From left to right, top to bottom: Teddy Ajluni CC’21, Dejavis Bosket CC’19, Jacob Dahan CC’21, Cayla Davis CC’21, Sabrina Delafield GS’21, Matthew Esche CC’21, Zoe Ewing CC’21, Ethan Fenlon CC’21, Benjamin Goldstein CC’20, Nick Manfred CC’21, Zachary Marcone CC’19, Allyssa Phelps CC’21, Elle Swenson CC’21, John Zhitong Wang CC’21
Fourteen Columbia University affiliates have been awarded 2021-2022 Fulbright U.S. Student grants, which offer funding for students and young professionals to undertake individually-designed international research and study projects or primary and secondary school teaching in English-language classrooms. Fulbright recipients this year expect to begin their fellowships in 2022:
Teddy Ajluni CC’21
As a Fulbright Student Scholar in South Korea, Teddy Ajluni will serve as an English Teaching Assistant. While there, he is eager to build upon his training in anthropological and historical studies by engaging in Korean culture and sharpening his language skills. He hopes to someday use the pedagogical skills he gains from this experience in educational institutions, such as museums, where he can share aspects of both his Korean and Palestinian heritage to educate the general public.
Dejavis Bosket CC’19
Dejavis Bosket, from Seattle, Washington, majored in English and concentrated in Russian literature, and will be using his language skills as he fosters cross-cultural exchange in Kazakhstan as an English Teaching Assistant. He hopes that his interest in the relationship between folklore and epic poetry—planted at Columbia—will bloom amongst the literary riches of the Kazakh steppe.
Jacob Dahan CC’21
As a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, Jacob will conduct independent research under the guidance of Dr. Nadine Gogolla at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology. Here, he hopes to identify the neuronal correlates of "emotional contagion," the process by which humans unconsciously recognize and share in the emotions of those with whom they interact. Jacob, originally from Los Angeles, California, majored in Neuroscience and Behavior at Columbia.
Cayla Davis CC’21
Cayla Davis studied economics and was a captain of the Columbia Women’s Varsity Soccer Team. Cayla is excited to immerse herself in the unique political, economic, and cultural landscape of Taiwan, while contributing to its high-performing educational system as an English Teaching Assistant.
Sabrina Delafield GS’21
As a Fulbright scholar in the United Kingdom, Sabrina will research the intersection of dance, politics, and sociology at the University of Roehampton. Drawing on her background as an international ballerina and her BA in Political Science, her project aims to explore how ballet companies are using digital platforms as a new incarnation of global cultural diplomacy. Sabrina plans to broaden a hybrid platform, danncersconnect.de, that aims to support dancers during the Covid-19 recovery to the London dance community.
Matthew Esche CC’21
As a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Bonn in Germany, Matthew who majored in economics-political science plans to work with and learn from economists and social science researchers in the faculty at Bonn and at the IZA and briq institutes. His project focuses on the political and social determinants of economic attitudes in Germany.
Zoe Ewing CC’21
Zoe graduated Columbia in 2021, majoring in philosophy. She spent her summers in college as a debate instructor teaching philosophy and public speaking to high schoolers. As an English Teaching Assistant in Taiwan, she hopes to further develop her teaching skills and explore her interests in education policy and the philosophy of education.
Ethan Fenlon CC’21
While at Columbia, Ethan volunteered to teach English to NYC immigrants through a local organization called Community Impact. As a student, he majored in English with academic interests that included East Asian cinema and Korean literature. Ethan is looking forward to serving as a Fulbright EnglishTeaching Assistant in South Korea next year, where he will bring his teaching experience to a new setting.
Benjamin Goldstein CC’20
Benjamin is continuing the research he began as a sophomore at Columbia College on American foreign correspondents in Nazi Germany through a research Fulbright at the Free University of Berlin under the guidance of Arnd Bauerkämper. He will conduct research in German and other European archives to examine the relationship between the American interwar media empire of William Randolph Hearst and European fascism in the 1920s and 30s.
Nick Manfred CC’21
Nick will conduct research at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich, Germany, under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Frank. There he will use computational methods and live imaging of the whole larval zebrafish brain to investigate how sensory, associative, and motor neural circuits drive behaviors of compulsion and addiction. He is excited to further develop as a researcher in the year ahead and forge lasting connections before starting his PhD.
Zachary Marcone CC’19
Zak will be using his Fulbright grant to conduct research at Uganda Christian University Law School. Zak's research interests center around law, economics, and globalization. Drawing on his experience as a Yenching Scholar, Zak will study Chinese investment and Chinese migrant communities in Uganda. In the past Zak spent two summers working in Uganda at a microfinance company.
Allyssa Phelps CC’21
Allyssa, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, graduated with a major in History and a concentration in East Asian Studies. She looks forward to teaching as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Taiwan. She hopes to continue fostering her academic interests in modern urban history and Mandarin during her time in Taiwan.
Elle Swenson GS’21
Through the Open Study/Research Fulbright in Brazil, Elle will explore the consequences of violence on development in Rio de Janeiro’s informal settlements and will specifically investigate the impacts of gang and state occupation on community access to basic needs such as electricity. Working alongside the Center for Science Applied to Public Security at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Rio-based justice and development NGO Catalytic Communities, Elle’s multi-disciplinary and mixed-methods approach to research will allow her to assimilate to both the social and academic communities in Rio as she compiles and publishes her findings through the local, narrative-shifting publication RioOnWatch.
John Zhitong Wang CC’21
As a Fulbright Study/Research grantee to Taiwan, John will pursue a Master's in Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at Taipei Medical University, and investigate the neural mechanisms behind sleep using MRI and machine learning. He looks forward to this opportunity to prepare for his future Ph.D. studies in applied neuroscience and engineering.