Regan Bowering

Fulbright Postgraduate All Disciplines Award, Visiting PhD Student in Music – Columbia University

As a deeply personal, yet highly communicative art form, music unites disparate people, places, and historical moments and can articulate the most elusive aspects of human experience. These qualities inspired Regan to pursue a multi-faceted career of music performance, event management, academic study and teaching. Her current PhD research in Musicology (Goldsmiths, University of London) and practice as a percussionist, improviser and sound artist grapple with music's elusive qualities through a study of the relationships between rhythm, technology, and lived experiences of time in avant-garde music since 1960.

Regan graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London with a first-class Undergraduate degree in Music in 2019, and a Masters with distinction in 2020. Prior to beginning her academic studies as a mature student, she worked for eight years in music event management. Since then, Regan has used this experience to connect academia with the wider arts community through events, conferences, and the co-founding of an online journal for research and practice on audiovisual cultures.

During her Fulbright year as a visiting student at Columbia, Regan will complete her PhD archival research and develop two new practical projects under the supervision of Professor Seth Cluett, Director of the Columbia Computer Music Centre. This incredible opportunity will enable Regan to foster an international network of scholars, musicians, and sound artists and immerse herself in the unique creative histories and contemporary happenings of New York City.

Jasmine Brittan

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters of Transportation Systems - NYU

Jasmine Brittan, from Derby, is an ambitious engineering graduate of the University of Warwick.

During her undergraduate career, Jasmine worked on the sensor experiments team at the European Space Agency and was selected as a youth delegate to COP27. She also was involved in fundraising for the Warwick Boring Team, global finalists in Elon Musk’s Not-a-Boring Competition. Through this work, she was selected as an Engineering Leaders Scholar by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In the US, Jasmine will pursue a degree combining her technical engineering background with policy. Her specific research ambitions pertain to the integration of urban air mobility transport within society.

Alongside her academics, Jasmine hopes to become involved in sport and entrepreneurship. More specifically, having already run the London Marathon she hopes to achieve the same feat in New York. She further hopes to become involved in dance as one of the passions she has followed since the age of three.

Amy Campbell

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters in Climate and Society - Columbia University

Amy is in the UK negotiations team to the UNFCCC COP, working in climate diplomacy, following a climate policy track in the UK's Civil Service Fast Stream stream for high potential graduates in government policy. Whilst on the Fast Stream, Amy led a climate and environment network that set up a climate and environment career anchor which is being rolled out across UK government.

The Fulbright in climate policy will give Amy skills and knowledge across adaptation and mitigation policy; she hopes to specialise in climate disaster preparedness at Columbia University. She applied to Fulbright to embed climate disaster preparedness in government policy and multilateralism. Amy hopes to work closely with Columbia's National Centre for Disaster Preparedness on climate vulnerable country disaster response. More recently, inspired by Laurie Laybourn, Amy was selected for the programme 'Cohort 2040' and has become interested in policy approaches to the polycrisis and derailment risk. Amy sees the climate crisis as a nexus - the most pressing threat implicating development, conflict, health, politics and migration.

Outside of climate policy, Amy is passionate about equal opportunity - having gotten onto the Fast Stream with the help of UpReach. She launched a mentoring scheme for public servants from disadvantaged backgrounds with a friend, and is a mentor for the Access: Climate and Environment project. During her undergraduate degree, she was funded to conduct research in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel and published a paper with Columbia University. Having grown up in Cornwall, she loves connecting with nature through surfing and long distance running.

Eleanor Clark

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA in Humanities - University of Chicago

Eleanor Clark is in her final year studying English at Merton College, Oxford. After three years reading and performing literary analysis on everything from Old English poetry to twenty-first century advertising campaigns, she is excited to study for a Master's degree in the US, specialising particularly in modern women's writing and rural modernity studies. Her research considers how conflicts of gender and nation interact with investments in land and place, and how these conflicts operate differently between modern Britain and North America. As an undergraduate, Eleanor met (online) some wonderful American scholars in this field through the International Virginia Woolf Society, for whom she wrote a prizewinning essay, and the Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Conference, where she presented on hallucinations as visions of authorship in mid-20th century British women's novels. She looks forward to continuing conversations like these in person.

As a writer of fiction and literary journalism, and outgoing Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Review of Books, Eleanor hopes to get involved with the US's great tradition of student writing. Having grown up in rural South West England, where she enjoys hiking and outdoor swimming, she is also keen to continue these activities in the dramatically different scale and variety of the US landscape.

Mattie Denison

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Physics PhD - University of Pennsylvania

On the back of 4 years at Durham University, graduating this year with a MSc in Particles, Strings, and Cosmology; Mattie is looking forward to exploring the bigger and busier city of Philadelphia while studying for a PhD in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mattie will be joining the Center for Particle Cosmology studying how the smallest things in the Universe affect the structure of the Universe as a whole. She is very grateful for the opportunity Fulbright has granted her to work with leading researchers in this relatively young field, as well as the adventures she hopes to have travelling the beautiful natural parks of the US.

In parallel with her studies, Mattie aims to show how small actions make a big difference in increasing participation of women in Physics. With this in mind she is keen to continue her outreach efforts and volunteer with the Access Science programme at Penn, working with local schools to encourage science engagement.

Beyond the world of Physics, she is excited to see how the US lives up to the American literature she enjoys, and how easily her love of cricket and rugby will transfer to baseball and American football.

Rebs Fisher-Jackson

Fulbright-BAFTA Award, MFA Screenwriting - UCLA

Working in a Cornish pasty shop as a teenager, Rebs would spend her shifts dreaming about studying in the USA and creating stories for film and television. Growing up surrounded by American media, Rebs fell in love with the lives she saw on screen; her greatest wish as a child was to try candy corn at Halloween.

Rebs became the first person in her family to attend university. Whilst studying English Literature at Cardiff University, her late introduction to LGBTQ+ films pivoted Rebs towards a career creating positive representation on-screen. She knew from the moment she first stepped foot on a film set that she was home. Starting out as a locations trainee and in production, Rebs re-trained as a script supervisor with Screen Alliance Wales. She has since worked on more than 21 productions for the likes of Lucasfilm and the BBC, and on social film projects for the Iris Prize and International Youth Media Summit.

As a storyteller, Rebs is interested in telling stories about human connection and LGBTQ+ characters. She’s secured BFI Film Academy funding and made multiple award-winning shorts that have led her to obtain BAFTA Connect membership and achieve her first broadcast credit directing a short for BBC Wales. Rebs is thrilled to train at film school in the USA as a writer/director, a far cry away from the Cornish coastlines near where she grew up. She’s excited to make new friends on campus and learn about the industry from an American perspective. With mentoring from BAFTA and the new connections she’ll make, Rebs can’t wait to put her newfound knowledge towards diversifying the film and television industry.

Gidon Gautel

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MS Electrical and Computer Engineering - Boston University

Gidon Gautel is a passionate member of the global space community. He holds a BSc in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Management from Imperial College Business School.

Gidon began his career at LSE IDEAS, LSE’s foreign policy think tank. Since 2019, he has worked at BryceTech, conducting industry analysis and project management across a range of space projects. He has also trained as a reservist for Air and Space Operations with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force since 2021.

Gidon is particularly interested in commercial human spaceflight and lunar development. He previously co-chaired the Moon Village Association’s Lunar Commerce Working Group and, in 2023, commanded Meili-1, an analogue astronaut mission in Scotland. In 2024, he will join the crew of the CHILL-ICE III mission in an Icelandic lunar lava tube analogue.

With the support of Fulbright, Gidon will pursue an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. Using his multidisciplinary skillset, he aims to lead future UK space missions and support US-UK space collaboration. Gidon is excited to engage with the US space community and apply his new technical skills at BU and in industry.

Ravi Ghosh

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters in Modern and Contemporary Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies - Columbia University

Ravi Ghosh is a London-based art critic and editor. He is deputy editor at the British Journal of Photography and formerly worked at the Financial Times and Elephant, a contemporary art magazine. His writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, Tribune, i-D, Verso, ArtReview, RA Magazine, The Baffler and many more publications. He has presented on photography and journalism at LCC, LSE, and at festivals including PhotoIreland, Fotografia Europea and Fotofestiwal Łódź. He has also collaborated with artists on monographs and other projects.

He studied English at the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA in 2018, and will build on this theoretical background at Columbia, capitalising on the full breadth of expertise within the Department of Art History & Archeology. His research will focus on photographic dialogues between the UK and US, the history of conceptual and video art, and art in South Asia. He will also engage with New York City’s rich critical and magazine culture, continuing his writing and mentoring with a new set of cultural prompts.

Ifan Jenkin

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Master's of Science in Translational Research and Applied Medicine - Stanford University

Born and raised in South Wales, Ifan graduated from Oxford University Medical School amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has since worked as a Doctor in London, undertaking roles such as Clinical Fellow in Cardiac Surgery at St Thomas’ Hospital and, most recently, Clinical Research Fellow in Pulmonary Hypertension at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Whilst these roles on the clinical frontline have been immensely rewarding, Ifan's roles at both a biotechnology startup and life sciences investment fund, alongside multiple prize-winning research projects, have kindled his interest in the many challenges associated with delivering emerging therapies to their intended patients.

During his time at Stanford University, Ifan intends to hone a practical skill set in translational medicine and commercialisation which, combined with his clinical background, he hopes will enable his contribution to the efficient evaluation and harnessing of novel therapeutic potential, ultimately better enabling their timely integration into routine clinical practice.

Beyond academia, Ifan is keenly invested in a diverse array of activities, having placed third on Britain’s Got Talent with a Welsh boys’ choir, faced Mongolia’s national rugby team, performed with virtuoso pianist Lang Lang, and participated in Ironman triathlons. At Stanford, he hopes to continue in this vein by performing a piano concerto and attempting the renowned ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ triathlon.

Pavandeep Josan

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA International Studies - South Asian Studies - University of Washington

Pavandeep graduated from the University of Exeter in 2022 with a degree in History. He subsequently undertook an internship at the Index on Censorship, before beginning a role in government as a policy advisor at the Department for Education.

Navigating the first stage of his career, he has maintained his passion for South Asian history. In particular, he has nurtured his interest in exploring the influence of the Partition of India upon South Asian diasporic communities, the subject of his undergraduate dissertation.

This continued passion has led to a Fulbright Award to study for an MA in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, in which he will be able to build on his interests by researching the influence of Partition upon the development of the South Asian community in the United States.

He’s excited to learn more about one of the most fascinating diasporic groups in the world, alongside experiencing the unique nature of US college life the Pacific Northwest. A huge sports fan and supporter of the Kansas City Chiefs, he also looks forward to immersing himself in American sport, although he fears that exposure to cricket, his favourite sport, will be hard to come by!

Aimée Lister

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA in Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Aimée graduated with a BA in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2020. On graduating, she moved to Japan, completed a postgraduate law conversion remotely at the University of Law, and founded a copywriting business that supports global tech startups.

Her experiences through her own business, living in 3 continents over the past 5 years, as well as roles at the Asia Society in Japan and Jamal Khashoggi’s DAWN MENA, made her appreciate the role that cultural dialogue plays within broader spaces of foreign policy and international relations. This fully crystallised whilst living in Lebanon and working on the media and editorial team at afikra, a global media and community organization dedicated to reframing dominant understandings of the Arab world by promoting the region’s cultures and histories.

With the support of the Fulbright scholarship, she is delighted to be pursuing an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She is looking forward to building out an interdisciplinary course of study through which she will gain greater understandings of the Arab world, particularly through a cultural and societal lens. Beyond academics, Aimée is also excited by the prospect of exploring DC and involving herself in the city’s vibrant Asian-American community.

Alaya Rathore Mathur

Fulbright Postgraduate Student Award, LLM at Indiana Maurer School of Law

Graduating from the University of Nottingham with an undergraduate degree in Law & Chinese Law, Alaya understood the importance of cultural exchange whilst studying abroad at the University of Hong Kong.  Falling in love with the city, she returned to Hong Kong in 2023 to work for a local education charity, where she gained a ground-level perspective of the importance of cross-cultural communication and community building through cultural barriers.

Looking to gain a similar level of insight in the commercial and entrepreneurial spaces, Alaya has gained a place in Maurer’s unique Learning and Working LLM. Intending to build on her European and Asian legal experiences, Alaya hopes to learn from her placement with the Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at IU, where she can gain strong practical experience in high impact areas of law whilst working with early stage high-potential companies as they look for expansion opportunities. Ground up understanding of the practical issues facing these entrepreneurial companies will provide her with a strong head start in her post-graduate career as an aspiring lawyer.

Outside of academics, Alaya is an avid reader and a (semi-talented) amateur creative writer. Loving to share her passion, she took the responsibility of running a successful community creative writing class while living in Hong Kong. She plans to run a creative writing class in Bloomington and to discover the charms of the midwest, all whilst working her way through her Google Maps list of Indiana bookmarked restaurants!

Lewis McClenaghan

Fulbright Postgraduate All Disciplines Award, Masters of Arts Administration - Columbia University

Lewis McClenaghan graduated from the University of Warwick with a BA in Film and Literature in 2019. Whilst at Warwick his research interests gravitated towards Queer cinema and Aesthetics, Adaptation Theory, Representations of AIDS and illness onscreen, and Global/National Cinemas. He then completed the Wellcome Trust's 2-year Graduate Development program, where he completed placements across a wide range of cultural projects, such as the Wellcome Collections research and development team, The Hub residency with LandBodyEcologies and the program Mindscapes.

He also completed a 6-month placement with the UK Civil Services Department for Health and Social Care Global Health Team. After this, he opted for a slight change and moved to Colombia for two years to work as an English teacher with the British Council and translator.

He will go to the USA to complete a Masters's program in an inter-disciplinary arts, culture and policy program that will equip him with the skills to continue advancing in his career.

Ella McCoshan

Fulbright Elsevier Award in Data Analytics, PhD in Environment - Yale University

Ella McCoshan is a Spatial Data Scientist and Urban Planner with a keen interest in tackling the complex challenges associated with urban change, from enhanced hazard exposure to public health crises. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Space Syntax from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Since 2021, Ella has contributed to urban development projects across several continents, engaging with diverse topics including containing unsustainable urban sprawl, monitoring street network and land use change, and promoting walkable urban environments. These experiences have reinforced her awareness of the growing data and knowledge gaps surrounding processes of urban change, particularly in the Global South.

As a doctoral student in the Seto Lab for Urbanisation and Global Change at Yale University, Ella will have a unique opportunity to develop novel research and methods to support equitable and resilient urban change across global contexts. She is excited to explore the dynamics of urban change, particularly in informal areas, and collaborate with international organisations, governments and communities.

Alongside her research, Ella hopes to continue playing the French horn and engaging with community and charity initiatives. She can’t wait to embrace life across the pond!

Simran Mohnani

Fulbright All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MBA - Stanford University

Simran is a Chemical Engineer, Industry 4.0 Consultant, and Climate Intrapreneur driving the Net Zero transition across hard-to-abate sectors. Growing up as a Maltese-Indian, she has witnessed the effects of rising sea levels in the Mediterranean and the disproportionate impact on women’s education in times of catastrophe. As a brown, female engineer this has translated to working at the forefront of innovation in combatting our world’s biggest crisis – climate change – while in parallel advocating to close the gender STEM skills gap.

Since graduating from the University of Bath, she has worked in designing bioreactors for cultured meat, reducing waste at the Cadbury chocolate factory, and digitising COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing. Simran now leads Circular Economy Innovation for Deloitte UK, building green ventures with startups, industry and academia. Innovating across R&D, manufacturing and consulting has enabled her to see the extent to which UK engineering and business are entwined in scaling climate tech. Simran will be studying for her MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business – with a focus on advancing CleanTech solutions through academic spinouts. She plans to work in impact investing before then starting her own female-focused deeptech fund.

Outside her role, Sim is passionate about empowering youth and intersectional voices for a just and equitable transition. She runs a diversity network across the UK, US and India as well as serving as a One Young World ambassador, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and UN Women volunteer in championing youth voices on climate action and educational access. She is a Stanford BOLD Fellow and Sainsbury Management Fellow, and is particularly excited about exploring the California dance scene as a Bollywood and Bhangra choreographer.

Jonathan Rampley-Sturgeon

Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism, Columbia University

Johnny is a boatbuilder and maritime storyteller from Yorkshire. He grew up sailing with his Grandpa and has been captivated by the wild and watery rogues of the High Seas ever since.  

After graduating from the University of Oxford in 2022 with a degree in History & Politics, he pursued an atypical post-graduate route by deciding to spend 20 months back North working in a boatyard. Living in a rural fishing village with a population of just 9 others, he single-handedly renovated a former oil-rig lifeboat into a floating tiny home to an audience of millions online. He has since moved ‘Orla’ to London where he lives onboard and continues to make videos about life afloat.  

Professionally, he hopes to one day combine this digital platform with his new position as a Fulbrighter to raise awareness of the vast swathes of maritime conflict oft overlooked in traditional journalism. From piracy and sea slavery to overfishing and environmental activism, Johnny hopes to use his time at Columbia Journalism School to improve his writing and be schooled in formal ethical and conflict-based procedures. As a student of the Documentary Specialization programme, he is also excited to gain further hands-on camera experience. 

Ella Robinson

Fulbright-American University Award, MA in Journalism and Public Affairs: Investigative Journalism - American University

Ella will graduate with a BA in Social Sciences (Politics and Sociology) from the University of Manchester in 2024. During her placement year, Ella was Editor-in-Chief of The Mancunion, the biggest student newspaper in the UK, leading the team to win four national awards.

Ella’s award-winning journalism consistently focuses on amplifying the voices of those who are too often ignored by the mainstream media. Named ‘Best Journalist in the North’ and highly commended nationally for her collaborative investigative reporting with Manchester’s Disabled Students’ Society, she was subsequently invited to judge Amnesty Media’s Student Journalist of the Year Award. She looks forward to learning new investigative skills during her Masters at American University, and to putting them into practice through the Investigative Journalism Practicum.

Ella has consistently sought to make the journalism industry more accessible. At Manchester, she co-organised the largest ever Women in Media Conference, and launched The Mancunion’s mentor scheme, connecting current students with alumni. In 2023 she was elected as Training and Opportunities Officer for the Student Publication Association, supporting 200 student publications across the UK and Ireland. She hopes to bring this ethos of supportive knowledge sharing to her American University studies and to the Fulbrighters’ network.

Eleanor Tack

Fulbright All Disciplines Award, Masters of Law - Columbia University

Eleanor left school and moved to France to work in a Red Cross emergency housing centre where she supported asylum seekers and families in crisis. Inspired by the people she worked with, Eleanor went on to study International Relations at King's College London, with a focus on public international law. Upon graduation Eleanor returned to France to continue working with the Red Cross, this time in Paris but regularly deployed to informal migrant camps across the country. She worked in the Family Tracing department, reconnecting families who had lost contact with one another during conflict or migration. This experience cemented Eleanor's desire to use the law to create change and protect the vulnerable; she returned to the UK to complete her Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) with a view to becoming a barrister.

After completing her GDL, Eleanor moved to Johannesburg to clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa under Justice Leona Theron, where she began to understand how differing constitutional structures effect the capacity of the law to protect vulnerable people such as migrants. This is the theme Eleanor hopes to explore through her Masters of Law programme in the USA, selecting modules which focus on comparative constitutional law and the rights of migrants with a view to combining these two discrete areas of practice in a way which will help lawyers better understand how to harness the law to protect vulnerable migrants. Outside of her work and studies, Eleanor is a Trustee at The Society of Mediators, training people across the world in mediation and also sits on the Board of Directors at Bridging the Bar, a charity she launched in 2020 with a group of barristers to diversify the profession.

Pragya Agarwal

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - CUNY Graduate Center

Professor Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural and data scientist, and founder of a research think-tank 'The 50 Percent Project'. Born in India, Agarwal came to the UK almost twenty-one years on a British Council fellowship to study for a Masters and stayed on to do a PhD. Following a PhD from the University of Nottingham, Pragya held the prestigious Leverhulme Fellowship and has held senior academic positions and visiting fellowships around the globe.

She is currently a visiting professor of social inequities and injustice in the UK, and holds fellowships from University of Oxford, Newnham College (Cambridge), Churchill Trust, British Library/Eccles Center for The Americas, and Royal Literary Foundation. She is the author of four widely acclaimed non-fiction books including Sway (which was Guardian 'Book of the Week'), Hysterical and (M)otherhood, and her writing has also appeared widely in The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired, Scientific American, Times Literary Supplement, Literary Hub, amongst others. Pragya has been awarded the Transmission Prize for 'making complex scientific ideas accessible' and Crucible NESTA award for 'innovative inter-disciplinary work', and funding from Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, Society of Authors, and Royal Society of Literature.

As part of the Fulbright Scholar award, Agarwal will be researching bias in legal systems, specifically in the areas of immigration and reproductive justice. She is also interested in studying the role of maps and data in judicial decision-making.

More information on Pragya's research and writing can be found on her Twitter and Instagram: @drpragyaagarwal and her website drpragyaagarwal.com

Hilary Bishop

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - NYU

Hilary Bishop will be based at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University where she will be working with Irish and Irish Americans to record their narratives in relation to the living heritage associated with Ireland’s Mass paths. Mass paths are an intimate part of the Irish landscape and provide a tangible link to Irish history and heritage, yet they have no official definition, status or protection. Many are being lost due to house building, infrastructure projects or changing farming practices. Bishop aims to find new innovative ways of measuring and managing living heritage that can support future policy making and better protect these historic pathways. 

Bishop has secured a reputation as a leading practitioner in her field, recognised through Chartered Geographer status awarded by the Royal Geographical Society and she is also listed on the directory of experts of the British Association of Irish Studies. Her research into Catholic Mass sites and Mass paths in Ireland has provided one of the most comprehensive and multidimensional critical analyses of their significance in the retention of Catholic identity. 

Bishop is most proud of her public website www.findamassrock.com which provides a free community resource and lists many of the Mass sites that she has visited and researched. She is most excited about the opportunities that the Fulbright offers to immerse herself in the culture that New York has to offer and plans to make an initial beeline to Central Park which was modelled on a park in Birkenhead where she was born.

Jeff Davies

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - Salk Institute (San Diego, CA)

Jeff Davies graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Physiology from Cardiff University. Jeff’s passion for neuroscience research was crystalised during his doctoral research project where he worked in collaboration with endocrinologists and neuroscientists to better understand how the brain controls growth and metabolism.  

Since 2013, he has been an associate professor at the School of Medicine at Swansea University. Jeff has identified new roles for old hormones, in projects linking factors in the blood with brain function that is impaired in Parkinson’s disease and dementia. While at the Salk Institute, Jeff aims to investigate the connection between the endocrine, immune and nervous systems from the perspective of older age and disease. 

This Fulbright will give Jeff the opportunity to integrate learning from the laboratory and community settings to encourage better dialogue between scientists, people diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorders, study participants, policymakers, and the general public. 

Outside of the laboratory, Jeff volunteers with multiple organisations promoting the STEM field to under-represented groups – whether mentoring school children through the Nuffield Foundation Research Placement scheme; or celebrating science at the Urdd National Eisteddfod’s science pavilion - and is excited to expand this work within San Diego. 

Peter Gogalniceanu

Fulbright-Lloyds Scholar Award - Harvard University

Dr Petrut Gogalniceanu (Peter) is a consultant transplant surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London with 24 years of experience working in the UK’s National Health System. He holds a PhD in crisis management and human factors from King’s College London and a Master's in Education from Imperial College London. His research focuses on high performance in safety-critical environments, healthcare security and health systems design. He leads the Executive Fellowship in Surgical Leadership at King’s Health Partners. 

Peter will join the International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs). His work will focus on developing frameworks for health systems’ security and intelligence in the context of armed conflict and other critical disruptions to business continuity. 

Anthony Harris

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - Harvard University

Anthony co-founded a successful U.K. software business, sold it in 2007, and returned to university to pursue a second career in academia. He completed a foundation certificate in humanities at CONTED (Oxford), an MA (Oxon) in English, MA (Res) in Medieval Studies, and PhD (Cantab) in early mathematics, astronomy, and philology. 

He teaches Academic Writing and Digital Researching, and supervises for e-commerce, e-business, and optimising compilers at Clare Hall (Cambridge) where he is a research fellow, and teaches and tutors for Shakespeare and Chaucer at Oxford. His research interests lie at the intersection of science, humanities, and the digital humanities. He is excited to be researching early manuscripts of science at the Houghton Library (Harvard University) in early 2025 where he also hopes to do some guest teaching and lecturing, and plans to volunteer in the local rowing community. 

Anthony has discovered that being a mature student is not easy but being a mature academic in the humanities is much harder because the area is so competitive. As a ‘Fulbrighter’ he hopes to act as a role model for other mature students and mature academics to demonstrate that it is never too late to succeed in life as long as you are persistent and go where your interests take you. 

Fusako Innami

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Fusako Innami is Associate Professor in Japanese and Performance Studies at Durham University, and author of Touching the Unreachable: Writing, Skinship, Modern Japan (Michigan, 2021). She lives according to an ethos of intercultural understanding, knowledge exchange, and community building through arts and cultures with her embodied experience in Japan, Italy, the US, and the UK. Since her childhood study of classical ballet and music, she has reflected on what it means to integrate gestures, movements, and rhythms migrating from different continents to enter her body.  

As an academic, dance reviewer, and practitioner, Fusako conducts dance workshops in Japan, “Touch,” to translate touch in literature back to moving bodies; and an ongoing international symposium, “Translating Embodiedness,” to develop new methodologies for translating embodied practices across media. 

Fusako’s Fulbright project, Gestural Writing: Performance, Topography, Trace, concerns performance which by its very nature disappears. How do we recollect live performances that are not available in recordings, but only remain in the form of reviews, scores, pictures, or digitized archives? Her project gathers traces of dancers’ transcultural movements, contacts, and memoirs. Based in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, she will explore new methods of reconstructing past performances. 

Amy Lawton

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - Villanova University

Amy is a Senior Lecturer in Tax Law at the University of Edinburgh and is passionate about community engagement and pro bono in tax. Her clinic, the Scottish Tax Clinic, has saved over a hundred thousand pounds for people in Scotland. As a Fulbright Scholar, Amy is keen to learn how her clinic can grow from one of the most experienced tax clinic countries in the world: the United States. 

While at Villanova University, Amy will be immersing herself in one of the oldest tax clinics in the United States. The Villanova Federal Tax Clinic represents, litigates for and provides a voice for low-income taxpayers. It plays a crucial role in making sure the US tax system is fair for individuals who may otherwise not have a voice. 

Beyond learning from this clinic, Amy’s Fulbright project seeks to explore the impact of legal representation in the tax court in both the US and the UK. Are taxpayers more likely to succeed if they can afford to pay for this representation? It is important to identify the voices that are being heard in the shaping of our tax law. 

Fiona McNeill

Fulbright-Rita Allen Scholar Award - University of California, San Diego

Fiona McNeill is a Reader in Computing Education at the University of Edinburgh.  She is passionate about access to computing and STEM education, especially for groups that are often excluded, such as women and girls, and people from economically deprived backgrounds.  A key focus of her research is inclusive computing education, which aims not only to support and develop a broad range of students beyond those who conform to stereotypes of computer scientists, but also to embed ethical and social issues in the computing curriculum to create graduates who are equipped for the modern world, where technology increasingly drives all our lives. 

The Fulbright scholarship gives her the opportunity for collaborative research in this area with the University of California, San Diego.  Both UCSD and UoE have been developing inclusive student support programmes over the past two years. The focus of the scholarship is to share experience in implementing these programmes to develop a broader understanding of how to do this effectively in different contexts, and specifically to explore how lessons learnt from an initiative designed in a US university can be implemented in the very different context of a UK university, and vice versa. 

Ben Quail

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of Texas - Austin

Why leave the rain of Glasgow for the sunshine of Texas? Well, besides the obvious improvement in the weather, Austin is where any researcher interested in the 1960s, and in Pacific-American relations, should be. The University of Texas at Austin hosts not only the archives of President Lyndon Johnson - the first sitting US President to visit Australia - but also one of the only dedicated centers for the study of Australia and New Zealand in North America. 

Johnson and Australia are at the heart of Ben Quail's project, which examines how interpersonal relations evolved between Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. The two men made fast friends, formed an advantageous political relationship for both countries, and set the tone for future US-Australian relations from the 1960s to the trilateral AUKUS agreement of the 2020s. This research asks key questions: did Johnson’s friendship with Holt affect relations between Australia and America, or did diplomacy affect Johnson’s relationship with Holt? Which is more important in the development of policy between the two countries? 

The work builds on Ben's previous research and teaching in the area. Having completed a master's degree researching US post-war foreign policy in Europe, Ben became interested in the relationship between President Johnson, Vietnam, and foreign policy. This research led to a PhD at the University of Strathclyde reviewing the administration's attempts to sell foreign and domestic policies to the American people which was adapted into a research monograph in 2019. Ben is excited to further this research by focusing on a key military ally in Australia, and to be able to spend time attending concerts in Austin, which, like Glasgow, is well-known for live music! 

Alan Rice

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of Michigan

Alan Rice is Professor in English and American Studies at UCLan, Preston. He has been working on the interdisciplinary study of Transatlantic Black Cultures for forty years. For his Fulbright Fellowship, to be held at one of the oldest African American Studies programmes at the University of Michigan, Rice will undertake new research in military archives and present his long-running project on the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943) where in a small Lancashire town the imposition of Jim Crow segregation led to pushback both from local residents and the Black GIs. The tensions culminated in oppression by the American military police and a violent stand-off that led to the death of one of the Black soldiers and expressions of solidarity against racism from many of the locals. My project will, for the first time, investigate the incident through the voices of the working class civilians and the perspective of the troops themselves rather than the partial testimonies from court martial records. Apart from University audiences, Rice will engage with Veterans and local community groups to disseminate knowledge about these little known European events which were a contributing factor to the development of the American Civil Rights Movement. 

Glyn Robbins

Fulbright-Rutgers Newark Scholar Award - Rutgers University

Glyn Robbins has worked in, written about and campaigned on housing for over 30 years. From 2011 to 2021, he managed a council estate in Islington, before embarking on a Fulbright Scholarship, when he was attached to the CUNY Graduate Centre, lived in the Bronx and got involved in local housing activism. Since returning, Glyn has worked in academia, first at the University of Sheffield, where he carried out research into the links between UK housing policy and racism and the history of community-led planning. Since January 2024, he has been a senior lecturer at London Metroplitan University, where he completed his PhD in planning and urban policy a decade earlier. His writing has been published in numerous places, including The Guardian and Jacobin. In 2017, he published a book, "There's No Place", comparing US and UK housing policy. He is currently researching a biography of Abraham Kazan, the founding father of co-op housing for working class people in New York City. Glyn is an active anti-racist campaigner and trade unionist. He is currently the Secretary of Tower Hamlets Trades Council.

Matthew Wilcox

Fulbright Royal College Surgeons Scholar Award - Havard University

Dr. Matt Wilcox is an incoming trainee surgeon within the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery. He is also the lead for Clinical Translational Research at the University College London, Centre for Nerve Engineering (https://www.nerve-engineering.ucl.ac.uk/).  

Dr. Wilcox became fascinated with nerve injury medicine as a medical student after he was caught up in the 2017 Borough Market terrorist attacks. He encountered patients with nerve injuries often leaving them with permanent loss of movement and chronic pain. This lived experience has motivated Dr. Wilcox to focus his clinical and research efforts on restoring function to nerve injured patients.  

His research focuses on developing blood tests which monitor nerve injuries to identifying imaging methods to track muscles as they recover after a nerve injury. It is hoped this will encourage clinical trials of therapies which lead to improved patient outcomes.  

His Fulbright scholarship marks the establishment of an important collaboration between a major centre for nerve injury based within Harvard University, USA (led by Dr. Justin Brown and Dr. Ross Mandeville) and Dr. Wilcox’s team in London. This will bring together a diverse range of clinical and scientific expertise to accelerate this programme of clinical research. 

Ava Arteaga

Fulbright/University of Leicester Award

Ava Arteaga graduated with Latin Honors, achieving a BA in Communication and Social Influence from Temple University. Ava’s passion for researching addiction in the media stemmed from her personal recovery journey and through her work in addiction treatment facilities, having worked as both a Behavioral Health Technician for inpatient treatment and as a Health Promotion Intern at an LGBTQIA+ center. 
 
Since 2023, Ava has been participating in a cooperative education program as a Corporate Communication Coordinator with Independence Blue Cross, the leading health insurance company in the Philadelphia region. Part of her role includes creating communications on collegiate recovery in Pennsylvania, a topic Ava works closely with outside of the office. In April 2023, she served as a panel speaker at the Research to Recovery conference to discuss collegiate recovery and the navigation of recovery as a BIPOC student. While at the University of Leicester, Ava aims to investigate digital news media portrayals of drug use/users in the UK. This Fulbright will give her the opportunity to integrate learning from the classroom, laboratory, and community settings to inform interventions to combat stigma and promote more accurate and compassionate representations of those struggling with substance use.  
 
Outside of the laboratory, Ava volunteers with several nonprofits that serve under-represented groups or health initiatives, whether it’s providing career development resources with the National Urban League, organizing fundraising events for UNICEF, or writing blogs for the American Red Cross. She is excited to expand this work in Leicester, UK. 

Katy Ayers

Fulbright/University of Exeter Award

Katy Ayers graduated in May 2024 with a BSc in Bioengineering from Washington State University. Katy is most recognizable as a Guinness World Record holder for growing the World’s Largest Fungal Mycelium Boat. This achievement was funded by the Nebraska State Fair Sustainability Pavilion and can still be viewed during the Nebraska State Fair.  
Katy’s early research focused on the correlation between honeybees and fungal extracts as an antiviral treatment for colony collapse disorder. She pioneered a project to grow fungal bee hotels for solitary bees to investigate similar correlations in endemic species. Katy joined a protein engineering lab in 2023 to study human cardiac proteins, aiming to later apply these skills to fungal research.  

Eager to begin her studies at the University of Exeter, Katy will work toward a MSc in Advanced Biological Sciences. Learning from experiences in the Fulbright program, Katy aims to become a global scientist, traveling to address fungal pathogen outbreaks and contributing to safety regulations for antifungal pharmaceuticals. Katy is especially excited to collaborate with leading experts at the Centre for Medicinal Mycology, driving her closer to her research career dedicated to solving critical health and environmental challenges. 

Samhitha Balaji

Fulbright/University of Sheffield Award

Samhitha graduated with a BS in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience and a minor in Computer Science. Samhitha’s interest in research piqued when she was awarded the Frances Velay Fellowship, investigating the photoreduction of chemical warfare agent simulants. She later found her niche in neurological research during her senior project, involving spinal cord axon regeneration through novel protein inhibition. 
 
Upon entering Temple University (TU), Samhitha explored the interdisciplinarity of medicine and research by studying various fields including catalytic chemistry, computer programming, and neurocognition. Along with her academic background, Samhitha’s time as a medical assistant and undergraduate researcher have prepared her to pursue an MSc in Translational Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield. During her Fulbright, Samhitha aims to explore the intersection of clinical and laboratory studies to better understand and treat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or dementia. 
 
Beyond the lab environment, Samhitha has spent time as a computer science teacher’s assistant and as a volunteer at the local hospital and underdeveloped communities of Philadelphia. Both experiences have allowed her to discover the importance of giving back to the community one is surrounded by, something she is looking forward to continuing in Sheffield. 

Kayla Berg

Fulbright/King's College London Award

Kayla holds an MA in International Relations from American University where she built a foundation of understanding individual actors within the global arena and how larger concepts in national security were driven by individual people. Her dissertation examined how the Stasi used individual representations of self in the case of Romeo Spies. During her undergraduate studies in psychology, Kayla explored how emotions and perceptions can shape the lens through which individuals see their environment and make decisions. She was also a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College (German).  
 
After university, Kayla built a career in public service connecting and navigating the complexities of the relationship between people, politics and government. As a PhD student at King’s College London Department of War Studies, her research will focus on how the GDR Ministry for State Security used psychology in the collection of personal information of foreign adversaries during the Cold War. This Fulbright will give Kayla the opportunity to help develop new dimensions when exploring the contemporary relevance of Cold War history. She looks forward to connecting with others in her community by volunteering with the Scouts, mountain biking and exploring the many landscapes of the United Kingdom.

Sanjit Beriwal

Fulbright/Royal Holloway, University of London Award

Sanjit Beriwal graduated from Duke University with a BS in Economics and BA in Political Science. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Through the Fulbright Scholarship, he aims to receive an MSc in International Relations from Royal Holloway, University of London.  
 
Sanjit's academic and research interests include peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, global violence prevention, and armed conflict resolution. After graduation, he ultimately seeks to work for NGOs or the US government in aid work related to conflict prevention and resolution. He also aspires to pursue a law degree to open up opportunities to participate in peace negotiations. 
 
Outside of school, Sanjit enjoys stand-up comedy, reading, and watching movies!

Emily Bischoff

Fulbright/Lancaster University Award in Faculty of Science and Technology

Emily is a passionate advocate for environmental justice and is excited about channeling this into an MA in Political Ecology from Lancaster University. Emily graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies with highest honors. During her time in school Emily studied abroad in Panama with the School for Field Studies (SFS) and completed a research project analyzing the relationship local stakeholders have with mangrove ecosystems which she continued to expand on for her senior thesis. 

Emily also led a student organization pushing for fossil fuel divestment and led actions around other climate justice causes, along with participating in a mutual aid organization and several other social justice campaigns. After graduating, Emily moved to Australia to work with SFS. In her role, Emily mentored students while they studied abroad in Australia, assisted with fieldwork, engaged in community service initiatives, and more. While there, Emily also volunteered at a social services organization connecting clients with resources and providing direct aid to address systemic poverty.  

Emily is excited about continuing her education at Lancaster and aspires to engage in justice-oriented research rooted in feminist political ecology and involve herself in local organizations addressing systemic poverty and environmental justice.  

Adrienne Chaparro

Fulbright/University of York Award

Adrienne Chaparro served as the Curatorial Assistant for Exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA from 2022 until the start of her Fulbright program in 2024. She curated two exhibitions that opened in the summer of 2024 featuring contemporary photography celebrating and affirming multifaceted LGBTQIA+  experiences through portraiture.  
 
Adrienne received a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University in 2013. Her classroom experience and internship at the Harvard Art Museums affirmed her aspiration for a career in museums. Paired with her interest in Western European medieval art, Adrienne’s goal is to serve her community using art by developing exhibitions and conducting innovative research as a museum curator.  
 
As a student in the University of York’s MA in Art History (Medieval Art and Medievalisms), made possible through the Fulbright Special Study/Research award, Adrienne will build foundational knowledge of Western European medieval art based within the context of a global Middle Ages. She will also explore the modern and contemporary uses of the Middle Ages that can inspire or harm society. Ultimately, she hopes to show how diverse the Middle Ages were through art, and its relevance to our lives today.

Jaemon Crosby

Fulbright/John Wood LAMDA Award in Classical Acting

Jaemon Crosby is a recent graduate from Syracuse University. He graduated with a BFA in acting and a concentration in vocal performance. Jaemon began his acting career in high school where he quickly realized the power, influence, and important of live theatre. 

In his time at SU he had the opportunity to be in many shows and work the professional theatre Syracuse Stage. Through exploration of many plays during college, he developed a passion for language in a play, which drove him to the world of classical theatre, which has historically been written and performed by white men. With this Fulbright, Jaemon will study classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he hopes to help diversify this world and aid in the movement of bringing these messages to today’s world and exploring the messages through a modern lens. Representation within theatre is very important topic to Jaemon and he wants to help young Black youth see themselves represented on the stage and on the screen. 

While in London, Jaemon also hopes to volunteer at Shakespeare’s Globe and to learn about Black culture in the UK by exploring spaces such as the Black cultural archives.

Kristin Daniel

Fulbright/University of Birmingham Award

Kristin graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She developed her passion for infant and maternal health through work on preeclampsia in the Wayne Macrophage Lab. While at the University of Birmingham, Kristin will continue her work on preeclampsia, expanding research on diagnostics and preventative treatments. By combining learning experiences in community and academic settings, she hopes to provide important research that will expand our understanding of the disease. Outside the laboratory, Kristin volunteers with groups working to improve health outcomes during and after pregnancy through community care and support. 

Richa Desai

Fulbright/University of Leeds Award

Richa Desai is from Metuchen, New Jersey. She graduated with a BS in Computational Biology and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2024. 
As an undergraduate, Richa wrote a thesis studying British colonial public health data production in India, examining the conceptual foundations of evidence-based public health science and policy. Richa is also passionate about air quality in Pittsburgh and examined citizen science data practices through an internship with the nonprofit GASP. On campus, she was also Vice President of the Anthropology Club at Pitt. 

Richa is excited to begin her MA by Research in History at the University of Leeds. She intends to study how international actors produced and used data for the shared purpose of eradicating smallpox. Overall, she hopes to study the histories and politics of scientific development by thoughtfully challenging assumptions around objectivity, data, and computing. After returning to the US, she will pursue a Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science. Outside the classroom, Richa hopes to consider the similarities of post-industrial landscapes and environments between Yorkshire and Southwestern Pennsylvania. She looks forward to enjoying museums, live music, and bookshops in the UK.

Claire Ellis

Fulbright/London School of Economics and Political Science Award

Claire graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in History in 2024. In her junior year, she studied history at Pembroke College, the University of Oxford, as a visiting student. For her senior thesis, she wrote about the impact of Afro-Caribbean British protest in London onto changes to British public policy in the late twentieth century. As a member of the Tufts community, she coordinated and participated in a community service program facilitating volunteer opportunities in the Greater Boston Area for fellow students. 

At LSE, Claire will pursue a MSc in Empires, Colonialism, and Globalisation within the Department of International History. She will continue her research on the second generation of Windrush migrants and, in addition to social and political history, is interested in learning more about forms of economic resistance under empire.  

In her free time, Claire is interested in working as a volunteer student consultant at LSE to promote inclusion and access. She is excited to immerse herself in London’s multicultural cuisine and to explore the UK via train. Claire hopes to apply her study of social and political history to public policy work and post-graduate studies. 

Athena Hay

Fulbright/University of Strathclyde Award

Athena Hay earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, with a core belief that architecture is inherently a social service. She's committed to creating equitable housing and climate-resilient designs by integrating renewable energies and passive strategies. 
 
Following her studies, Athena worked as an architectural designer in small Boston firms, specializing in local affordable housing, private residences, and educational facilities. She's drawn to the opportunity to study architecture at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, immersing herself in its robust social work and sustainable design research programs. During her time in Glasgow, Athena plans to explore Scotland's long-established public housing initiatives. 
 
The Fulbright scholarship not only offers Athena educational resources to advance her architectural expertise but also nurtures a broader global perspective, crucial for her aspirations in service to the greater public. 
 
Outside of architecture, Athena actively volunteers with various organizations, from voter registration drives, to park clean-ups, to supporting children grieving parental loss. During her time abroad, she intends to continue volunteering with local Glasgow organizations. 

Morgan Holder

Fulbright/University of Roehampton Award in Dance

Morgan Holder, of Scottsboro, AL, recently graduated summa cum laude from The University of Alabama with a BA with honors in dance and English and a minor in The Blount Scholars Program. Morgan is excited to continue her education at The University of Roehampton, where she will earn an MFA in Dance and Embodied Practice. While at Roehampton, she plans to research the intersection between neurodiversity and dance. 
 
At UA, Morgan engaged in interdisciplinary research within the fields of dance and English. Her English honors thesis critiqued representations of hysteria in the ballet Giselle. In 2022, she founded Ripple Arts Review, a digital magazine for arts criticism. Morgan was also an active dancer and choreographer and had the honor of being a member of Yonder Contemporary Dance Company, Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, and the inaugural Emerging Choreographers’ Showcase while at UA. Through Yonder, Morgan has presented choreography and performed at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. 
 
Morgan is looking forward to returning to the UK after participating in the Fringe and studying abroad at Oxford University. She is excited to dive back into the UK arts scene, explore London’s many bookshops, and simply get lost in London.

Nate Johnson

Fulbright/Ulster University Award

Nate Johnson works as a Staff Attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, a legal nonprofit, where he preserves housing for New York tenants. Before working at NYLAG, Nate graduated cum laude from Fordham Law School in May 2022. As a member of Fordham’s International Human Rights Clinic, Nate researched carceral abolitionist movements, comparing their goals and practices to those of the international human rights regime. This research culminated in "Anti-Carceral Human Rights Advocacy," an article published in the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Journal for Law and Social Change in July 2023.  
 
Through the Fulbright, Nate will continue his human rights education by pursuing a Master of Laws in Human Rights and Transitional Justice from Ulster University in Belfast. While at Ulster, Nate will conduct independent research into potential anti-carceral remedies for recent human rights abuses within the context of Northern Ireland and beyond.  
 
Additionally, Nate hopes to volunteer at PeacePlayers, an organization that uses sports to bridge the gap between Catholic and Protestant youth, combining his interest in affirmative community-based programs with his lifelong love of basketball.

Winter Johnson

Fulbright/University of Kent Award

Winter graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a minor in Irish Studies. She received the 2024 Outstanding Graduate in Anthropology Award from DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and multiple departmental awards for her undergraduate research in cultural anthropology. Winter was also published twice in DePaul’s peer-reviewed academic journal Creating Knowledge, where she wrote about the impact of communal memory and group identity in Northern Ireland and the effect of neoliberal conditions on virtual community participation. She also served as a teaching assistant within the anthropology department, where she co-managed the archaeology lab and acted as a guest lecturer.  
 
During her undergraduate career, Winter developed a love for studying theoretical frameworks and research methodologies and has used this background to explore her interests in identity politics and the driving factors behind group participation, including radicalization processes and ideology dissemination. By pursuing an MA in Sociology at the University of Kent, she plans to further explore the intersection between far-right ideologies and online misogynistic communities. She hopes that this research will contribute to preventative and proactive initiatives that offer alternatives to radicalization and deradicalization methods.

Lindsay Keiser

Fulbright/University of Warwick Award

Keiser graduated with a BSc in Chemistry (American Chemical Society accredited) and a minor in history from Lebanon Valley College (LVC). As a chemist and a historian, Keiser has been long enthralled with the history of preserving the heritage of diverse cultures and communities.  
 
For most of her undergraduate experience, Keiser participated in student-faculty research, leading to three poster presentations at LVC's annual Inquiry Symposium and one poster presentation at an American Chemical Society National Conference. Keiser combined her love for museums and chemistry in her undergraduate thesis, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Delaware, which examined the degradation of a nitrocellulose lacquer used to protect silver and silver-plated objects.  
 
While at the University of Warwick, Keiser is excited to gain a deeper understanding of the materials and analytical techniques studied and used by cultural heritage scientists across the world. Beyond the laboratory, Keiser looks forward to engaging with history and culture in the many cultural heritage institutions of the Warwickshire region while learning about the past from a new historical perspective.  

Lindsay Kernen

Fulbright/University of Strathclyde Award

Lindsay Kernen, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduated from Syracuse University in 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology and Citizenship & Civic Engagement. 
 
Lindsay's undergraduate studies combined perspectives from the psychology field and community-based research to inform her passion for learning about interpersonal relationships in the workplace. She interned with on-campus research organizations focused on exploring the relationship between work and life satisfaction, as well as the role of behavioral-focused policy in promoting healthy choices. These experiences inspired Lindsay's senior capstone project, which measured the presence of burnout and level of employee voice among Syracuse University Maxwell School staff members through a series of interviews and surveys. The study helped inform organizational policy recommendations and gave Lindsay a glimpse into the kind of work a Master's in Organizational Psychology can lead to.  
 
Lindsay will be earning her MSc in Work & Organisational Psychology from the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland. The program focuses on connecting psychological insights with human resources management to promote employee wellbeing and productivity. The dissertation component of the program will provide Lindsay an opportunity to build on her community engagement skills and apply her knowledge in collaborating with a local organization in Glasgow.

Jasmine Kiley

Open Study/Research Award

Jasmine graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biological Chemistry from Tulane University in 2024 as a Stamps Scholar and Goldwater Scholar. Throughout her undergraduate years, she researched the biomechanics of the female reproductive system as they relate to maternal aging, postpartum healing, and elastic fiber disruption. She also conducted biophysical research as an Amgen Scholar at the National University of Singapore. Additionally, Jasmine’s team won the 2022 Tulane Novel Tech Challenge, in which her team of four students designed and prototyped a home-use endometriosis diagnostic test utilizing lateral flow technology.  
 
At Cambridge, Jasmine will continue conducting women’s health research under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Aiken while pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Medical Science. With the support of the Fulbright Award, she looks forward to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the female patient experience in the National Health Service and broadening her perspectives on maternal healthcare. She plans to address inequities in female healthcare throughout her future career as a physician. Outside of academics and research, Jasmine enjoys playing the violin, staying active through yoga and weightlifting, attending concerts, and trying new foods.

Justin Kipness

Fulbright/Imperial College London Award

Justin Kipness graduated from Brown University in 2024 with an ScB in Biology with honors and received the Elizabeth Leduc Prize in Cell Biology. As an undergraduate, Justin conducted astrobiology research with the Rothschild Lab at NASA Ames Research Center on topics spanning from endosymbiosis, eukaryogenesis, extremophiles, to the potential for life on Venus. His honors senior thesis was titled Endosymbiosis and Investigating the Phagotrophic Model of Eukaryogenesis. This work was conducted during an eighth month period in the Rothschild Lab at NASA Ames and supported by the NASA RI Space Grant. 
 
Justin’s interest in synthetic biology began in the Build-a-Cell community where he attended seminar series and the Build-a-Cell Workshop in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, he was inspired by the immense potential synthetic biology held to answer origin of life and astrobiological questions. This Fulbright will give Justin the opportunity to study Systems and Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London. Specifically, he will be conducting research with the Ellis Lab on a synthetic nucleus project, a part of a larger synthetic eukaryote project. 
 
Outside of science, Justin enjoys hiking, cycling, cooking, reading, and spending time with his three dogs Bodhi, Skyler and Kelsey.

Hailey Kremenek

Fulbright/University of Glasgow Award

Hailey Kremenek graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in art conservation and art history. Over her undergraduate career she treated objects ranging from a grass basket from western Alaska to a shattered porcelain plate, but the preservation and history of textile objects ultimately became her focus. Outside of the classroom, she worked within the textile conservation laboratory at Winterthur Museum as a technician for one and a half years to prepare twentieth century evening gowns for exhibition. 
In early 2023, Hailey was awarded funding for travel through Ireland, Belgium and France as part of an independent study on the history of textile art and women’s work that she felt was absent from her formal art history education. Over four weeks, she attended workshops taught by female textile artists and immersed herself in locations of textile production from the Renaissance to the Industrial period.

This Fulbright will support Hailey’s education at the University of Glasgow where she will earn a Masters of Philosophy in Textile Conservation. Along with exploring the chemical principles of fiber degradation and the ideal climate for collections storage, she also looks forward to engaging with Scotland’s traditional craft history and contemporary art culture.

Josh Lastimoso

Fulbright/Newcastle University Award

Josh graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina in 2022.   Growing up in Sumter, South Carolina, he found his passion in biomedical research from his mentors.  During his early undergraduate years, he learned about current research topics in data science with Dr. Sher Chhetri from USC Sumter.  Later on, he would eventually join a lab at USC Columbia under Dr. Alissa Armstrong where he studied stem cell and developmental biology.  After graduating, he worked in various clinical departments, from ophthalmology to surgical pathology.  From his experiences working in both research and healthcare, he decided to combine the two and pursue a career in clinical research. 
 
At Newcastle University, Josh will pursue a Master of Research degree in Cardiovascular Sciences.  There, he will study the heart and the systems surrounding cardiac tissues using biomolecular lab techniques.   
 
During his free time, Josh likes to lift, write music, and spend time with his friends.  Outside of his studies at Newcastle, he plans to connect with the community by volunteering at local organizations.  After the Fulbright program, he plans to enroll in a physician-scientist program to develop and further specialize his education on heart health. 

Zachary Lewis

Fulbright/Royal Veterinary College Award

Zachary Lewis graduated from Carleton College with a BA (with Distinction) in biology and a biochemistry minor. At Carleton, he researched female sexual dysfunction with the Meerts Lab. He then joined the Hale Lab at OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where he is completing his master’s degree in Comparative Biomedical Science. At OSU, Zach studies host-associated microbiota in a canine model of bladder cancer, uses bioinformatics to identify pathogens affecting American alligators, and investigates how bacteria modify carcinogens contaminating the environment.  
 
Zach is fascinated by wild animals, their connections to humans and the environment, and the scientific movement to improve the health of all three. As a Fulbrighter at RVC, Zach will research how genomic architecture enables certain bacteria to infect multiple host species, wild birds, domestic swine, poultry, and humans. Zach is excited to collaborate with UK stakeholders, researchers, and students to maximize scientific and cultural exchange.  
 
When he’s not researching animals, Zach likes talking about animals: he’s an educator with a primate conservation nonprofit and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. In his spare time, Zach enjoys reading, running, and rock climbing. In London, he looks forward to volunteering with a local nature center and joining a queer climbing group. 

Britney Mayorga

Fulbright/University of Reading Award in Food Security

Born and raised near Atlanta, Georgia, Britney received the full-ride QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship and Gates Scholarship to graduate from Emory University with a BS in Biology and Human Health. 
 
Britney’s interest in nutrition began as an NIH/ NIDDK STEP-UP intern when she worked with Dr. Jessica Alvarez to compare data from various clinical populations to assess differences among machines used to obtain anthropometric measurements. Her passion for nutrition crystallized upon taking Dr. Myra Woodworth-Hobbs’ nutrition classes at Emory University and realizing the importance of food in preventing chronic diseases and ensuring a healthy lifestyle. 

At Emory, she served in various leadership roles, such as the President of Emory Questbridge Scholars Network, Vice President at Large for Omicron Delta Kappa, Senior Resident Advisor of Aladobbs, and Vice President of Crochet at Emory. Britney also dedicated her time as an undergraduate mentor for high school students through Emory Pipeline Collaborative and Matriculate. As a native Spanish speaker with her family from Hidalgo, Mexico, she also volunteered as a qualified Spanish medical interpreter at local free clinics. 

Through volunteering in clinics and working as an emergency medicine medical scribe, Britney’s passion for serving low-income communities as a Spanish-speaking physician to eliminate language and cultural barriers has grown. This Fulbright will give her the opportunity to pursue an MSc in Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Reading to equip her with the nutritional knowledge and experience to support better low-income communities burdened with chronic diseases when she returns to the United States to attend medical school. In the UK, she will utilize the research skills she has learned to contribute to a meaningful project. 

Ally McCarthy

Fulbright/University of Bristol Award

Ally McCarthy graduated with a B.A. in Arabic Studies and a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park. Ally spent a subsequent year abroad on the David L. Boren Scholarship studying Arabic at the Arab-American Language Institute in Morocco (AALIM) where she also became involved in women’s empowerment initiatives through sports.  
 
Since returning from Morocco in 2018, Ally served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve on multiple overseas postings focused on various strategic defense initiatives in Africa. Most recently, Ally deployed to Djibouti where one of her primary responsibilities included implementing Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) strategic objectives within Civil Affairs Operations in West Africa. While at the University of Bristol, Ally aims to further examine various international WPS initiatives through a defense and security lens. This Fulbright will give her the opportunity to gain foundational understanding on international security concepts to establish an improved framework for the implementation of WPS policies with the Department of Defense. 
 
Everywhere Ally has lived she volunteers with organizations promoting the empowerment of women and girls through scouting or youth sports programs. Ally is excited to continue this community involvement during her time in Bristol.

Georgeann McLemore

Fulbright/Ulster University Award

Georgeann McLemore, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, is a recent graduate with a BS in Information Systems and a minor in Fine Arts. She recently served as a design intern at the White House. Art has been one of her lifelong passion, fueling her desire to build a career in this field. Her academic journey was enriched by her study abroad experiences in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Amsterdam, broadening her cultural perspectives. 
 
For her senior seminar project, she developed an app designed to alleviate the stress faced by immigrant parents in the United States as they navigate the English language barrier. This project exemplifies her commitment to creating solutions that positively impact underserved communities. Driven by a deep-rooted motivation to utilize her skills in design and technology to address societal challenges, Georgeann views the Fulbright Program as an invaluable opportunity to further her knowledge and collaborate with like-minded individuals globally. Through this program, she aspires to develop an app that caters to the specific needs of a niche demographic, providing them with innovative tools to overcome their unique obstacles. 
 
Ultimately, her goal is to create inclusive and accessible solutions that empower marginalized communities, fostering a more equitable society. She is confident that the Fulbright Program will equip her with the necessary resources and guidance to turn her vision into a tangible reality. One thing she looks forward to is making new friends and meeting new people within her program and perfecting her Irish accent during her time abroad. 

Rebecca Mesonjnik

Fulbright/University of St. Andrews Award in Arts & Humanities

Rebecca Mesonjnik has dreamt of living inside a museum since she first read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when she was seven years old. Since then, she has visited countless museums across the United States and around the globe. 
 
Rebecca graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City with a BFA in Communication Design. During her time there, she began working at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she discovered her passion for fostering inclusivity within arts and cultural institutions. 
 
After initiating the inaugural artist-in-residency program at the Bruce and co-founding the Mother of Pearl Art Collective in New York City, Rebecca continues to craft programs that make art accessible to the public. She now looks forward to working on a PhD in Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of St. Andrews, where she will research best practices for rescuing cultural heritage during times of conflict, safeguarding arts and cultural institutions for future generations. 
 
During her time in the UK, Rebecca plans to visit as many cultural and heritage sites as possible and looks forward to sharing her love of museums with others.

Amelia Miller

Fulbright/University of Nottingham Award

Amelia Miller graduated in 2023 from Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations and a B.A. in Arabic Language and Cultural Studies. While at Tufts, she volunteered and interned with numerous organizations, including Lawyers Without Borders, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Massachusetts Trial Court. She also participated in the Oslo Scholars program and Tufts in Rwanda Fellowship, both of which solidified her interest in international human rights work. She has spent the last year serving as an Americorps Legal Advocate in Massachusetts, a role in which she has worked on legal advocacy in the fields of poverty law and welfare law.  
 
Amelia will be pursuing an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Nottingham. She is particularly interested in the rights of rural communities and women's rights. Her experiences growing up in a small rural community and transitioning from rural life to urban life have driven her passion for these subjects. She is excited to continue researching rural access to education on an international scale.  
 
Outside of academics, Amelia enjoys birdwatching, gardening, and reading. She has never traveled abroad and is eager to explore the UK and learn more about the Nottingham community.  

Yasmin Nayrouz

Fulbright/University of Sussex Award

Yasmin Nayrouz graduated with a dual Bachelors in English & Textual Studies and Public Relations with a minor in Global Security Studies from Syracuse University. Yasmin’s passion for migration comes from her own family’s background as her parents immigrated from Egypt to America. Volunteering at a resettlement agency gave her a fuller picture of migration policy and the obstacles newcomers face.  
 
Yasmin’s experiences have prepared her for a career in advocacy for refugees and immigrants. She interned with Airbnb.org, assisting the non-profit’s mission of helping individuals impacted by large-scale crises secure temporary housing. She has also interned at an immigration law firm in Italy, learning the various migration processes. Plus, she worked on a data journalism project, analyzing and visualizing how migration policy can have a profound impact on families.  
 
She aims to learn more about and research how educational policies, particularly those related to language acquisition, can be improved for newcomers. She hopes to take an intersectional approach to her work instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. While addressing misconceptions surrounding migration, she strives to help newcomers integrate successfully to improve their social, economic, and mental well-being.

Sam Paul

Fulbright/Queen Mary, University of London Award

Sam Paul is a current medical student at The Ohio State University’s College of Medicine. In his early years of medical school, Sam realized a passion for critical care medicine after observing and taking part in the care of critically ill patients. He will be furthering this passion for critical care at the Queen Mary University of London, where he will gain insight into a global perspective of the field as he pursues his master’s degree in Critical Care Medicine. 
 
Throughout his medical education, Sam has sought out opportunities for growth in his interprofessional and leadership skills. He founded a student group to create formative assessment material for his peers and participated in advanced classes on optimizing performance in the interprofessional setting. When he saw these very skills being put to vital use in the ICU, he knew that he had found a home for his passions and developing skills. While receiving his degree from QMUL, Sam will also be participating in ongoing research projects at the university with the goal of optimizing quality of life outcomes in post-ICU patients.

Lila Raouf

Fulbright/IOE-Faculty of Education and Society at University College London

Lila Raouf brings a decade of professional expertise in international development, refugee resettlement, and emergency management to her Fulbright fellowship. Lila began her career with United States Peace Corps in Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC to implement various education and youth development projects. Slowly she developed an interest in humanitarian aid, and so she transitioned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a Program Specialist in 2021. Within this role, she delivered training and technical assistance to disaster survivors to support recovery initiatives. In addition, she has over five years of experience dedicated to aiding local refugee resettlement agencies through teaching and curriculum development. 
 
Lila holds a bachelor's degree in international studies and Near Eastern languages and cultures from Indiana University. Lila hopes to work with international organizations or federal agencies that provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in the United States or abroad. Originally from Mobile, Alabama, USA, Lila hopes to bring a diverse perspective to her studies and work.

Maximillian Renfro

Fulbright/University of Southampton Award

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Second Lieutenant Maximillian Renfro is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Recognizing the fragile, yet enduring peace and prosperity America’s government guarantees for its citizens, Maximillian has dedicated his life to its preservation. That mission drove him to West Point, the nation’s premier institution for public service. During the summer of his sophomore year, Maximillian attended a NATO military exercise hosted by the Italian Army.

That experience demonstrated to him the importance of America’s international partners and the baffling complexity of working across cultural and linguistic barriers. Those twin realizations drove him to focus his undergraduate academic research on nationalism, translation, and cross-cultural communication. Maximillian will expand on this work while studying Languages and Cultures at the University of Southampton. There, he will study the effectiveness of the cultural engagement techniques used by America’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams during the Iraq War. In addition to this scholarly opportunity, Maximillian will take part in a military exchange with the Outreach Group of the British Army’s 11th Security Forces Assistance Brigade. Following graduate school, Maximillian will serve in the United States Army as a Military Intelligence officer at Fort Lewis, Washington. 

Saif Salim

Fulbright/Durham University Award

Saif graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Physics from Amherst College. Saif’s interest in philosophy and mathematics attracted him to research in fundamental physics. Plagued with questions about the nature of the universe, he found a passion for experiments that precisely controlled well-understood physics to uncover the signatures of undiscovered phenomena. 
 
He has advanced many experiments in fundamental physics using atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) techniques. His work has contributed to the world’s most precise measurement of the electron’s magnetic and electric dipole moments, which serve as some of the most sensitive probes of physics beyond our current understanding. At Amherst College, he wrote a senior honors thesis describing how to control a host of systematic effects in an experiment searching for a fifth fundamental force. His research experiences have resolved him to pursue a career as a professor to develop his passion for teaching. 
 
Outside the laboratory, Saif spends most of his time involved with jazz music. He is the music director of the Amherst College Zumbyes, a jazz-inspired acapella group with a penchant for mischief. He also serves as the President of Jazz@Amherst and plays piano in various small jazz ensembles.

Andie Sheinbaum

Fulbright/University of Manchester Award

Hailing from Aurora, Colorado, Andie graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brandeis University in 2024. Her passion for Green Infrastructure stems from a summer-long internship she held at the Charles River Watershed Association, where she researched Green Infrastructure's uses in reducing Combined Sewer Overflows across the United States. 
 
Andie has been greatly interested in the idea of solving numerous issues with environmental-based solutions since coming to colleges. Internships at the Office of United States Senator Michael F. Bennet and the Earth Law Center, as well as a multi-term undergraduate Teaching Assistantship for an oceanography course, have given her ample opportunity to explore and delve into the best ways to address multifaceted issues. At the University of Manchester, Andie hopes to continue this investigation by focusing on the different ways that Green Infrastructure can address issues ranging from the urban heat island effect to air pollution. She is excited to learn from her international peers and expert professors in order to tackle the climate crisis in the most effective and equitable way possible. 
 
Beyond academics, Andie loves comedy, and has been honored to serve as the president of an improv troupe for the past several years. She has a deep passion for the legal system, music, and books, and looks forward to continuing these pursuits in Manchester.

Frankie Shelton

Fulbright/University College London Entrepreneurship Award

Frankie Shelton completed her masters degree in Healthcare Administration in 2024 from the University of Washington, where she focused on gender equity and research for the advancement of women's health. A clinical nutritionist by training and owner of a women's digital health clinic, she is passionate about creating sex specific healthcare options that address the significance of women's hormonal timeline. During her time at the University of Washington, she cofounded HerHeartCo, a healthcare technology to 
reduce women’s risk of cardiovascular disease through perimenopausal intervention. 
 
Since her own health crisis in 2012, she has devoted her career to advancing the role of integrative health and close monitoring to develop better ways to care for women's health throughout their lifetime. Her pursuit of the University College London Entrepreneurship Award is to further develop HerHeartCo, with the primary objective of bringing to life a new approach for delivering diet and lifestyle recommendations in women's healthcare. The platform aims to improve women's quality of life by responding to their biometrics in real time with easy to follow advice on their mobile device and access to a team of women’s health specialists. This Fulbright will give Frankie the opportunity to learn from and engage in healthcare solutions on a global scale that not only improve women's quality of life but simultaneously contribute to the gap in data around women's physiology.  
 
Outside of her innovation leadership in women's health, Frankie is an avid traveler, exploring culture through food systems and locality.

Shreya Tellur

Fulbright/University of Stirling Award in Health, Well-being and Sport

Shreya Tellur, of Greenville, SC, graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Clemson University. Shreya's passion for mental health research was catalyzed through her journey volunteering in diverse healthcare clinics in India, France, and the US.  
 
While at Clemson, Shreya had been part of different research projects understanding well-being factors and mental health stressors to contribute towards creating more comprehensive patient care. Specifically, her honors thesis focused on how diversity in the workplace impacts nurses’ job attitudes and burnout. Her work was chosen to be presented at the American Psychological Association conference.  
 
Outside of research, Shreya's passion to advocate for mental health had led her to create a Suicide Awareness advocacy program at Clemson University, and join Clemson Student Government to create awareness for mental health resources.  
 
While at the University of Stirling, Shreya aims to investigate the transition of behavior from the pre-pregnancy to pregnancy population in collaboration with NHS Scotland. Her goal is to to deepen understanding of physician diagnostic patterns, clinical guidelines, and cultural factors, vital for addressing policy implications.

Josie Tidmore

Fulbright/Cardiff University Award

Josie Tidmore graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Neuroscience and English. As an undergraduate, she developed a foundation in stem cell and molecular biology through her research in the Rubin lab at Harvard University and in the Powell lab at Bowdoin, where she completed her senior thesis.  

As a Fulbright postgraduate, Josie will study sex-specific kidney disease phenotypes in kidney epithelial cells as an M.Phil. student in the Fraser lab at Cardiff University. Using stem cells from patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), Josie aims to develop a human model of kidney cells in order to identify sex-specific differences in disease pathology, work which may contribute to the development of more targeted therapies for CKD. After Fulbright, she intends to earn an MD-PhD and eventually start her own lab dedicated to studying kidney regeneration. Her goal is to lead a lab that emphasizes multicultural collaboration in pursuit of scientific advances in kidney health.  

Outside of the laboratory, Josie is involved in patient advocacy for rare kidney diseases. She is eager to share her experiences in the rare disease space with a larger community of patient advocates and healthcare professionals as a volunteer with local kidney health organizations in Wales. 

Alisa Tom

Fulbright/University of Edinburgh Award

Alisa is an accomplished interior designer dedicated to creating spaces that enhance well-being and promote sustainability. Growing up in San Francisco, she learned early on the profound impact of the built environment on well-being, sparking a lifelong fascination with how spaces shape human behavior. 
 
Alisa pursued her undergraduate studies in Interior Design, Art, and English Literature as a Presidential Scholar at San Francisco State University. She further developed her creative leadership skills with a Master’s in Design Management and Communications from Georgetown University, where she was elected graduate student senator. 
 
Professionally, Alisa has led teams in crafting innovative workplaces for sustainability-minded clients such as Salesforce and Google. She holds WELL AP and LEED AP ID+C credentials, highlighting her expertise in enhancing sustainability and well-being through design. 
 
As a Fulbrighter, Alisa aims to leverage design to address the systemic challenges outlined in the UN’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development. While pursuing a Master’s in Design for Change at the University of Edinburgh, she is eager to explore how multisensory environments transform the human experience. 
 
When not dreaming up her next designs, Alisa enjoys doing improv, exploring nature, or striking a pose in yoga class. She looks forward to immersing herself in Edinburgh’s vibrant arts scene and Scotland’s great outdoors. 

Andrea Valentini

Fulbright/Trinity Laban Award in Music & Dance

Andrea Valentini graduated with degrees in Dance and Anthropology and minors in Digital Art and Economics from the University of California, Irvine. She is pursuing a certificate in Pre-Medical and General Science Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles Extension School.  
 
Valentini completed 4 Dance Science research projects during her undergraduate career, which she presented at undergraduate research symposiums at UCI and at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science’s annual conference in 2023. She also received the Hamilton Dance Wellness Symposium’s scholarship for her project analyzing the physical and mental impact of remote learning on collegiate dance students. Her undergraduate Anthropology honors thesis explored the gender binary's impact on collegiate dance education. The Fulbright will allow her to continue analyzing the intersection of dance and gender theory via implicit bias testing and dancer-specific outcome measures. She aims to help establish social science research as a subset of dance medicine while advocating for inclusivity in the dance world.  
 
Valentini has been a dancer for 21 years and most recently was a member of the competitive hip hop team The G.O.O.D. Project. She looks forward to expanding her academic knowledge and dance practice while residing in the United Kingdom.

Shanelle Villegas

Open Study/Research Award

Shanelle Chloe Villegas (she/they) graduated with a BFA in Contemporary Theatre from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is a highly awarded actor, writer, arts educator and experimental theatre artist who was recognized in September 2022 as one of fifteen artists of color leaving an imprint on Massachusetts in WBUR’S “The Makers”. In March of 2023, Shanelle ended her playwrighting residency at The Boston Center for the Arts where she has been developing a devised memoir play about the coexistence of grief and love at the intersection of parental emotional absence, oppressive institutions of patriarchy and racism, and intergenerational trauma within her dysfunctional family of color. This Fulbright opportunity will give her the opportunity to research Ghanaian-British community members and incorporate their perspective on intergenerational trauma into the finished version of this play, in affiliation with Talawa Theatre Company.  
 
Outside of theatre, Shanelle is most well-known for being an arts educator throughout the City of Boston - mentoring young people who wish to pursue careers in the arts and championing their creative genius and visionary talents.   

Leonard Wang

Fulbright/University of Strathclyde Award

Leonard is a fourth-year MD/MPH student at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Honors Biomedical Sciences at the University of Houston through an accelerated BS/MD program. In medical school, Leonard worked as the Health Policy Research Coordinator for the Department of Family Medicine and collaborated on research-to-policy projects with over $1.1 million in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With a passion for public health and health equity, Leonard is an Albert Schweitzer Senior Fellow and TYLENOL® Future Care Scholar.  
 
At the University of Strathclyde, Leonard will pursue an MSc in Health and Social Policy. Through Fulbright, Leonard will gain valuable professional and personal experiences to support his future career as a physician working at the intersection of clinical practice, policy, and healthcare leadership to alleviate health inequities and provide compassionate care to the underserved.  

Emily Woodruff

Fulbright/Queen's University Belfast Award in Global Security and Borders

Emily Woodruff of St. Peters, Missouri, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in Global Studies. As an undergraduate student she served as a research assistant on projects examining historic Irish nationalist women’s religious beliefs and national disbarment patterns in the U.S. Emily developed a passion for studying nationalism and migration after spending a semester in the Basque Country in Spain where she conducted a research project analyzing the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) and the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) social policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. She continued this research in her senior honors thesis by using migration to compare the nationalisms espoused by the EAJ-PNV and the SNP. In college Emily also interned at the ACLU of Missouri, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Labor and was involved with Sigma Iota Rho, WashU Votes, and the Washington University Political Review.   
 
Emily will attend the Global Security and Borders M.A. program at Queens University Belfast. In this program she intends to analyze how migration impacts ethno-sectarian divided communities in Northern Ireland. After completing her degree Emily plans to join the federal government and work to find solutions to address the worldwide migration crisis.   

Grace Xu

Fulbright/Manchester Metropolitan University Award in Creative Writing

Grace graduated from Princeton University in 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and a minor in Creative Writing, for which she wrote a poetry anthology about her family’s experience immigrating to the United States.  
 
At Manchester Metropolitan University, Grace hopes to continue to explore her interdisciplinary interests in creative writing and political science. Grace’s Fulbright project will be a fantasy novel about a Chinese immigrant to Manchester, who, after she dies, traces her life’s journey in reverse as she tries to return to her ancestral home- and in the process, interacts with other ghosts and different notions of the afterlife. 
 
Grace is excited to explore more of Manchester- especially the rich history of literature, theater, and music the city has to offer- and also to attend a lot of Manchester United games.

Lisa Avalos

Fulbright-Queen Mary University of London Scholar Award (Multiple Disciplines)

Lisa Avalos joined the Louisiana State University Law Center faculty in 2018. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of criminal law and procedure, with an emphasis on sexual offenses and gender-based violence. Professor Avalos’s articles have appeared in the University of Illinois Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Nevada Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Fordham International Law Journal, and others. She earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University. 

As a Fulbright Scholar at Queen Mary University of London, Professor Avalos will complete research and write a book with the aim of changing laws and policies around the prosecution of sexual assault survivors. 

Ryan Berke

Fulbright-University of Sheffield Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Ryan Berke is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University. His research focus is experimental solid mechanics for extreme temperature environments including: spacecraft re-entry, hypersonic flight, jet engines, rocket nozzles, and next-generation nuclear reactors. He is especially interested in the role that environment plays in damage accumulation across extreme temperature, time, and length scales. His work has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Air Force Research Lab, and NASA, among others. 

While at the University of Sheffield, he will employ novel vibration-based methods to more quickly characterize fatigue damage accumulation in fiber-reinforced composites. By enabling the more widespread safe use of composites, engineers will be better able to design more robust systems at reduced weight and cost without sacrificing safety or performance. 

Miriam Boeri

Fulbright-Scotland Distinguished Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (All Disciplines)

Jillian Conrad

Fulbright-Cardiff University Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Jillian Conrad is an artist who ​intertwines the practices of sculpture and drawing to reshape and re-see the world around her. Her work looks to landscape as a threshold connecting the visible and the invisible. As a Fulbright Scholar at Cardiff University, Jillian will work with colleagues in the School of History, Archeology and Religion to develop “holy-hole”, a group of map-drawings of holy wells across Wales. “Holy-hole” investigates what makes the holy wells in Wales holy, as well as the sculpturally ‘hole-y’ transition of water as it moves from below to above ground.  

Jillian has exhibited her work in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. Her work has been reviewed and discussed in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Art Lies, The New York Times, and others. She is Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Houston.  

In addition to searching out holy wells around Wales, Jillian looks forward to engaging with the Welsh language, mythology, and weather. 

Alana Dagenhart-Calvo

Fulbright-Queen's University Belfast Scholar Award (Irish Literature)

Belfast poet Ciaran Carson asks the question in his poem, "Belfast Confetti," "What is / my name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?" and in this project, Dagenhart-Calvo asks the same. She also asks; Do Northern Irish Poetics still influence North Carolina poetry and music? How do ancient chants and speech patterns serve as a base in modern lyricism in Appalachia? She wants to know if her own poems, grown from the watershed of Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina really have ties to the hills of Northern Ireland? In this hybrid project blending poetry, place studies, and pedagogy, Dagenhart-Calvo will study and teach at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast. Most of all, she wants to walk the roads and be "in place," to hear tales of The Troubles, feel the wind blow cold off of the Irish Sea and begin to know the place she’s only read about. She wants to see the lights of Belfast at night, hear the singing, and write it all into a book of poems. 

Lydia Dixon

Fulbright-Edinburgh Napier University Scholar Award (Nursing)

Dr. Lydia Dixon is a medical anthropologist and Associate Professor of Health Science at California State University, Channel Islands. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research on topics related to midwifery, childbirth, and healthcare in Mexico and the United States. 

As a Fulbright Scholar at Edinburgh Napier University, Dr. Dixon will study rural midwifery education in Scotland with a focus on how midwifery degrees can address gaps in rural maternal healthcare through online training. 

Gökhan Ersan

Fulbright-University of Birmingham Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Gökhan Ersan moved from math into art and design early in his career. Years later, research posters showcased at a university cafeteria drew Ersan back into STEM. The posters were visually intriguing yet impenetrable to him. What if graphic design enabled outsiders like him to understand what was discussed in them? Since then, Ersan has been engaged in STEM communication, working with colleagues across disciplines to reimagine science and technology through the lens of graphic design. He is looking forward to bringing his infographics toolkit to the UK. Ersan will be embedded in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham. He will teach course modules and hold workshops on employing graphics in science communication to inform the design of table of contents graphics, posters, and multimedia presentations. In the process, he hopes to produce graphic design that one could also one could also view as cognitive art—art that serves to draw audiences into knowledge. 

M.K. Foster

Fulbright-Queen's University Belfast Scholar Award (Creative Writing)

Dr. M.K. Foster is a poet, fiction writer, and historian of science from Alabama. Written in tandem, her creative and critical works thrive on a symbiotic relationship rooted in her archival research on spectacular monstrosity, eco-horror, and apocalypses in the Renaissance imagination. A 2024 MacDowell Fellow in Literature, Foster’s creative works have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Narrative, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and she has presented her research at the National Museum of Denmark, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Newberry Library, the Renaissance Society of America, and elsewhere.  

As a Fulbright Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Center at Queen’s University Belfast, she will draw on Irish mythology and the fossil record presence of mass extinction events in the region’s rock formations as she crafts ARKBIRD, a verse novel retelling of the Deluge epic as set within the 21st-century crisis of climate change. 

Shaun Gabbidon

Fulbright-University of Birmingham Distinguished Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Shaun L. Gabbidon, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State Harrisburg. Professor Gabbidon has served as a fellow at Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research and has taught at the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of more than 75 peer-reviewed articles and 13 books, including Criminological Perspectives on Race and Crime (4th ed., 2020, Routledge), and the co-authored works, A Theory of African American Offending (2011, Routledge) and Shopping While Black: Consumer Racial Profiling in America (2020). Professor Gabbidon is a Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). In 2024, he was the recipient of the Faculty Scholar Medal for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, which is the highest award for scholarship at Penn State University. 

While at the University of Birmingham, Professor Gabbidon will engage with the works of Stuart Hall in the University’s archives and work towards making his writing better known to criminologists outside of the UK. 

Joan Giroux

Fulbright-British Library Eccles Centre Scholar Award (North American Studies)

Joan is a Professor at Columbia College Chicago who has exhibited and performed internationally. As the daughter of a geriatric nurse and hospice worker, Joan understood death as part of living, and developed an interest in how representations of illness, death, and dying reflect various societies’ acceptance and understanding of “the good death.” Joan’s interdisciplinary practice frequently provides context for community and personal reflection on loss, absence, and bereavement through active play and participation. Exhibitions include Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, RISD Museum (2022); eco monopolies: a Commons Artist Project, MCA Chicago; Take Care, Weinberg/Newton Gallery (2018); and Ill at Ease: Disease in Art, University of Buffalo (2017). At the Eccles Institute, Joan will investigate origins of modern hospice in London (Dame Cicely Saunders) and Chicago (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross), culling research material to create drawings and collages for an artist’s book. 

Sarah Jewett

Fulbright/Loughborough University Award

Dr. Sarah Jewett serves as the Director of Learning Partnerships in Research and Practice at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). As part of her highly collaborative role, she designs applied learning experiences and unique opportunities for community college students who aspire to transfer into the university. She is passionate about teaching and learning, and affiliates with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Public Health, and the Language, Literacy & Culture doctoral program. As an ethnographic researcher focused on educational equity, inclusive communities and sociocultural identities, she has become deeply engaged in digital storytelling. She is excited to work closely with brilliant colleagues at the Storytelling Academy, University of Loughborough who are shaping new knowledge and practice in applied storytelling, especially within the contexts of climate change. Sarah earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Augustine Kang

Fulbright-University of Nottingham Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Music has the power to heal. Augustine looks forward to increasing access to Music Medicine that will address barriers including infection concerns, geographic restrictions, and racial/ethnic biases. His project extends his ongoing work in the United States to examine the impact of one-on-one virtual bedside concerts among high acuity inpatients experiencing pain and isolation. As the largest major trauma center in Europe, Nottingham (Queen's Medical Centre) is among the most ideal sites to develop this project. Overall, the common thread underlying Gus's work is addressing health disparities, and as a Fulbright Scholar, he looks forward to adding global health research insights to enrich his work. As a Senior Research Scientist at Brown University and Stanford University, he also hopes to establish a long-term partnership between the three institutions in advancing this key field of research. 

Florence Ling

Fulbright-University of Exeter Scholar Award

Florence Ling received her B.A. in Environmental Earth Science from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. in Geosciences from Pennsylvania State University focusing on Environmental Geochemistry and Mineralogy. She is now an Assistant Professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia, where she teaches Environmental Science and has conducted research with over 20 undergraduate students. 

Florence’s passion for the environment began in college when she conducted her first environmental geochemistry research project on the treatment of Arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Afterwards, she began taking classes on the environment and in geology. Her interest was further driven by the applicability of environmental earth science to helping others. 

As a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Exeter, Florence will examine mining contamination around Cornwall, England. She seeks to treat mine waste, while also recovering valuable minerals for the renewable energy transition to slow climate change. 

George (Ron) Mangun

Fulbright-University of Birmingham Distinguished Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

George (Ron) Mangun, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Mind and Brain and Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neurology at the University of California, Davis. He studies human brain mechanisms of perception and attention, and with his team has identified many of the basic brain processes by which humans are able to focus their attention and filter out distracting events. The Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award will allow Mangun to travel to the U.K. to conduct research in the Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH) and School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. The CHBH is home to a leading group of scientists using brain scanning and recording methods to study the nature of human cognition. The CHBH houses advanced equipment for measuring tiny magnetic signals produced by active brain cells in the living, thinking human brain. By measuring these magnetic signals, Mangun will investigate the biological bases of free will. 

Hope McCoy

Fulbright - British Virgin Islands Scholar Award at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC)

Dr. McCoy is a Lecturer and Fellow in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education program at Stanford University. McCoy’s research agenda focuses on the sociocultural dimensions of development studies, with an emphasis on education, public health, and the role of cultural diplomacy in geopolitics. 

Dr. McCoy's first book (2023) entitled: "From Congo to GONGO: Higher Education, Critical Geopolitics, and the New Red Scare" is one of the winners of an Emerging Scholars Competition in Black Studies. With a focus on Africa and Russia, this book traces the history of contact between the two regions. During each time period—education, political science, history, and Black studies are woven together, each era with shifting values and purposes that influence foreign relations between Africa and Eurasia. 

Dr. McCoy received a Fulbright Student Research Award (Russia, 2015-2016), and is thrilled to embark on this new journey as a Fulbright scholar in the British Virgin Islands in 2025. 

Matthew Rhodes-Purdy

Fulbright-University of Manchester Distinguished Scholar Award (Humanities)

Matthew Rhodes-Purdy is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Clemson University. His research combines democratic theory with political behavior to study challenges to contemporary democracies, especially populism and extremism. He focuses on the role strong citizen voice can play in enhancing legitimacy and minimizing antidemocratic, authoritarian, and extremist politics. His most recent book, The Age of Discontent, analyzes how negative emotions generated by economic trauma led to the rise of populism and the Far Right in contemporary democracies.  

His Fulbright project will move from explaining the rise of “nasty politics” to how these trends might be countered. He will investigate how the public can be incorporated through political parties practicing continuous democracy internally. His Fulbright research will focus on the Manchester Labour Party as an example of an organization that has been relatively successful in maintaining and deepening its social roots. 

Christina Seely

Fulbright-University of Dundee Scholar Award (Art and Design)

Christina Seely’s practice maps our increasingly tenuous relationship to the non-human living world. Born out of almost two decades of in-field experience as an artist and scholar working alongside climate scientists at the far reaches of the planet her work encourage new ways of sensing the self inside the realities of climate collapse. 

Seely’s Fulbright project will use the conceptual container of a studio/lab as a research site to deconstruct and suggest a re-wiring of the rhetoric of contemporary Western scientific ecological communication. This work will aim to (re)build a bridge between the language and context of science and the missing emotional and soul-stirring material the public needs to become more fully engaged in what is unfolding. Workshops will engage the University of Dundee's community with creative research that will culminate in an archive of experimental artworks and texts for exhibition and publication. (www.christinaseely.com) 

Theodore Them

Fulbright-Durham University Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

What does the South Carolina coast have in common with the Cleveland Coast in the United Kingdom? If “decade’s worth of pollution buried in the sediment” was not your answer, then you should try again. Them’s Fulbright project at the world-renowned Durham Geochemistry Centre will attempt to shed led light on the distribution and sources of industrial and societal pollution along these two coastlines using a forensic geological approach. As a Fulbright Scholar, Them will be in Durham with his wife and toddler from January to August. Back in South Carolina, he is an Assistant Professor of Geology at the College of Charleston. Although he is a geologist, his research spans several disciplines within the sciences, and he is guided by the principles of how Earth “behaves” as a system over many timescales across its vast ~4.5-billion-year history. Them has also been an ardent supporter of Liverpool F.C. for over two decades, so he is excited to drag his family to a few matches at Anfield. 

Susan Wong

Fulbright-University of Leeds Distinguished Scholar Award

Learning the history, systems and cultures of other societies was the rule in Susan’s home growing up, not the exception, and shaped how she not only sees the world but seeks out innovation and growth. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, Susan will investigate the feasibility of adapting models of conservative kidney management (CKM) in the UK for implementation in the US. CKM is a palliative approach to caring for patients with kidney failure who do not wish to undergo dialysis or are unlikely to benefit from this therapy. While CKM programs in the US are still in their infancy, the UK has a number of visionary programs that have set the benchmark for CKM practices worldwide. 

Susan is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and a nephrologist, bioethics consultant and health services researcher at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, WA. She is also the happy mother of three courageous children who will be joining her on this adventure. 

Gabriela Castro

Fulbright Distinguished Teacher, University College London Institute of Education

Gabriela Castro has dedicated her career to fostering inclusive learning environments and empowering students. With over a decade of experience teaching ESL and working for a non-profit summer enrichment program, Gabriela understands the transformative power of education, shaped by her upbringing as the child of immigrant war refugees. She holds a master’s in ESL and Spanish K-12 Education from Rutgers University.

Gabriela will research how schools and communities can promote inclusivity and support the academic success and socio-emotional well-being of multicultural students, particularly young migrants and refugees. By examining education programs in the UK, she hopes to discover how schools, educators, families, and communities collaborate to meet diverse student needs. Passionate about mindfulness and yoga, Gabriela often incorporates these practices into her work. In London, she looks forward to learning and exploring perhaps finding time to run along the Thames.

Beth Myers

Fulbright Distinguished Teacher, University of Strathclyde

For the last 20 years, Beth Myers, PhD, has created time and space for the child's right to play, worked toward equitable education for all, and contributed to a play movement in the United States. Beth has been a public school teacher for over 10 years, in high-needs schools. Trained as an environmental psychologist at Cornell University, Beth is motivated to understand how school environments can provide play opportunities for children to support their mental health and wellbeing.

In the next five years, Beth wants to create a national play training program for schools in the United States, grounded in playwork practices created in the United Kingdom, to increase the time and space for children to play at school. In addition to her role as a first grade teacher, Beth is also the Executive Director of Alliance for Childhood in the United States and Co-Founder of Just Play Project, a community-based play program supporting the child's right to play.

Amy Palo

Fulbright Distinguished Teacher, University of Glasgow

Amy Palo teaches 10th and 11th grade US and World History, AP US History, and Government and Politics at Cornell High School. Amy is a Penn State graduate (BA), holds a Master’s of Political Science from the University of Illinois, Springfield, and is pursuing a Master’s of American History from Gettysburg College and Gilder Lehrman. She is on the board of the PA Council for the Social Studies, has been named a Teach Plus PA Fellow (22), Gilder Lehrman PA Teacher of the Year (22), James Madison Fellow (18) and is a member of multiple educator advisory groups.

Outside of school she enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband Jon, dog Fin, and twin boys Theodore and Lincoln. Amy’s research project is titled, “Bridging Excellence: Supporting Social Studies Education through the exploration of the Scottish Senior Phase.” She will examine how civics and social studies education is integrated in the Scottish curriculum, and how best practices can be applied in her school district.

Colleen Brandes Hitchcock, Ph.D.

Brandeis University - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Climate Change

Colleen Hitchcock is a Professor at Brandeis University in the Biology Department and chair of the Environmental Studies Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  

Hitchcock teaches courses in Conservation Biology, Ecology, Biology of Climate Change, and Participatory Science. Her academic interests focused on the role of participatory science in ecological inquiry and conservation biology specifically relating to studies of biodiversity, conservation, phenology, and climate change.  She is interested in both the power of the public in scientific research and the application of participatory/citizen science research as a model for learning by students. Her current research focuses on pollinator diversity in urban plant communities.  

William Quirke

University of Strathclyde - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Climate Change

William Quirke is a Teaching Fellow at the Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde. His teaching, research and knowledge exchange activity specialises in the fields of sustainability education, geography education and practitioner enquiry. He is also an active member of a number of national and international working groups and professional networks relating to these areas. His current research explores the distribution of public open spaces in Scotland’s urban areas and its influence on the health and wellbeing of adolescents 

In particular, William has a keen interest in Learning for Sustainability (an umbrella term used in Scottish education to refer to education for sustainable development, global citizenship and outdoor learning) and the barriers and opportunities related to its implementation. He regularly delivers career long professional learning workshops to teachers across Scotland to support them in this area.  

William is no stranger to international collaboration. He recently collaborated with colleagues in The Netherlands, Iceland, Spain and Greece on the Erasmus+ Island Schools project, a project that saw him and colleagues working with island schools to co-create learning materials that focused on the shared sustainability issues experienced by young people living on Europe’s islands. 

Julia Paxton

Ohio University - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Inequality

Julia Paxton is a Professor of Economics at Ohio University where she teaches classes on poverty, development economics, global and local food economies, agricultural development, and altruism.  She has worked on a number of research projects related to poverty and inequality for the World Bank, the United Nations, USAID, and foreign governments.  Her research interests include poverty and inequality, microfinance, altruism, and service-learning.   

A native of Athens, Ohio she has deep connections within the community which she uses to incorporate experiential learning into all of her courses.  Her poverty and altruism classes both have a significant service-learning component which require students to work with local non-profit organizations in Appalachia focused on issues of inequality.  She has a passion for teaching and is the recipient of several teaching awards at Ohio University including University Professor, Presidential Teacher, and the Honors Tutorial Outstanding Tutor award. She holds a doctorate in Agricultural Economics, specializing in microfinance, from The Ohio State University.  

Philip McGowan

Queen's University Belfast - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Inequality

Philip McGowan is a Professor of American Literature and Associate Dean for Internationalisation at Queen’s University Belfast. They hold a BA in English and a PhD in American literature from the University of Dublin, and also recently served two terms as the President of the European Association for American Studies, from 2016 to 2024. While twentieth-century and contemporary American literature and culture are key areas of their research interests and teaching, they also played a key role in the development of the Liberal Arts degree at Queen’s. This Fulbright will provide an opportunity to enhance the international experiences of the Liberal Arts students and empower them to discover co-created responses to inequality, one of the main challenges facing the twenty-first-century world. 

Ava Thorpe

Fort Valley State University - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Polarisation and Division

Ava Thorpe teaches criminal justice at Fort Valley State University. Ava Thorpe has a professional background in criminal justice, having previously served as an inmate records clerk, police officer, deputy sheriff, medicolegal investigator, death investigation specialist, and community supervision officer. She holds certification for basic mandate and probation and parole in the State of Georgia. She has completed professional training for crisis intervention sponsored by NAMI and the Georgia Public Safety Training Council. She has a master’s degree in criminal justice with a dual specialization in forensic science and forensic psychology from St. Leo University and a bachelor’s in legal studies from Purdue University Global, and is a doctoral candidate for a PhD at Liberty University. She is strongly interested in polarization and division in criminal justice contexts and developing a curriculum that embraces the diversity of criminal justice thought, policy, and legislation.

The US-UK Fulbright Global Teaching Award will enable her to equip students with a global understanding of criminal justice institutions, historical impacts, and the importance of diversity and inclusion within the field. She enjoys baking and visiting aquariums with her two kids.  

Mark McLay

Lancaster University - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Polarisation and Division

Mark McLay is a Lecturer in 20th Century U.S. History at Lancaster University, specializing in the evolution of the United States since the 1960s, with a particular focus on the increasing political, societal, and cultural polarization that has shaped the nation. He is the author of the "American Carnage" Substack, where he explores the history of U.S. polarization to illuminate contemporary American politics. 

Currently, Mark is researching a project aimed at understanding polarization in the United States during the largely peaceful and prosperous 1990s. As part of this work, he is writing an article on gay rights during that decade, examining the era's significant social and political shifts. 

He is excited to begin the Global Challenges Teaching Award on Polarization and Division, through which looks forward to acquiring a deeper understanding of polarization as well as providing Lancaster students the chance to engage with, and learn from, their peers across the Atlantic. 

Kameelah L. Martin

College of Charleston - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Racial Justice

Kameelah L. Martin is a literary and cultural studies scholar whose expertise sits at the crossroads of Literatures of the African Diaspora and Folklore Studies. She is a professor of African American Studies and English at the College of Charleston. She holds a master’s degree in Afro-American Studies from the University of California Los Angeles and completed her Ph.D. at Florida State University where she trained in the African American literary and vernacular traditions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  

Kameelah has published two monographs and edited an anthology of essays. Her research explores the lore cycle of the conjure woman archetype in literature, film, and popular culture.  Her interdisciplinary interests spans such topics as African traditional religions, African American genealogy, and Beyoncé. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute scholar and a Fulbright-Hays Group Program Abroad alum (Ghana). She is deeply committed to teaching the histories and cultures of the African Diaspora often through the lens of Black Feminism. Kameelah will use the Global Challenges Teaching Award to promote cultural competency for sustainable racial justice advocacy while also building collaborations between Black Studies programs in the UK and US.   

Dr. Dionne Taylor

Birmingham City University - Global Challenges Teaching Award Exploring Racial Justice

Dr. Dionne Taylor is an Associate Professor at Birmingham City University, where she serves as the MA Black Studies Course Leader and teaches across Sociology and Black Studies. With over 15 years of teaching experience and a PGCE, Dr. Taylor has a deep commitment to brokering community engagement and supporting individuals and groups in reaching their potential. 

Her PhD thesis, titled "'I Wanna Love You': An Exploration into the Lived Experiences of Young Black British Women’s Interpretation and Engagement with Representations of Black Womanhood," delves into the impacts of societal stereotyping and structural inequalities on Black British women’s daily lives. Dr. Taylor’s research focuses on Blackness and identity, mental health disparities, and inequalities in higher education. 

Dr. Taylor has led several notable initiatives, including a Black Studies student exchange with Xavier and Tulane universities in 2020, which facilitated cross-cultural learning among students and staff. She also spearheaded the Black Studies and Youth Work and Communities Summer School in 2022, a widening participation project that engaged socially disadvantaged youth in educational and social activities. 

Her research leadership is exemplified by the UKRI-funded SMaRTeN project, which aimed to improve the mental health of Black university students. Dr. Taylor’s commitment to racial justice and culturally astute research is further reflected in her forthcoming works, including "The Black Studies Textbook: Beyond the Academy" and "Black University Students Mental Health and Wellbeing Matters." 

Dr. Taylor’s contributions extend beyond academia; she was featured in Leigh-Anne Pinnock's 2021 documentary "Colourism and Me," and she continues to influence the discourse on Black identity and mental health through her interdisciplinary collaborations and community-focused initiatives.