According to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Cheryl J. Fish, Associate Professor of English at BMCC has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research in the area of Environmental Justice and North American Studies at University of Tampere in Finland during the 2006-2007 academic year.
The focus of Fish’s lectures abroad will be on eco-criticism and environmental policies through the examination of American novels, non-fiction, poetry and films that deal with environmental issues.
“What I really want to see is if literature and film really have the power to change us,” said Fish. “Do they point out the problems with the environment and make us want to become activists or do they simply entertain?”
Fish is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 150 countries for the 2006-2007 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.
“Work by mostly American writers and filmmakers is my focus at BMCC,” explained Fish. “It’ll become more of a comparative research project while I’m studying and teaching abroad. I’m very interested in learning about the environmental movements in Finland, especially in the town of Tampere, which has an industrial past and used to be called ‘the Manchester of Finland’ before the old factories were replaced by shops, restaurants, and other tourist attractions.”
The Fulbright Program. America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught or done research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the U.S. They are among more than 266,600 American and international university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in Fulbright exchange programs.
Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields. Among thousands of prominent Fulbright Scholar alumni are Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist; Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; and Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Corporation.
