Sixteen head overseas for a year of study

Sixteen Tufts alumni and current students—the most in university history—will be spending the next year studying overseas as Fulbright Scholars. “The large number of students and alumni receiving scholarships and awards reflects the inherent quality of our student body, coupled with their initiative and imagination,” Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow said.

Tufts’ 2005 Fulbright recipients are:
Jeanette Bailey, who received her degree in international relations in 2003, will head to Bolivia in October to study food security and nutrition in the Aymara villages in the Bolivian highlands. Since graduating from Tufts, she worked for a sustainable development education organization in Panama for a year, and since has worked for an international humanitarian agency in New York City, Action Against Hunger. This summer, she is northern Uganda, doing research on maternal/child health and nutrition in refugee camps and developing a child survival program under a U.S. Agency for International Development grant.

Neilesh Bose, a Ph.D. student in history, received a Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant to travel to India and Pakistan. Bose will study how the movement to create a separate East Pakistani nation-state in Bengal, while clothed in religious terms, also used various models of social justice. Bose also plans to analyze the literature and songs of Bengali Muslims from the 1870s through 1947 to determine how the religious and political history of the region led to the creation of East Pakistan in 1947.

Nichole Bosson, who received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Tufts in 2002 and is now a third-year student at the School of Medicine, will examine the pre-hospital emergency medical system in France through research at the archives of L’Assistance Publique and an internship at the Service d’Aide Medicale Urgent (SAMU) de Paris. She will focus on methods and outcomes as they compare to the data she is gathering about the U.S. emergency medical system and will write a paper detailing the ways both countries’ systems can compliment each other.

Diana Caba © Melody Ko

Diana Caba, A05, an international relations and art history graduate, was awarded an English teaching assistantship in Argentina. With fluency in English and Spanish, Caba plans to use English-language films, the creation of a book club and skits to promote discussion among her students. “As a Latina growing up in the United States and [with] my experience in Latin America—visiting my family in the Dominican Republic and studying abroad with Tufts in Chile—my interests have developed within the region,” says Caba, who also will be exploring the country’s community cultural centers.

Karen Delio, who received her B.F.A. from Tufts in 2000, will research the 14 drawings that depict the Stations of the Cross on the Chapel of Archbishop Romero in San Salvador. She will work with Father Rodolfo Cardenal and Father Dean Brackley at the University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas (UCA) to research the cultural implications of the artwork. Delio plans to have the artwork and its history published and made accessible to academics, artists and the Salvadoran people.

Joseph Doiron, who received his master’s degree in German in May, will be doing research on the history of Albanian literature, with the goal of writing a history for English speakers. He will be working with the linguistics and literature departments at the University of Tirana. A shorter version of the literary history, outlining the parameters of the Albanian literary canon, will be submitted to several journals specializing in Eastern European studies. Doiron’s final Albanian literary history will chronicle all major Albanian literary work from the first written documents through the contemporary period.

Pauline Eveillard, A05, who graduated with a degree in art history, will study Roman mosaics at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia. She will be working with a specialist in mosaics at the museum and intends to do on-site literary, historical and archival research, analyzing the thematic and stylistic developments of the mosaics from the third century A.D. to the tenth century A.D., as well as the political, social and cultural implications of the images depicted in the mosaics. Eveillard will explore the impact of the arrival of the Christian faith in Tunisia on the stylistic development of the mosaics and the role of the mosaics in representing socioeconomic change. She plans to submit her research to the Bardo Museum and to the Perseus Project at Tufts.

Laura Frye, A05, who received her degree in international relations, will analyze the potential and realized benefits to women’s health of the 2004 reforms in Moroccan family law (Moudwana). Through interviews with the medical community, women’s health organizations and rural and urban Moroccan women, she will assess the perceived effects of the legal changes and identify obstacles to fully realizing the reforms. The first phase of Frye’s research includes gaining a sense of the public health issues that affect women in Morocco and the perceptions of the Moudwana reforms.

Pritesh Gandhi, who received degrees in international relations and economics from Tufts in 2004, is currently enrolled in the post-baccalaurate program at Johns Hopkins University. Working with Pratham, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education of preschool-aged children in Bombay, India, Gandhi will conduct a qualitative study to examine the knowledge that preschool children have about feces disposal, hand washing and water collection. He will analyze each child’s family and community to assess the factors that may be negatively influencing sanitation efforts. With this information, Gandhi will propose and implement a program in which basic sanitation and hygiene practices will be discussed and ultimately used in the families of the Pratham-educated preschoolers.

Kelsey March, who received her degrees in music and community health in May, will be an English teaching assistant in South Korea next year. To create interactive and fun activities for her students, March plans to incorporate her musical knowledge into her daily lesson plans. By introducing simple lyrical melodies to her students, they can learn and memorize word meanings and phrases through melodic associations. In addition to teaching, she also will volunteer at the Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (G.O.A.L.), which will influence the work she plans to do in public health in the future with Korean-American adoptee identity formation.

Rachel Marx, who received her degrees in philosophy and Spanish in May, will be an English teaching assistant in Spain. Most of her lessons will revolve around a travel theme, with students learning about the places they will be able to travel to when they can communicate in English. Students will work in groups to create travel brochures for U.S. cities and learn new vocabulary by deciphering lyrics to popular American songs and watching American films. While in Spain, Marx also plans to undertake a study of Spain’s public institutions, particularly as they relate to education. After the Fulbright grant, she plans to work in educational policy.

Liz Munsell © Melody Ko

Heading to Chile as an English teaching assistant will be Liz Munsell, A05, who earned her degree in international letters and visual studies. Her pedagogical approach will include using slides as visual aids to encourage intercultural exchange on the topic of the arts. Students with a lower level of English comprehension will learn basic vocabulary words to describe colors and shapes, while students with a higher level of comprehension will discuss the thematic qualities of each slide. UNESCO has found that art education is a direct way to foster mutual respect between cultures. During her time in Chile, she will also conduct research on how the arts and multimedia have revamped education in Chile. An avid photographer, Munsell focused her Tufts studies on art and revolution in Latin America, including a trip to Cuba with other Tufts students. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in education when she returns to the United States.

Neil Peretz, A88, G90, will be studying European Union law and cross-border consumer dispute resolution in the EU. He will be based at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, focusing on mechanisms for resolution of cross-border consumer disputes stemming from online transactions. He will also be a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies. Peretz is currently finishing his J.D. degree at the UCLA School of Law.

Kavita Pillay, J97, who received her degrees in biology and religion, will be based in the state of Kerala in south India, where she will produce an audio and written narrative about a group of independent filmmakers. In 1965, these filmmakers formed a collective to produce films in the New Wave/art house tradition, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of their efforts. The original members are getting older; some have died, and many of their first films have decayed in the heat and humidity of southern India. Pillay’s hope is to use the age-old tradition of oral history to document the experiences of the older members of the collective. Their reflections about what it means to be committed to independent film given the monumental shadow of Bollywood (India is home to the world’s largest movie industry); the unique political and social circumstances of Kerala, which has a strong leftist tradition and is the only fully literate state in the country; and the limited resources of India are of tremendous interest to her.

Chris Valente © Melody Ko

Chris Valente, A05, an international relations major, Writing Fellow and tri-captain of the men’s varsity swim team at Tufts, will travel to Germany to teach English at Greifswald in Mecklenberg-Vorpommern. Valente plans to incorporate multimedia and the Internet into his lesson plans so that his students can use current events as a catalyst for discussions in English. He plans to use American films to increase the listening comprehension of his students. While in Germany, he also plans to study European monetary policy, particularly the European Central Bank and its role in macroeconomic decision-making. He says the programs he was involved in at Tufts (he also was the coordinator of the Tufts Wilderness Orientation program and an ATO brother) have left as much of an imprint on him as he’s left on them. “I could name hundreds of people I’ve met here who have guided me along in my time at Tufts, and I think it’s a very fitting culmination to be able to say ‘thank you,’ because now I can go represent my university abroad in the Fulbright program,” Valente said. “Tufts is a very distinguished university abroad, and I’d like to continue that tradition.”

Timothy Wagner, A05, who received his degree in English, also will be teaching in Germany. He anticipates introducing his students to great European and American poems, so that by reading an abstract or difficult piece, the students will become attuned to form and style. After reading a poem, the students will discuss their first impressions and then move into a discussion of meaning and finally into an examination of the way the stylistic issues reflect, communicate or create those meanings. He sees the experience as a chance to “boost [his] language ability” as well as broaden his already-strong appreciation for the humanities. “The humanities—and I think this is true for all the humanities, not just English—are great, not because they provide you with a vast body of practical knowledge, but because they teach you how to think,” says Wagner, who wants to pursue a Ph.D. in English.