Sturgis International Fellowship for Students Seeking International Research or Internships

Photo Submitted

University of Arkansas graduate student Karen Stigar, conducting fieldwork in El-Barranco, Guatemala.

The Fulbright College Honors Program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is once again accepting applications for the prestigious Sturgis International Fellowship. The deadline to submit is Thursday, March 1 by 4 p.m.

This award, funded by a gift from the Roy and Christine Sturgis Educational Trust, grants up to 10 scholars per year $15,000 in support for longer-term research or internship-focused study abroad (defined as at least four continuous months outside of the United States).

The Sturgis International Fellowship builds on Sen. J. William Fulbright's mission of peace through education by fostering scholarly collaborations between U of A students and scholars across the globe. 

To apply, students must be full-time graduate students pursuing a degree anchored in Fulbright College or rising junior or senior Fulbright College Honors undergraduates with a declared major in Fulbright College.

Eight students were selected to receive Sturgis International Fellowships in 2017-18. These students' specialties range from the humanities and STEM fields, to the social sciences and the arts; and their projects have taken them to international locations from Central America to South Asia, and from Western Europe to East Asia.

Recipients included:

• Karen Stigar, a master's student in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, is currently in Panajachel, Guatemala, where she is producing a documentary film on the influence of Spanish on Kaqchikel, an indigenous Mayan language, and maintenance efforts to assure future use of Kaqchikel.

• Caroline Beimford, an M.F.A. student in the Department of English's Program in Creative Writing and Translation, is in Madrid, conducting research for a novel that explores the intersections of journalism, activism, economic policy, and immigration in that city.

• Nicholas Cox is pursuing an M.F.A. in studio art in the School of Art. He spent the fall 2017 semester in residency at Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland, where he studied the role of vernacular music and performance in community-making and political expression.

• Lincoln Heffley, an honors student in the Department of Communication who is also majoring in International Studies, used her fellowship to study at the School for International Training in Geneva, Switzerland, where she examined multilateral diplomacy and the impact of United Kingdom's and France's influence on the anti-proliferation sanctions imposed on Iran.

• Aaron Johnson, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics, spent the fall semester collaborating with scholars at the University College, Cork, in Ireland, and at the University of Murcia in Spain, to analyze the formation of the "spiral arms" of the Milky Way galaxy.

• Alex Marino, a doctoral student in the Department of History, is in Lisbon, Portugal, engaged in a Portuguese immersion program. For Marino, functional fluency in Portuguese will be foundational to his dissertation research on the history of American involvement in the Angolan Civil War.

• Sara Port is a doctoral student in Space and Planetary Science. Port spent the summer and fall in Okayama, Japan, where she was able to access Japanese Space Agency's Akatsuki orbiter to examine the role of metal frost and a thick, reflective atmosphere on Venus' weather patterns.

• Bradley Wilson, a doctoral student in the Department of Geosciences, spent the summer and fall of 2017 in partnership with Kathmandu Living Labs and the U.S. State Department's Secondary Cities initiative to collect field data for his dissertation research on earthquake preparedness and mitigation in Nepal.

Application guidelines and requirements are available on the Sturgis International Fellowship web page.

Final applications must be submitted in both hard-copy and PDF format. Hard copies must be delivered to the Fulbright College Honors Office in 517 Old Main and PDF files should be sent to Mary Ellen Hartford at mhartfo@uark.edu.  

All application materials are due in the Fulbright College Honors Office no later than Thursday, March 1, by 4 p.m.