乐播传媒 College’s 2014 Fulbright recipients as of June 5, 2014. Top row, from left: K. Ailes, E. Gawarkiewicz, A. Hill, A. Lepre, C. Maeder. Bottom row: O. Minott, A. Munter, M. Ramey, J. Stewart, A. Strada.

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright grants for teaching and research abroad, 乐播传媒 has announced that 10 seniors and former students have received Fulbright awards this year.

Supporting an academic year of research and teaching in more than 155 countries outside the United States, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad annually.

This year, 16 current 乐播传媒 students or alumni were selected as Fulbright finalists. Of the 10 recipients, all but one were awarded English Teaching Assistantships, which support positions teaching English in primary and secondary schools or universities.

The exception was 乐播传媒 senior Kathryn聽Ailes, who received a grant for study and research. She聽is 乐播传媒’ first Fulbright recipient to enter a master’s program in the U.K.

Meet 乐播传媒’ 2014 Fulbright recipients (except as indicated, all are members of the Class of 2014):

Kathryn Ailes聽of Swarthmore, Pa. A double major in English and dance, she received a grant for study and research and聽will enter the Masters of Research program at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ellen Gawarkiewicz of North Falmouth, Mass. A 2013 graduate of 乐播传媒, where she majored in environmental studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Gawarkiewicz received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for work in Nepal.

Alexandra Hill of Wayland, Mass. A double major in Spanish and sociology, Hill was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for work in Brazil.

Ashley Lepre of Portland, Maine. A 2013 graduate of 乐播传媒, where she majored in English, Lepre was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Bulgaria.

Clara Maeder of Washington, D.C. A politics major, Maeder received an English Teaching Assistantship for Mexico.

Owen Minott of Needham, Mass. A politics major, Minott was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Brazil.

Anna Munter of Washington, D.C. A French and Francophone studies major, Munter received an English Teaching Assistantship for Malaysia.

Meg Ramey of San Francisco. A 2012 graduate of 乐播传媒, where she majored in English and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, Ramey is the recipient of an English Teaching Assistantship for Mexico.

John Stewart of Keene, N.H. A double major in philosophy and politics, Stewart was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Brazil.

Amy Strada of North Salem, N.Y. An English major, Strada received an English Teaching Assistantship for the Czech Republic.

The 2013 Phillips Fellows, Asha Mohamud ’15 and Rachel Baumann ’14. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

“The next world is already on its way. College education in the U.S. faces the urgent task of getting ready for it,” 乐播传媒 President Charles F. Phillips told the incoming class during Convocation 1959.

Intersections between culture and medicine drew Asha Mohamud to Tanzania.

Phillips was referring specifically to Asia, which was just beginning its ascent to today’s global influence. But 乐播传媒’ fourth president was getting at a broader notion as well: the educational importance of understanding cultures different from one’s own.

Since 1999, Phillips Student Fellowships have put that concept into action. Phillips Fellows create outstanding international or cross-cultural projects involving research, community-engaged learning or career exploration.

The program supports immersion in another culture, opportunities for intense meaningful work and unique prospects for intellectual and personal growth.

Meet Phillips Fellows Rachel Baumann ’14 and Asha Mohamud ’15.

The story of her grandparents’ escape from the Holocaust drew Rachel Baumann to Europe.

The student fellowships, along with faculty fellowships and professorships, are supported by the Phillips Endowment Program, a suite of awards, honors and opportunities funded by a $9 million bequest to 乐播传媒 by Phillips and his wife, Evelyn Minard Phillips.

“The fellowships take students out of their comfort zone in ways that are personally transformative, and prepare them to be citizens of the world,” says Kerry O’Brien, assistant dean of the faculty. “They really embody the mission of the college on several levels: educating the whole person, honoring diversity, cultivating intellectual discovery and civic action, and preparing future leaders.”

In 2013, seeking to understand experiences outside the U.S. that had changed the lives of people close to them, two 乐播传媒 students sought and were awarded Phillips Fellowships.

With the exception of Hakimah Abdul-Fattah, Ashley Brunk, Cameron Sheldon and Destinee Warner, shown below, here are the 2013 Fulbright grant recipients, photographed during a May reception at the home of 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer. From left: Catherine Tuttle, Libby Egan, Tara Prasad, Marisa Mohrer, Spencer, Valerie Jarvis, Hansen Johnson, Nora Hanagan, Taryn O’Connell. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Hakimah Abdul-Fattah. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, 乐播传媒 this year graduated 11 such students — a record number for the college.

Supporting an academic year of research and teaching in more than 155 countries outside the United States, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,800 U.S. citizens abroad annually.

2013 Fulbright recipient Cameron Sheldon.

The 2013 乐播传媒 recipients comprise one student awarded a study/research grant, for a biology project in Norway; 10 who have received English Teaching Assistantships for work in nations from France to Malaysia. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Destinee Warner ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

A 12th student received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.

Ashley Brunk ’13 received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Malaysia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Meet 乐播传媒’ 2013 Fulbright recipients:

• Hakimah Abdul-Fattah of Holland, Pa. An anthropology major and French minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in France.
• Ashley Brunk of Phoenix, Ariz. An English major and education minor, Brunk received a Fulbright English Teacher Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Emily “Libby” Egan of Harvard, Mass. A sociology major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Bulgaria.
• Nora Hanagan of Singapore. A politics major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Turkey.
• Valerie Jarvis of Granville, Mass. A major in biological chemistry with a minor in Spanish, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Hansen Johnson of Stowe, Vt. A biology major and music minor, he received a research grant for work in Norway.
• Marisa Mohrer of Guilford, Conn. A psychology major and minor in German, she received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.
• Taryn O’Connell of Georgetown, Mass. A major in environmental studies and minor in history, O’Connell was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Tara Prasad of Lincoln, R.I. A major in biological chemistry and minor in education, Prasad received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in South Korea.
• Cameron Sheldon of Canton, Conn. A politics major and Spanish minor, Sheldon received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Armenia.
• Catherine Tuttle of Pittsford, N.Y. A double major in Spanish and English, Tuttle was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Spain.
• Destinee Warner of Providence, R.I. Warner received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in the Republic of Georgia.

Seven 2012 乐播传媒 College graduates received Fulbright grants or related awards for teaching and conducting research in Argentina, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Vietnam.

Claire Lampen '12 received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College

Claire Lampen of St. Louis, Mo., received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany under the auspices of the German Historical Museum.

Six 乐播传媒 seniors received grants for teaching English as a foreign language, with five of them awarded English Teaching Assistantships from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program: Jeffrey Berry of Redondo Beach, Calif., who will teach in Germany; Jacob Kaplove of Novato, Calif., bound for Argentina; Leah Maciejewski of Tewksbury, Mass., heading for Poland; Rebecca Merten of Warwick, R.I., who will teach in the Slovak Republic; and Jessica Plate of New Fairfield, Conn., who’s bound for Vietnam.

The sixth teaching grant recipient is Dana Ellis of West Orange, N.J., who will teach in Austria supported by a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship, which is funded by the Austrian government.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad each year.

The academic grants offer an academic year of support for study and/or research in projects of the recipients’ design. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students鈥� English and knowledge of the United States.

Claire Lampen

Lampen, a 乐播传媒 history major and recipient of a Fulbright Study/Research grant, will partner with the German Historical Museum in Berlin to study photographs, maps and documents left behind by a soldier named Wilhelm Endemann at the conclusion of World War I.

Titled “Images of the Great War: A Soldier’s Photographic Memory,” the project is significant because of the perspective and depth of Endemann’s collection. “I propose to follow Endemann’s trail,” Lampen writes, and “to flesh out the documentary skeleton he laid out to reconstruct a cohesive and uniquely personal narrative of World War I.”

German soldiers were forbidden to have cameras on the battlefield, but many defied that regulation and took personal snapshots that have ended up in albums like Endemann’s, though few are as detailed as his.

At 乐播传媒, Lampen recently completed an honors thesis on the indoctrination of German children under the Nazi regime. In 2011, she undertook a seven-month study-abroad experience in Berlin, completing a full course load in German at several institutions including Humboldt University. She was also an intern at the German Historical Museum, for which she did translations and research for a website.

Jeffrey Berry '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Jeffrey Berry

Berry, a triple major in history, German and French, first experienced Germany through a 乐播传媒 Semester Abroad program in Berlin, and spent his entire junior year studying at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He wrote his 乐播传媒 honors thesis on parallels between Freud鈥檚 psychoanalysis and the output of Viennese author and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler.

During his Fulbright year, he will divide his time between teaching English and leading a digital photography course to connect with community members.

“My photography course will display life across class and cultural lines,” Berry writes in his Fulbright proposal. “The photographic medium allows students, and myself, to capture concretely notions about what is characteristic or worthy of documentation in their daily lives and the region at large — and to discuss these issues.”

After his time as an ETA he plans to pursue graduate studies in modern European history, German studies or international relations.

Dana Ellis '12 received a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Dana Ellis

Ellis, recipient of the Fulbright Austria USTA award, is a psychology major. Like Berry, Ellis was inspired to learn more about her Fulbright destination by a 乐播传媒 Fall Semester Abroad program, in her case Vienna.

“I embarked on a journey to expand my knowledge beyond what I could learn in American college courses and to immerse myself in modern-day Austria,” she writes in her proposal.

Ellis was inspired by a German-language teacher who used readings from a free newspaper to steep his students in the Viennese milieu.

“Learning a language provides the tools to interact with native speakers, but without the cultural context, the language skill is far less useful,” she says. “Bridging the gap between people of different backgrounds and exchanging cultural perspectives, while recognizing the inescapable differences . . . is what motivates me to teach abroad.”

Jacob Kaplove '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Jacob Kaplove

Kaplove, a psychology major, has worked closely with Lewiston’s Somali community as the program director for Refugee Volunteers, a program that promotes cross-cultural learning and exchange between 乐播传媒 students and refugee families; as a researcher for Project SHIFA, an in-school program designed to promote the mental health of young Somali refugees; and as a Bonner Leader, a participant in a national program that promotes student development through community work.

He was one of two 乐播传媒 students to receive the 2012 Heart & Soul Award from the Maine Campus Compact, recognizing outstanding contributions to the community.

Kaplove, who has done volunteer work in Central America, was attracted to Argentina in part because of the opportunity to work in a training college for teachers of English. This setting, he says, “will help to sustain my impact as my students will go on to teach future generations about the English language.”

In addition to teaching English in Argentina, Kaplove will work in a youth mentoring program and take courses in Spanish literature and public health. After Argentina, he plans to apply to medical school with the goal of practicing family medicine, which will allow him to continue working with Latino immigrants and refugee populations.

Leah Maciejewski '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Leah Maciejewski

“My Polish heritage has never been a large part of my life,” Maciejewski writes in her Fulbright proposal. “When my great-grandparents came to America, they chose to assimilate to the culture at the expense of tradition.”

Now Maciejewski has the opportunity to rediscover her Polish heritage while indulging her passion for teaching languages. “The Fulbright will allow me to do just that while also sharing my culture and experience as an American with my Polish peers.”

Maciejewski, a double major in English and Spanish, has been an accomplished student and volunteer, working in English Language Learning classrooms in Lewiston. She’s also respected for her athletic accomplishments, having captained the varsity softball team this spring and been honored as most valuable player, as a 乐播传媒 Scholar-Athlete and as a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Academic Scholar Athlete Team.

After her Fulbright commitment, Maciejewski will pursue a law degree in preparation for a career in public education policy. “I seek to explore the opportunities for bilingual policies in early education and consider new models of research and practice.”

Rebecca Merten '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Rebecca Merten

Merten, a history major, will travel to the Slovak Republic eager to continue cultivating her interest in education and to be immersed in a country foreign to her. She is “seeking to place myself in an environment that offers a level stage for cultural exchange, with everyone learning about a new culture.”

Merten brings considerable experience as an educator. While studying in Mexico, she assisted in teaching middle-school English classes. “While the teachers were trained, none were native English speakers, and I was a resource for both the students and teachers.”

In the Slovak Republic, she hopes to foster intercultural exchange through cooking and film clubs. As a student of history, she adds, “What interests me most about the Slovak Republic is how it has maintained its cultural identity while being at the crossroads of various military and cultural invasions.”

Upon her return, Merten hopes to remain involved in education and history.

Jessica Plate '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Jessica Plate

A history major, Plate minored in German and education at 乐播传媒, and hopes to become a teacher, a goal aligned with her interest in teaching English in Vietnam.

Through her education coursework, Plate amassed nearly 400 hours of student teaching and other fieldwork during her 乐播传媒 career. “Some of my experience was in an English Language Learners classroom, where I worked with Somali refugees,” she notes.

As a student of history, Plate believes that this is a definitive time for Vietnam. That nation, she writes, “is surrounded by two majorly developing nations, India and China.

“Historians and policymakers — as well as the Vietnamese themselves — all have the same important questions: Where will Vietnam, whose third-largest trading partner is the U.S., stand as its neighbors grow? How well will Vietnam be able to imitate the Chinese model and develop a capitalist economy with a socialist government? How will Vietnam maintain successful relations with the U.S.?”

Attending 乐播传媒 with support from a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholarship, Plate spent her entire junior year abroad, dividing it between Austria and India. She feels emotionally and intellectually well-prepared for this next foray into an unfamiliar culture. “My objective is to broaden the horizons of my students, so that they too may want to become cultural ambassadors one day.”

"Cro-Magnon Bacchus," a 2006 painting by Robert Feintuch, senior lecturer in art and visual culture.

The major German newspaper Berlin Zeitung reviewed a gallery exhibition in Berlin by Robert Feintuch, a member of the 乐播传媒 art faculty whose portraits of men offer wry explorations of powerlessness and vulnerability.

Feintuch shows “thought-provoking, memorable, otherworldly lit, photorealistic — and at the same time surreal — scenes of powerless fighters, of brutes sinking in bed,” Ingeborg Ruthe wrote in the April 18 edition. Senior lecturer in art and visual culture at 乐播传媒, Feintuch showed recent work Feb. 18-April 28 at Berlin’s prestigious Akira Ikeda Gallery.

Shown here, the artist’s 鈥淐ro-Magnon Bacchus,鈥� Ruthe went on, is “the portrait of an unathletic, rather ectomorphic hen-breasted type . . . What a contrast to the Bacchus motifs of the old masters.”

Ana Carbatti plays Iara in S茅rgio Bianchi’s 2009 film “The Tenants.”

The Global Lens series of international films returns to 乐播传媒 College this month starting with a screening of Brazilian director S茅rgio Bianchi’s 2009 film The Tenants at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

All at 7 p.m., Global Lens screenings take place at 乐播传媒 Mondays and Wednesdays through April 2. Monday screenings take place in Olin 104, and Wednesday screenings in Olin 105.

Screenings are open to the public at no cost. The series is presented by the 乐播传媒 College Museum of Art. For more information, please contact 207-786-6158.

Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2010 Festival do Rio in Brazil,聽The Tenants depicts a working-class family whose new next-door neighbors are young criminals. Building tension with stylish sequences that blend reality and fevered imagination, Bianchi’s thriller offers a shrewd portrait of the social and psychological impacts of urban violence. It depicts a city of S茫o Paulo beset — yet also aroused — by a permeating atmosphere of destruction.

Featuring 10 award-winning films in this series, the Global Lens project is designed to promote cross-cultural understanding through cinema. It is produced by the Global Film Initiative, a U.S. nonprofit that supports independent film from Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

GFI awards grants to deserving filmmakers and supports the touring film series, whose other venues include Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“Global Lens brings the world to Lewiston, giving viewers fresh perspectives on issues that confront people around the globe,” says Anthony Shostak, education curator for the 乐播传媒 College Museum of Art. “Seeing them with other members of the community, as opposed to sitting at home, provides an expanded opportunity to discuss these issues.”

Here’s the schedule for the remaining winter-spring Global Lens screenings:

• Feb. 29: Dooman River depicts intensifying tensions between illegal North Korean immigrants and rural villagers on the Chinese side of the frozen river-border through the eyes of 12-year-old Chang-ho. While Chang-ho and his community are initially sympathetic toward refugees, mounting suspicion leaves Chang-ho torn between compassion and conflict. Directed by Chinese director Zhang Lu, the intricately detailed film has won multiple awards including the Jury Prize, Paris Cinema International Film Festival. (China, 2009, 89 min.)
• March 5: Soul of Sand is a suspenseful and eccentric thriller, directed and written by New Delhi native Sidharth Srinivasan, that explores the dark intersection between Indian modernity and tradition. A powerless watchman who guards an abandoned mine reluctantly helps his landlord’s daughter and her lower-caste lover escape when she is offered to her father’s business partner as his wife. When a masked killer is dispatched to hunt the pair down, all are immersed in a visually striking world of danger, honor and hierarchy. (India, 2010, 98 min.)
• March 7: Opera Jawa blends images of contemporary Indonesia with traditional Javanese dance, music and myth to tell the tale of Seyto and Siti — a husband and wife content until the local butcher seduces Siti. This sets the stage for an epic battle in lush forests and pristine beaches, based on “The Abduction of Sita” from the Hindu epic “The Ramayana.” Directed by Indonesian Garin Nugroho. (Indonesia, 2006, 120 min.)
• March 12: Belvedere, set in a refugee camp after 15 years of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, paints a rich and uncommon portrait of the aftermath of war. Ruveyda is a widow who takes solace in routine: caring for her extended family and searching for the remains of her husband and son. But she is tested when her nephew is selected to participate in a reality show in a former enemy enclave. Directed by Ahmed Imamovic, the film explores themes of patience, faith, love and forgiveness. (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2010, 90 min.)
• March 14: The Light Thief is a contemporary tale of good and evil set in a wind-swept valley in Kyrgyzstan. Director Aktan Arym Kubat plays Mr. Light, a humble, trusting and compassionate village electrician who strikes a suspicious deal with a wealthy developer. With the dream of supplying wind-generated electricity to the valley and employment to his destitute neighbors, Mr. Light embodies goodwill and decency in a corrupt and changing world. (Kyrgyzstan, 2010, 80 min.)
• March 19: Street Days uses humor and gritty realism to explore desperation, decline and moral dilemmas in modern Georgia. Checkie, a middle-aged and unemployed heroin addict, is blackmailed by corrupt policemen into introducing the son of their wealthy enemy to drugs. Making increasingly bad decisions, Checkie reunites with his wife to face his deteriorating options before a penultimate choice. Directed by Levan Koghuashvili. (Georgia, 2010, 86 min.)
• March 21: The White Meadows a blend of fable and political critique set on the shores of a salt lake, follows Rahmat, a boatman who listens to people’s sorrows and collects their tears in vials to pour into the sea. But he remains powerless against a community that, in misguided attempts to appease the gods, inflicts multiple brutalities. Director Mohammad Rasoulof’s mesmerizing and surreal film won the AsiaAfrica Special Jury Prize and the Muhr AsiaAfrica Award for Best Director at the Dubai International Film Festival. (Iran, 2009, 93 min.)
• March 26: The Invisible Eye explores surveillance, repression and insurrection during the 1980s military regime in Argentina. An assistant teacher at an elite Buenos Aires private school, the lonely and obedient Mar铆a Teresa adopts the school’s totalitarian oversight policies. But she soon finds herself amidst a breakdown in structure and discipline at the school that mirrors the rebellion outside. Directed by Diego Lerman. (Argentina, 2010, 95 min.)
• April 2: A Useful Life is a universally appealing tribute to the soul of cinema, set in Uruguay and filmed in black and white. When a local cinema closes due to dwindling support, loyal employee Jorge is forced to find a new passion and navigate his world beyond the screen. Director Federico Veiroj received an award for Best Director at the Valdivia International Film Festival. (Uruguay, 2010, 63 min.)

“I love to watch other people take photos,” says photographer Ebbe Sweet ’11, a program assistant on the 乐播传媒 Semester Abroad program in France.

“In the moment that their shutter closes, I have the opportunity to see what they see, to experience the world as they do.”

Led by Professor of French Kirk Read and Associate Professor of History Joseph Hall, the program is an intensive immersion experience, develops strong linguistic competency and is intellectually engaging.

Emma Hitchcock ’14 photographs Maud Welch ’13 in front of the Aiguilles de Port Coton on Belle 脦le. The students are part of the intensive and immersive 乐播传媒 Fall Semester Abroad program centered in Nantes. Photograph by Ebbe Sweet ’11.

• See more of Sweet’s
• Learn about newly renovated Roger Williams Hall, 乐播传媒’ new center for language study and off-campus study, and Hedge Hall, also renovated for academic use.

he quotes the heroine, Zilia, of Fran莽oise de Graffigny’s 18th-century Lettres d’une P茅ruvienne, who noted that the French seemed to possess “very different portions of those elements from which [God] formed human beings.”

Read quotes Zilia’s lament as a “way of making explicit some of the thrills and spills of encountering new cultures.” Many of the 乐播传媒 students, “are living very poignant, often emotion-filled days as they struggle to navigate new ways of living and seeing the world.”

Jeff Sharlet, journalist and professor of English at Dartmouth College.

A best-selling author whose writing has explored Americans’ relationships to faith, Jeff Sharlet examines anti-Islamism through the lens of this year’s tragic massacre in Norway at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, in Chase Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Part of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships’ Civic Forum Series, the event is open to the public at no cost. Supporting the lecture are the anthropology, English, politics, religious studies and rhetoric departments; the American cultural studies program; the humanities division; and the Office of Intercultural Education at 乐播传媒.

For more information, please contact 207-786-6202.

Sharlet’s talk, titled The Killer in Me: Reading the Oslo Manifesto’s Sources, reflects on the growing virulence of anti-Islamic activism and rhetoric through his analysis of a text issued by Anders Behring Breivik, whose bombing and shooting spree in Norway in July left more than 90 dead. The manifesto combines and amplifies “respectable” anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Sharlet has written or co-written several books examining the role of faith in Americans’ lives. The most recent is the essay collection Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country in Between, released in August by W. W. Norton & Company.

“The characters in Sweet Heaven . . . are rough, unfulfilled, often doomed,” wrote a Kansas City Star reviewer. “We always suspect that by the end, they will be betrayed by their beliefs, will be disillusioned or destroyed.

“But failure doesn’t make belief meaningless. It may be the only thing that gives faith meaning at all.”

Mellon Assistant Professor of English at Dartmouth University, Sharlet is the author of the nationally best-selling The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (Harper, 2009), which exposes the workings of the underground evangelical group “The Family,” whose ranks include members of Congress and other powerful individuals.

“Sharlet’s book is one of the most compelling and brilliantly researched expos茅s you’ll ever read,” says author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich — “just don’t read it alone at night!”

In 2000 Sharlet and novelist Peter Manseau created , an online literary magazine described as “an electronic Tower of Babel, a Talmudic cathedral of stories about faith lost and found.” (The phrase “Killing the Buddha” comes from a Buddhist sage who said, “The Buddha you meet is not the true Buddha, but an expression of your longing.”)

Success with Killing the Buddah inspired Sharlet and Manseau to spend a year investigating the American religious experience. This adventure showed them a cowboy church in Texas, witches in Kansas, a Pentecostal exorcism for a terrorist in North Carolina and an electric chair gospel choir in Florida.

Free Press published their findings in 2004 in a book with the same title as their website. Publishers Weekly describes Killing the Buddha as “perhaps the most original and insightful spiritual writing to come out of America since Jack Kerouac first hit the road.”

Sharlet has written for Mother Jones, New York, The Nation, The New Republic, The Washington Post, Salon, The Daily Beast and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been a frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” and NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and has appeared on HBO’s “Bill Maher Show,” Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” NBC Nightly News and other broadcasts. He is a contributing editor to Harper’s and Rolling Stone.

He is working on a new book called Hammer Song, which he describes as “a short book about pop, folk, punk, sex, riots and the Cold War.”

The Fulbright recipients are (follow the links to learn more):
, a 2011 graduate, and , 2010, both of whom received assistantships for teaching English as a foreign language in Germany;
, a 2010 graduate who received the equivalent grant for teaching English in Argentina;
, a 2009 graduate whose fellowship will support his research into energy use in China;
and , a 2007 graduate who will study business and management in Spain.

Fulbright is the flagship international educational exchange sponsored by the U.S. government. It is designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and of other countries. The program is funded primarily by an annual congressional appropriation to the U.S. Department of State.

The two students of Russian began their Mount David Summit panel presentation with a black-and-white showing the open casket of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova surrounded by mourners, including a visibly distraught Joseph Brodsky, a poet she had famously mentored.

In one of the 2011 summit’s many panel presentations, Nora Murray ’12 and Andrew Wilcox ’11 drew on powerful works by the two acclaimed Russian poets to explain the “Sights, Sounds and Sense of Russian Poetry.”

The session, held in a Pettengill Hall classroom filled with fellow students, faculty, staff and friends, was moderated by Associate Professor of Russian Dennis Browne.

Wilcox examined, while Murray focused on .

Eeach read poems in the original Russian, showing how the sounds of a language 鈥� whether spoken or heard simply within one’s head while reading 鈥� contribute to the poem’s impact.

Murray pointed out, for instance, how the long pronunciation of the letter “o,” repeated throughout the Russian version of Akhmatova’s “,” strongly reinforces the mordant feeling of this meditation on the dissolution of one of Akhmatova’s three marriages.

They also read English translations, including their own, of the same works, revealing the audience how translations of the same piece can vary widely.

Both discussed, during the presentation and in response to questions afterward, the challenges and joys of translation, pointing out how much of the result depends on the intention as well as the skill of the translator.

While some translators aim to render a virtually literal, word-for-word representation in another language, even if that sacrifices some of the meaning, others seek to virtually create a new work that is their own as much as the original writer’s, a fact that prompted Wilcox to note that Brodsky tightly controlled translations of his poetry when he was alive.