University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members Dawne Curry, Amelia Montes and Anthony Zera earned Fulbrights to teach and conduct research abroad during the 2017-18 academic year.
The Fulbright Scholar Program, established in 1946 and funded by the U.S. Department of State, is designed to foster understanding between the United States and other countries. The U.S. Scholar Fulbright program gives university faculty and administrators the opportunity to conduct research and teach in one of 125 designated countries.
Curry, associate professor of history at Nebraska, earned a Fulbright to the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Curry had made several research trips and organized Education Abroad programs in South Africa, a country that she calls her “home away from home.”
The Husker historian will be in South Africa through June, researching the role of women in political systems in the country. The Fulbright, she said, provides an avenue to delve more deeply into her research and allow time to complete a manuscript about African women intellectuals in South Africa’s political landscape during from 1910 to 1948. Curry said that era, which marks the formation of the Union of South Africa to the rise of apartheid, is understudied. She will visit archives in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town and conduct interviews.
Montes, associate professor of English and ethnic studies, will be hosted by the University of Novi Sad in Serbia, later this month through next July. Montes will teach a graduate course in American literary studies and theory with a focus on Chicana and U.S. Latina literature and theory. She also will write about her experiences in Serbia and neighboring countries.
“The many ethnic groups in the Balkans have experienced much strife,” Montes said. “I want to listen and understand the stories and perspectives from Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Montenegran, Macedonian individuals as well as the immigrants and refugees who have found a home in these countries.” Montes said the country has interest in Chicana and U.S. Latina literature because it helps inform their own struggles with oppression over language, race, heritage and identity: “They seek new ways to come to terms with their historical legacy,” Montes said. “I seek to honor them by listening and respectfully entering into conversation with them.”
Zera, Kate Foster Professor of Biological Sciences, will teach and conduct research at Leuven University in Belgium from January and through July 15. He will teach a graduate course on evolutionary endocrinology focused on evolutionary change in hormonal control mechanisms and how these changes lead to the formation of new traits in organisms – for example, how changes in the amount or timing of reproduction are altered by the hormones that control reproductive traits.
“Evolutionary endocrinology is a new sub-discipline that I helped develop that synthesizes studies of evolution and endocrinology,” Zera said. “I will also be undertaking experimental research in a world-renowned laboratory that studies the function of insect hormones. I hope I can contribute to the biology department at Leuven University by bringing in a type of expertise that they currently do not have, and I hope to be a good ambassador for the United States and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.”
