Highlights of Fulbright-Hays Support for Doctoral Students Abroad, 2000–10
Brooks Marmon, Program Assistant
From 2000 to 2010, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program (DDRA) supported thesis research of 87 graduate students in political science. As a result of cuts in the FY 2011 federal budget, the Department of Education announced in May that this year's competition would be cancelled. DDRA was one of six programs that were cancelled in 2011 when Congress significantly reduced appropriations for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs that promote international education (the other competitions/programs are Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language; International Research and Studies; Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship; Business and International Education; and American Overseas Research Centers). The DDRA program had provided funding for graduate students to spend up to one year abroad in countries outside of Western Europe since it was first funded in 1964.
APSA continues to work with the Coalition for International Education, the National Humanities Alliance, and the Consortium of Social Science Associations to encourage the federal government to maintain funding for programs supporting political scientists. The Association regrets that the current economic climate has led to the reduction and cessation of Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs that play a crucial role in advancing US global competence. Grace Huang of St. Lawrence University, was a DDRA scholar in Taiwan during the 2001-02 academic year. She believes the cancellation of the program “seriously impede(s) our ability to train the next generation of scholars sophisticatedly attuned to cultures different from our own.”
Huang adds that the reputation of the competition alone leads to a research experience that is more valuable than that provided by equivalent funding from a lesser known source. Huang argues that “the Fulbright name carries much respect. As a recipient of this fellowship, I felt internally motivated to acquire the skills that one would expect a Fulbright scholar to possess. In addition, I believe that senior scholars were generous with their time in mentoring me because I was a Fulbright scholar.”
A brief yearly look at the work of graduate student political scientists with DDRA support since 2000 follows below. The number of political science awardees (in parenthesis) follows the competition year, followed by a selected participant's name, institution, country of study, and topic of study.
2000 (5): Jeffrey Wong, University of Washington, Thailand, “The Middle Class and the Origins of the New “Chineseness” in Thailand”
2001 (7): Paul Dosh, UC, Berkeley, Ecuador and Peru, “Does Decentralization Help the Poor?: Responsiveness and Efficiency in Urban Latin America”
2002 (7): Emmanuel Teitelbaum, Cornell University, India and Sri Lanka, “The Political Economy of Industrial Relations and Economy in South Asia”
2003 (9): Brian Grodsky, University of Michigan, Poland, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), and Uzbekistan, “After the Party: Foreign and Domestic Influences on Human Rights Accountability in Post-Communist States”
2004 (7): Lisa Blaydes, UC, Los Angeles, Egypt, “Strategic Interaction and Regime Change: Explaining Political Transition in the Arab World”
2005 (6): Erick Danzer, University of Wisconsin, Indonesia, “Commodity Chain Politics and Agro-Export Booms in Indonesia”
2006 (9): Dominika Koter, Yale University, Senegal and Benin, “Salience of Ethnicity in African Politics”
2007 (14): Andrea Herschman, UC, Los Angeles, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, “The Political Sources of the Dutch Disease: Lessons from the Caspian and Beyond”
2008 (6): Eduardo Moncada, Brown University, Columbia and Ecuador, “Clientelism and the Rule of Law in Latin America: Public Security and Access to Justice”
2009 (7): Ora John Reuter, Emory University, Russia, “The Origins of Dominant Parties”
2010 (10): Adryan Wallace, Rutgers University, Nigeria and Ghana, “Gender Production and Nationalism: A Comparative Study of Hausa Women's Groups in Nigeria and Ghana”
NSF Awards: 2011 and 2010
2011
The Political Science Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 25 new projects and 44 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals for 2011. The Political Science Program spent $5,234,470 on these research, training and workshop projects and $483,822 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually —Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, September 16 and January 15— and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures. [PS: Political Science and Politics 45 (1).]
2010
The Program funded 68 new projects and 30 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals for 2010. The Political Science Program spent $10,680,966 on these research, training and workshop projects and $339,944 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually —Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, September 16 and January 15— and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures. [PS: Political Science and Politics 44:2)]
