Political Science Fulbright Scholar Program
The Fulbright Scholar Program
The political science faculty participated in the Fulbright Scholar Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program of international educational and cultural exchange, and provided mentorship for Fordham students selected for participation in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Furthermore, the Department of Political Science at Fordham serves as a host institution for Fulbright Visiting Scholars from around the globe.
Fulbright Stories
- Thomas De Luca (China, Italy, Netherlands)
- John Entelis (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia)
- Hind Arroub (Morocco)
- Belkacem Benzenine (Algeria)
- Egdunas Racius (Lithuania)
Professor of Political Science, former Director of the International Studies Program
Host Country: Italy
Host Institution: Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS)
Project Title: Mutual Understanding through the Study of Democracy
Academic Year: 2022–2023
Host Country: Netherlands
Host Institution: University of Amsterdam
Project Title: What Drives American Political Decisions? How Are American Political Decisions
Received in the Netherlands?
Academic Year: 2005–2006
Host Country: China
Host Institution: China University of Political Science and Law
Project Title: American Politics and Government
Academic Year: 1999–2000
The Fulbright program changed my life. My Fulbright experiences began in Fall 1999, when I taught constitutional law and civil liberties for one year in Beijing. It was my first time in Asia, and the beginning of a journey of learning and friendships. Two friends I’ll never forget, both lawyers, met in my class, married, and so thoughtfully named their daughter after my own Mom.
Until COVID struck, I returned to China about twenty times, lecturing, researching, and traveling. Some examples. I helped organize a conference on democracy in China, and directed a Fulbright-Fordham sponsored program (Sino-American Seminar on Politics and Law) that sent Fordham scholars to lecture in Beijing and brought Chinese scholars here. Most importantly, from 2007-2017, I took Fordham students to China on two-week study tours.
Fulbright also offers short-term faculty opportunities with its Specialist Program. Through it I lectured in Lima, Peru for two weeks in the Fall of 2001, and Cairo, Egypt in the Spring of 2019. In addition to meeting students and new colleagues, I learned about these countries and cultures, and even took wonderful tourist trips, such as visiting Luxor in Egypt, and Machu Pichu in Peru.
In Spring of 2006 I was the Thomas Jefferson Distinguished Fulbright Chair in American Social Studies at the University of Amsterdam, living next to one of those charming canals. While there I taught courses on pluralism and democracy, asking—how can we address the problems of polarization and demonization in politics? And, good fortune! One of my students from those Amsterdam days is now Fordham’s own Professor Boris Heersink--right here in New York.
Most recently, in Spring 2023 I was the Fulbright Research Lecturer at LUISS University in Rome, teaching democratic theory and practice in the world today, and researching populism in Italy. In addition to meeting new colleagues and students, I also had the chance to lecture in Brussels, Warsaw, and Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), enriching my work in Europe.
This time spent in Italy through the Fulbright Program is very special to me. All my grandparents emigrated from Sicily in the early 20th century, and this was my first opportunity to actually live in Italy—and not just be a tourist—although tour Rome and Italy Mika, my wife, and I certainly did! While Rome is not Palermo, it was the next best thing. From Beijing to Rome--living and working in Italy turned my Fulbright experience full circle.
John Entelis
Professor of Political Science, former Director of the Middle East Studies Program
Host Country: Lebanon
Host Institution: American University of Beirut (AUB)
Fulbright Program: Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship
Project Title: Pluralism and Party Transformation in Lebanon: Al-Kata’ib, 1936-1970
Academic Year: 1968-1969
The year spent in Lebanon involved extensive interviews of multiple levels of officials of the leading Maronite-dominated Lebanese Kata’ib Party. Gathering of significant numbers of official and unofficial documents located at party headquarters and various university libraries including AUB and St Joseph University. Began writing up initial findings around the theme of the LKP’s role in consolidating the country’s pluralistic party system as a prelude to its evolution into a more stable, secure, and sustained democratic system. Sadly future events undermined this hopeful trajectory as Lebanon has descended into social, economic, and
political chaos.
Host Country: Algeria
Host Institution: University of Algiers
Fulbright Program: Senior Fulbright Lecturer
Project Title: State and Society in Algeria
Academic Year: 1977–1978
The year spent in Algeria assigned as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Algiers involved teaching graduate and undergraduate students on the topic of social change and political development. Research was conducted on a book-length study of modern Algerian politics involving extensive direct interviews and consultation of government and other official and unofficial documents. The research undertaken as a Fulbrighter in 1977-78 led to the publication of Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized published by Westview Press in 1982.
Host Country: Tunisia
Host Institution: University of Tunis
Fulbright Program: Senior Fulbright Lecturer
Project Title: Islam, Democracy, and the State in North Africa
Academic Year: 1984–1985
As a Senior Fulbright Professor I was assigned to the Political Science Department of the University of Tunis where I guided research for advanced graduate students. I also conducted extensive research on the issue of Islam, democracy, and the state in North Africa which ultimately resulted in the publication of the Indiana University Press book of the same title in 1987.
Host Countries: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco
Host Institutions: University of Tunis, University of Algiers, University Mohamed V
Project Title: Fulbright Regional Research Gran
Project Title: America Through Arab Eyes: The View from the Maghreb
Academic Year: Spring 1989
The Fulbright Regional Research Grant was intended to identify in the countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia what young people thought of US foreign policy in the region in the context of the Cold War-dominated international system. Several book chapters and articles resulted from this research principally in French and Arabic.
Hind Arroub
Founder & Director of the Hypatia of Alexandria Institute for Reflexion and Studies
Home Country: Morocco
Project Title: Did the 2011 Royal Constitutional Reform Lead to the Change Inspired by
Moroccans in the Post-Arab Uprising Era?
Academic Year at Fordham: 2016–2017
Arroub received a Ph.D. in Law and Political Science from Mohammed V University of Juridical, Economic, and Social Sciences in Rabat. Her research interests include politics and religion, human rights, media freedom, good governance, authoritarian regimes, and social movements, with a regional focus on the Arab world and Morocco. Arroub’s first book, Revolutions in the Era of Humiliocracy, co-authored with Mahdi El-Mandjra, tackled the issue of democracy in Morocco and the Arab world.
Belkacem Benzenine
Researcher, National Center of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Home Country: Algeria
Project Title: Political Participation, Women’s Rights and the Roles of the Public Policies in the
Arab World: Comparative Study Egypt-Morocco
Academic Year at Fordham: 2014–2015
Benzenine has a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Lille University in France. In his research, he examined Algerian women’s rights within the system of political reforms since national independence. Women’s rights have been governed in part by the struggle against political despotism and in part by competition between the Algerian regime’s sloganeering exploitation of women’s rights to oppose political Islam, and the Islamists’ attempted linkage of religious identity with women’s rights in order to counter a perceived alienation of Algerian society and continuation of the culture of the colonial era.
Egdunas Racius
Senior Researcher, Vilnius University
Home Country: Lithuania
Project Title: Countering Muslim Extremism in the West: Appraisal of the American Approach
Academic Year at Fordham: 2006–2007
Having earned his PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Helsinki in 2004, Racius is currently the Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the Department of Area Studies of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. His research interests encompass Eastern European Muslim communities as well as Muslim revivalist movements. He is the author of Muslims in Eastern Europe (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Islam in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: between Churchification and Securitization (Brill, 2020).