Three CLAS graduates will go abroad with 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Awards

Monday, April 20, 2015

The 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award recipients include three individuals from the University of Iowa: two expected May 2015 graduates and one December 2014 graduate. All are from departments within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

  • Douglas Baker, a senior majoring in piano and Japanese at the University of Iowa, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to further pursue his research abroad in a project titled, “The Japanese Style in Taijiro Goh’s Piano Music.” In this project, Douglas will gain access to unpublished compositions in archives held in Japan, where he plans to explore the methods Taijiro Goh used in order to express a Japanese style in his compositions. Goh was notably recognized as the composer of Japan’s first violin concerto in 1935. Read more from International Accents.
  • Acacia Roberts has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Award for 2015-16. Roberts, of Iowa City, IA, graduated from the University of Iowa in December 2014 with a B.A. in linguistics and French. She will be putting her degrees and her Arabic language skills to use as an English Teaching Assistant in Morocco this August. Read more from International Accents.
  • Beatrice Smihasiewicz has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to write a book of essays titled “Recovered Futures”, which will investigate the representation of post-Soviet Polish identity in the cultural capital of Krakow. Smihasiewicz graduated with an M.F.A. in literary translation from the University of Iowa in May 2014 and will earn a second M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from the UI this May. As a Polish-American who lived in the country until the age of eleven, Beatrice seeks to understand modern-day Poland through interviews, museum research, and study of Polish literature and architecture. Read more from International Accents.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.