UW-Parkside Announces Fulbright Award for 2023-2024
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is pleased to announce that Professor Simon Adetona Akindes has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in Political Science for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Professor Simon Adetona Akindes is among over 800 U.S. citizens who will conduct research and/or teach abroad for the 2023-20234 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbrighters 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. As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 61 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 40 who have served as a head of state or government.
Description of Prof. Akindes’ research project:
Prof. Akindes’ project purports to make meaning of how Afrobeat, a political musical genre invented by the Nigerian Fela Kuti, mediates political identity, power relations and emancipation in social/political movements and among Afro-Brazilians men and women. It is a qualitative research project means to elicit rich data from social/political activists, band leaders and musicians and producers, as well as select Afrobeat fans. The goals are to
- Understand how Afrobeat positions itself as a meaningful cultural practice in the context of Afro-Brazilian/Brazilian identity politics, and in its new transatlantic political struggles between the USA and Africa;
- Analyze the evolution of Afrobeat in Brazil, as it navigates its three main facets —the spiritual, the musical and the political, and as a force for a deeper democratization.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program.
For over 75 years, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants - chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential - with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and our world. More than 800 U.S. scholars, artists, and professionals from all backgrounds teach or conduct research overseas through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. Additionally, over 1,900 diverse U.S. students, artists, and early career professionals in more than 100 different fields of study receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants annually to study, teach English, and conduct research overseas.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education supports the implementation of the Fulbright U.S. Student and Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is committed to high-quality educational programs, creative and scholarly activities, and services responsive to its diverse student population, and its local, national, and global communities. We are a dynamic learning community grounded in academic excellence and focused on student success, diversity, inclusion, and community engagement. The campus serves as a premier comprehensive public institution and a destination of choice, serving as a focal point of local, regional, and global progress.
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Contact: ECA-Press@state.gov