As a universal language, music often has the power to connect people across borders. Recent Florida State University graduate Amelia Rivers is advancing that idea in Rionegro, Colombia, where she’s using education and the arts to build intercultural community as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. 

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s premier international exchange initiative designed to foster mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and people around the world. Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant recipients are selected each year for their academic or professional excellence and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, with the program operating in over 160 countries. The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Award places recipients directly in classrooms abroad to assist local English teachers and facilitate intercultural exchange. 

“Fulbright is an opportunity giver,” she said. “Now that Fulbright has happened, the doors have opened.” 

Rivers, who earned a master’s degree in musicology from the College of Music in 2025, has been teaching English at the Universidad Católica de Oriente (UCO) since the summer through the ETA. For her, Fulbright offers more than the chance to teach abroad —it’s also an extension of lifelong commitments to global learning and citizenship through music. 

“I love meeting new people, knowing their stories and sharing my story,” she said. “The ETA is all about that exchange.” 

As the daughter of a pilot, Rivers grew up traveling to places like China, Egypt, New Zealand and Peru with her family — an experience she refers to affectionately as “cultural whiplash.” She taught her brother how to count on the Great Wall of China and learned how to play guitar from local kids in the Andes Mountains, experiences she said primed her for a future full of global endeavors. 

“I was able to have those conversations about cultural exchange at a very young age,” she said. “It really encouraged me to become a cultural ambassador for the United States.” 

Back in the U.S., Rivers joined a traveling choir, the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir, in middle and high school, blending her love of seeing the world with her passion for music. She once performed in a choir for Pope Francis in Vatican City, an experience that she says was her “window to the world.” 

“Choir has always been a source of community building for me,” she said. 

After earning a bachelor’s degree in music arts and English from Mercer University, Rivers decided to blend these interests further and pursue a master’s degree in musicology from FSU’s College of Music. 

At FSU, Rivers engaged with other cultures through one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive World Music Ensemble programs, where she learned and performed Andean, Brazilian and Balinese Gamelan music traditions. Her master’s thesis focused on the political significance of “joropo,” a folkloric dance genre native to the llaneros of Colombia and Venezuela. 

“I wanted to learn more about the music in the world,” she said.  

This research brought her to Bogotá, Colombia, for the first time in 2023, where she visited music libraries, interviewed joropo artists and attended the “Joropo en el Parque” (Joropo in the Park) music festival.

“I fell in love with the culture of hospitality in the community,” she said. 

Rivers had heard of Fulbright through her grandfather. He studied French medieval literature in Germany in 1962 through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, an experience that she said changed his career. 

“I’ve always felt that my grandfather and I had a kindred mind,” she said. 

As a Fulbright ETA, Rivers is responsible for hosting presentations and activities, facilitating interactions between students and helping hone their grammar skills. Tailoring her methods toward music, Rivers also plays the piano and sings in a rock band with her students, helping them learn English through songs by bands like Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

“We’re playing mostly American rock music because they want to practice their English, and I’m their English teacher,” she said. “There’s a big rock scene in Colombia.”  

At the other end of the exchange, Rivers is learning more about local music from the Colombian community and her peers. She’s joined two choirs during her experience — “Coro Polifónico” (polyphonic choir) at the Universidad Católica de Oriente and a professional women’s choir called “Polimnia.” Through Coro Polifónico, she’s performed at UCO’s cultural festivals and Christmas concert series and has toured across Medellín and Bogotá with Polimnia.  

“I’m trying to soak up as much as I can,” she said. “It’s been easy to plug into the local music culture because of the knowledge FSU gave me.” 

To bridge the arts with impact, Rivers has additionally been collaborating with the “Huracán de Sueños” foundation, an after-school center that brings classes and activities to vulnerable children in the area. There, she is helping to run a music program and assisting the kids with their English homework.  

“Music is the way that I interact with others in Colombia, because everybody loves music here,” she said. “It’s such an easy and fulfilling starting point for cultural exchange.” 

Rounding out her role as a cultural ambassador, Rivers is also interning with the U.S. Embassy and Education USA, which helps students in Colombia earn a college education in the U.S.  

While Rivers is not yet sure where her passions will take her following the Fulbright award, she hopes to continue riding the international wave. 

“I’ve been bitten by the Fulbright bug,” she said. 

For now, she believes that Rionegro is where she is “meant to be.” 

“I feel like I have my dream job in my dream location,” she said. “I’m still trying to convince myself that this is real.” 

Interested in applying for a Fulbright? 

Graduate students: Contact Keith McCall, assistant director of the FSU Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards, at kmccall2@fsu.edu.  

Undergraduates and recent graduates: Contact Bonnie Garcia-Gloeckner, assistant director of the FSU Office of National Fellowships, at bjgarcia@fsu.edu. 

Faculty: Contact Peggy Wright-Cleveland, director of FSU Faculty Development, at mwrightc@fsu.edu. 

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Florida State University recognized international and domestic participants of the Fulbright Program during a reception Tuesday, Nov. 18, at the Longmire Building. 

Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is one of the most widely recognized international academic exchange programs. It aims to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The U.S. government currently partners with more than 160 countries worldwide. 

FSU has participated in the Fulbright Program since 1951 and has been among the nation’s top producers of both faculty and student awards in recent years. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs recognized Florida State as a top-producing institution of U.S. Fulbright Scholars earlier this year.  

For the 2025-2026 cycle, three current and former FSU students earned scholarships through the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in the U.K., Colombia and Argentina. In addition, four FSU faculty members will travel to teach and conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in Ireland, Taiwan, Hungary and India.  

On campus, 13 foreign students and scholars from places like Indonesia, Armenia and Uruguay are currently studying or conducting research at FSU through the Foreign Fulbright Program. Twelve students are here through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, and one researcher is here through the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. 

Steve McDowell, FSU’s assistant provost for International Initiatives, presided over the event. FSU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs James Clark delivered welcoming remarks.  

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For many writers, completing a creative work involves countless revisions or even a full rewrite. Samuel Granoff, a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Florida State University, had set aside his unfinished World War I novel until the Fulbright U.S. Student Program gave him the time, space and inspiration to start over.  

Granoff spent 10 months in France after receiving the Université Paris-Saclay Doctoral Research Award and used the time to research and rewrite the novel, which examines the experience of World War I through both contemporary and historical lenses to explore how war, memory and identity intersect across time.  

“As a writer, you often leave things in drawers and never look back at them,” said Granoff, who’s earning a doctorate in English literature with an emphasis on fiction writing. “The Fulbright has been this blessing that came down to give me another shot.” 

The Fulbright Program, the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, is designed to increase understanding between U.S. citizens and people of other countries. 

Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant recipients are selected based on academic or professional merit and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, with the program operating in over 160 countries worldwide. 

The primary source of funding is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations and foundations also provide support.   

Granoff knew early in his graduate studies that he wanted to pursue a Fulbright to support a work of historical fiction. He reached out to the FSU Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards and worked with Assistant Director Keith McCall, who helped Granoff select his best work for the application. 

“We went through essay by essay, story by story, because you only get a couple pages to sell yourself to the program,” Granoff said. “Keith was really generous with his time and walked me through the entire process.” 

A few years ago, Granoff wrote the first draft of a novel set largely in Paris during WWI. After deciding to revisit it, he applied for the Université Paris-Saclay Doctoral Research Award, which supports U.S. doctoral students conducting research for their dissertations at the university, a public research institution south of Paris.   

At Paris-Saclay, Granoff conducted research at the Center for Cultural History of Contemporary Societies, a laboratory with a multidisciplinary approach to researching contemporary cultural history. 

Granoff spent time there researching and re-imagining this work, which was originally set in 1917 and focused on a soldier who had deserted his post and assumed a different identity.  

“It was a work that I couldn’t quite figure out,” he said. 

Inspired by a World War I reenactment he witnessed on one of his first days in Paris, Granoff refocused his novel to explore how war is understood through contemporary identities and decided to set the first half in 2018. 

“The best historical fiction still echoes into the present,” he said. 

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Historians, tasked with piecing the past together, often cross countries and oceans to access sources and better understand their topics of research.  

For Danielle Wirsansky, a doctoral student in the Department of History at Florida State University, this meant traveling to Israel to trace the experiences of female agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), an intelligence organization during World War II, through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.  

“I can’t speak enough about how impactful it is for my research to actually travel and go to an archive in the country that you’re studying,” she said. “This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” 

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and people of other countries.  

Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant recipients are selected based on academic or professional merit and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, with the program operating in over 160 countries worldwide. 

The primary source of funding is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations and foundations also provide support. 

Wirsansky initially became interested in a Fulbright fellowship after witnessing its lasting impact on the career of her doctoral adviser, Department of History Professor Emeritus Nathan Stoltzfus. Stoltzfus, formerly the Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies who taught at FSU for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2024, conducted research in Germany in 1984 through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and still works with the same material from his own fellowship.  

“It was really incredible to see the longevity and effect a Fulbright award could have, and that it’s still the basis of the research and the career he’s built thirty-plus years on,”  Wirsansky said. 

Wirsansky already has undergraduate and master’s degrees from FSU. She first connected with Stoltzfus — and history — through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP).  

Pursuing degrees in creative writing and theatre, she had trouble finding arts-related UROP projects and decided to join Stoltzfus’ research on the Rosenstrasse Protest, which took place between February 27 and March 6, 1943, when approximately 200 non-Jewish German women held a non-violent protest in freezing conditions outside the Rosenstrasse detention center in Berlin, demanding the release of their Jewish family members (mainly husbands) who they feared were about to be deported to concentration camps.   

Continuing to work with Stoltzfus, Wirsansky wrote a play with musical accompaniment about the Holocaust for her Honors in the Major project. She then applied for her master’s in history at FSU to establish her credentials as a historical playwright. Falling in love with research and writing along the way, she stayed for her doctoral degree to hone in on the topics of her master’s thesis, which analyzed the evolution of women’s roles in British society through the lens of female spies. 

Eager to follow in the footsteps of her adviser and establish a similar foundation in historical research, Wirsansky started preparing her Fulbright application as soon as she began her doctoral program. 

She wanted to travel to Jerusalem, Israel, to piece together the lives of female agents in the SOE, a British intelligence agency formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe during World War II. Specifically, Wirsansky’s project focuses on the opportunity to research the experience of agents who were captured and then placed into concentration camps. 

In Jerusalem, Wirsansky had special access to materials in the Yad Vashem Museum, Israel’s official memorial institution to the victims of the Holocaust.  

“This is one of the few places where I’m able to actually access deeper information for my research, so it’s been incredible to finally get my hands on these resources,” she said. “It’s going to make my dissertation so much more rich, evocative and meaningful than it would have been if I didn’t receive this opportunity.” 

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Ever since she was a little girl, Ely Djulia Katmadihardja has been captivated by the power of science in solving real-world problems. Her natural curiosity and innovative disposition have propelled her to become a prominent leader in science education in her home country of Indonesia, and the Fulbright Visiting Scholar program has brought her to Florida State University once again. 

The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program provides grants to approximately 850 foreign scholars from over 100 countries to conduct post-doctoral research at U.S. institutions from an academic semester to a full academic year. 

This fellowship represents a full circle moment for Djulia, who first began collaborating with the Learning Systems Institute at FSU in 2006 on a Decentralized Basic Education Project in Indonesia led by Jeffrey Milligan, former director of LSI. She played a crucial role in the project until its completion in 2011. A few years later, she visited FSU’s campus for the first time to discuss additional research opportunities in teacher education with Milligan. 

As a professor and researcher in biology education at Universitas Negeri Medan, Dr. Djulia teaches various undergraduate and graduate courses aimed at training future educators. Her courses range from teaching plant ecology to science education strategies and evaluations. 

In her research, Djulia has found that modern scientific knowledge tends to align with local indigenous wisdom. For example, traditional Indonesian houses built from wood and bamboo are highly resistant to earthquake damage due to their lightweight, flexible structure that efficiently absorbs and distributes seismic energy. Her extensive research findings on the interconnectedness of modern science and ancient cultural practices have inspired her to explore ways to bridge the gap between formal STEM education and cultural knowledge.   

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Eight Florida State University students are out in the world creating connections and learning new skills through the reputable Fulbright Program.

From teaching English abroad to researching historical narratives of 1917 France, sustainable development and mood regulation, these Fulbright students from FSU cover a wide range of disciplines.

“Fulbright awards present students with an amazing opportunity to research, study, teach and engage globally, making connections that will support their future endeavors while creating lasting ties between the United States, FSU and the world,” said Keith McCall, assistant director of the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards and lead Fulbright contact for graduate students. “This year’s FSU recipients represent the innovative, remarkable work and research done by students across FSU’s undergraduate and graduate programs.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and people of other countries. The primary source of funding is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant recipients are selected based on academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, with the program operating in over 160 countries worldwide.

“We are thrilled for our Fulbright recipients and are confident that their experiences abroad will be truly enriching,” said Bonnie Garcia-Gloeckner, assistant director of the Office of National Fellowships. “We are also eager to collaborate with current undergraduate students, graduate students and recent alumni on Fulbright applications for next year’s cycle — it’s never too early to contact us!”

The 2024-2025 Fulbright students from FSU are: Sydney Cole, Nella Delva, Samuel Granoff, Vashalice Kaaba, Korrin Sheahan, Danielle Wirsansky, Shovik Saha and JiaQi Trescott.

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Florida State University President Richard McCullough recognized international and domestic participants of the Fulbright Program during a reception on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at the Augustus B. Turnbull III Florida State Conference Center.

Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is one of the most widely recognized international academic exchange programs. It aims to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The U.S. government currently partners with more than 160 countries worldwide.

FSU has participated in the Fulbright Program since 1951 and has been among the nation’s top producers of both faculty and student awards in recent years. Last year, nine current and former FSU students earned scholarships through the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in places like Greece, Bulgaria, Spain and Taiwan. In addition, six FSU faculty members traveled to teach and conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program within the past year in locations like Japan, Austria, the Philippines and Kosovo.

On campus, 15 foreign students and scholars from places like Uruguay, Indonesia and Serbia are currently studying or conducting research at FSU through the Foreign Fulbright Program. Eleven students are here through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program while one is at FSU through the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program. Three researchers are here through the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program.

During his remarks, McCullough emphasized the importance of the Fulbright program as a positive way to enhance U.S diplomacy abroad by nurturing global engagement and a rich multi-cultural environment.

“This achievement is a wonderful reflection of Florida State University’s commitment to internationalization,” McCullough said.

Frank Gunderson, a professor of musicology in FSU’s College of Music, received the most prestigious appointment in the Fulbright Scholars Programs a few years ago — the Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award. This appointment brought him to Tanzania in 2021, where he spent 10 months studying the history of dance music in the East African nation.

Gunderson reflected on what peers refer to as their “Fulbright moment,” and defined it as an “experience that somehow encapsulates the essence of the Fulbright Scholar working in an international environment and can refer to insight shared, or wisdom gained from that experience.”

Amber Noor Mustafa, a doctoral student in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, also spoke at the reception. Born and raised in Pakistan, Mustafa arrived at FSU three years ago through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program to pursue a doctorate in international and multicultural education.

During her remarks, Mustafa credited FSU for creating a conducive environment where she could develop personally and professionally.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how FSU welcomed me with open arms,” she said. “The support and facilitation by the entire system here helped me utilize my true potential. There is respect for the system of merit here, which nurtures its students’ true abilities and skills.”

With her encouragement, Mustafa’s two sons are currently attending FSU — one is a graduate student, and the other is an undergraduate student.

“I lost my heart to FSU,” she said.

To learn more about the Fulbright Program at FSU, visit global.fsu.edu/fulbright-awardees.

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A doctoral candidate in Florida State University’s Department of History has been awarded a highly competitive fellowship to conduct research in Japan this spring.

Emily Lu will use the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program fellowship to support her dissertation research on the intersection of the arts and politics in imperial Japan during the wartime periods leading up to 1945.

“I’m ecstatic to receive this award and to return to Japan,” said Lu, who previously lived in Japan for over two years as an English teacher. “I’ve refined my research and gained a lot of insight about myself throughout this entire process.”

The Fulbright-Hays fellowship is funded by congressional appropriation to the U.S. Department of Education and is part of the Fulbright Program, which supports grants to study, teach and conduct research for U.S. citizens to go abroad and for non-U.S. citizens to come to the United States. The fellowship supports research and training efforts overseas focusing on non-Western languages and area studies.

Since the fellowship program’s inception in 1964, there have been 6,331 fellowships awarded. Lu’s award is just the fifth time an FSU student has received the Fulbright-Hays DDRA fellowship since 2006.

Using this fellowship’s funding, Lu will travel to multiple cities in Japan to conduct research in archives and museums for her dissertation, tentatively titled “Towards an East Asian Utopia: Ambition and Illusion in Japanese Military Music, 1868-1945.” Lu’s work focuses on imperial Japan’s peripheral regions, primarily Manchuria (northeast China). She plans to use archival sources and the music itself to examine how military music was produced, disseminated and consumed to draw conclusions about art becoming political propaganda during this period.

Music can serve as a valuable primary source for historical scholarship, one that is not utilized as often as it could be, Lu said.

“Wartime military music, which is called ‘gunka’ in Japanese, is a largely neglected topic in both Anglophone and Japanese scholarship, so I feel the need to include this important topic,” she said. “That’s where I see the significance of my work.”

She plans to access the Rekion collection, a compendium of historical sound and music recordings at the National Diet Library in Tokyo. She will also visit various archives in Nagoya and plans to interject an oral history component into her study by interviewing individuals and their families about their wartime memories.

Lu earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dramatic writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a Master of Arts in history from East Tennessee State University before coming to FSU for her doctoral studies. Her research approach blends her training in history, music and the arts.

Professor of East Asian History Annika A. Culver, who serves as Lu’s major professor, said Lu’s background as a playwright and writer of documentaries brings a unique perspective to her understanding of the past.

“Emily has constantly sought out opportunities to expand her knowledge of the field and enjoys working on projects that are interdisciplinary and use non-traditional sources for historians,” Culver said. “She is truly tenacious in following her dreams, whether it’s producing plays and documentaries or engaging in a challenging project that requires advanced proficiency in Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages.”

Lu said she is grateful to her doctoral committee and for the help she’s received at FSU for her dissertation and obtaining this fellowship. In addition to Culver, additional members of her dissertation committee, including Assistant Professor Matthew Mewhinney from the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Assistant Professor Panayotis League from the FSU College of Music, and Assistant Director Keith McCall of the FSU Office of Graduate Fellowship and Awards, played a pivotal part in helping her obtain this award.

“Each of them has provided very crucial and sometimes life-changing advice on how to position myself as a scholar,” Lu said. “I’m very grateful for their guidance as well as the support of my friends and family.”

After graduation, Lu plans to continue as an educator and researcher while maintaining her involvement in the arts.

To learn more about historical research at FSU, visit history.fsu.edu.

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Over the next year, six Florida State University faculty members from across campus will travel internationally to teach and conduct research as part of the Fulbright Program.

Their expertise will take them to Japan, Kosovo, Austria, Brazil, the Philippines and Azerbaijan.

The Fulbright Program competitively selects Americans — students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists — to receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach or exercise their talents abroad. Citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States.  

Perry Howell, senior lecturer in the Department of English, will teach two classes in spring 2024 at Tokai University and J.F. Oberlin University near Tokyo. One of his courses will examine U.S. ideals and values as expressed in famous public speeches from American history. His other course will explore the function of public apologies in the U.S. and Japan.

“Teaching in foreign countries heightens your awareness of what is happening around you, so you notice with new energy many of the things in your everyday life that, in your home country, you screen out as too familiar,” Howell said. “That is one of my goals in teaching abroad: to bring that sense of energy and wonder back to my teaching here at FSU and to inspire a similar perspective in students here.”

This is Howell’s second Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award. During the 2019-2020 academic year, he taught at Yokohama National University in Japan as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar.  As Howell was finishing his doctoral studies remotely, he joined his wife Judith Pascoe, the FSU George Mills Harper Professor of English, when she taught at two universities in Tokyo as a 2009-2010 Fulbright U.S. Scholar.

Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe, associate professor of German and linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, will travel to Austria this fall to conduct linguistics research and teach at the University of Graz through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

Her research at the Karl-Franzens-Universität’s Institute for Theoretical and Applied Translation will focus on language translation and its role in social media, with a focus on migrant populations. Many social media sites provide users with a button to instantly translate text, making the process of translation somewhat invisible and possibly skewing the way multilingual exchanges are perceived.

“With the ever-changing technology in mind and an increase in migration, social media has provided refugees — and, generally speaking, migrants — a way to maintain and expand their network of communication,” Soldat-Jaffe said. “This questions the traditional approach to translation studies: Who is the translator, and is the translated text still perceived as a translation?”

Ruby Lee, a professor in the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing in the College of Business, will travel to Kosovo where she will spend seven months teaching. She will also study how Kosovar consumers compare with those in the U.S. in how they view inclusivity of luxury brands. It marks her second Fulbright. In 2016-2017, Lee spent seven months as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Finland. 

Slightly larger than Delaware, Kosovo is a Muslim-majority country of 1.8 million that declared independence from Serbia after the Kosovo War of 1998-1999. An estimated 23% of its population lives in poverty, according to UNICEF. Many women lost husbands and fathers in the war, and girls today are twice less likely than boys to attend vocational training programs, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Overall, children in Kosovo lag behind their European peers in student assessments, the organization said. 

“The country needs people to teach so that more people can benefit immediately,” Lee said. “I feel like I’ve been very fortunate. I grew up in a very poor neighborhood, but I got an education, and I’m excited that I’ll be able to bring my skills and knowledge, my happiness, my enthusiasm and my courage to Kosovo.” 

Besiki Stvilia, a professor in the School of Information, will travel to Azerbaijan and be hosted by ADA University in the fall through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Stvilia’s research focuses on developing models for information and data management, dynamics and intervention through collaborative work organization and data practices in communities. He is among the top 2 percent of scientists in his field based on citations.

Christine Mokher, associate professor of higher education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Education, will head to the Philippines for five months where she will continue her research while working with Urdaneta City University and nearby high schools.

She will conduct two studies related to student pathways from high school to post-secondary education and national education data system tracking through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

“Since I’ve been at Florida State most of my research has focused on state policy and the evaluation of those policies within the United States in Florida, Texas and several other states,” Mokher said. “I’m interested in expanding that scope more broadly to look at international policies in a comparative aspect and this Fulbright provides an opportunity to start that new line of research.”

Ming Cui, a professor of Human Development and Family Science in the College of Health and Human Sciences, will continue research at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil through the Fulbright Specialist Program.

She will work with faculty and graduate students in the social sciences graduate program, known as PPGCS, to encourage and promote cross-cultural collaboration and research through academic exchange.

“I hope my effort will bring international visibility and recognition to our Human Development and Family Science program at FSU while also helping PPGCS to build and expand their program,” Cui said.

This is Cui’s second Fulbright award. In 2017, she traveled to Finland as a Fulbright Scholar where she taught a graduate-level methodology course and conducted collaborative research at the University of Helsinki.

For more information about FSU’s Fulbright recipients dating back to 1951, visit global.fsu.edu/Fulbright.

Faculty interested in learning more about applying for Fulbright Program funding can contact Peggy Wright-Cleveland, campus liaison for faculty, or David King, Fulbright alumni ambassador.

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A Florida State University faculty member from the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics is traveling to Austria this fall to conduct new linguistics research thanks to a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award.

Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe, an associate professor of German and linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences, received the award in support of her work on language translation and its role in social media, with a focus on migrant populations. Soldat-Jaffe will spend fall 2023 at the Karl-Franzens-Universität’s Institute for Theoretical and Applied Translation in Graz, Austria, working on her next project, “Translation as a Social Practice: Refugee Writing in Social Media.”

“As a Fulbright Scholar, I will join the ranks of many distinguished program participants,” Soldat-Jaffe said. “It is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world with an acceptance rate of only 20 percent. So, I feel confirmed in my scholarship but humble to have received such a prestigious award.”

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 400 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world. Five FSU faculty members received Fulbright Scholar Awards for 2023-2024.

Soldat-Jaffe will spend four months conducting research in Austria, a cultural melting pot in the center of the European Union. The country hosts approximately 146,000 refugees and subsidiary protection holders and over 18,000 asylum-seekers, largely from Syria and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency reports. In Austria, Soldat-Jaffe will work collaboratively with international partners in educational, political and cultural fields while teaching students in translation studies at the University of Graz.

“I am excited to work with the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Translation Studies at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria, which is known for its interdisciplinary approach to the study of translation from a sociocultural perspective,” Soldat-Jaffe said.

Soldat-Jaffe, who joined the FSU faculty in 2016, conducts research on language and identity, the politics of language, minority languages and translation studies. This upcoming research was inspired by what she calls a need to reevaluate current academic approaches to translation since the definition of the text — or what needs to be translated — as well as the translation process itself, has changed.

“With the ever-changing technology in mind and an increase in migration, social media has provided refugees — and, generally speaking, migrants — a way to maintain and expand their network of communication,” Soldat-Jaffe said.

Facebook, Soldat-Jaffe said, illustrates how social media can be used to provide social innovation for a diasporic community by means of sharing their experience, despite multilingual challenges. For example, the availability of a button that allows users to instantly translate text on the social media platform has made the translation process itself invisible to some extent, potentially skewing the way multilingual exchanges are perceived.

“This questions the traditional approach to translation studies: who is the translator and is the translated text still perceived as a translation?” Soldat-Jaffe said.

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics chair Reinier Leushuis said Soldat-Jaffe’s Fulbright Scholar Award not only allows her to explore these questions but also serves as a testimony to her cutting-edge research focus on sociolinguistics, the study of language as it relates to social elements, such as bilingualism and regional dialect, gender and class differences.

“Dr. Soldat-Jaffe’s Fulbright Scholar Award is a recognition for the quality of her interdisciplinary explorations in language and identity, particularly in relation to minority languages,” Leushuis said. “I am thrilled that both Fulbright and the Karl-Franzens-Universität’s Institute for Theoretical and Applied Translation have recognized the importance of sociolinguistic studies such as hers on the intersection of migrant, refugee and minority communities and their linguistic behavior in mainstream media.”

Leushuis adds that the department — which offers coursework in linguistics and across 10 different languages to prepare students for careers in federal government, foreign services, non-governmental organizations and the private sector — places great emphasis on the cross-disciplinary investigations of global language, culture and identity, and Soldat-Jaffe’s interests are a prime example of this vision.

For more information, visit modlang.fsu.edu.

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