Two EASC-affiliated doctoral candidates, both previous receipients of FLAS Fellowships from the East Asian Studies Center, have been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office. John Bundschuh, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Katherine Fitzgerald, Department of Comparative Studies, are the East Asia-related recipients of the fellowship, along with three other OSU students focusing on different world regions. These five Fulbright-Hays DDRA awards represent more than $220,000 in research funding for 2019-2020. Nationwide across all disciplines, only 90 Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships were awarded. See the full news release on the Office of International Affairs website. 

 

Bundschuh's project examines how Buddhist sutras written in Chinese were rendered in Japanese during the Heian period (794–1185 C.E.) using techniques of narrative studies and historical linguistics. Bundschuh will conduct archival research to determine how differing grammatical markers of time create narrative frames in Buddhist discourse and address how the use of these markers varied among differing Buddhist sects and changed throughout the period. More broadly, his research contributes to the conceptions of how stylistic choice distinguishes different perspectives and distance in narration and sheds new light on the rhetorical role of Japanese grammar in presenting the stories within Buddhist texts to a Japanese audience.

 

Bundschuh earned his Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and Asian studies from Tulane University (2009) and Master of Arts in linguistics from Tulane University (2010). His faculty advisor is Charles Quinn.

 

Katherine Fitzgerald, Department of Comparative Studies, will conduct her dissertation research in China for six months investigating No Pure Lands: The Contemporary Buddhism of Tibetan Lay Women.

 

Fitzgerald posits that the Buddhism of female lay practitioners—often labeled animistic, pagan, superstitious, non-philosophical, shamanistic—is in fact constituent of modern Tibetan Buddhism. Using ethnographic data collected in Nangchen, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, Fitzgerald argues for a definition of Tibetan Buddhism founded in female lay practice. Her research seeks to (1) Understand the place of circumambulation and sacred space as aspects of Tibetan Buddhist practice and how these practices have been informed by migration; (2) Understand how mobility, both physical and imaginative, is a key aspect of contemporary Buddhist practice; and (3) Conceptualize how violence, both physical and emotional, is conceived of as a method for achieving enlightenment and an essential aspect of Buddhism.

 

Fitgerald earned her Bachelor of Arts in theatre and dramatic arts at Barnard College (2010) and Master of Arts in comparative studies at The Ohio State University (2015). Her faculty advisor is Hugh Urban.

  

The Office of International Affairs administers the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program for The Ohio State University, and grant competitions are held annually. Doctoral candidates interested in applying for the Fellowship for the 2019 competition must contact Fulbright-Hays program director, Joanna Kukielka-Blaser, kukielka-blaser.1@osu.edu.