Weiss Receives Fulbright Award

Wendy Weiss, Professor and Director of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery
Wendy Weiss, Professor and Director of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery

Wendy Weiss, professor and director of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery at the University of Nebraska has been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar grant to to continue her research in Gujarat, India during the 2014-2015 academic year, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently.

Professor Weiss will work with master weavings in her project titled “Documentation and design development of ikat weaving: digital frontier.” Research from her 2009 Fulbright will be published in the May issue of the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice in an article titled “Gujarati Warp Ikat Resist Method: A Practitioner’s Record and Translation into Cloth.”

Weiss is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2014-2015. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program 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 and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given over 318,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, scientists and other professionals the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in government, science, the arts, business, philanthropy,
education, and many other fields. Fifty-three Fulbright alumni from 12 countries have been awarded the Nobel Prize, and 78 alumni have received Pulitzer Prizes. Prominent Fulbright alumni include: Muhammad Yunus, founder, Grameen Bank, and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia; John Hope Franklin, noted American historian and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Riccardo Giacconi, physicist and 2002 Nobel Laureate; Amar Gopal Bose, chairman and founder, Bose Corporation; Renée Fleming, soprano; Jonathan Franzen, writer; and Daniel Libeskind, architect.

Fulbright recipients are among more than 50,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit our website at http://eca.state.gov/fulbright or contact Elaine Clayton, telephone 202-632-6445 or e-mail ECA-Press@state.gov.