30 October 2003
Twenty Iraqi Fulbright Scholars Expected in U.S. in 2004
Re-established program has long history, distinguished alumni
By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- After a hiatus of fourteen years, the Fulbright Scholarship Program has been re-established in Iraq, and 20 Iraqi student scholars are expected to begin arriving to study at top U.S. universities as soon as January 2004.
Announcing the resumption of the scholarships October 21, Ambassador Paul Bremer, administrator for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, said the country's university students and teachers "will once again be able to use this opportunity to improve themselves, their nation, and their world."
The Fulbright Program, established in 1946 by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, began in Iraq in 1952. Since that time, 190 Iraqi academics and professionals have studied, taught or conducted research in the United States and 145 Americans have had similar experiences in Iraq, according to the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
"Our openness to this sort of exchange has long been a great source of strength for this country and so the presence of Iraqi students at our universities will contribute to a better future for our people too," said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage October 21.
ECA Academic Exchange Programs Director Barry Ballow told the Washington File October 24 that the Fulbright Program is run with an eye to long-term investment in scholars and individuals who are anticipated to "make a major contribution to their country in some way or another and also, at the same time, build mutual understanding" between their countries and the United States.
Ballow said that unlike many other scholarship programs funded or administered by the State Department, the Fulbright Program applies to American scholars interested in studying abroad as well as to foreign scholars wanting to study in the United States. He said the Fulbright Program provides "a deep immersion in culture as well as academic course work."
Male and female students at Iraqi universities are now being invited to apply for the 20 graduate level scholarships, funded by a $1 million State Department grant, which will allow them to study in the United States for periods of 18 months to two years.
While the Fulbright Program traditionally focuses on social sciences, Deputy Secretary Armitage said the first Iraqi scholarship recipients would be studying in other priority areas, such as law, public administration, business and public health. Ballow explained that those fields have been identified as the most essential in the current period of Iraq's reconstruction.
The Iraqi advisors "are playing a substantive role in the development of the program and the selection of candidates," said Ballow.
With 20 student scholarships, the Iraqi Fulbright Program is quite small in comparison with Fulbright Programs in other countries in the Middle East, but Ballow said he expects the program to grow.
"As the program starts to incorporate Iraqi scholars and perhaps teachers and we are able to send Americans and so on, it will get to a program size that is more comparable to Jordan or perhaps Egypt at some point," he said.
Opportunities for American scholars and academic consultants to come to Iraq may become available on a limited basis later in 2004. Ballow said those scholarships would be assigned when Iraqi or CPA authorities confirm the country is secure enough.
The Iraqi Fulbright Program was suspended in 1988 towards the end of the Iran-Iraq war. During the period of U.N. sanctions following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the former U.S. Information Agency introduced a modest Iraqi Expatriate Program to allow some Iraqi scholars living in neighboring countries to participate. One of the participants, Muhsin Jassim al-Musawi, a leading Arabic literary critic, received the 2001 Al Owais Prize for Arabic Literature and Criticism from the United Arab Emirates.
Other famous Iraqi Fulbright alumni include Ms. Lubna Alaman, who studied at Harvard University from 1993-96 and is now the World Food Program's Representative in Somalia; Mr. Abbad al-Radi, a Fulbright Fellow in Urban and Regional Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1973-74 and has become a specialist in urban planning and the sustainable development of modern Arab cities; and Mr. Mohammed Makiya, a Fulbright Scholar at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley in 1956. Makiya founded and served as head of the department of architecture in Baghdad University and founded the Kufa Gallery in London.
While the Fulbright Program gets underway, the State Department's ECA is also facilitating other short-term exchange projects for Iraqis, including the visit of the Iraqi National Symphony to Washington in December and a five-week program for 15-18 Iraqi cultural specialists at Washington's Smithsonian Institute, where they will build their cultural preservation skills for their museum and archaeological work.
"What we're trying to do, across the board, is to help bring normal life to Iraq and to normalize our relationship with the Iraqi people," said Ballow.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031030182129namfuaks0.2900202&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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