I want to exchange thoughts and perspectives with students and colleagues in order to draw conclusions for my own teaching and research,"  she explains. 

At the same time, Dr Elizabeth Salamanca not only seeks out this interculturality, but also passes it on in her courses. Juan Dorantes, a student in the German-Mexican IMX programme, comes from UDLAP himself. Yet he still gained a lot of new insights during the Latin American Markets course, "I learned a lot about how strategies to run a business successfully differ in relation to regions that are less developed (Latin America) or more developed (Europe)," he says. He also noticed a significant change in his fellow students over the course of the semester - they now have a more positive outlook on the Latin American world, he notes.

Johanna Lauff from the German-American IMX programme praised not only the exciting content of the course, but also the new learning experience. "Dr Salamanca's lecture style is more aligned with the model of North American universities. I liked that she gave us detailed feedback and that we had time to solve case studies in small teams,” she says. 

For both sides, the guest lectureship was an unmitigated success, adding a new facet to the BSc International Management Double Degree programme, which is already very internationally oriented. Dr Elizabeth Salamanca advises future guest lecturers with a smile - "Bring clothes for all weather conditions - I was prepared for cold temperatures and towards the end of the semester it was high summer in Reutlingen.” 

Dr Elizabeth Salamanca's teaching was carried out within the framework of the project "Global Partnerships Plus" from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)’s HAW.International funding line. The project is sponsored by the DAAD with funds from Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).