Cal State L.A.’s
Fulbright scholars
Auwal focuses on
sociocultural impacts of globalization,
while Choi analyzes
past communist guerilla activities
LOS ANGELES –
Temporarily destined for Hong Kong and Qatar, two California State
University, Los Angeles professors—Wai Kit Choi and Mohammad Auwal—have been awarded the 2009-10
Fulbright Scholar grants, according to the United States Department
of the State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Hosted by the University of Hong Kong, Wai Kit Choi, assistant professor
of sociology at Cal State L.A., is conducting
research on “Mobilizing for the Revolution: Communist Guerillas of
South China, 1938-1949.” Choi is studying how Chinese
communist guerrillas in Guangdong and Hong Kong mobilized peasant
support for the revolution from 1930s to 1940s. His research involves
examining archival materials as well as arranging oral history
interviews with former guerrilla members. While in Hong Kong, he will also be giving
presentations on his other research projects at different universities.
One forthcoming presentation, “China’s Economic Rise and Third World
Development: A Global Commodity Chain Analysis,” will be given at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Choi has expertise in globalization, historical sociology, and
urban sociology. He teaches in “Classical Sociological Theory,” “Urban
Sociology,” and “Political Sociology of Globalization and Resistance.” A
Montebello resident and a graduate of Montebello High School, Choi
received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, M.A. from
the University of Chicago, and Ph.D. from the University of California,
Irvine.
A Fulbright Scholar for the second straight year, Mohammad
Auwal,
professor of communication studies at Cal State L.A., returns to the
Southern Arabian Gulf region. Hosted by the Qatar University (QU) in
Doha, Qatar, this year Auwal is offering seminars on “Public
Communication” and “Leadership” for QU’s newly-established Honors
Program while also teaching courses on “Communication Skills.”
Additionally, Auwal is conducting research to complete a book
manuscript, tentatively titled “Ripples of Rapid Change:
Sociocultural Impacts of Globalization in the Gulf.”
In his first year as a Fulbright scholar, Auwal taught three
courses, including “Globalization” for QU’s International Affairs
Program and “International Business” for its Executive MBA Program. As a
common theme in his lectures, he explains what it means to communicate
in a globalizing world.
Auwal, a Garden Grove resident, specializes in communication
theory, organizational communication, and international development.
Much of his doctoral and subsequent research in the 1990s focused on the
study of Grameen Bank, a socioeconomic development organization that won
the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006. In his recent research and writings,
Auwal said, “I examined how certain political actors, posing as media
pundits, use mythic rhetoric to construct and socially circulate
ignorance in the American public square.” Auwal received his B.A. and
M.A. degrees from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh, and M.A. and
Ph.D. degrees from Ohio University.
Since 2004, nine other Cal State L.A. professors have taught abroad as
Fulbright scholars: Nanda Ganesan, information sciences in Sri Lanka;
Ann Garry, philosophy in Japan; Antony Kunnan, linguistics in Taiwan;
Timothy Lim, political science in Korea; Susan Mason, dramatic
literature in Japan; Elliott Oring, cultural anthropology in Iceland;
Hassan M. Rezaie Boroon, geology in Togo; Marguerite Ann Snow, English
language in Cyprus; and Yehudi Webster, sociology in Poland.
This summer,
Terry Allison, dean of Cal State L.A.’s College of
Arts and Letters, was in South Korea as a Fulbright scholar with the
U.S.-Korea International Education Administrators Program. In 2006, Cal
State L.A. student Jennifer Quinones participated as a Fulbright Student
Fellow in Andorra and, in summer 2008, Molly Arevalo, an M.A. TESOL
student, participated in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in Uruguay.
Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or
professional achievement, and demonstrated leadership potential.
The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship
international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United
States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late
Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has
provided approximately 294,000 people—111,000 Americans who have
studied, taught or researched abroad and 183,000 students, scholars and
teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in
the United States.
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Council for International Exchange of Scholars
Fulbright Scholar Program – history and background
http://www.cies.org/about_fulb.htm
U.S. Fulbright Scholars directory
http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_dir.htm
2008 Fulbright Scholars at Cal State L.A. (press release):
http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/newsrel/fulbrights2008.htm
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Media
in Hong Kong, Qatar
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 210,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
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