Fulbright US Student Program

Winners of the 2009-2010 Competition

Susan Burgin
Environmental Sciences and German, College of Arts & Sciences
English Teaching Assistantship
Fulbright to Germany

Throughout this assistantship, Susan will study the exchange of cultural knowledge, gaining valuable experience in an educational setting, and work to improve her German communication abilities.  Outside the classroom shes hope to learn more about the German perspective on the environment.

Jennifer Carpenter
Journalism & Mass Communication, School of Journalism
Documenting Civic Apathy and Engagement of Albania Youth
Fulbright to Albania

Four the first four months a Fulbright scholar, Jennifer will work as a full-time intern with MJAFT!, a grassroots organization fighting socio-political inaction through youth-oriented education.  The rest of her experience will be dedicated to creating, producing and leveraging a full-length documentary film about the Albanian youth's identity and garnering support for innovative governmental and non-governmental organizations working to civically activate young people.

Thomas Hylands
Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences
Fat Government, Thin Populace?  The Impact of Welfare State Regime Type on Obesity
Fulbright to the European Union

Thomas will study the impact of welfare state regime type ('social democratic', 'conservative', or 'liberal') on obesity rates in the United States and the European Union.  This will combine empirical and comparative historical analyses.  The project will be carried out the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands with Dr. Liesbet Hooghe as part of the University of North Carolina's TransAtlantic Master's Program.

Andrew Magill
Cultural Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
MTV-U Fulbright to Malawi
Fulbright to Malawi

Andrew will video-record narratives of families of Malawi's population infected and affected by AIDS. These narratives will be used to develop a fifteen-track concept album and their accompanying film footage will be used for producing a documentary capturing this process.

William Meyer
Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences
Home of the Living, Land of the Dead
Fulbright to France

Archaeological interest in Western Europe's protohistoric tombs has focused on understanding their importance in the Bronze and Iron Ages.  Through ethno-historic work in Burgundy, William will describe recent interactions with these tombs, exploring how sites from the distant past become involved in our landscape practice of the present, how archaeology developed in this part of France, and the tensions between historic preservation and agricultural intensification.

Stephen Milder
History, College of Arts & Sciences
"Today the Fish, Tomorrow Us":  Anti-Reactor Activism in the Rhine Valley, 1970-1975
Fulbright to Germany

Stephen’s dissertation project will investigate the growth and development of the anti-nuclear movement in West Germany during the 1970s.  By focusing first on early anti-reactor protests in the Rhine Valley, the dissertation will describe the means by which the German anti-nuclear movement developed offering conclusions about social mobilization and insights into the reasons nuclear power became such a salient political issue in the FRG.

Emily Ravenscroft
Communication Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
Irish Language Award:  The Constitutive Communal Narratives of Irish-Language Communities
Fulbright to Ireland

Emily’s dissertation focuses on constitutive narratives:  those stories community members tell and are told which create a communal identity.  These stories can be linguistic or material.  In the Gaeltacht, these narratives shift as different social and economic pressures on their regions increase and decrease.  The stories, performances and spatial practices of these communities reveal changes in attitudes toward the language, political efficacy and tradition.

Jessica Raynor
Economics, College of Arts & Sciences
The Impact of Capital Controls on Malaysia During the 1997 Economic Crisis
Fulbright to Malaysia

Jessica will study the impact of the capital controls Malaysia imposed during the 1997 Economic crisis.  Did Malaysia fare better in the aftermath of the crisis because of its capital controls or because of other intrinsic aspects of its economy which set it apart from the other nations affected by the crisis?

Elizabeth Robinson
Classics, College of Arts & Sciences
Larinum:  A case study for the spread of Roman Culture
Fulbright to Italy

Elizabeth will study the setlement patterns, major monuments, and inscriptions from the region of Larinum to see how they reflect the adoption or rejection of Roman culture by the inhabitants of the site from the 4th to 1st centures BCE.  Her project involves viewing artifacts at Larinum, conducting library research in Rome, and meeting with scholars from Perugia who study Larinum.

Allison Rodriguez
History, College of Arts & Sciences
Germans, Poles, Silesians:  Nationalizing the Local During the First World War
Fulbright to Poland

Allison’s dissertation focuses on the nationalization pressures exerted on the people of Upper Silesia during the First World War.  She will test the assumption that the war served as a catalyst for nationalism in Easter Europe.  Preliminary research suggests that the war did not galvanize nationalism, and instead Upper Silesians remained nationally ambiguous, as other identities (regional, religious, class, and gender) continued to hold sway.

Brett Sturm
History, College of Arts & Sciences
English Teaching Assistantship
Fulbright to Germany

Brett will pursue interests in Germany history and language while formally teaching ESL.  He also plasn to use my knowledge of German language and culture to further study topics in German historical preservation.