Over the last few years, the US-UK Commission has been leading the roll out of Fulbrighter, the networking platform that provides a meeting point for alumni and grantees from across the world. It’s a virtual space to share your news and discover the exciting work of fellow Fulbrighters. It also provides a forum to make personal connections, whether it be to start a new academic or professional partnership, ask for support with your career development or even find a couch to sleep on while you’re travelling.
The platform has recently achieved a milestone, engaging 30,000 members, from over 180 countries and from every cohort year from 1948 onwards. True to the Fulbright mission of promoting international education exchange and the raft of social and experiential benefits exchange offers, the platform invites collaboration way beyond institutional and regional affiliations; we’re proud to count groups championing engagement between deaf and hard of hearing members and between those interested in First Nation research, initiatives and connections as well as one open to all Fulbrighters involved in addressing the existential threat of climate change.
As the US UK Commission rings in our 75th anniversary, we’re particularly interested in reading the personal stories of alumni and grantees and reflections on the enduring impact of a Fulbright award. As we hear many times, the cultural capital of a Fulbright award is often as powerful as the academic and professional.
We’d love to hear your memories, share your photos, learn of your most surprising take-aways and unforeseen learning curves. You can contribute to the ‘Global Feed’ on the Fulbrighter network, or if your story is specific to your experience with us at the US UK Commission, then share with us at events@fulbright.org.uk.
Equally, we’d like to pay homage to the hard work of our Fulbright application managers, Ethan Corcoran, Rob Ellis, Rizqi Arifuddin, Valentina Velásquez, and Margarita Ospina who have worked so hard over recent years to build and develop the platform to make it the rich resource it is today. The more subscribers we achieve, the stronger the community becomes!
To sign up, you can join the platform now, or for a taste of existing content, check these recent contributions: -
- A piece on East Asian engagements with Shakespeare from Alexa Alice Joubin (Fulbrighter to the UK, 2014/15). Alexa’s book, Shakespeare and East Asia, explores ways artists and audiences grapple with contemporary issues of racial and gender equality through Shakespearean adaptations.
- A profile of Trauma, Primitivism, and the First World War by Joy Porter (Fulbrighter to the US, 2015/16): The book explores the life of Canadian poet Frank “Toronto” Prewett, whose war-induced trauma caused him to pretend to be an indigenous North American
- An article in Fulbright Chronicles by Andy Briers (Fulbrighter to the US, 2001/02) about his Fulbright experience in Colombia focusing on comparative school-based policing. Fulbright Chronicles is a new, open access, peer-reviewed journal founded by members of the Fulbrighter platform.