Five Fulbright Grants Awarded to Letters and Science Students, Alumni

Two students and three alumni of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to study and teach in other countries.

They are among 10 recipients across UC Davis to be awarded 2022-23 Fulbright fellowships, said Scott Palmer, prestigious scholarship advisor for the campus.

The prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State, focuses on the international exchange of knowledge and human experiences. Each Fulbright fellowship provides grants for individually designed study/research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs. 

Three of the College of Letters and Science recipients received study/research awards:

• Alumnus Teja Dusanapudi (B.A., English and American studies, ’21) will work on a novel, All Worlds Beyond Heaven, about climate-change refugees while pursuing a master’s degree in English studies at Manchester Metropolitan University in England.
• Christina Thomas, a doctoral student in Native American studies, will travel to New Zealand to conduct dissertation research on successful efforts to teach Maōri language, with the goal of finding ways to help revitalize the Northern Paiute language, Numu Yadooana. “My dream is to establish a Numu immersion/performance school that will reawaken our language, songs and dances,” Thomas wrote in her Fulbright application.
• Alumna Brittaney Key (B.A. international relations, ’19) will begin a master’s degree program at the University Centre of the Westfjords in Iceland to learn sustainability lessons that could be applied in her home state of Hawaii. Since graduating from UC Davis, she has worked in support of Hawaii’s climate and equity efforts

Teaching assistant awards went to a young alum and a graduating senior:

• Diana Garcia (B.A., economics and history, ’20), an aspiring bilingual teacher and a child of Mexican immigrants, will work to develop anti-racist curriculum while teaching in Mexico.
• Michael Wheeler, who graduates in June with a double major in history and economics and a minor in German, aims for a career in the Foreign Service and will teach in Germany.

— Kathleen Holder, content strategist in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science