2007-2008 Fulbright Fellows

During the 2007-2008 Academic Year, the American University of Kuwait (AUK) will host four Fulbright fellows: two Fulbright Scholars, one Fulbright Senior Specialist, and one Fulbright Student.

The Gulf Studies Center is host to the Fulbright fellows affiliated with the American University of Kuwait, providing administrative and research support during the entirety of their residence in Kuwait. The Fulbright fellows in turn enrich AUK's intellectual and community life with their academic expertise and international perspective.

The Fulbright program is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, and university teaching worldwide. The program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to "enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."

The Fulbright Program awarded approximately six thousand grants in 2006, at a cost of more than $235 million, to U.S. students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 150 countries, and to their foreign counterparts to engage in similar activities in the United States.

AUK's resident Fulbright fellows for the 2007-2008 academic year:

Scholars

Dr. Abbas Benmamoun

 

Dr. Benmamoun is chair of the Linguistics department at the University of Illinois-Urbana and a renowned scholar in the field of Arabic linguistics. During his Fulbright fellowship in Kuwait, Dr. Benmamoun conducted extensive research on the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic in collaboration with the Linguistics department at Kuwait University. At the American University of Kuwait, Dr. Benmamoun created and taught a new course entitled "English and Globalization," examining the influence of the English language on cultures and languages around the world. 

Dr. Amal Mahmoud



Dr. Amal Mahmoud is an ESL/EFL/Linguistics professor with more than thirty years experience in teaching graduate and undergraduate classes. He is currently an ESL Instructor at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington. Dr. Mahmoud received his PhD in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and his MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo. During his Fulbright grant at AUK, Dr. Mahmoud will be drawing on his broad expertise in the field of ESL to teach courses in the University's Intensive English Program. 

Senior Specialist

Prof. Peter Spielmann

 

Prof. Spielmann is currently editor of the North America Desk at the Associated Press, having spent more than twenty years with the Associated Press covering domestic and international stories. His body of work includes reporting on the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, and the Gulf War. Prof. Spielmann has also served as adjunct professor of journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for over a decade, supervising graduate students and teaching courses in the field of International Journalism. During his time at AUK, Prof. Spielmann will be teaching a course on International Journalism to journalism and international studies students, in addition to advising the Media and Communications Program on enhancing its journalism curriculum.

Student

Ms. Lindsey Stephenson

 

Ms. Stephenson is a recent graduate of Georgia State University with a B.A in Political Science and a B.I.S in Middle Eastern Studies. During her undergraduate career she completed a year abroad in Jordan studying Arabic and also participated in the annual National Council on US-Arab Relations trip to Kuwait in 2005. Her Fulbright research topic is the "Evolution of Political Gatherings in Kuwait," in which she will be examining the relationship between the individual citizen and the Parliament via the diwaniya. She is particularly interested in civil society in the Arab World and plans to pursue a PhD in Political Science following her Fulbright fellowship.