2 Pitt graduate students were awarded Fulbright research grants

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Two Pitt graduate students have been awarded funding for their studies:

Emilie Rose Coakley studies music and Global Studies, and she uses musical ethnography and participant observation to focus her research on the work of the Center for Liturgical Music (Pusat Musik Liturgi) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She’ll examine how music is used to construct an Indonesian Catholic identity — at the center and its affiliate parishes in Flores and Medan — in the majority-Islamic nation.

Trevor Thomas Wilson has studied French, Slavic languages and literatures, Russian and Eastern European studies, cultural studies, and gender, sexuality and women’s studies at Pitt. In Russia, he’s focusing his study on Alexandre Kojève, a 20th-century philosopher. His research examines the influence of the Russian philosophical tradition on his work.

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.