Anthropology students receive majority of Fulbright fellowships at MSU

Contact: Lynne Goldstein, Anthropology, (517) 353-2950; or Kristin Anderson, University Relations, (517) 353-8819, ander284@msu.edu

2/17/2004

EAST LANSING, Mich. � Michigan State University students in the Department of Anthropology received six of the 10 Fulbright Fellowships awarded to MSU students in 2003-04.

The six, all in the College of Social Science, are: Kari Bergstrom of New Lenox; Ill.; Jennifer Brewer of ­­­­Bedford, Ind.; Natalie Bourdon of Muskegon; Holly Dygert of Afton, N.Y.; and Jessica Vernieri of Port Richey, Fla., graduate students; and Erick Houle of Stephenson, an undergraduate student. They received prestigious Fulbright Institute for International Education (IIE) or Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships.

All five graduate students were supported during their graduate studies at MSU by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships awarded through the Women and International Development Program, the Center for Advanced Study of International Development, the African Studies Center and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The FLAS fellowships enable the students to study less commonly taught languages they will use in their research.

Bourdon, daughter of Naomi Y. Milanowski, graduated from Mona Shores High School in 1993. Her year-long research program in Tanzania, on how feminist nongovernmental organizations in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are advocating for urban women�s land rights, started in December. She also will investigate how women in Dar es Salaam develop a legal consciousness and use these organizations to make land claims or to protect existing holdings.

�I believe the Fulbright will facilitate my research greatly and give me the opportunity to work with Tanzanian scholars and activists concerned with similar issues,� Bourdon said. �I hope that with this opportunity I can contribute to the dialogue over women�s legal rights within Tanzania and contribute to feminist scholarship within legal anthropology generally.�

Bourdon received the Pre-dissertation Training Grant funded by the Department of Anthropology�s National Science Foundation in the summer of 2002 for her pre-dissertation research in Tanzania. She was awarded the Center for Institutional Cooperation Fellowship in summer 2001 for intensive language training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She received the Fulbright Group Projects Abroad (GPA) in summer 2002 for six weeks of advanced language study and immersion at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Dygert, daughter of Stephen Dygert of Afton, N.Y., and Mary Jo Granger of King Ferry, N.Y., graduated from Afton Central School in1990. Dygert�s goal for her 10 months of research in Oaxaca, Mexico, is to provide a better understanding of the new models of development that Mixtec activists � activists of a group of people native to Oaxaca � are creating in their efforts to revitalize their culture, how these models compare with national development strategies and how villagers view their interests in relation to the two approaches.

Dygert began her research in the summer of 2003 with the support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and returned in October 2003 with the additional support of the Fulbright Award.

�The Fulbright � Garcia Robles Fellowship has provided me with practical support that has enhanced my ability to carry out the research here in Mexico,� Dygert said. �It will help me to complete my dissertation and earn a doctorate.�

At MSU, Dygert received the Ron Hart Award for Teaching Assistance from the Department of Anthropology for 2002-03. She was awarded both the Tinker Travel Grant from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the MSU-Ford Foundation Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Studies in International Development in support of her pre-dissertation activities in Oaxaca in the summer of 2001.

Vernieri, daughter of Leona and the late Lawrence Vernieri, graduated from Ridgewood High School in1994. She started her year-long research program in December in Mexico. Her dissertation is on a national tourism development plan meant to encourage sustainable tourism in Mexico�s Yucatan Peninsula.

Her research focuses on different groups� interpretations of the environment and the ways that they are supporting and/or contesting the plan in their respective ecological and cultural realities.

�Apart from the rare opportunity to perform in-depth field research, my Fulbright award will allow me to maintain ties with a diverse group of researchers and foreign institutions that will be valuable throughout my career,� Vernieri said.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­At MSU, Vernieri was the editor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Net (H-Net). She also did Web design for various campus groups and individuals. She received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award by International Studies and Programs. She was awarded the Hewlett Foundation Grant for Pre-Dissertation Research and the Tinker Foundation Pre-Dissertation Research Grant.

Bergstrom graduated from Lincoln-Way High School in 1992. With her Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, she started her research in December. She is studying comparisons between the UNICEF and CARE approaches to gender and development in a Nigerian community for a year.

�It is a wonderful opportunity to do field research, and it will open doors for job opportunities when I return to the United States,� Bergstrom said.

Bergstrom received the Rita S. Gallin Award for the Best Student Paper in Women and International Development in 2001. She was awarded the National Science Foundation Ethnographic Research Training Grant through the Anthropology Department to do research in Niger Republic on women�s access to land in collaboration with CARE International from June to August 2002. She volunteered for the Secondary Wage Earner Program at Refugee Services from September 2002 to March 2003, teaching life skills to refugee women coming to the United States.

Houle is a graduate of Stephenson Public High School. With his Fulbright IIE Fellowship, he is teaching English in South Korea for 13 months as of last July. He also will identify a research topic to pursue in graduate school next year within an East Asian Studies program at Cornell University.

�I have had an amazing experience getting to know and understand the complexities and nuances of Korea�s culture and language,� said Houle. �The opportunity to live in a host family environment has given me a better grasp of the Korean language and culture, which will no doubt be very useful in my future studies.�

Houle was the founder and co-president of the MSU Korean Student Adoptee Association and the vice president of the MSU Anthropology Club. He received the Ishino Prize in 2003 for his scholarly paper contributed to the 2003 MSU Anthropology Club Conference on Undergraduate Student Anthropological Research and Scholarship. He also was awarded the Social Science Dean�s Assistantship Research Grant for his original work on �The Discourse of Self: Bicultural and Hybrid Identity of Korean Adoptees.�

Brewer, daughter of Jerry and Judy Brewer, expects to leave for Accra, Ghana, in September for eight months of research. She will study how adolescent girls negotiate safe sex in the face of HIV and economic uncertainty.

�Gender has been recognized as a key dimension of sexually transmitted infection vulnerability, yet few studies have specifically highlighted the girls� views of and approaches to the local gender ideals and sexual norms that can constrain or broaden their health choices,� she said. �This project will explore how adolescent girls in Accra, Ghana, view gender and sexuality and approach safe sex as social factors in specific political-economic and cultural settings.�

Brewer received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Department of Anthropology in 2003 and the Graduate Research Enhancement Award from the College of Social Science in 2002. She is actively involved in the Gender Inequality and HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee and the Anthropology Graduate Student Association.

Fulbright grants generally provide round trip transportation, language and/or orientation courses, tuition and book allowance, maintenance for the academic year based on living costs in the host country, a nominal research allowance, and health and accident insurance.

The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of people, knowledge and skills. The U.S. Congress created the program immediately after World War II as a step toward building international cooperation. More than 96,000 Americans and 158,000 participants from other countries have participated in a Fulbright experience.

For more information, visit the Web at www.iie.org