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AROUND THE WORLD

Faculty Fulbright Scholarships

By UNC Asheville

February 4^th, 2020

In order to bring the best education to our students, many of our faculty and staff have traveled the world with prestigious Fulbright Scholarships, allowing them the opportunity to teach, learn, and experience new cultures and ideas.

Written by Hannah Epperson '11 MLAS '18

Merritt Moseley, Poland

In May of 2018 Merritt Moseley, professor emeritus of English, spent two weeks as a Fulbright Specialist at the Marie Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, where he taught contemporary American fiction to a class of 16 students.

Alison Ormsby, India

Alison Ormsby, adjunct assistant professor in environmental studies, spent seven months as a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar in India from 2009- 2010 working on her project, “Cultural and Biological Significance of Sacred Groves in India.” She interviewed 156 people about their management and use of the sacred forests in two states, Meghalaya and Karnataka.

David P. Gillette

September 2015 through June 2016 found David Gillette, associate professor of environmental studies, studying the effects of climate change and other disturbances on the Kaligandaki-Narayani River system in central Nepal.

Keya Maitra, India

Keya Maitra was awarded a FulbrightNehru senior research grant and spent the fall 2015 semester at the Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi, India. Her project, “An Epistemology of Mindfulness,” explored how incorporating mindfulness allows us to articulate a dimension of epistemology that is unexplored in contemporary philosophical discourse.

Nancy J. Cable, Hong Kong

Chancellor Nancy J. Cable was named a Fulbright Senior Specialist in the humanities in 2013 and spent the summer in Hong Kong working with a team of scholars on developing liberal arts education in China.

Rebecca Helm, South Africa

Rebecca Helm, spent the year of 2008 on a Fulbright Fellowship studying zooplankton at University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.

Tiece M. Ruffin, Ghana

Tiece Ruffin, interim director of Africana studies and associate professor of education, spent 2017-18 in Ghana, where she spent her time on teaching, mentoring, research, and community outreach, all focusing on special education and inclusive classrooms.

Elizabeth Underwood, Germany

In 2013, Elizabeth Underwood, senior director of alumni engagement and annual giving, participated in a Fulbright seminar for U.S. Administrators in International Education, hosted in Germany. There she studied higher education structures, current issues such as the Bologna Process, and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

Mark Hursty, Shanghai

Mark Hursty, lecturer in new media, was a 2011-12 Fulbright Scholar and taught glass art techniques across China at Tsinghua University, Shanghai University, Suzhou Polytechnic, Guangzhou Polytechnic, Taizhou Polytechnic, and Hong Kong Baptist University. In Shanghai, Hursty advised a glass art facility, where students made art from recycled European spirit bottles.

Mark Gibney, Norway

Mark Gibney, Belk Distinguished Professor of Political Science, received a Fulbright fellowship to the Norwegian Institute for Human Rights in 1989 where he conducted a study of the country’s refugee and asylum policy. It lead him to the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen and Lund University in Sweden, where he was the first Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Chair. It also changed his personal life—he now has two Swedish grandchildren.

Heidi Kelley, Spain

Heidi Kelley, professor of sociology, received a Fulbright-Hays scholarship to study in Spain in 1985-86, where she completed her dissertation.

Dwight Mullen, Malawi

Dwight Mullen, professor emeritus of political science, served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Malawi.

Tracey Rizzo, France

Chair and Professor of History Tracey Rizzo received a FulbrightHays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad award to work at the national library and archives in Paris, France during the 1989-90 academic year. There she explicated hundreds of civil and criminal cases involving women during the 1770s and 1780s. The award enabled her to visit other places in Europe, including the Berlin Wall as it was being torn down.

Rodger Payne, Morocco & Tunisia

For six weeks during the summer of 2011, Chair and Professor of Religious Studies Rodger Payne was one of sixteen participants in a Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad entitled “Religious Diversity in the Maghreb: Morocco and Tunisia.” Payne and his colleagues traveled to various religious sites in the area, studied Arabic, and attended lectures and musical presentations by local educators and musicians.

Eva Hericks-Bares, Florida

Eva Hericks-Bares, lecturer in art history, was a Fulbright Scholar in 1997-98, which covered her tuition and living expenses while she pursued a research project in journalism at the University of Miami, Coral Gables. Hericks-Bares ended up pursuing her master’s degree there, and also met her future husband, Bill Bares, associate professor of music.

Robert Tatum, Brazil

Cary Caperton Owen Chair and Professor of Economics Robert Tatum was awarded a 2007 FulbrightHays Award to Brazil, where he studied sustainable development. While there, he visited scholars, government officials, NGOs, and numerous locations from Rio de Jeneiro to the island of Fernando de Noronha.

Kate Zubko, India

Kate Zubko, interim director and NEH Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and associate professor of religious studies, was a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Fellow to India, 2003-04. Her project, “Dancing Across Religious Boundaries in Bharata Natyam,” took her to Chennai, India, where she conducted videography analysis and interviewed performers of a ritual storytelling dance tradition that grew out of devotional practices in Hindu temples.

Cara Gilpin, Germany

Cara Gilpin, formerly of the Study Abroad Office, received the Fulbright International Education Administrators (IEA) Award in 2015, which was a two-week seminar to introduce U.S. international education administration and personnel to the German education system. Gilpin visited cultural heritage sites, met with government officials, and traveled to a wide variety of elementary, high school, university, and colleges throughout Germany.

Agya Boakye-Boaten, Ghana

Agya Boakye-Boaten is currently in Ghana at the University of Cape Coast on a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant to teach and conduct research. His project focuses on teaching about Africa in a way that shifts the narrative away from Eurocentric epistemologies, and seeking to understand the intersectionalities among culture and traditional practices with child labor and trafficking in Ghana. This research will contribute to the mitigation efforts in combating child labor and child trafficking in Ghana.

Kate Steinbeck, Belgium

Kate Steinbeck, adjunct music faculty, was the first person from her college, Baldwin-Wallace College (now University) to receive a Fulbright grant. After getting her bachelors degree, Steinbeck spent a year and a half in Liège, Belgium studying chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Music there. "The Fulbright was a wonderful springboard for my life and career," Steinbeck said. "I learned French and subsequently German, made deep friendships and had many adventures."

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