News Release
Festus, Mo., resident Adnan Ahmad, who majored in international studies and received his Johns Hopkins University undergraduate degree May 17, has been awarded a grant from the Fulbright Student Program for the 2007- 2008 academic year. He is one of 17 Johns Hopkins students and graduates so far this year to receive a Fulbright grant, one of the most prestigious awards in academia. Ahmad, 22, said he will travel to Tunisia to conduct a year-long interview- and film-based project on minority identity and citizenship in Tunisia. Ahmad plans to explore how past narratives of nationality have impacted minority Tunisians, and how these minority communities balance their transnational cultural identities with a sense of Tunisian nationality. "My research aims to explore the reconciliation and rationalization behind Jewish and Christian minorities' vision of themselves as citizens of a Tunisia that is around 99 percent Arab Muslim, both during and after historical periods known for Arab nationalistic fervor," he said. Upon his return, Ahmad plans to make his Fulbright research the core of a master's thesis towards a degree in international studies. He later intends to earn a law degree and pursue an academic career in law. Created in 1946, 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 program awards approximately 1,000 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries. Successful U.S. applicants utilize their grants to undertake self- designed programs in a broad range of disciplines including the social sciences, business, communication, performing arts, physical sciences, engineering and education. Ahmad' parents, Musaddeque Ahmad and Rowshran Ara, are originally from Bangladesh but now live in Festus. For more information on the Fulbright program, go to www.iie.org.
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