From interviewing performers of a traditional Indian dance to discussing the Orange County Great Park with Italian scholars, four UC Irvine faculty members will teach and research overseas in 2005-06, sponsored by the prestigious Fulbright exchange program.
"We are proud of our scholars participating in the Fulbright program who are building international bridges between UCI and scholars around the world," said Michael Gottfredson, executive vice chancellor and provost. "Selection as a Fulbright Scholar is a great honor, and the experience will bring great benefits both to the host country and to UCI."
Fulbright, the nation's premier academic exchange program, selects U.S. and foreign scholars on the basis of academic or professional achievement and a demonstration of extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.
2005-06 Fulbright Distinguished Chair
Joseph DiMento, professor with multiple positions in the schools of social ecology and business, and director of the Newkirk Center for Science and Society, received one of the most prestigious Fulbright appointments, a distinguished chair award - given to only 30 senior scholars from across the U.S. this year. DiMento will serve as the Turin Chair in Environmental Policies at Italy's Polytechnic Institute of Turin, where he will teach international environmental law and consult with Italian colleagues about urban land use issues including the Orange County Great Park. DiMento will be in Italy from March through June 2006.
2005-06 Fulbright Scholars from UCI
Marc Baer, assistant professor of history in the School of Humanities, is currently in Turkey, researching religious conversion and holy war during the 17th century. In Istanbul, Baer has access to rare original documents, including Ottoman-language chronicles presented to Sultan Mehmed IV. This on-site research will help Baer complete his book on the changing nature of Islam in the Ottoman Empire, including relations between Muslims, Christians and Jews and the practice of jihad.
Ketu Katrak, professor and chair of Asian American studies in the School of Humanities, is currently in India to study a traditional form of Indian dance, Bharata Natyam. She is attending festivals to see performances and also interviewing the dancers to learn more about the adaptation of the classical dance.
Gloria Mark, associate professor of informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, will be based in Berlin from January through May 2006 to study collaborative behavior of people using technology. Drawing on German researchers' strengths in the field of work psychology, Mark will look at biases that affect people's willingness to cooperate across distances, and how certain technologies affect engagement, participation, motivation and cohesion in teams that are separated by distance but connected by computer.
2005-06 Fulbright Scholar visiting UCI
UCI also hosts a steady stream of scholars from around the world interested in enriching their research with the expertise and resources at the university. Rens Vilegenthart, a student from the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar currently collaborating with renowned UCI sociologists as he completes research for his dissertation on the media's influence on social movements.
About the Fulbright Scholar Program: The Fulbright program is the U.S. government's flagship program in international educational exchange. Since its inception in 1946, Fulbright exchange programs have allowed more than 265,000 American and foreign faculty, students and professionals to study, teach or conduct research overseas and across borders.
About the University of California, Irvine: Celebrating 40 years of innovation, the University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.