Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast
Transcript For: Jermaine Jones, Manager North Africa/Near East
August 27, 2008
Jermaine Jones, Manager North Africa/Near East, discusses developments in the Fulbright Program North Africa and the Near East.
Tony: Welcome to the Fulbright US
Student Podcast. I’m Tony Claudino with
Schuyler: Schuyler Allen.
Tony: And this is our part 2 of our
interview with Jermaine Jones. Thank you Jermaine.
Jermaine: Thank you for having me.
Schuyler: So Jermaine, tell us, what are some
new updates that you want to tell us about applying to the Middle East and North Africa?
Jermaine: Well, I can’t think of any updates for
you in terms of new countries or programs per se. I will just say a couple of
things that might be in the minds of prospective applicants. They may have
heard about the program in Yemen
being shut down. It was closed for the 2007-2008 academic year.
Tony: I didn’t know that.
Jermaine: It’s also been closed for the
2008-2009 academic year. However we are still offering grants to that country
for ’09-’10, the application deadline for which is this coming October, October
2008. So please don’t think that the program’s closure the previous 2 academic
years will have any impact on the upcoming competition. If it… well, we’ll have
to see, but if it turns out that the program remains closed for ‘09-’10 that
does not mean that you would be asked to forfeit your grant in any way, if
you’re offered a grant to that country, we would just more than likely give you
2 options, the first being either to remain in the United States until things
hopefully reopened or possibly seek reassignment to a different country in the
region. I bring that up because I have gotten questions about that.
Tony: Great, in some countries in the
region, they can just apply and study the language, Egypt for example.
Jermaine: Egypt
and Jordan
are the only two countries to which you can apply with a proposal that only involves
Arabic language study. I would say that really such proposals are meant for
people that already have a fairly strong foundation in the language so I would
really discourage folks who are new to the language from applying to it because
they will not be competitive.
Tony: A year of language study?
They’re probably looking for longer than a year.
Jermaine: I would say 2 years or more of
previous study. I mean, because that period of Fulbright study overseas will
really be used as a means of gaining mastery or fluency or high proficiency in
the language. You would need, again, a fairly strong foundation to have that
extra year get you to that higher level.
Tony: What about Morocco? Morocco they can’t do language
study?
Jermaine: Morocco, no.
Tony: But they have English teaching
assistantships there?
Jermaine: Unfortunately there are no English
Language Teaching Assistantships anywhere in the region.
Schuyler: But that may change. So please make
sure if you’re not applying for the 2009-10 cycle to in the future look at our
website because there are constantly being countries added to the English
Teaching Assistantship program.
Jermaine: I’ll just take one step back on your
question, Tony, about the countries to which people can apply with Arabic
language study only proposals. Syria
used to be one of those countries, but I’ve heard from the US Embassy in Damascus which has on the
ground responsibility in terms of in country provision for the Fulbright
program, that they are not receptive to such applications. I’m not sure why,
but for the future I would really recommend that applicants to that country
really submit more regular, or regular research proposals and not those focusing
on Arabic language alone.
Tony: In this region what are some of
the most competitive countries to apply to? Or what are some countries that you
think, you would love to see more applications to?
Schuyler: I was going to say the exact same
thing- what countries would you like to see more applications to?
Jermaine: Well, the 4 commission countries in
the region, no surprise there, they generally receive the most applications.
Schuyler: Which ones are they, for the
listeners?
Jermaine: And they are Egypt, Israel,
Jordan and Morocco. Egypt is probably the most popular
country. I don’t have the numbers offhand, but I think it’s somewhere in the range
of between 50 and 70 applications that are received during this past
competition.
Tony: 64.
Jermaine: Smack down in the middle there!
Believe it or not, Syria
is also quite popular. I can remember when I first started that country
received, I’d say, upwards of about 10 or 20 applications each year. This past
year I think it received upwards of about 60 applications, if I’m not mistaken.
So that gives you a sense of how it’s shooting up in terms of popularity in the
region.
Tony: But Syria’s a… I see here, sorry, that Syria
got 65 applications but it’s a regional…. Can you…?
Jermaine: Syria is one of the
non-commissioned countries in the region. The difference between commissioned
and non-commissioned basically is that countries that are commissioned
countries are those that have bi-national Fulbright Commissions in them. That
means that they have their own individual country budgets, their own individual
country programs, and they have a specific number of grants that they
anticipate offering every year.
Tony: And the money comes from the
foreign government and the US
government.
Jermaine: That’s exactly right. They’re
bi-national commissions. That’s exactly right. So for instance if you look in
the Israel
country summary, for example, I believe that it indicates that it expects to
offer roughly 9 or 10 grants for the 2009-2010 academic year. If per chance you look at Oman, or Qatar,
or Syria,
their country summaries, you would not see a defined number or a fixed number
of grants that they expect to offer to that individual country for ’09-’10.
Again those are countries, the non-commissioned countries, that are part of a
regional program for the Middle East and North Africa.
Those countries have a regional budget such that we expect to offer upwards of
20 grants for the non-commissioned countries in that region for the 2009-2010
academic year. And we will try to divide those up as evenly as we can among the
different countries but we have no way of saying at this time exactly how they
will be apportioned, numerically speaking, among the different countries of the
region.
Tony: Fields of study? Any type of…
Schuyler: I just want to point out that they are
50 commissioned countries world wide, so when you’re looking at our brochure
and online, keep that in mind. Commissions are all over the world, not just in
this region alone.
Are there specific
fields that are popular in that particular region?
Jermaine: I can’t think of any that are… well, I
would just say that you should certainly check the individual country summary
first of all to make sure that you’re not considering a field of study that
might be non-recommended or non-preferred for a specific country. Generally
speaking though, the sky’s the limit, or the world’s your oyster, whatever you want
to say in terms of the different fields. I have to say though that there are
certain countries that do stand out in terms of fields that are not recommended.
Syria,
I know in their country summary, indicates a strong preference against people
applying in the modern social sciences. I have to say though that I have known
of people who have applied and received grants with projects that have been
explicitly in the modern social sciences so I would say that while it might be
a non-preferred field, a more explicit or precise way of explaining that
“non-preferred” language might be to say that it’s really geared towards people
that have projects that might be in some way politically or socially sensitive.
So you’ll want to steer clear of that…
Tony: And that ties in to the research
clearance, right?
Jermaine: Well, there’s really no research
clearance for Syria.
Schuyler: Explain research clearance then- where
is needed, for example?
Jermaine: Research clearance for these countries
basically means clearance by the host country government, and there are a few
governments in this region that have either been notoriously or recently become
a lot more sticklerish, if that’s even a word, in terms of their review of US
Student Fulbright applications. Egypt
has been one of the more historically problematic countries. And I’ve got to be
upfront about that because it’s really not very clear in many cases why the
Egyptian government decides not to offer the mandatory government clearance for
certain projects. Certain projects you can tell will just automatically be
non-starters. I mean, people in the past have applied to do projects on, let’s
say, the Muslim Brotherhood. So certainly steer clear of the more sensitive
subjects or topics in whatever country you’re applying to. That’s true I would
say anywhere in the world, but definitely more so in these countries. Egypt
is a prime example of that. Syria
and Tunisia
have also unfortunately become a little bit more stringent in terms of
government clearances as well. I’d say just use common sense in terms of your
own knowledge of the region that you’re applying to and certainly toss your
project ideas around with your professors, peers, colleagues that you might
know who could give you a sense of feasibility in the country that you’re
considering as well.
Schuyler: We talked about language in the
previous podcast, but I’m specifically going to ask you a question about
Arabic, and some language learning opportunities that we have in conjunction
with the Fulbright program, the Critical Language Enhancement Award, for
example. Let’s say that I wanted to do a Fulbright grant and I also wanted to
pursue a Critical Language Enhancement Award. But I was going to be learning… I
should be speaking one type of Arabic. Will I be undertaking the Critical
Language Enhancement Award in a country where they speak the same Arabic where
I’ll…in terms of the kind of Arabic that’s spoken in the country where I will
be doing my research project.
Jermaine: Generally speaking, yes because in most
cases we try to have people do their Critical Language Enhancement Awards in
the same country in which they pursue their larger Fulbright projects. The only
cases where we allow people to use their CLEAs—I have to use the short term—in
a different country from where they’re doing their Fulbright is in the case
where, or in the cases where there aren’t suitable language learning
institutes. There aren’t many of those, but there are a few, so it is possible
in some cases for there to be a third country for a CLEA.
Tony: But we’re going to have a CLEA
podcast.
Schuyler: Yea so we’ll have a full on podcast
about the Critical Language Enhancement Award. But I just wanted to add that
because Critical Language Enhancement Awards are obviously something that people
will definitely pursue in these regions. And they should certainly consider
them, especially if you feel that your project could benefit from, I believe
it’s what, up to 6 months of language study prior to the start of the grant
term.
Schuyler: Great opportunity.
Tony: What’s the average language… can
someone apply to Fulbright who maybe has only a semester or year of Arabic use
the grant, and study, besides the example in Jordan
and Egypt.
Do you see a lot of people with minimal Arabic on the Fulbright program?
Jermaine: There are some cases. It really
depends on the country that you’re talking about though, as well as the nature
of your project. I’ve heard that in many of the Gulf countries, there is such a
large ex-patriot, in other words non-Arab population, that it is possible to
get by with a project and in one’s overall life with minimal use of Arabic.
That certainly wouldn’t be the case outside of the Gulf, let’s say in Tunisia, or Egypt
or Morocco.
But even in the latter 2 cases—
Schuyler: You can speak French or Spanish.
Jermaine: That’s right. In Morocco for instance it is
certainly possible to submit a project that would be doable with French alone.
In Egypt,
again, it’s possible that you could have a project that would be doable with English
alone. But even in those cases I think that the strongest applicants are those
that have at least a modicum of Arabic or at least—
Schuyler: hospitality level.
Jermaine: Hospitality level or a strong
indication in the application of their willingness to at least acquire a
hospitality level before or during the course of the grant term because, again,
even though you might be able to get by with French in terms of your archival
research for a project in Morocco, once you leave the archives or the archives
close, you’ll be running into a lot of people who might know some French, but
Arabic is going to be their first language. So at least hospitality knowledge
or willingness to get to that level of the language would behoove you.
Tony: Anything with affiliations in
this world region that you want to address. Do most affiliate with
universities, for example, or do most Fulbrighters affiliate with government or
non-profit?
Schuyler: Does it depend on which country you’re
applying to?
Jermaine: Generally it depends on the country
you’re applying to, but I have to say that most grantees to this world region
are affiliated with universities in their host countries. For those applying to
the Commission countries, again, Egypt,
Israel, Jordan and Morocco, the bi-national Fulbright
Commission in the host country will take care of finalizing the affiliations
for you. That basically means that if you’re offered a grant, the commission in
that country will take care of formally placing you with an institution in that
country.
Tony: So in your application you don’t
have to do that?
Jermaine: During the application process I still
encourage all applicants to at minimum indicate in their applications where
they’d like to be affiliated with and why. Some justification as to why they’ve
chosen that particular institution. And again, ideally, to try to get a letter
from that institution, because again, even though it would be the host country
commission that would take care of finalizing the affiliation, I think it’s
always a feather in one’s cap to show initiative, to show preparation, in terms
of having that letter in your file. Because again it shows ok look, even though
I recognize that the Moroccan Fulbright commission will have the final say in
terms of where I’m placed, I’ve taken this step to explore what are my options
on the ground, in the country in terms of institutions that would be suitable
in helping me to implement and carry out my project. That goes a long way in
terms of the review process. The review committees really like to see that. And
I would say, also, if you don’t mind, that there are a number of
non-commissioned countries in the region that take the same role as the
commissioned countries, in terms of formally placing their student grantees with
appropriate host institutions. The only two countries where it’s really the
responsibility of the candidate to take care of their own placement are Tunisia and Yemen, and in both cases- let me
take this country by country. In the case of Tunisia,
most grantees are affiliated with an organization called CMAT which is the American Overseas
Research Center
in Tunis.
It’s very easy to go online and just google CMAT and get the contact
information from that websearch. Get in touch with that organization, and they
will be more than willing to write an affiliation letter for you. The same goes
with Yemen
where the affiliation for most students is the American Institute of Yemeni
Studies or AIYS for short. Again you can just google that, get their contact
information, email the director, and again, 9 times out of 10, you will be able
to get a letter of invitation or affiliation from the director of AIYS.
Tony: I think you made some of our
listeners smile with that advice…
Schuyler: All kinds of good information there,
Jermaine, thank you so much.
Tony: Thanks a lot, Jermaine, for
wrapping up North Africa and the Middle East.
I’m sure we’ll talk to you again about other topics related to the region.
Schuyler: Oh, and if I want to reach you
personally, how do I do that?
Jermaine: Smoke signals? No, no. Just joking.
Let me give you my telephone number and my email address. The telephone number
first is area code 212-984-5341. My email address is my first initial and last
name, so it’s jjones@iie.org.
Tony: And all this is on the website.
Jermaine: It’s all on the website.
Tony: Thank you.
Schuyler: Jermaine, this is wonderful, thank
you.
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