Sept. 16, 2002

Contact: Anne Merydith-Wolf, International Programs, (785) 864-4963.

11 Fulbright offers to KU faculty likely to set national record for 2002-03

LAWRENCE -- With 11 Fulbright awards offered to University of Kansas faculty this fall, the university set a school record and perhaps a national record for the greatest number of awards in this academic year. In addition, another KU professor received an extension of a 2001-02 Fulbright award.

Although the official report from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars will not be available until later this year, KU international programs staff have learned that no other university has received more than 10 Fulbright awards for 2002-03. Only two universities had 10 faculty receive Fulbright awards this year.

The 11 Fulbrights offered to KU faculty break the previous record of 10 in one year, set in 1956-57 and in 1962-63. Nine faculty received Fulbrights in 1980-81.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said, "KU has done an impressive job over the years in participation in the highly competitive Fulbright program by both students and faculty. These exchanges truly enrich the academic experience for the entire KU community."

The Fulbright Scholar Program is one of the oldest and largest international exchange programs in the world. Since 1951, when the first Fulbright awards were granted, more than 1,000 international students have studied at KU and more than 600 KU students and faculty have studied abroad on Fulbright grants.

This year KU also hosts 13 new Fulbright students from abroad. Two Fulbright scholars also will soon arrive: Svetlana Kountsevitch of Minsk State Linguistic University in Minsk, Belarus, and Sergei Zolotukhin of the Kazakh-American University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Carmen Nikazm, KU assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures, received the most recent Fulbright award for spring 2003 research at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. She is researching the relationship between the environment and the linguistic structure in which offers and requests are carried out by Germans.

Gerald Mikkelson, KU professor of Slavic languages and literatures, received a 10-month extension of his 2001-02 Fulbright grant to conduct seminars and give lectures at St. Petersburg State University in Russia and short courses at universities in Tomsk (western Siberia) and Perm (Ural Mountains).

Since 1951, KU faculty have received a total of 257 awards, including the 11 offered this year. Some KU faculty have received more than one Fulbright grant over the years.

Anita Herzfeld, associate professor of Latin American studies, received her sixth Fulbright this year. With her newest grant, she will teach at the School of Languages, National University, Asuncion, Paraguay, in summer 2003. Herzfeld also will research speakers' attitudes regarding bilingualism in Paraguay, where both Spanish and Guaran’ are spoken. She came to KU as a graduate student from Argentina on a Fulbright scholarship and subsequently received Fulbright awards for teaching or research in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Germany.

Two KU political scientists, Deborah Gerner and Philip Schrodt, received Fulbrights to teach in the West Bank this fall but must wait because the U.S. State Department postponed Fulbright exchanges in the West Bank due to escalated violence during last spring and terrorism concerns. Both Gerner and Schrodt taught in the West Bank during spring 1996 as Fulbright scholars.

The Fulbright program was established in 1946 with legislation introduced by Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. The purpose was to increase the mutual understanding between people of the United States and people of other countries. CIES administers the Fulbright program on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.

The Office of International Programs coordinates the Fulbright program at KU. For information on the application process, contact Hodgie Bricke at (785) 864-6161 or hbricke@ku.edu.

KU faculty offered Fulbright grants this year include:

Nobleza Asuncion-Landé, professor of communication studies, to teach at the St. Petersburg State University of Business and Economics in Russia for the academic year. Asuncion-Landé also has received Fulbright grants to England and Singapore.

Paul Comolli, associate professor of economics, participated in the June 2002 Fulbright German Studies Seminar in Leipzig, Cologne and Berlin. Comolli was one of 25 participants chosen from U.S. universities and government agencies.

Patrick Dooley, associate professor of design, to team-teach in spring 2003 at Fachhochschule Trier, in Trier, Germany, and to research time-based media.

Joshua Freeman, chair of family medicine at KU Medical Center, to teach part of the spring 2003 semester at the medical school of the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He will help develop a new program in family medicine and teach a special class.

Sivaprasad Gogineni, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, for research at the University of Tasmania Antarctic Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, Australia. He is in Australia during the fall semester.

Anita Herzfeld, associate professor of Latin American studies, for research and teaching in Paraguay.

Gwynne Jenkins, assistant professor of anthropology and women's studies, for research in Costa Rica and to teach a graduate seminar at KU's partner institution, the University of Costa Rica in San Jose. She also was named an alternate by the U.S. Department of Education for a Fulbright-Hays faculty research award.

Garth Myers, associate professor of geography, for research in Zambia and Tanzania. During winter 2003, Myers will spend two months in Zambia and in summer 2003, three months in Tanzania.

Carmen Nikazm, assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures, for research at the Free University of Berlin in Germany during spring 2003.

Deborah Gerner, professor of political science, to teach at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Postponed.

Philip Schrodt, professor of political science, to teach at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Postponed.