Jefferson Fulbright Announcement

Departmental News

Posted: May 20, 2019 - 12:00am

Robert Jefferson, an associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico, has been selected for the Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award—the most prestigious appointment in the Fulbright Scholar Program.

 

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. It is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State and currently awards approximately 8,000 grants annually.  Of those, 40 are selected for the Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award.  Recipients of Fulbright Awards are selected based on their academic and professional achievements, record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.  Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields including 59 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 82 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 37 who have served as heads of state or government.  At UNM, Dr. Jefferson joins a number of his colleagues in the Department of History to be selected for the program.

 

Beginning in August, he will serve ten months through the Fulbright program at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.  As the Danish Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies, Dr. Jefferson will teach undergraduate and graduate students in courses relating to United States History and African American history.  Dr. Jefferson will also contribute to the intellectual life in the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark by holding presentations, symposia, and workshops with students and faculty on international issues relating to race, immigration, citizenship, and constitutionalism. In addition, he will conduct research on a larger book project relating to the creation and development of the United States Army’s naturalization programs for African-Danish-West Indian Immigrants during the first half of the twentieth century.