UCSB Fulbright Scholars to Study in Japan and Montenegro

Two faculty members at the University of California, Santa Barbara have been awarded Fulbright fellowships to study in Japan and Montenegro during the 2007-08 academic year. In addition, the Fulbright Scholar Program has awarded grants to 10 university professors from seven countries to conduct research at UCSB during the same period.

The campus's recipients are Douglas H. Daniels, a professor of history and black studies, and Michael V. McGinnis, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies and the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

Daniels will travel to Yokohama City University in Japan where he will teach courses on African American history and the history of jazz. In addition, he will conduct research on that music genre's expansion into the Pacific world. The westward course of jazz toward Hawaii, the Philippines, and Asian nations has been largely neglected, Daniels noted.

McGinnis, who is also the acting director of UCSB's Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, will teach graduate and undergraduate courses in coastal and marine policy and environmental program development at the University of Montenegro's Institute of Marine Studies. He also will complete a book project on Mediterranean ecosystems, including southern California and the Mediterranean Sea. His research explores the relationship that exists between diverse cultures and ecosystems across these areas, and the relative plight of maritime cultures and ecological systems around the world.

Fulbright scholars from abroad who are studying at UCSB this year include Tatjana Bogusevica, a professor of political science at the University of Latvia; Nahide Bozkurt, a professor of Islamic history at the University of Ankara in Turkey; Huijun Chen, a professor of education at the China University of Geosciences in Beijing; Mikhail Egorov, a professor Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic studies at Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University in Russia; Evgeniya Gelman, professor of anthropology at the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Juan Manuel Gomba, professor of mechanical engineering at the National University of the Central Province of Buenos Aires in Argentina ; David Johnson, professor of economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada; Toshio Ohori, professor of linguistics at the University of Tokyo; Tatiana Vorontchenko, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at Zabaikalsky State Pedagogical University in Russia; and Shenpin Zhang, professor or economics at Peking University in China.

The Fulbright Scholar Program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is America's flagship international educational exchange program. Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has sponsored approximately 273,500 American and foreign scholars. Recipients are selected based on academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.