Sharma Earns Second Fulbright to India
SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Andrew Sharma, a professor in Salisbury University’s Communication Arts Department, has again earned one of higher education’s most coveted honors: the Fulbright fellowship.
Sharma will teach at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications in New Delhi, India, in spring 2017. Established by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, IIMC is one of India’s premier institutes for media education, research and training. On his first Fulbright, in fall 2006, Sharma taught at Guru Jambheshwar University in Hisar, India.
“I have always emphasized the importance of cross-cultural knowledge, especially in today’s global economy, and have become a champion of cross-cultural exchange, especially after my first Fulbright,” Sharma said. “I see this second one as another opportunity to expose the community from which I come to such American values as democratic principles of education, and to notions of equality, pluralism and freedom of expression.”
Selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Sharma will teach media and communications courses on such topics as advertising, television/radio production and filmmaking. In addition, he will offer a series of seminars and workshops.
Sharma attended one of India’s oldest campuses, the University of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), before earning his Ph.D. in mass communications from Syracuse University. He joined SU’s faculty in 1999 and regularly leads a winter term course (Bollywood and Beyond) to India, exploring the culture through film and mass media.
Sharma isn’t the only SU representative going abroad on a Fulbright in 2016-17: Alumna Payge Jennings, a 2014 communication arts graduate, earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant to provide language instruction to students in South Korea beginning this summer.
Dr. Frank Shipper of the Management and Marketing Department also was named an alternate for a Fulbright to the United Kingdom.
In 2015-16, SU was spotlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright Scholars, with Drs. Dean Kotlowski of History and Olivier Roche of Management and Marketing receiving traditional Fulbrights to Austria and Belarus, respectively, and administrator Aaron Basko to Japan. Two English professors also earned other Fulbrights: Dr. James King took area educators to Ghana on a Fulbright-Hayes grant; Dr. Manav Ratti created a community garden in Salisbury with a Fulbright Canada-RBC Eco-Leadership grant. SU has a long history of over 20 Fulbright recipients, including faculty, alumni, and graduate and undergraduate students.
The Fulbright Scholar Program is America’s flagship international exchange program. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, it gives faculty and professionals the opportunity to teach and research around the world.
For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.