Gazette
masthead
   About The Gazette Search Back Issues Contact Us    
The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University May 14, 2007 | Vol. 36 No. 34
 
Eighteen From JHU to Study Abroad as Fulbright and DAAD Scholars

By Amy Lunday
Homewood

Eighteen students from the schools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Public Health; Peabody; and SAIS have been awarded the opportunity to study abroad during the 2007-2008 academic year, thanks to two prestigious awards administered by the Institute of International Education.

Five graduating seniors, nine graduate students and two recent graduates will study abroad as Fulbright Scholars. Two graduate students will travel to Germany on DAAD scholarships.

John Bader, associate dean for academic programs and advising in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, says that Johns Hopkins' success in the Fulbright program is nationally recognized and that this year's total number of scholars is consistent with the university's best years.

"We are this successful, year after year, because we have great students who are internationally minded, entrepreneurial and independent," said Bader, whose office worked with the recipients from Homewood, Peabody and SAIS. "Then they get strong support from faculty and experienced coaching from my office. That's a winning combination." At Public Health, the applicants were guided through the process by Catherine Klein, director of graduate education.

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.

DAAD, which stands for Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (in translation, German Academic Exchange Service), is a publicly funded independent organization of higher education institutions in Germany. The association promotes international academic relations and cooperation by offering mobility programs primarily for students and faculty but also for administrators and others in the higher education realm.

The two programs typically attract many of the same applicants, Bader said, so the administrators work closely together on a number of issues, most notably to avoid giving grants to the same people.

Sixteen students have been named Fulbright scholars.

Adnan Ahmad will travel to Tunisia to study its multicultural community. By conducting a series of interviews in Tunis and on the island of Djerba, he will attempt to construct a robust portrait of the competition between identity and citizenship in Tunisian society. Ahmad will earn his bachelor's degree in political science this week.

Claire Cage, who anticipates earning her doctorate in history in 2010, will travel to Paris to conduct archival research on legal trials of crimes of sexual seduction in the 18th century. Working from these materials and their connections with literary sources, she will examine the relationship between the social, cultural and intellectual contexts of seduction in early modern France. This research will contribute to her dissertation on the cultural history of seduction from the 1720s to the 1790s.

Jason Chiang will travel to the University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany to investigate the therapeutic potential of high-frequency stimulation of the central piriform complex in a rodent model of temporal lobe epilepsy. He will earn his bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering this week.

Pammie Crawford, a PhD student in the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health, will go to Canada to carry out her project, "Transferring Health Services and the Impact on Adolescent Mental Health."

Valerie Harder, a PhD student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health, will go to Kenya to carry out her project, "Depression and Substance Use Disorders: Associations With HIV/AIDS in Kenya."

Charles Kato will travel to Nagoya University in Japan to learn more about health care policy, clinical practice and Japanese cultural issues pertaining to the elderly through its NUPACE program for English-speaking students. Johns Hopkins is one of 22 American universities that have an academic partnership with the program. Kato will earn a bachelor's degree in neuroscience this week.

Kristin Kelling, an MHS student in the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health, will go to Brazil to carry out her project, "Multiparity and Reproductive Planning Among HIV-positive Women in Bahia, Brazil."

Alexandra Kleinerman, who anticipates earning her doctorate in Assyriology from the Krieger School in May 2009, will travel to Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen in Germany to study scribal education in ancient Iraq. Her project will include the study and publication of more than 100 clay tablets.

Niklas Krumm will travel to Berlin to study the cognitive systems responsible for the phonological and working memory functions in the brain. He'll conduct his research under a newly formed consortium funded by the German Research Foundation, bringing together the Free University, Humboldt University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He will earn his bachelor's degree in neuroscience this week. Krumm also earned a DAAD but declined it to take the Fulbright.

Jason Lee will travel to South Korea with a Fulbright teaching assistantship to teach English in a secondary school while learning conversational Korean and to familiarize himself with his Korean heritage and the South Korean health care system. Lee plans to one day practice medicine in an academic setting and to work closely with patients of Korean heritage. He will earn his bachelor's degree in neuroscience this week.

Kathryn Muessig, a PhD student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health, Behavior and Society, will go to China to carry out her project, "Depression Management and Treatment Strategies in China."

Jason Peterson, who anticipates completing his doctorate in piano performance at Peabody in December, will travel to Freiburg, Germany, to study the performance of Austro-Germanic piano repertoire at the Hochschule fur Musik.

Morgan Philbin, an MHS student in the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health, will go to China to carry out her project, "Prevention of HIV/AIDS Among Injection Drug Users in China."

Whitney Sheen, an MHS student in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School, will go to Colombia to carry out her project, "Envisioning Strategies for Protecting Child Health in Colombia."

Hyder Syed will travel to the Netherlands, where he will enroll in the master's program in conflict studies and human rights at Utrecht University. He plans to examine viable approaches to resolving the conflict and promoting human rights in Kashmir. He also expects to volunteer at the Dutch Interchurch Peace Council in The Hague. Syed earned a bachelor's degree in international studies from the Krieger School in 2006.

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick will travel to Hungary to study the music and life of Ferenc Erkel, Hungary's greatest composer of opera, at the Liszt Academy. Upon completing her studies, she will return to the United States and offer a concert series. She earned a graduate performance diploma in voice from Peabody in 2006.

Two students have received DAAD scholarships.

Sara Konoe will travel to Germany to write her dissertation comparing diverse reform paths and outcomes in financial governance systems across the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. She anticipates earning her doctorate from SAIS in 2008.

Ellwood Wiggins, who anticipates earning his doctoral degree in German in 2008, will travel to Freie Universitat Berlin to engage in a research project on anagnorisis (recognition) in the context of performance theory, as well as philosophical and critical approaches, concentrating on three plays by German authors Goethe, Kleist and Heiner Mueller.

John Bader said his academic advising team is already looking forward to the next round of scholarship challenges, in the 2007-2008 academic year.

"Just as exciting as this year's winnings, we are working to be even more successful," Bader said. "Pam Cranston [a vice provost and acting dean of the Carey Business School] now heads a task force with representatives from every division to coordinate recruitment and to encourage schools like Medicine and Nursing to support more applicants. I've already given well-attended workshops at Peabody and at SAIS, in addition to several at Homewood. Public Health already does a great job with this, so we look forward to more winners next year."

GO TO MAY 14, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE FRONT PAGE.


The Gazette | The Johns Hopkins University | Suite 540 | 901 S. Bond St. | Baltimore, MD 21231 | 443-287-9900 | gazette@jhu.edu