Edward C. Holland, an assistant professor of geography in the Department of Geosciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been chosen to receive the Arkansas Visiting Fellowship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England for the 2019-20 academic year. 

While at Wolfson College, Holland will be affiliated with the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU), a leading center globally for the study of Inner Asia, which includes contemporary Mongolia and extends to Kalmykia, a region of Russia, in the west.

Holland will be working to complete a book on the topic of Kalmyk Buddhism, tentatively titled, To the Golden Abode: Kalmyk Buddhism in History, Minority, and Diaspora. This book will integrate the varieties of religious experience for Kalmyks through a consideration of the importance of Buddhism in distinct historical periods and geographical contexts: during the Soviet period, in the republic today, and in diaspora in the United States.

The visiting fellow program gives faculty the opportunity to join the vibrant academic community at the University of Cambridge, which, in 2019, is celebrating its 810th anniversary.

Visiting scholars are typically engaged in teaching and/or research at the university or in a recognized research establishment while in Cambridge. Visiting fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis to scholars who are not normally residents in Cambridge