Three at UW Receive Fulbright Awards for International Efforts

Three University of Wyoming faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2023-24 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The recipients are Brandon Gellis, an associate professor in the Department of Visual Arts; Elizabeth Lynch, an assistant professional lecturer in the Department of Anthropology; and Thomas Seitz, an associate professor in the School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies.

“The fact that UW will have three of our scholars participating in the Fulbright Program next year is a testament to the broad range of exceptional international work being done at UW,” says Isadora Helfgott, UW’s vice provost for global engagement. “Maximizing our faculty participation in the Fulbright Scholar Program is a main priority for the Global Engagement Office, and I am thrilled with the success of these three applications, which will take our faculty to different corners of the world and bring such diverse perspectives back to our students.”

Gellis received the award for his project “Visualized Culture Wars: A Photographic Ethnological Study of Street Art and Mark Making.” He will investigate how street art, graffiti and mark making are critical, often temporal, responses to political, socioeconomic and religious culture wars. He will be a visiting lecturer and will collaborate with scholars in Israel at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, and Tel Aviv University.

Lynch’s award is for a teaching and research project that builds upon her current research with the faculty of social and plant sciences at University of The Bahamas, Grand Bahama. She will teach an online class and an ethnographic field methods class during summer 2024, providing an international perspective on sociocultural dynamics involved in local and international recovery efforts post-Hurricane Dorian (2019). Her research explores the social impact of severe storms and how recovery efforts mitigate community distress through community-based citizen science projects.

Seitz’s project will compare and contrast democratization processes in Thailand and Indonesia, paying particular attention to how their histories and political cultures shape their expectations of democracy. This will take place through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Research Program.

The three UW recipients are among more than 800 U.S. citizens who will teach or conduct research abroad for the 2023-24 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.

As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Notable Fulbright alumni include 62 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, 78 MacArthur Fellows and 41 who have served as heads of state or government.

About the Fulbright Program

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants from over 160 countries -- chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential -- with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and our world.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation by Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program.

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org.