CLARKSVILLE, TN – While a student at Austin Peay State University, Nicholas Herrud learned a critical lesson from his advisor, Dr. John W. Steinberg.

“He advised me early in my undergraduate career that the key to graduate school was to demonstrate that I could read and conduct research in other languages and preferably more than one,” Herrud said.

For Herrud – a first-generation college student who started at Columbia State Community College before transferring to APSU – that advice influenced his academic trajectory, culminating in one of the most prestigious honors a student can achieve. Now a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Notre Dame, Herrud, who earned his Bachelor of Arts in 2020 and Master of Arts in 2023 from Austin Peay, has been selected for the 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The award has taken him to Vilnius, Lithuania, for a nine-month study and research endeavor at the Lithuanian Institute of History.

Herrud is examining the fraught period in Eastern Europe between the World Wars (1921-1939), focusing on how the Polish and Soviet models of multiculturalism clashed in borderland regions like Lithuania.

A Commitment to Understanding History

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange initiative, seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries. For Herrud, the award validates years of preparation that began at Austin Peay.

“When I found out in May 2025, I was in the midst of my candidacy exams at Notre Dame, so I was very tired and stressed, but relieved when I received the award letter,” Herrud said.

His journey is a testament to high-impact practices and dedicated mentorship. Steinberg, Herrud’s undergraduate and master’s advisor at APSU – and a 1994 Fulbright Scholar – remembers a determined student.

“When he started, his writing skills needed much work, but early on he exhibited a level of critical thinking skills that I thought then (and still do) would serve him well in the future,” Steinberg said.

Herrud rose to every challenge. He studied German at APSU and spent a semester in Austria to improve his language skills. Then he contacted Austin Peay students in a study abroad program in Krakow, Poland, sparking a new passion for learning Polish.

“After telling me this, I made sure he made the proper connections to have a letter of recommendation from the Polish side,” Steinberg said. “That gave him the credentials to earn a fellowship from the Kosciuszko Foundation, which financed his year in Poland.”

Herrud has developed advanced proficiency in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian for his archival research and is learning Lithuanian.

Exploring the Past to Understand the Present

Herrud’s research, “Contesting Borders, Contrasting Multinationalism: Polish and Soviet Borderlands, 1921-1939,” explores the ideological rivalry between Warsaw and Moscow, using Vilnius, a fiercely contested city, as a focal point.

“The history drew me in because the period between the World Wars was a time of great border change, nation-state building, and uncertainty,” Herrud said. “The border between the Soviet Union and Poland at that time generated different ideas about border security, the mobility of mixed populations, citizenship, and multicultural societies.”