Ten PhD candidates win Fulbright-Hays funding for research overseas

Ten doctoral candidates from the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have been selected for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program.

The merit-based award provides financial support to PhD candidates pursuing scholarship outside the U.S.

“The Fulbright-Hays is one of the most prestigious fellowships for graduate students conducting doctoral research,” said Jeannette Miller, executive director of the Harvard Griffin GSAS Fellowships and Writing Center and Harvard project director for the Fulbright-Hays. “Our grantees will travel to a range of countries, from Brazil to the Baltic States to India to Japan to work on their fascinating dissertation topics.”

Those topics include everything from the surprising influence of the 4-H youth club in postwar Japan, Korea and Taiwan, to Egypt’s dominance in the world of bodybuilding today. The 2023-24 class of Fulbright-Hays grantees from the Harvard Griffin GSAS are Morgan Curtis (committee on the study of religion), Emma Friedlander (history), Sophia Horowitz (history), Gene Kim (history), Lena Nasrallah (history), Javid Riahi (anthropology), Will Sack (history), Molly Walker (history of science), Yingxue Wang (history of art and architecture) and Aaron Watanabe (government).

Launched in 1964, the Fulbright-Hays program is funded by a Congressional appropriation to the U.S. Department of Education. A total of 88 U.S. doctoral candidates were selected for the award this year.