A Fulbright Scholar grant has been awarded to Gregory G. Maskarinec, PhD, research director of the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. During the 2010-11 academic year, he will teach in Nepal, and conduct research on the country ’s traditional and contemporary systems for medicine.
Maskarinec will offer three seminars at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, in the Department of Anthropology and in the new Center for Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies. An expert in medical and cultural anthropology, he will also work closely with anthropology faculty to develop an internationally competitive PhD program within the department, and mentor junior faculty who have begun research on the diverse medical systems that flourish throughout Nepal.
He already has pursued ethnographic research on the medical systems of Nepal, notably gathering decades of oral texts of shamans, the spiritual healers who play important therapeutic roles in Nepal. Maskarinec is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program provides people worldwide the opportunity to observe each others’ political, economic, educational and cultural institutions. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Among the thousands of prominent Fulbright alumni are Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who was a scholar at Victoria University in New Zealand; Muhammad Yunus, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, and managing director and founder, Grameen Bank; Javier Solana, foreign policy chief of the European Union; Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University; Craig Barrett, chairman of the board of Intel Corp.; Shamshad Akhtar, the first woman to hold the position of governor, State Bank of Pakistan; andAlejandro Jara, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization.
For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, see the website at https://fulbright.state.gov, or contact James A. Lawrence, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, at (202) 453-8531 or fulbright@state.gov