KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Six graduate students at the University of Kansas have received Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships to study African languages during the 2009-10 academic year.

The federally funded fellowships provide a $15,000 stipend and up to $12,000 for tuition and fees for an academic year. The fellowships are awarded through the Kansas African Studies Center at KU.

Funding for Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships is provided by U.S. Department of Education to encourage graduate student language training in Arabic, KiSwahili, Hausa and Wolof.

The 2009-10 fellowship recipients include four doctoral students and two master’s students. Doctoral students may use the fellowships for study abroad.

The Kansas African Studies Center represents the African Studies Council of more than 40 Africanists throughout KU. Since 1991, the Kansas African Studies Center has been a designated National Resource Center in African Studies with Title VI funding during two three-year cycles (1994-1997, 2000-2003) and the current four-year cycle (2006-2010).

The 2009-10 fellowship recipients are

CRAWFORD COUNTY
From Pittsburg 66762
Megan Lynn Holroyd, doctoral student in geography, enrolled this past summer in a six-week intensive course in KiSwahili at Kiswahili na Utamaduni in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This fall, she remains in Africa to work with the Jane Goodall Institute in Dar es Salaam. Holroyd earned a bachelor’s degree from Pittsburg State University in 2001 and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from KU in fall 2007. She also has an associate’s degree from Labette County Community College.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66047
Molly White Mackinnon, a master’s student in education, is studying Arabic this fall at KU with plans to teach Arabic to middle and high school students. She will also attend the Kansas African Studies Center’s summer institute in 2010. Mackinnon earned a bachelor’s at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2005 and master’s in 2005 from KU in Slavic languages and literatures.

MISSOURI
From Kansas City 64114
Dustin J. Crowley, doctoral student in English, studied KiSwahili at the Summer Cooperative African Language Institute at Michigan State University this past summer. Crowley earned a master’s degree from KU in English in spring 2008 and a bachelor’s degree from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, in 2004.

From Kearney 64060
Kate Marie Pickett, doctoral student in psychology, is studying elementary Hausa. Pickett earned a bachelor’s degree from Truman State University, Kirksville, Mo., in 2005.

MONTANA
From Bozeman 59715
Jamie E. Shinn, master’s student in geography, is studying second-year Swahili at KU. This past summer, she studied KiSwahili in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

NEBRASKA
From Omaha
Ryan J. Gibb, doctoral student in political science, is studying advanced KiSwahili. In May, he will conduct dissertation research in Uganda on a Fulbright-Hays fellowship. He is the son of Dick and Linda Gibb of Omaha. He has two degrees in international affairs from Marquette University in Milwaukee, a bachelor’s from 2004 and master’s from 2005.