- September 11, 2018
- Posted by: admin
- Category: In The Media
During the first few days of her arrival Black Feminist Speaker, Dr. Irma McClaurin, spoke with Asianetnews.com about being a Fulbright Specialist at Sree Kerala Varma College (SKVC), the Host Institution, and her impressions of Kerala and the reasons for her visit.
The invitation to teach at SKVC as a Fulbright Specialist was extended to Dr. McClaurin by the English Department. Her proposal to teach “Gender, Culture and Theory from an American and Black American Lens” was selected through a competitive process vetted by the Fulbright Specialist Program (FSP) and the Host Institutions. They were attracted to her credentials as a noted Black Feminist Speaker and Activist Anthropologist.
A program of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,
Administered by World Learning, the Fulbright Specialists “…are a diverse group of highly experienced, well-established faculty members and professionals who represent a wide variety of academic disciplines and professions. In order to be eligible to serve as a Fulbright Specialist, candidates must have significant experience in their respective professional field and be a U.S. citizen at the time of application,” says FSP website.
Host Institutions are comprised “…overseas universities, cultural centers, non-governmental organizations and other institutions abroad” who must “…develop collaborative projects which host a leading U.S. academic or professional at their institution to work on diverse, short-term collaborative projects focused on education and training. These projects support critical priorities identified by the host institutions and supported by U.S. embassies and binational Fulbright Commissions abroad.”
While on campus, Dr. Irma (as she prefers) demonstrated her well-earned reputation as a Black Feminist Speaker, and taught undergraduate and researchers and faculty about feminist/Black Feminist theory; she also designed and taught a workshop on Creative Writing and Public Writing entitled “Writing for Advocacy, to Save Your LIfe & Become More Resilient.” Having a Fulbright Specialist, Black Feminist Speaker, Award-winning Author, and Founder of the Black Feminist Archive on campus was quite an accomplishment for Sree Kerala Varma College, and attracted enormous media attention.