Linguistics/BCS Graduate Named Fulbright Scholar to China
April 22, 2009
Graduating senior Scott Herman '09 (B.A. Linguistics/Brain and Cognitive Sciences; minors: Chinese, French) has been named a Fulbright Scholar to China for 2009-10. He is the fifth UR student so far to win a Fulbright in this year's competition, and the second UR undergradute in as many years to win a Fulbright to China.
Herman's Fulbright project entails a linguistic investigation of how China's development is affecting its minority languages. He intends to affiliate with the Yunnan Nationalities University and, under the supervision of an expert there in ethnic languages, plans to conduct a cross-dialect study of three main Eastern Yi languages around the Kunming area in southwest China. Yi is a group of several related languages of the Tibeto-Burman language family. Herman's previous work, such as his linguistic sketch of Amharic for one of his courses at Rochester, and his investigation of minority education in a Tibetan village in Yunnan while studying in China last spring, provides him important experience for his proposed research in China.
Scott Herman is from Cherry Hill, NJ, and began his study of Chinese at Rochester. He won a nationally competitive scholarship, the Freeman-ASIA Award, which helped fund his spring 2008 semester in Beijing. His dedication and strong aptitude for Chinese language study earned him the Most Improved Student Award from the IES Beijing Language Intensive Program. Earlier this spring, he was elected to the Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Herman has traveled widely not only in China but also in Europe and part of the Middle East. He positively relishes cultural and linguistic dislocation. His interest in other cultures and languages was ignited at a young age, thanks to his family's practice of exploring the cultures and cuisines of different heritage groups in addition to their strong connection with their own Jewish heritage. Once he arrived at UR, he soon realized that his academic focus would center on language and culture. Besides his formal studies, Herman has published a collection of his own poetry and has been involved with LOGOS, UR's art and literature journal, since his freshman year, serving as its webmaster and editor-in-chief.
Herman is strongly motivated to master the Chinese language and is committed to long-term engagement with the Chinese world. His year in China as a Fulbright Scholar will play a pivotal role in helping him determine what form that engagement will take.
Herman has not yet heard whether he will also receive a Critical Language Enhancement Award, a component of the National Security Language Initiative that provides additional support to Fulbright grant recipients pursuing study or research projects involving selected languages. Application for this award is made simultaneously with the Fulbright application. The program funds intensive language study of up to several months, usually in the host country, to aid in greater linguistic proficiency prior to commencing work on the proposed Fulbright project.