5 UNL faculty members earn Fulbright Scholar grants

Five University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members have earned Fulbright Scholar grants from the U.S. Department of State for late 2008 and 2009.

They are Ann Chang-Barnes, interim executive and artistic director of the Lied Center for Performing Arts and artist-in-residence in piano in the School of Music; John W. Creswell, professor of educational psychology; David Forsythe, university professor and Charles J. Mach professor of political science; Larkin Powell, associate professor in the School of Natural Resources; and Wendy Weiss, professor of textiles, clothing and design and director of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery.

Chang-Barnes received a Fulbright Scholarship grant to teach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium. In addition to teaching, she will research the advancement of keyboard curriculum models. She will also give performances. Chang-Barnes travels to Belgium in the summer.

Creswell was a Senior Fulbright Scholar and worked in South Africa in October, bringing mixed methods concepts to documentaries about AIDS victims and families.

Forsythe was awarded a Senior Fulbright Research Chair. The award sent him in the fall to the Danish Institute of International Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he performed research on democracy, human rights and terrorism.

Powell will live in Namibia January through November. Namibia is a relatively new country, carved out of South Africa in 1990, and its institutions are new and growing. An ecologist, Powell will be at Polytechnic of Namibia, established in 1994 in the capital, Windhoek, where he will teach, provide mentorship, and assist the college with research an outreach.

Weiss will research at M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat in India, during the spring semester, documenting contemporary Ikat textiles production from an artist's perspective. She will develop an exhibition to present in Lincoln in October 2010 in conjunction with the Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium, of which she is co-chair. Weiss leaves for India this month.

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program has provided approximately 286,500 people with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants. That number includes 108,160 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 178,340 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Fulbright recipients are among more than 40,000 individuals participating in State Department exchange programs each year. For more than 60 years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, visit http://fulbright.state.gov, contact James A. Lawrence, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, at (202) 453-8531 or by e-mail.