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 Assad Family in performance.

Featuring brothers whom a Washington Post reviewer called “the best two-guitar team in existence,” the Assad Family brings their Brazilian Songbook program to 乐播传媒 College at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 6, at the Olin Arts Center Concert, 75 Russell St.

Tickets for this Olin Arts Alive concert cost $22, available at . Limited free tickets are available for students and seniors (65-plus) at . For more information, please contact 207-786-6163 or olinarts@bates.edu.

The Assad Family’s nucleus is guitarists S茅rgio and Odair Assad. Renowned as the Assad Brothers, they play original compositions, classical, jazz and diverse musics of Latin America and their native Brazil. Their sister Badi Assad, renowned as a singer and instrumentalist; S茅rgio’s daughter Clarice Assad, a composer and singer; and Odair’s daughter Carolina Assad, a singer, join them to form the Assad Family, performing Brazilian folk and pop.

Badi Assad. (Roberto Aso)

The brothers have set new standards of guitar innovation, ingenuity and expression. Their exceptional artistry and uncanny ensemble playing stem from both a family rich in Brazilian musical tradition and their studies with the guitar-lutenist Monina T谩vora, a disciple of Andr茅s Segovia.

The Assad Brothers have worked extensively with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Fernando Suarez Paz, Paquito D鈥橰ivera, Gidon Kremer and Dawn Upshaw.

Their duo repertoire includes music composed by S茅rgio and his reworkings of folk and jazz music as well as Latin music of many styles. Their classical repertoire includes transcriptions of the great Baroque keyboard literature of Bach, Rameau and Scarlatti, and adaptations of works by figures as diverse as Gershwin, Ginastera and Debussy.

In October 2012, S茅rgio and Odair premiered a performance of a new concerto written for them by Clarice, at the Pro-Musica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio.

In 2004, the Assad Brothers and their daughters, Sergio’s son Rodrigo, Badi and their parents, Jorge and Angelina, toured North America as the Assad Family. In 2008, the brothers performed on Yo-Yo Ma鈥檚 chart-topping release Songs of Joy and Peace聽 (Sony Classical), which features such other guests as James Taylor and Dave Brubeck.

The recording features S茅rgio鈥檚 composition 鈥淔am铆lia,鈥� with Angelina, Badi, Clarice, Rodrigo and Carolina among the performers. The CD topped both the classical and the mainstream Billboard charts and won a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover.

The Assad Brothers.

鈥淭here was never any doubt that the music would be world-class in the Assad Family concert,” the Los Angeles Times stated in a review of the 2004 Assad Family.

“The flow of talent did not diminish with this third generation, each of whom displayed impressive potential: Clarice Assad鈥檚 mobile voice and compositional skills and Carolina Assad鈥檚 warm-toned vocalizing … The best aspect of the program was its remarkable sense of creative intimacy, of talented generations enjoying the rare opportunity to make music together.鈥�

In 2011, the present Assad Family lineup took shape. Their 2014 program includes their newest suite, “Da Volta As Raises” (“Back to Our Roots”).

Badi is known as a fearless barrier-breaker and experimenter. She transcends traditional styles of her native Brazilian music with a mixture of pop, jazz and folk sounds from around the world. An extraordinary singer, guitarist and percussionist, she is forging an exhilarating genre of music that defies categorization.

In 1987, at age 17, she was named 鈥淏est Brazilian Guitarist” at the International Villa Lobos Festival. At 18, she recorded her first solo album, and was selected to perform in the play Mulheres de Hollanda, a theatrical collage of songs by Brazilian composer Chico Buarque that ran for more than a year.

Badi has recorded for Chesky Records, whose release of her Rhythms won Guitar Player Magazine鈥檚 Readers鈥� Poll for Best Classical Album; PolyGram; and Deutsche Grammophon, whose 2006 release Wonderland was selected for the BBC’s 100 Best CDs and Amazon.com鈥檚 Best 30.

Clarice Assad. (漏2012 Cynthia van Elk)

Carolina is a strong vocalist with an innate feel for the rhythms of Brazil. Clarice has performed professionally since age 7. Well-established in the United States as a classically trained composer, pianist and vocalist, she has served this year as the Albany Symphony’s composer-educator partner.

She is curating a major educational project with a local school during her residency and will join the orchestra for a performance of her Concerto for Scat-Singer, Piano and Orchestra in May. Her latest solo recording is Home (Adventure Music), an album of originals and interpretations of Brazilian songs. “[S]he鈥檚 a talent quite beyond compare,鈥� an All-Music Guide reviewer wrote in response to the recording.

While many of us spent New Year’s Eve counting down, Kristin Kelliher ’16 was going up.

Way up.

Right now, Kelliher is leading a three-person team聽鈥� two fellow 乐播传媒 sophomores and her stepfather, Bill Bender聽鈥� to the summit of Aconcagua, a 22,841-foot peak in western Argentina that’s the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Kristen Kelliher ’16 of Norwich, Vt., the youngest female to climb the highest peaks in all 50 U.S. states, is leading a hike up Aconcagua, the Western Hemisphere’s highest mountain. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

She’s climbing Aconcagua not just “because it’s there,” in the words of Everest climber George Mallory, but for a related reason: The mountain is not here, meaning in the U.S.

Kelliher has already climbed all the highest peaks in the U.S., becoming the youngest female to “highpoint” all 50 states in 2012 when she reached the top of Alaska’s Denali at age 18. She was also the youngest highpoint the lower 48 states, in 2011, receiving for both achievements.

Besides reaching even greater heights on this South America trek, the Aconcagua climb is the first that she’s leading. “My other big mountains, like Rainier, were guided,” she says.

She chose Aconcagua because she “wanted something not technically difficult” for her first major climb as a leader. At the same time she sought the challenge of “being able to plan, fund and do my own trip of substantial size with no guides.”

“We’ll take it really slow.”

The biggest obstacle on this climb, she says, “is altitude. It’s the highest I’ve been.”

During the fall, she and her 乐播传媒 climbmates, Jordan Cargill ’16 of Freedom, N.H., Jonathan Gougelet ’16 of Hanover, N.H., trained for the climb by doing laps up and down Mount David (elevation 354 feet) while carrying 50-pound packs.

Kristen Kelliher ’16 is seen here while climbing Mount Rainier in late summer 2013.

“We’ll take it really slow, not just one push,” she says. “We’ll do acclimatization hikes, and we’ll ‘climb high, sleep low.'”

“Climb high, sleep low” is a strategy where a climber takes some gear to the next, higher camp, then hikes back down to sleep at the lower camp. The next morning, the climber hauls the tents and the rest of the gear to the higher camp, repeating the process all the way up the mountain.

This photograph from Kelliher’s 2012 climb of Denali shows the landscape at 17 Camp, so named for its 17,000-foot elevation. (Photo: Kristen Kelliher ’16)

Kelliher’s team departed 乐播传媒 right after finals, on Dec. 15, traveling by plane from Boston to Miami, from there to Santiago, Chile, and then on to Mendoza, Argentina. They took the bus to Los Penitentes to meet a mule team that would haul their gear to the base camp, Plaza de Mulas, at around 14,000 feet.

They hope to hit the summit around Jan. 1, where they’ll unfurl a 乐播传媒 banner.

Kelliher describes mountain climbing “beautiful, hard and rewarding.”

“You’re not thinking. You’re just going.”

“When you’re on a rope team, 30 feet from the next person, it can be so reflective. All you hear is your ice ax, your crampons, and your own hard breathing. You’re not thinking. You’re just going. It is a very comfortable state to be in.

“Then you get to the top 鈥� or not 鈥� and you say, ‘That was cool, that was agreat experience.’

“Sometimes I hate it. I wonder why I do it. It’s painful, hard and emotionally and physically demanding. But something about it draws me.”

From “Intricate Glances Will Meet Here.” (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

“I told the dancers to imagine that they’re embracing a partner,” says Colleen Fitzgerald ’14, describing passages in her dance piece “Intricate Glances Will Meet Here.”

“So there are a lot of moments when people will be wrapping their arms around the air. And that’s the partner that they don’t have.”

Colleen Fitzgerald ’14 (facing camera) is shown with Bridgette Chandhoke ’14 during a dress rehearsal of “Intricate Glances Will Meet Here.” (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

“Intricate Glances,” which Fitzgerald choreographed and which she and six other dancers (named below) perform on Dec. 6 and 7, could be described as a meta-tango. The piece draws heavily on that Argentinian dance form, which is very much about the dynamics within a couple.

But Fitzgerald looks instead at the dynamics of the people around the couples 鈥� how the group produces them and regards them, and how it takes them apart. Groups form within the group and disperse. In long walks around the dance floor to Nuevo Tango tunes by Astor Piazzolla, two dancers portray the vicissitudes of a long relationship. Outcasts are ultimately welcomed, while some insiders reject all comers.

“Intricate Glances Will Meet Here” takes place at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. The performance is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

Fitzgerald of Granby, Conn., is double-majoring in anthropology and dance. With dance program director Carol Dilley as her adviser, she developed “Intricate Glances” as one of her two senior thesis projects. “What I was doing to create a dance stemmed from fieldwork that was anthropological and choreographic,” she says. “And my anthro thesis will ultimately be based in the dance and movement of tango.”

Fitzgerald put her interdisciplinary chops to work during extended research stays in the capital of tango, Buenos Aires, in 2012 and 2013. Last summer, in particular, she studied the tango as both a dancer and an anthropologist, conducting formal interviews with practitioners of the form.

“Intricate Glances” explores how groups and couples interact. Shown during a dress rehearsal are Bridgette Chandhoke ’14 and Mary Anne Bodnar ’16. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

Her interviewees included non-Argentine dancers, tango traditionalists (and tradition is very potent in tango), and Argentinian innovators 鈥� in particular Brenda Angiel, whose company combines the vocabularies of modern dance, hip hop and tango with aerial dance.

Fitzgerald focused on ways that tango changes when it’s adapted by non-Argentine cultures. “When Europe picks it up and when America picks it up, it’s a totally different thing than what we see danced in Argentina,” she says. “I was interested in how different people are changing tango, and I added myself to the list” of those different people.

“I was concerned with doing the tango justice and learning enough about it,” as opposed to copping some moves and calling it good, Fitzgerald adds. “How do you make this specific type of movement your own? And then, what’s your relationship to the original?”

Dances are built from movement vocabularies, and for “Intricate Glances” Fitzgerald combined tango and modern dance elements. Sometimes that involved reconciling contradictions. The title of the piece, for instance, refers to the eye contact so important to tango, whether in seeking a potential partner all the way across the dance floor or fueling the tension once locked in an embrace. “It has an intensity and an intention behind it that’s really strong.”

“Intricate Glances” combines modern dance with tango, as exemplified here by Anna Lanoue ’15 and Lydia Rubenstein ’15. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

But in modern dance, says Fitzgerald, eye contact is less common. “So I’ve been trying to make my dancers comfortable looking at each other for long periods of time, at really close distances.”

Crucial to the development of “Intricate Glances” was Fitzgerald’s 2013 乐播传媒 Dance Festival experience, directly after her return from Argentina.

“It was three weeks of living, sleeping, eating, taking dance classes with professionals in the field,” says Fitzgerald. “That gave me the opportunity to think about myself as a professional dance maker, and about how I could start that practice now with a dance thesis.”

The festival also demystified the choreographic process and planted the concept of a toolbox of techniques, tactics and approaches that a choreographer (or a creator in any field) brings to each situation. “I was drawing on all these ways of making movement, whether it be videotaping or using text from interviews — I had tons of field notes from Argentina.”

That toolbox comes in handy when, for instance, “you’re in a rehearsal and your dancers are all ready to go, and you’re like, ‘I’ve got nothing.’ There are these ways to get you over those hurdles, to use your choreographic process to the fullest.

“That was the biggest thing I learned for my thesis.”

As part of her thesis project, Fitzgerald is writing a critical assessment of the creation of “Intricate Glances.” She says, “It’s hard with art. Not everyone wants to think that way and not everyone wants to critique their own creation.”

Colleen Fitzgerald watches her dancers during a dress rehearsal of “Intricate Glances.” (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

For her, though, “the written portion helps a ton 鈥� it helps me verbalize some of what’s going on in my mind. I need some of that concreteness to see this journey that I’ve gone on.”

In short, the performances of “Intricate Glances” 鈥� despite all the work that has gone into them, from the dance itself to production and marketing chores 鈥� are only the tip of the senior thesis iceberg. “That’s what everyone will see. But the amount of personal learning, and learning between me and my cast, was far more important and extensive.

“Just figuring out how to blend anthropology and dance, that’s what I did with this thesis. And figuring out how to represent another dance that’s not mine. And that’s something that I want to explore as a choreographer outside of 乐播传媒.”

Performing with Fitzgerald in “Intricate Glances Will Meet Here” are Bridgette Chandhoke ’14 of Fairfield, Va.; Mariya Manahova ’14 of Sofia, Bulgaria; Tomisha Edwards ’15 of Memphis, Tenn.; Anna Lanoue ’15 of Newton, Mass.; Lydia Rubenstein ’15 of Nashville, Tenn.; and Mary Anne Bodnar ’16 of New York City.

Fitzgerald’s pre-thesis research was supported by a Ruggles Scholarship, a Hoffman Research Support Grant and a Barlow Thesis Research Grant.

Julieta Zylberberg stars in Diego Lerman’s film “The Invisible Eye.”

Celebrating the introduction of its Program in Latin American Studies, 乐播传媒 presents a festival of independent films set in Latin America in screenings Friday through Sunday, Oct. 11-13, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Titled Memories of the Present Past/Memorias del Pasado Presente, the series opens at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, with The Invisible Eye, an exploration of surveillance, repression and insurrection during the military regime in Argentina.

A scene from “Fat, Bald, Short Man,” a 2011 production in rotoscope by Colombian director Carlos Osuna.

Showing on Saturday, Oct. 12, are Fat, Bald, Short Man at 3 p.m. and The Prize at 7. Sunday’s films are The Finger at 3 p.m. and A Useful Life at 7. (Descriptions appear below.)

Admission is open to the public at no cost. The series is presented by the Latin American studies program, the 乐播传媒 College Museum of Art and the college’s George and Helen Ladd Library. For more information, please call 207-786-8212.

These five critically acclaimed films reflect on the contested memories of the past, the reverberations of state repression in everyday life and the restoration of democracy in the region.

They are drawn from the Global Lens series of international films. Created by the Global Film Initiative and regularly featured at 乐播传媒, Global Lens celebrates the artistry of independent and emerging filmmakers in countries outside the film industry mainstream.

A scene from the film “The Prize.”

Formalizing the college’s longstanding interest in Latin America, the new program enables 乐播传媒 to offer, for the first time, a formal major in the field. Geographically, the program encompasses Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Course offerings cover anthropology, economics, environmental studies, history, politics and Spanish.

“You can’t understand the United States without understanding Latin America, and you cannot understand Latin America without understanding the United States,” says film series co-coordinator Jennifer Adair, visiting assistant professor of history. A specialist in Latin American history, Adair organized Memories of the Present Past with Baltasar Fra-Molinero, professor of Spanish and of African American studies, and with staff at the art museum.

Politically, socially, economically and culturally, the Americas are connected in ways both apparent and subtle, Adair says. “Understanding what unites the Americas is really resonant today, so it’s timely that 乐播传媒 can now integrate these different aspects of what it is to be American — meaning North, Central and South America.”

A scene from Argentinian director Sergio Teubal’s 2011 film “The Finger.”

The film series has its own timeliness. 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Chile that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and epitomized a period of state terror throughout Latin America. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of democracy’s return to Argentina after a military dictatorship notorious for its brutally repressive tactics.

Those events shape the stories and characters in this film series. And film, in turn, is a uniquely effective medium for these stories.

Film, says Fra-Molinero, is “a showcase of the diversity of cultural, political and artistic experiences of Latin America.” And Latin American film is an up-and-coming force in the film world. “Film is such a strong cultural product,” he says.

These filmmakers, Adair says, are “children of the dictatorships.”

Jorge Jellinek plays a dedicated cinema employee in Federico Veiroj’s 2010 film “A Useful Life.”

“Each film in the series is in direct conversation with some aspect of the recent past, and speaks to the ways that memory has somehow become part of politics today.”

In that sense, says Fra-Molinero, the films offer valuable lessons for 乐播传媒 students coming to grips with pivotal moments in the recent history of their own country that took place when they were very young, such as the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

Here are the films of Memories of the Present Past/Memorias del Pasado Presente:

• The Invisible Eye (La Miranda Invisible; Argentina, 2010. 95 min.). Director Diego Lerman tells the story of a lonely and obedient teacher at an elite Buenos Aires school. At first adopting the school’s totalitarian oversight policies, she soon finds herself amidst a breakdown in structure and discipline at the school that mirrors the rebellion outside.
• Fat, Bald, Short Man (Gordo, Calvo y Bajito; Colombia, 2011. 91 min.). In this film by Carlos Osuna, the prospects for a lonely middle-aged notary unexpectedly change after he joins a self-improvement group and his charismatic new boss 鈥� and strangely affable doppelg盲nger 鈥� takes an interest in his life. Filmed in rotoscope.
• The Prize (El Premio; Argentina, 2011. 99 min.) A political activist’s life-in-hiding on an isolated stretch of Argentina’s coast is jeopardized after her 7-year-old daughter is selected to participate in a local school’s patriotic essay contest. Directed by Paula Markovitch.
• The Finger (El Dedo; Argentina, 2011. 93 min.) In the face of electoral fraud and intimidation, the severed finger of a respected local leader points the way forward for independent-minded citizens and their town’s quest for democracy. Directed by Sergio Teubal.
• A Useful Life (La Vida Util; Spanish, 2010. 63 min.) In director Federico Veiroj’s story, a cinema in Uruguay closes due to dwindling support, forcing loyal employee Jorge to find a new passion and navigate his world beyond the screen.

Dav铆d Carrasco. (Photograph courtesy of Harvard Divinity School)

Dav铆d Carrasco, a Mexican American historian of religions, offers the inaugural lecture in 乐播传媒 College’s Latin American studies program at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, in the Keck Classroom, Room G52 in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Titled Origins, Cities and Crossroads: Latin American Studies Through the Lens of a Colonial Mexican Map, the talk is open to the public at no cost. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please call 207-786-8204.

Carrasco is the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard Divinity School, with a joint appointment with the anthropology department in the faculty of arts and sciences. He has a particular interest in Mesoamerican cities as symbols and in the Mexican-American borderlands.

The new Latin American studies program enhances 乐播传媒’ stated mission to become a center of learning in today’s global culture. Encompassing multiple approaches to the study of Latin America, the program aims to broaden students’ worldviews, challenge ethnocentric attitudes, expand understandings of diversity and develop tools for cross-cultural communication.

The fields of anthropology, economics, environmental studies, history, politics and Spanish contribute to the major. Focusing on this region that includes Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, courses in the program explore history, culture, language and politics from initial European encounters to the present.

More about Dav铆d Carrasco

Carrasco’s studies with historians of religions at the University of Chicago inspired him to work on the question “Where is your sacred place?”; on the challenges of postcolonial ethnography and theory; and on the practices and symbolic nature of ritual violence in comparative perspective.

Working with Mexican archaeologists, he has carried out research in the excavations and archives associated with the sites of Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. An award-winning teacher, he has participated in spirited debates at Harvard with Cornel West and Samuel Huntington on the topics of race, culture and religion in the Americas. His several collaborative publications include Mysteries of the Maya Calendar Museum with Laanna Carrasco (Cruce de Caminos, 2012).

He was co-producer of the film Alambrista: The Director’s Cut, which puts a human face on the lives and struggles of undocumented Mexican farm workers in the United States, and he edited Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants (University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

Carrasco’s most recent publication is a new abridgement of Bernal D铆az del Castillo’s memoir of the conquest of Mexico,聽History of the Conquest of New Spain (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

He has received the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor the Mexican government gives to a foreign national. He has been chosen as University of Chicago’s Alumnus of the Year for 2014

By late July, Simone Schriger ’14 had finished her off-campus semester program at the Universidad Austral de Chile.

In Chile, she pursued an independent study of dating violence among Chilean college students. Now back on campus, she’ll use the raw findings from that experience as the basis for the academic project that will dominate her senior year: the honors thesis.

Simone Schriger ’14 in La Campana National Park, Chile. (Photo: Arantxa Gallegos)

Name: Simone Schriger 鈥�14

Hometown: Los Angeles

Major: Psychology

Adviser: Associate Professor of Psychology Michael Sargent

Research Funding:聽Schriger was in Chile with C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad, a program sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Off-Campus Study Office, and received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help her integrate her abroad experience into her senior year academic work.

1. In a nutshell, what was your independent study project in Chile?

I developed and conducted a study on violencia en el pololeo, premarital dating violence, among Chilean university students. I traveled to different universities and held focus groups, asking students about dating violence and their thoughts about the topic.

2. Were you able to draw any conclusions?

While that part of the project will form the basis of my honors thesis work, it’s very evident that the concept of intimate partner violence is prevalent both in the numbers and the psyche of Chilean students.

My project is timely because the Chilean government is just now starting to look at proyectos de ley, law proposals, concerning premarital dating violence. Currently, assault in Chile is only legislatively聽considered to be domestic violence if it involves a man and women who are married and have lived together. This is problematic because many instances of domestic violence fail to be recognized as such by the legal system.

3. Aside from the topic, what did you learn by doing research abroad?

On her semester program in Chile, Simone Schriger ’14 examined the issue of dating violence among college students. The experience has given her the raw material for her honors thesis work. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

When in Rome, you have to do as the Romans. That is, if you want to get things done you can鈥檛 impose your own ethnocentric views on another culture.

4. What’s it like to be back at 乐播传媒?

It is a little difficult to transition from studying in Chile, where every day felt like an unknown day, to being back to what is more familiar. But I’m going to try to adopt a mindset back at 乐播传媒 that every day can be an unforeseeable adventure.

5. How have you changed?

My first year at 乐播传媒, I had a general idea of things I wanted to do, but didn’t know the means of accomplishing those goals. I had no idea how to make an idea a reality in my life.

Now, given the experiences that I’ve had at 乐播传媒, the positions I’ve held and the classes I’ve taken, I feel confident in approaching a new situation. I have more control over my future.

6. Who is your 乐播传媒 faculty mentor?

Michael Sargent has been my major adviser, and I have worked with him since freshman year as a research assistant and in his courses.

My project changed focus several times, but even when it shifted away from his area of research, social psychology, he was very supportive and continued to mentor me. He and I met with Professor Georgia Nigro, who helped me understand how qualitative research differs from quantitative research. Professor Nigro will be my thesis adviser.

I also met with Professor Claudia Aburto Guzm谩n, who is from Valdivia, which I didn鈥檛 know going into our conversation. Given that I had never been to Chile, she really helped give me insights about what was feasible, culturally and logistically. She supported my ideas while providing constructive criticism.

7. You’ve done related work in Lewiston-Auburn?

Since my first year at 乐播传媒, I have been involved with Safe Voices, an agency that deals with domestic violence in Lewiston-Auburn as well as Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

Freshman year, I went to photograph the executive director of Safe Voices for Lewiston Auburn Magazine. I arrived, asked what the organization was about and decided I wanted to volunteer.

I was trained to be a helpline volunteer. Now, every week I sign up for a shift and have calls directed to my cellphone. Safe Voices runs a 24-hour helpline, so at any point during my shift anyone in the country, or I guess the world, could call this number and get support and resources about domestic violence issues.

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.”

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.)

Tiarra Abell ’12, a double major in Spanish and anthropology, is spending her December break in Ecuador doing research.

As the end of the semester approaches, 乐播传媒 students are looking forward to a break from late nights in the library and a chance to spend the holidays with friends and family. But for senior Tiarra Abell of Louisville, Ky., winter break is a time to get some real work done.

At 4 a.m. Dec. 10, just hours after her last class of the semester, Abell began her journey back to Ecuador, where she spent her junior semester.

“A reality is coming true that I never imagined,” Abell said. “Although I didn鈥檛 want it to, I expected my time in Ecuador to end. But within just six months I’m able to go back!”

Along with 11 other seniors, Abell received a Barlow Thesis Research Grant. Established by David Barlow ’79, the grant’s goal is to enhance the study-abroad experience.

“I really like the Barlow thesis grant program, as it helps link the study abroad experience to the student’s academic program at 乐播传媒,” said Stephen Sawyer, director of off-campus study. “It allows students to return to their study-abroad country and interact with that setting in a more targeted way, building on their first experience.”

A double major in Spanish and anthropology, Abell is writing two senior theses, both investigating the lives of the Afro-Chote帽o community in Chota, a rural village with a population of 800. While living with a host family in Chota last spring, Abell was struck by the warmth and generosity of the Afro-Chote帽os despite the poverty in which they live.

“That was the first time in my life that I have experienced extreme poverty, in its real form,” said Abell. “The way they accepted me into their culture because I looked like them was very powerful to me. Just because I am black and I was doing well, they were very proud of me, as if I was one of their own.”

The timing for the return visit could not be better. After witnessing Easter in Chota, Abell was inspired to write her Spanish thesis on the role of faith in the lives of the devoutly Catholic Afro-Chote帽os. Abell hopes that spending Christmas in Chota will allow her to gather valuable interviews and photographs for her thesis.

After 乐播传媒, Abell plans to pursue a career in medicine. While in Chota, she volunteered at the local health clinic. She will return to the clinic to gather more field notes for her anthropology thesis on the economic and racial inequalities affecting medical treatment in Chota.

“This is a great opportunity,” she said. “Now I not only have volunteer experience in the medical field, but I have it in another culture.”

Most of her time will be spent in Chota, but Abell will visit Quito and Otavalo to gather books and articles that are not available in the United States on the Afro-Chote帽os. During this time she plans to meet Carla Guerron, the author of one of her primary sources, El Color de la Panela (“The Color of Brown Sugar”).

Abell will miss spending the holidays with her family in Louisville. “This is the first Christmas I have missed with my family, but being able to share and give back to people who don鈥檛 have nearly as much鈥攚ho can鈥檛 even conceptualize the amount of things I have鈥攂rings me back to the true meaning of Christmas that my parents and family instilled in me.”

While home for Thanksgiving, Abell added, “my best friend’s sister gave me a big bag full of toys to give to the kids in Chota knowing that they would go to good use.”

— Erica Long ’12