Five UF professors named Fulbright Scholars for 2007-2008 school year

February 11, 2008

Revised Feb. 12, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Five University of Florida professors will spend part of this year abroad representing the university and the United States as Fulbright Scholars.

The professors are five of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals given grants this year by the Fulbright program, which is designed to promote internationalization and prepare students for the increasingly global marketplace.

Leslie Anderson, professor of political science, will spend four months in Buenos Aires, Argentina, researching and lecturing about executive and legislative power in new democracies.

“In Latin America today there are very few universities where students can get the doctorate,” she said. “I will be teaching graduate students as part of the ongoing effort to re-establish doctoral training in Argentina and I am quite excited to be part of the enterprise.”

Anthropology and African-American studies professor Marilyn Thomas-Houston is already in Halifax, Canada, working on her Fulbright research. She is studying black migration and relocation and will complete her work in June.

Amy Bard, professor of African and Asian languages, has been in India studying female piety, poetry and performance in Muslim culture since December and will finish her research in March.

Michael Heckenberger, professor of anthropology, spent five months last year in Brazil researching non-Western complex societies, and wildlife ecology professor Mark Hostetler will begin his six-month study in New Zealand of biodiversity conservation in residential areas this month.

“The Fulbright grant is one of the more prestigious awards that our faculty can attain,” said Provost Janie Fouke. “Whenever we win one, it attests to the international reputation of our faculty members and to their interests in the world beyond our daily life in Florida.”

In addition to sending five professors abroad, UF was chosen as a host location for three foreign recipients of Fulbright grants.

Bhaskaran Mohan Kumar, head of the college of forestry at India’s Kerala Agricultural University, spent September through December 2007 in Gainesville researching tropical home gardens.

Iram Khan, an official with the Pakistani Ministry of Industries, is currently at UF researching the role of infrastructure regulation in poverty reduction. Khan will leave Gainesville in June.

Jianmin Sun, a Chinese professor of human resources, is about halfway finished with a yearlong stay at the university studying the relationship between personality and job performance.

Since the program’s inception in 1946, nearly 100,000 scholars have received Fulbright grants and conducted research abroad.