Wilder and DeRobertis receive Fulbrights    

 
                              

 L: Craig Wilder, Professor of History; R: Charles DeRobertis '10




Professor of History and student are awarded grants 
Two members of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences community have been awarded grants from the prestigious Fulbright Program. Craig Wilder, Professor of History, has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant to collaborate with colleagues in Israel this spring. Charles DeRobertis ’10, a double major in Spanish and biology has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to work in Spain next year. Sponsored by the US State Department, the Fulbright Program is designed to promote international understanding; its annual awards fund graduate study, advanced research, and teaching around the world.


Wilder to collaborate with Ben Gurion and Tel Aviv universities

Wilder will use his grant to collaborate with Ben Gurion and Tel Aviv universities in Israel on their programs in American studies, race, and colonialism. In connection with the award, Wilder will give the opening plenary address at an international conference on Jews and race, to be held at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in June of this year.  

“My conference address—‘The Paradox of the Jewish Indians: The Racial Matrix in Colonial North America’—is taken from a chapter in my forthcoming book, which examines colleges during the conquest of the Americas,” Wilder said. “The talk explores the attempt by Europeans to fit Native Americans into the Judeo-Christian teleology, by locating them as a lost tribe of Israel, and the implications of this connection for evolving racial ideas in the colonies.”


DeRobertis '10 to teach in Spain

Of his teaching scholarship DeRobertis says, “I’m extremely excited for this opportunity to travel and get to know a country I’ve been reading about for years," he said. "I anticipate learning as much as the students I’ll be working with."  He added, "I’m really thankful to everyone who helped me with my application."

“The Teaching Assistantship is a very competitive Fulbright program," said Elizabeth Garrels, Professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, "and Charles is superbly qualified to fill his new position with distinction.” 

 

More information
Profile: Professor Craig Wilder
About Foreign Languages and Literatures
About the Fulbright Program  




Prepared by MIT SHASS Communications
Editorial and Design Director: Emily Hiestand
Writer, Kathryn O'Neill 

Photograph of Craig Wilder by Jon Sachs