91福利社

Associate Professor of History Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg will study in Norway this academic year after receiving a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in history from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Dr. Renberg, who is on the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, will be working as a researcher at the University of Troms酶, partnering with one of their research centers, Creating the New North, and working with other academic departments and faculties on campus as she works on her book project.

鈥淭he book I am working on is using methods from dance studies from history and theology to help us learn more about the construction of community, identity and belief and medieval Finnish Scandia,鈥� Dr. Renberg said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be looking at encounters between the S谩mi, the indigenous people who live in the far north of Europe, and medieval European travelers.鈥�

Dr. Renberg noted that a challenge in studying relations between these two groups is that the S谩mi left few written texts.

鈥淭here is a significant language barrier, and in a lot of the texts that European travelers left, they didn鈥檛 record anything from the S谩mi and in the S谩mi鈥榮 own words or perspective, but they described a lot of things, like dances and processions and songs,鈥� Dr. Renberg said. 鈥淚鈥檒l be using methods from dance studies to analyze these texts as well as to analyze material culture like drums and artifacts from S谩mi culture and working with S谩mi scholars鈥攂oth people who study S谩mi and individuals who are S谩mi to understand in these first encounters what Europeans thought about the S谩mi, what they believed, how did the S谩mi understand Europeans and what Europeans believed, and how can reading history more expansively using performance as a way to understand what happened in the past help us better understand these past encounters when we don鈥檛 have written sources.鈥�

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections and work to address complex global challenges.

Notable Fulbright recipients include 62 Nobel Laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, 44 heads of state or government and thousands of leaders across the private, public and nonprofit sectors. More than 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, more than 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants鈥� recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals鈥攑articipate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide. In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.

This is the third consecutive year an 91福利社 professor has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award. Dr. Renberg joins Dr. Kolawole Olaiya (associate professor of English) and Dr. Anthony Caito (associate professor of leadership and organizations.) as a Fulbright honoree