Friday, April 17, 2009

Undergraduate Spotlight: Two Students Win Fulbright Awards

Rachel Snyder(BA Anth candidate 2009) has been awarded a Fulbright Student Research Grant for her project entitled "The Oral Tradition of the Zapara Nationality of Ecuador."

She will be working with NAZAE, an organization of the Zapara Nationality in Puyo, Ecuador. There she will be investigating the oral tradition of Zapara families in and around the urban setting of Puyo in comparison to the oral tradition of Zapara families in rainforest communities. As part of this research, she will relate the group's myths to their daily experiences, identity, and political participation in the Ecuadorian state. Furthermore, as the Zapara language is disappearing, she will be creating a collection of myths in collaboration with the Zapara that will be translated into Zapara, Spanish, and English to be used as a didactic tool in the future. The research will be conducted over a 10 month span.

Lauren Deal (BA Anth w/ Honors 2009)has been awarded a Fulbright Student Research Grant for her project entitled "Singing Self and State: Language, Thought and Politics of Opera Pedagogy in Argentina."

She will be investigating the relationship between Argentina and Italy via the institution of Opera and the participants in opera pedagogy. Lauren will conduct the majority of her research over the course of 9 months in Buenos Aires, splitting her time between the Carlos Lopez Buchardo National Conservatory and the University of Buenos Aires. This research will be a continuation of a 2007 study Lauren conducted through Cotlow Research Funding.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress and continues to receive its primary funding annually via Congressional appropriation to the Department of State. The Fulbright Program awarded approximate six thousand grants in 2008, funding U.S. students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 155 countries.

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