Arredondo Receives Fulbright Award

November 11, 2008

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (November 11, 2008) - Dr. Isabel Arredondo, associate professor of foreign languages and literature at SUNY Plattsburgh, received a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research on Venezuelan cinema at the University of Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela, during the 2008-09 academic year.

Arredondo has already traveled to her host country and is thoroughly enjoying the opportunity.

"I never expected my research in Venezuelan cinema to be such an enriching experience and the Venezuelan people to be so welcoming," Arredondo said.

An expert in minority discourse, especially gender and ethnicity, Arredondo's dissertation focused on the representation of the Mayas in the 1940's Guatemalan literature. This work was which was published as a book, titled "De brujos y naguales: La Guatemala imaginaria de Miguel Angel Asturias."

Arredondo teaches courses on Latin American culture and film, and Spanish language and has actively participated at the Latin American Studies Association, where she organized the program on Arts and the Media in 1998, chaired panels in 1995, 1997 and 2000, and presented papers from 1995-2000. She received her master's degree from the University of Madrid and her Ph.D. in Latin American Literature, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Jay Stein, provost and vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Plattsburgh, had high praise for Arredondo.

"I congratulate Dr. Arredondo on her Fulbright grant. A Fulbright is one of the most prestigious academic awards given to scholars. The award is testimony to not only Dr. Arredondo's achievement, but to the outstanding faculty we have at SUNY Plattsburgh. I wish Dr. Arredondo great success with her important work in Venezuela."

Arredondo is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 286,500 people - 108,160 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and Additionally, through the Fulbright, 178,340 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States- with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.