In January 2017, I came to the Washington DC area to investigate the representation of Islam and Muslims in higher education, Islam on campus for short. George Mason University (GMU) was my case study for my Fulbright-Schuman research project. The rationale for choosing GMU was because the university is one of the most ethnically diverse […]
Category: 2016-17
My Fulbright-Schuman research project examines the labor market integration of refugees in select EU Member States. Broadly, my study looks at how private enterprise works with government agencies in facilitating refugees’ job readiness and labor market integration, whether through the direct hiring of refugees or through policy development (e.g., through influencing the development of vocational […]
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One Less Stranger
Before Fulbright, I avoided long conversations with strangers. I made this choice most consciously on airplanes. After taking my seat, a slight dread often filled me that I a stranger would feel the need to share their thoughts on something like the taste difference between red and white quinoa. I would imagine this hyperbolic scenario […]
As my Fulbright comes to an end, I look back at the past nine months of my life abroad with mixed feelings of nostalgia, astonishment and pride at what I have accomplished. My photos and memories of living in Toulouse, traveling to Germany, Spain and Belgium, driving through the Lower Pyrenees, and consuming more than […]
In 2016 I was awarded one of the Fulbright-Schuman pre-doctoral fellowships in order to conduct research at Columbia University in the city of New York. Hosted by Professor Tim Frye, at the Political Science Department I researched how economic sanctions affect politics in targeted countries. The time I spent at Columbia was tremendously enriching and […]
In late March 2017, United Nations (UN) peacekeepers found the bodies of three UN personnel who were tragically killed in Kasai Central Province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Swedish national Zaida Catalan, American Michael Sharp, and their Congolese translator, Betu Tshintela. The three were part of the UN expert panel investigating conflict and […]
Smiles, curiosity, intrigue, admiration, excitement, confusion – are just a few of reactions my initial introductions stirred amongst my fellow Fulbright colleagues, students and faculty in my first days in the U.S. Curious as my presentation was at the beginning, it is no longer curious now – only four months after the start of the […]
Fulbright friendship We are two Fulbright grantees from France, Farah and Raphaële. We met in Paris during the pre-departure orientation meeting organized by the French Fulbright Commission, and decided to meet up again in New York at the beginning of the academic year. Since then, it has become a tradition for us to see each […]
I chose Georgetown University as my destination because of my research interests. I am in the close-to-final stage of my PhD dissertation, and wanted to work in a place that seemed to fit my research needs and plans the best. Not only were my expectations were met in Georgetown, but also exceed, making my experience […]
It is almost two months already since I left Belgium to start my experience as an EU Fulbright-Schuman Scholar at the renowned University of Michigan Law School. Travelling for the first time to the other side of the Atlantic has soon become a totalizing experience of life during which I have been learning a lot […]