The University of British Columbia leads the country with two recipients out of a total of 15 Canadian students receiving the 2008 Fulbright Student Awards, a prestigious honour that supports nine months of academic exchange in the U.S.
Starting in September, UBC Dept. of English PhD candidate Jamie Hilder will be researching a language and literature project at Stanford University. As well, Shira Goldenberg, who graduated from UBC in May with an MSc in Health Care and Epidemiology, will be attending the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University where she will begin a joint doctoral program this fall in global health.
“We’re extremely proud of Jamie and Shira’s stellar accomplishments,” says Dean Barbara Evans, Faculty of Graduate Studies. “This will be a wonderful opportunity for them to share their research ideas and talent with U.S. and other international scholars.”
“These are two extraordinary young scholars,” says Executive Director Michael Hawes, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program. “We are both pleased and proud to welcome them to the Fulbright family. Personally, I am expecting great things from them both!”
Hilder’s research project is entitled, Designed Words for a Designed World: The International Concrete Poetry Movement. He will study the trend in the 1950s-1960s towards the implementation of iconic and non-alphabetic language poetry, a more visual configuration, than the more traditional poetic line and page.
Goldenberg will be launching a public health project entitled, STI/HIV Risk Among Female Sex Workers in a U.S.-Mexico Border City. During 12 weeks of field work in Mexico, Goldenberg aims to conduct interviews with some 60 female sex workers. Her research will explore how social and structural characteristics affect STI/HIV risk among sex workers.
In addition to exceptional students, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program also supports established scholars, such as UBC alumna Terry Rolfe who will assume the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Chair in Transborder Studies at Arizona State University this fall. There she will build upon her 1999 student Fulbright scholarship on Great Plains comparatives related to land use, climate, and agricultural sustainability.
By engaging the brightest minds in academic exchanges, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program seeks to enhance mutual understanding between Canada and the United States. Through its bilateral academic exchanges, outstanding students, scholars and professionals strengthen Canada-U.S. relations by examining a wide range of subjects that are critical to the relationship between the two countries.
Operating in over 150 countries worldwide, the Fulbright program has long been regarded as the world’s premiere academic exchange. With the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the United States Department of State, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program is the gold standard for academic exchanges and intellectual opportunity. For more information please visit www.fulbright.ca.
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