Gallaudet continues Fulbright tradition

Gallaudet continued its tradition this year as a top producer of Fulbright scholars. All three students who applied for the grants last October received word that they had been awarded fellowships to pursue research abroad. Two will travel to Israel and Italy, countries where previous Gallaudet Fulbrights have also completed projects. The third will spend her 10-month stint in Germany, where a Gallaudet Fulbright recipient has yet to venture.

Christina Healy and Page Roberts, who both received master’s degrees in May, have been awarded Fulbright scholarships to continue their studies in linguistics. Healy will travel to Israel in August, where she will conduct cross-linguistic research on ASL and Israeli Sign Language through June 2011 at the University of Haifa’s Sign Language Research Lab. Roberts will teach English and American studies to high school students in Hamburg, Germany for the 2010-2011 school year.

Sigridur Johannsdottir, who received her B.A. degree in communication studies this year, was accepted by the Fulbright Program for a project in Italy. Johannsdottir’s plan is to videotape interviews with members of the deaf community to learn more about attitudes toward deaf people in the country. She hopes to heighten awareness of audism (discrimination based on hearing status) and to work with the subjects to confront the situation and inform the public.

Gallaudet has long served as a Fulbright partner in Italy.  It maintains strong relationships with several Italian institutions, including the Siena School for Liberal Arts and the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies–an agency similar to the United States’ National Science Foundation. The Roberto Wirth Foundation and Italian Fulbright Commission provide annual scholarships to American Fulbright recipients in the field of deaf education. Ties with another partner, the Rome-based Mason Perkins Deafness Fund, support Italian Fulbright scholars at Gallaudet.

The University’s exchange is not limited to Fulbrights from Italy. The campus has welcomed students from all over the world. During the 2009-2010 academic year, Fulbright supported students from Ireland and Mexico as well as researchers from Cameroon and Zimbabwe to study at Gallaudet. 

For more on the Fulbright Program at Gallaudet, go to the University’s Fulbright website.

–Rhea Yablon Kennedy