Rocking Diplomacy: Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  06.14.07 | 3:01 PM ET

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As someone just finishing up a Fulbright grant in Taiwan, I’m convinced one-to-one international exchange will do a lot more for the United States’ image abroad than some of the highly-spun messaging we’ve heard out of Washington. So I was pleased to see the U.S. State Department push the Fulbright program into the 21st century with four new grants to study global music culture, awarded in collaboration with mtvU, MTV’s 24-7 campus network. It’s a partnership about as unlikely as, say, Condi Rice joining the cast of “The Real World,” but it just might help give sagging U.S. public diplomacy efforts a shot in the arm.

The goal of the Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships, a press release states, is to promote “‘the power of music’ as a global force for mutual understanding” and “interest in international education among U.S. college and university students.”

According to the release, the fellowship winners—who are off to Israel, Panama, Cambodia and South Africa this fall to research topics including reggae and marching bands—will share their experiences via video reports, blogs and podcasts to be broadcast on mtvU and mtvU.com. Not a bad gig.

Among those reviewing the applications, by the way: Fiona Apple, James Mercer of The Shins and Perry Farrell.

We’ll be watching to see how today’s MTV generation interprets public diplomacy for the multimedia age.

Tags: Global Village, Music, Pop Culture Travel, News and Briefs

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


1 Comment for Rocking Diplomacy: Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships

Michael Turton 06.14.07 | 11:02 PM ET

Good spot and a very openminded view from State, too. I too think US individuals do far more for the US image than our malicious and incompetent Administration. Unfortunately, though, no number of individuals, no matter how wonderful, can overcome the criminal invasion of Iraq.

Michael

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