Folklore faculty and director of the Institute for Immigration Research, Lisa Gilman has been selected as a recipient of Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for 2026-2027.
Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that allow scholars to teach and conduct research abroad to establish long-term relationships between people and nations.
Lisa Gilman, professor in the Department of English and the director of the Institute for Immigration Research, will be teaching with the faculty of sociology, anthropology, and folklorists at the University of Iceland for the spring 2027 semester. She will participate in a bi-national program of educational exchange between the United States and Iceland and will be teaching two folklore classes. She is hopeful that the experience will spur future partnerships between the folklore programs George Mason and the University of Iceland.
“I am excited to learn about Icelandic culture from my students and to explore collaborations with my colleagues at the University of Iceland,” Gilman said. “One of the best things about teaching folklore internationally is that I always learn as much, or maybe more, from students about their folklore as they do from my teaching. The value of the Fulbright Scholar Award will extend far into the future because I will be able to integrate the knowledge I gain into my teaching at George Mason after I come back, thus expanding our program’s curriculum.”