Seventeen University doctoral students win Fulbright-Hayes research abroad fellowships

For 16 consecutive years, University graduate students have won more Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowships than students at any other U.S. educational institution. This year, 17 students won a fellowship, which funds dissertation research in a non-Western country; 14 more are currently on the alternate list.

Seven Fulbright winners will pursue their research in India. Kristin Bloomer plans to study the role of the Virgin Mary at three different social levels: the Vatican elite, Indian Roman Catholic clerical elite and Indian Roman Catholic laity. Whitney Cox will examine the works of theology, belles-lettres, literary theory and inscriptions produced during the 12th century in northern Tamilnadu. William Elison will conduct research for his dissertation, “Subjects of Filmistan,” an ethnographical study of North Indian visual practices, including modern technologies of representation such as film. Jocelyn Marrow will investigate how middle-class Hindu families living in Banaras, India, understand and cope with depressive family members. Andrew Nicholson will re-examine basic categories of late-medieval philosophy by analyzing the works of the philosopher Vijnanabhiksu. Shreeyash Palshikar will study regionalism and nationalism in Maharashtra during the first half of the 20th century. Blake Wentworth will explore the relation of gender and power in the Tamil literary genre of ula.

Three Fulbright winners will travel to China to conduct research. Karl Debreczeny will examine Sino-Tibetan wall paintings to understand how Chinese and Tibetan visual traditions coalesced during the Ming dynasty. Viren Murthy will conduct research on the relationship between feudalism and local autonomy in 20th-century China. Gracia Farrer, who also will spend time in Japan, plans to study Chinese immigration into Japan, “a traditionally ‘non-immigrant’ country,” since the 1980s.

Alyssa Ayres will travel to Pakistan to study language, identity and the state. Anna Bernstein will spend time in Taipei, Taiwan, pursuing research on urban planning and community self-definition. Vicki Brennan will use her Fulbright in Nigeria, where she will pursue research on Nigerian music, dance and oratory in churches in Lagos and Chicago.

In Russia, Brian LaPierre will challenge the established view that the Khrushchev regime was less intrusive than the preceding Stalinist regime in research for his dissertation, “Construction and Policing of Hooliganism in Soviet Russia, 1945-64.” Clare Sammells will travel to Bolivia to investigate the relationships between the tourist industry and food production and consumption.

Ian Straughn will travel to northern Syria, where he will study the spatial practices and social interactions of urbanites, settled agriculturalists and nomadic pastoralists from 640-1500 A.D. Reuben Zahler, who will travel to Venezuela and Columbia, will examine honor, corruption and liberalism in the early Venezuelan Republic.