Four UA Reps Selected for Fulbright Scholars Program

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Council for International Exchange of Scholars recently selected four University of Alabama representatives to its 2003-2004 U.S. Fulbright Scholars Program.

Dr. Subha Chakraborti, professor in the department of information systems, statistics and management science in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration; Dr. Marilyn Emplaincourt, associate director of Capstone International academic programs; Dr. Richard Lomax, professor in the department of educational studies in psychology, research methodology and counseling in the College of Education, and Norman Singer, Charles O. Stokes Professor of Law in the School of Law, were selected.

“I was looking to expand my horizons, and this is a good opportunity,” said Chakraborti, as to why he decided to apply for the program. He will teach, lead seminars and perform joint research in non-parametric statistics with faculty and students at the University of Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa. It will be Chakraborti’s first visit to South Africa and the African continent.

“I haven’t seen their teaching, and I haven’t seen their students or the faculty, but the end result – as research publications in refereed statistics journals – is high quality work,” he said. He is scheduled to depart next month and return in late summer.

Chakraborti, Lomax and Singer were selected for the Traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, which sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad to 140 countries each year for two months to an academic year. Grantees lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

Emplaincourt, whose Fulbright field of study is language and literature, was selected for the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program. In this program, U.S international education administrators are invited to apply for two- to three-week summer seminars in Germany, Japan or Korea. She will travel to Korea with a group for two weeks.

Lomax’s fellowship began in September 2003, and he is scheduled to return next month from his stay at Tallinn Pedagogical University, in Estonia, while Singer will lecture on law and social sciences and social anthropology in Serbia and Montenegro, beginning next month and continuing until September.

The Council’s web site lists only six representatives with ties to Alabama schools, with UAB and UAH each having one selection.

The U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.