Newman University lecturer Emma Folwell receives a Fulbright Award to the US
Emma Folwell, a lecturer in American History at Newman University has received the Elon-Fulbright Scholar Award to enable her to lecture and research at Elon University, in North Carolina on one of the most well-regarded and impactful scholarship programmes in the world.
As a participant, Emma has been selected to lecture at Elon University, renowned as a national model for engaged and experiential learning. She will also undertake archival research as part of a project exploring the history of social welfare in the early twentieth century US South. This project seeks to engage with the distinctive nature of Southern social welfare as Progressivism waned, placing the history of social welfare in the South in not only national but transnational perspective.
As part of the Fulbright Visiting Scholar programme, the Scholar Awards provide the only scholarships available to academics and other professionals for lecturing and research in any discipline at any accredited US university. The Awards form part of the US-UK Fulbright Commission’s work to promote leadership, learning and empathy between nations through educational exchange.
Commenting on receiving the Award, Emma said: “I’m delighted to receive a Fulbright Award. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with students and colleagues at Elon University. Coming from Newman University, which prioritises student experience, I’m looking forward to working at Elon University, which also stands at the forefront of innovative approaches to teaching and learning. I’m also excited about the research opportunities this award provides. As a Fulbright Scholar, I’ll be able to take advantage of my proximity to archives and share my research at a number of conferences in the US. At a time of rising nationalist sentiments on both sides of the Atlantic, I believe it is more important than ever to strengthen the cultural ties between Britain and the United States. I hope this will enable me to play a part, however small, in the continuation and strengthening of cultural ties between the US and the UK.”
Penny Egan CBE, Executive Director, US-UK Fulbright Commission said:
“In the US-UK Fulbright Commission’s 70th year, we can look back on the lasting impact that more than 27,000 educational exchanges between Brits and Americans have had – both on participants and on our two countries. We know that this cohort of Scholars will make the most of this opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture, develop ongoing partnerships, and move us closer to fulfilling Senator Fulbright’s vision of a world of peace and prosperity through greater understanding between our peoples.”
The US-UK Fulbright Commission, now in its 70th year, was founded by diplomatic treaty in 1948 to foster intercultural understanding between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland through educational exchange. The Fulbright Commission is part of the scholarship programme conceived by Senator J. William Fulbright in the aftermath of World War II to promote leadership, learning and empathy between nations through educational exchange. Award recipients will be the leaders of tomorrow and support the “special relationship” between the US and UK.
The Commission continues to support Senator Fulbright’s vision through our scholarship and summer programmes, enabling British and American citizens to study, research or teach at universities on either side of the Atlantic. There have been over 27,000 Fulbright exchanges between our two countries so far. Prominent alumni of the US-UK Fulbright programme include poet Sylvia Plath; politician Charles Kennedy; and the economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman.
Emma has been a lecturer in modern American history at Newman University since 2015. Having previously studied at Oxford University and the University of Leicester, she completed her PhD at Leicester in 2014. Her research explores the development and decline of the war on poverty in Mississippi in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her forthcoming monograph, Poverty Wars in Mississippi, will be published by the University of Mississippi Press next year.
Emma and the other 46 British grantees of the 2018-19 Fulbright cohort will celebrate their success at a reception hosted by the US Embassy in June.