History professor heads to Cyprus as Fulbright Scholar
At a time when millions of people around the world have fled ethnic conflicts, Purdue history professor Charles Ingrao is actively seeking them out.
Ingrao has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Cyprus. Since 1974, ethnic Greeks and Turks have divided the island republic into two separate states.
Ingrao is spending this spring semester teaching the history of ethnic coexistence and conflict in the capital city of Nicosia, which is also split in half. Each week he will teach at two universities on opposite sides of the cease-fire line.
"I hope to test some of the methodologies for interethnic reconciliation that I developed over the past decade in the Balkans," Ingrao says. "At the same time, however, I expect to learn an awful lot about the island and its people."
The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.
Ingrao is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program this year.
Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has sent more than 108,000 Americans abroad to study, teach and research and has brought more than 178,000 people from other countries to the United States to do the same. The program operates in more than 155 countries.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs supports programs to promote mutual understanding and respect between Americans and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
