Dr. Holly Oberle has lived in eight countries and has been doing research abroad for the last 14 years.
Oberle is now a professor at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) in the Social and Behavioral Sciences department. After getting her masters doctorate at Freie Universität Berlin in Berlin, Germany, she traveled to many different places for her research.
“My dissertation is very narrowly focused on post Cold War American foreign policy; really a detailed study of two things. Number one, how American foreign policy after the Cold War […] affected men and women differently,” Oberle said.
The second part of her dissertation was a very detailed linguistic study on how American foreign policy is discussed and sold domestically. The research also included how gender is used to sell American foreign policy.
Oberle then moved from Germany to Hungary, followed by Spain, Israel, Bangladesh, Egypt and China. Oberle was in China through the start of the pandemic and came back to the United States after being offered a job at CMU.
The Political Science Department had three professors and Oberle is now a fourth. There were multiple candidates up for the position and they were interviewed by students and faculty who did get to vote on their top choice.
“Long term, I would like to see the Political Science Department grow. I would like to maybe […] maybe get a master’s program going here, get one more faculty [and] get more majors,” Oberle said.
Her goal for CMU is to help the program expand because she believes that Political Science is integral to many career paths. The major or minor can be used to get a plethora of jobs in the US and internationally.
Outside of being a professor, Oberle is passionate about traveling. She stated that her long journey back to Colorado is part of that experience.
“I wanted to come back to Colorado because I love the outdoors. I love hiking, running and biking. I biked to work,” Oberle said.
Oberle is now looking forward to being involved in Grand Junction’s community as she moves forward at CMU. Her love for travel, while paused, has not ended.
Though COVID has dampened many dreams of travel, Oberle wants to encourage students to get some experience abroad. Her knowledge of foreign policy and how to live in another country is a valuable source to students in and out of Political Science.
“Once COVID is solved, if it is ever finally solved, travel, living, studying and working abroad is not as hard as it seems. If I can do it, so can anyone else. I was just kind of there, there was nothing special about me, I just kind of did it. I hope that if there are students in my classes that have that international outlook they see me as a role model and they see me as a resource,” Oberle said.
Oberle brings a unique outlook as a professor to CMU and will continue to teach Political Science courses in Houston Hall.
