secretlyismaili

Aah, Kolkata. I love that city, as well as studying Indian theology (of an Islamic sort). Ami aek bochor age Kolkata-te biye korechi. I wish you all the best! Will this research be conducted at local temples?

Where do the India people want to go in India? And what will you be working on, if I may ask?

Hola. Curious about what it actually means to be affiliated with a university for the Fulbright, like what interactions/relationships with the faculty at the institution of affiliation are actually like. Should I expect to be present at the university (Nanjing University, if I get it) regularly? Do/can(/should?) Fulbrighters attend classes? Am I free to travel to other parts of the country to pursue my research? Is there any official role the university has with reference to the Fulbright project? I know we are all people who will be doing this in the future, but any insight from past/present FB-ers would be great to hear. And to any other China applicants (I think there is only one other on the forum), have you heard any feedback on your 2nd proposal statement from the Beijing IIE people?

Porshyen, I see your program includes "Eurasian Studies" - do you do anything Central Asia-ish? Just curious. I am a student of Uzbek, Uyghur, and Old Turkic language and history and of Central Eurasia more broadly. Would that I were able to do a Fulbright among the Göktürks! I know next to nothing about Russia, though, unfortunately. And Shibboleth12, thank you for posting this piece. Is this in your opinion the best movement of the symphony?

Just wanted to acknowledge the greatness of this verbiage.

Great update for wannabe Chinese fulbrighters like myself: "it is likely to be several weeks still. Thank you for your patience – we know it is hard to wait." At least they are acknowledging our suffering. So I guess we have a slightly better chance than 50/50? If I remember right it was like 110 applications and 60 available grants. Where my sinophiles at? Actually reading people's posts about Indonesia, I am now really jonesing to visit there and almost wish I had applied there :-). And this: Is pretty much exactly how I'm feeling. Oh god...I (*) have to work with Chinese Historians and Anthropologists? In Chinese?!?! NoOooOOOO!!!!!! [mentally commits to memorizing five books of vocab words but knows it'll never happen, but also that it'll end up being fine once I get there] *might...

Salaam y'all. China research Fulbright applicant. We won't find out if we get it until late April (last year was Apr 27). I want to ask: have any of you received feedback from the IIE Beijing people about your second statement, the one that we had to write that actually goes to the Chinese review board? I did hear from a Janet that they'll be in touch with comments/suggestions for the statements - basically how to make the probably very sensitive Chinese authorities go "huh, yeah, this person sounds like he's not too weird." Any experiences with crafting your new statement? I basically said what I want to do straightforwardly, though it was a bit more simplified than my first statement and less adventurous sounding. And did anyone else out there have to do that? Basically write another research proposal for the application reviewers in your target country? Katta Rahmat.

fjn, Heard back today - a resounding no. So I guess that means people rarely decline the offers they get to ST? I guess I can see why. Good luck! I hope someone declines so you can get on in there. I'm really happy with where I did end up getting into, so I can stomach this rejection without too much suffering. Wonder what all kinds of projects/topics they went with this year.

Hola! Problem is I have heard that some have not been notified til end of April, and as a wannabe PhD starting this Fall, the deadline for accept/decline admissions offer is mid Apr. What the hell, man?! Do you honorable people have experience with this conflict? Default action of course is to ask whether deferring admission is possible, but if anyone has experience of how places have reacted to that I would be grateful to hear. God forgive me for even entertaining the possibility of getting both. Salaam

Hola people. Since I've seen some threads about this in previous years I thought I might start one now. Who is gunning for social thought? And whom do you want to work with? I call Saussy. I actually heard through the perpetual motion machine uchicago rumor mill that there are only 70 some odd apps this year. Could that be right? Does anyone feel confident of getting in? Anyone care to say what you want to work on? Any other mill-generated info about uchic apps so far this year?

Thanks a lot for the response and for the video link. This is something that I would guess is an important factor in a lot of countries (especially ones with multiple "nations" like Turkey, Russia, the 'Stans, etc, or places with controversial environmental policies, or any number of things), and the Fulbright committees here in the States probably wrestles with the idea of having to accommodate other countries' national narratives, policies, and fears. For me one of the interesting things in reading Chinese scholarship about Chinese Islam has been like you said - the authors routinely demonstrate a way of understanding race and geography that represents a state story, but you can still tell sometimes that they are aware of the constraints and resentful of them. I think the "feasibility" section you point to is really important, since I've heard it can be a real problem getting unfiltered information which I totally agree is where the more interesting projects are, and maybe what is unspoken in all the paperwork is the fact that the researcher should use her/his own ingenuity to acquire information by means that might best be left out of an application going before the China review board. In that video, it's interesting to see how the woman's research focuses on an aspect of Uyghur culture that has been actively promoted by the state as an emblem of ethnicity in order to make it clearer that they are non-central - many of the "56 minorities" recently are the proud owners of these costume-y dance traditions that are performed in the diorama-like picturesque ethnic villages in Xinjiang set up for visitors. It would be cool to hear how she dealt with that. I wish you all the best! I hope we will both end up at the orientation session.

Hola everyone. Applied to China for research, recommended. Woo! Now my question to China applicants - who else proposed to do research related to an "ethnic minority"? I am curious to hear if anyone else was conflicted in writing the statement, since it's hard not to write about sinification of, say, Inner Mongolians without being negative towards the government, which in turn seems like a surefire way to get disqualified. It woud be interesting to hear how those intending to work with Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mosuo or whatever handled that thorny side of the China application. They do have a history of blacklisting researchers for writing critically about Tibet, Xinjiang, etc, after all. Furthermore, if anyone as an idea of trends in what kind of projects they like to choose, please share.