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Rose Vondrasek
IU Office of International Programs
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Last modified: Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Corrected: Eight IU Bloomington students win Fulbright Awards for 2007-08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 29, 2007

EDITORS: This version of the press release includes an additional student.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie announced today (Aug. 29) that eight IU students have received prestigious U.S. Student Fulbright Awards for the 2007-08 academic year.

"IU has long been fortunate to have so many students chosen to participate in Fulbright grant programs," McRobbie said. "IU students are regularly selected for this honor. These awards highlight the quality of our student body, faculty and academic programs."

These students are eight of more than 1,300 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2007-08 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 279,500 people with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants. The program operates in more than 150 countries worldwide.

"This group of outstanding IU Fulbright scholars will teach and perform important innovative research in countries throughout the world," McRobbie said. "They have demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, and they will be great ambassadors for the ideals of Indiana University and Senator Fulbright."

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Among the thousands of prominent Fulbright alumni are: Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director and Founder, Grameen Bank, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006; Javier Solana, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union; Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University; Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation; Shamshad Akhtar, the first woman to hold the position of Governor, State Bank of Pakistan; Mohamed Benaissa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Morocco; Raoul Cantero, Justice, Florida Supreme Court; Renee Fleming, soprano; Gish Jen, Writer; Daniel Libeskind, Architect; Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East Correspondent; and Robert Shaye, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, New Line Cinema.

Fulbright recipients are among more than 30,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. For more than seventy years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered by the Institute of International Education.

IU students who received U.S. Department of State IIE-Fulbright grants and a brief description of their projects follow:

  • Daniel Castro, Metairie, La., Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Spain, "Teaching English as a Foreign Language"
  • Abby Drwecki from Wheeler, Ill., Anthropology, Poland, "Playing with Power: Women's self defense courses in Poland"
  • Nicole Degli Esposti from Eugene, Ore., Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Romania, "Teaching English as a Foreign Language"
  • Susan Furukawa from Bloomington, Ill., Literature, Japan, "Taikoki and the legend of Toyotomi Hideyoshi"
  • Erik Hammerstrom from Aloha, Ore., Philosophy and Religion, Taiwan, "Dissertation Research: Buddhism and Science in China"
  • Stephen Kory from Bloomington, Ind., Cultural and Intellectual History, China, "Medieval Chinese Adepts of Mantic Techniques"
  • Craig Waite from Bloomington, Ill., Modern History, Ghana, "Representing the Nation: Football, Politics, and Masculinity in Gold Cost/Ghana, 1945-1966"
  • Elizabeth Lambert from Elloree, S.C., History, Cultural and Intellectual, Germany, "Layers of Memory: Divided representations of classical Weimar and Buchenwald"