Awardee Database

Awardees

Sassan Tabatabai

Sassan Tabatabai won the 2023 Persian Translation Prize for his translation of Sadeq Hedayat’s Blind Owl. Tabatabai holds a prominent position as the head of the Persian program at Boston University, where he regularly teaches all levels of Persian language and literature. His multifaceted expertise extends beyond academia, encompassing roles as a poet, translator, editor, and scholar specializing in medieval Persian literature. His work has appeared in a number of publications including Essays in Criticism, The Christian Science Monitor, Literary Imagination, The Republic of Letters, Senecca Review, Leviathan Quarterly and Harvard Review Online. He is the author of Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and his Poetry (Leiden University Press, 2010), Uzunburun: Poems (Pen and Anvil, 2011) and Sufi Haiku (Nemi Books, 2021).

Viviana Prado-Núñez

Viviana Prado-Núñez, a graduate of Columbia University, won the 2023 Morocco Project Support Award for her audio series “How to Kill Tigers”, aiming to explore Latino-Moroccan cultural connections and musician migration to Morocco. The Project Support Award will enhance the podcast by funding Spanish translation, marketing, distribution, the creation and recording of Latino-Moroccan-fused theme music.

After Fulbright, she plans to pursue several projects, including the publication of a docufiction bilingual novel about Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the production of her play about Hurricane Maria. She is also considering a graduate degree in theater or Puerto Rican studies. Her ultimate goal is to return to Puerto Rico to live as an artist and perhaps teach at the university level one day.

Sharon I-Hua Hsieh

Sharon I-Hua Hsieh is recognized for greatly expanding people-to-people ties by spearheading the efforts to launch a new U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative. By nurturing partnerships with several Taiwan ministries, she increased both U.S. and host-country funding for exchanges, making Taiwan’s Fulbright/Foundation for Scholarly Exchange program one of the largest in the region and its English Teaching Assistant Program one of the biggest in the world. She followed up with a strategic plan to make the initiative a sustainable pillar in our bilateral relationship.

Bernice Affotey

Berenice Affotey has motivated and prepared thousands of students to follow their dreams of studying in the United States. In addition, Ms. Affotey generously serves as a trainer and mentor to institutional contacts, her fellow Sub-Saharan African Advisers and at many international education conferences. Every school break brings former students returning from the United States, who are the future civic and cultural leaders of Ghana, to pay a visit to “Auntie Bernice,” as she is affectionately known, to share their deep gratitude for her work, a sentiment shared by the entire Mission.

Vladimir Polenov

In winter 2022-23, the Prize went to Vladimir Polenov for his translation of Reed King’s 2019 debut, FKA USA: A Novel (MacMillan). This cult futuristic epic about the US end-of-times has been called “amazingly audacious,” “wildly imaginative and possibly prescient.”

David Font-Navarrete

The 2023 MLA-Roth Honorable Mention went to David Font-Navarrete, Assistant Professor of Music at Lehman College and CUNY, for his translation of Lydia Cabrera’s El Monte: Notes on the Religions, Magic, Superstitions, and Folklore of the Black and Creole People of Cuba (Duke U. Pr.). “This first English translation of Cabrera’s groundbreaking compendium on the history, sources, rites and customs of Afro-Cuban culture is a masterpiece. The introduction and translator’s notes help us understand el monte—the forest—a place where the appetites of humans are shared by gods, and the healing essence of the forest appears in all its glory.”

Clarissa Clò & Donatella Melucci

The second 2024 MLA-Roth Award went to Clarissa Clò, Professor of European Studies at San Diego State and Donatella Melucci, Professor of Italian at Georgetown for their translation of Amir Issaa’s This is What I Live For: An Afro-Italian Hip-Hop Memoir (San Diego State U Pr.). The Jury noted of the work: “A pioneering Afro-Italian hip-hop artist and antiracism advocate, Issaa is the living, vibrating fulcrum around which [this] bilingual edition celebrates the joys of collaboration and community building across continents, people and disciplines”. Originally a student translation project at Georgetown, the volume is enriched by an author’s prelude, personal photos and a range of essays, including a collaborative translation process undertaken by the translators.

Fabio Battista

The 2023 MLA-Roth award went to Fabio Battista, Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, for his translation of The Queen of Scots / La Reina di Scotia (U. Toronto Pr.), a drama written by Federico Della Valle just after the Queen’s execution in 1587. This comprehensive, bilingual edition makes Della Valle’s important and influential play available for the first time in English. The jury wrote: “Battista’s impeccable translation—lucid, energetic and accurate—is supported by a generous and enlightening apparatus. Its publication is a major event in the fields of comparative early modern drama, translation studies and studies of Anglo-Italian relations in early modernity.”

Kathlyn Elliott

Kathlyn Elliott is pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at Drexel University. She plans to use the Roth-Thomson Award to support her research on the pedagogical tools used in the Finnish education system to prevent violent extremism and dismantle already existing violent extremism. Upon her return to the U.S., Kathlyn plans to finish her education, in hopes of working for the United States government or non-profit organizations on preventing violent extremism.

Radhika Purandare

Radhika will use the Roth-Thomson Award for conducting research on maternal health among immigrant populations in Sweden. Her goal is to apply the research that she does in Sweden and intervention strategies that have been effective there to help women in the United States. Upon her return to the United States, she plans to enroll in a Master of Public Health and Juris Doctor joint degree program. After graduate school, she hopes to research and advocate for federal policies that will help immigrant women access quality, culturally competent perinatal care.

Elizabeth Schmidt wins Australia Project Support Award

Elizabeth Schmidt

Elizabeth Schmidt, a graduate of Western Sydney University, received our 2022 Project Support award to conduct a policy and media analysis of Australian policy on the rights and safety of LGBTQ refugees in detention. Her research aims to address the experiences and needs of these refugees during displacement. Upon her return to the U.S., Elizabeth plans to work with non-profit organizations that advocate for the rights of vulnerable displaced population.  She also plans to pursue a law degree focusing on human rights and migration to promote comprehensive US refugee resettlement policy, reforms to US asylum procedures, and humane conditions for asylum seekers who are detained in the US.

Kathleen Maris Paltriner wins 2022 Norway Project Support Award

Kathleen Maris Paltriner

The 2022 award went to Kathleen Maris Paltriner. Kathleen is translating an anthology of ecopoetry to be published in the US where there is a lack of Norwegian poetry in translation. She will translate a total of nine poets writing in Bokmål, Nynorsk, and Sámi languages, carrying out her own translations from Bokmål and Nynorsk—the two written standards of Norwegian—and collaboratively translating with experts in the indigenous Sámi language group. On her return to the United States, Kathleen will publish the anthology to provide US audiences access to critical voices in the field of ecopoetry.

Fugl (Bird) by Peter Kujooq Kristiansen, 2000, Qaqortoq, Greenland

Dr. David Norman

Dr. David Norman received our 2022 Denmark Project Award to conduct research on post-colonial Inuit arts and their critical relevance to global art movements. Dr. Norman’s work historicizes the continuity between Greenlandic artists who used art as a way of political activism before 1979 and the contemporary artists who challenged stereotypical views of Greenlandic arts in the 1980s and 1990s. On his return to the United States, David will work on his current book-in-progress, Home Rule Contemporary: Experimental Art and Self-Determination in Kalaallit Nunaat, which seeks to position Greenlandic art in the center of contemporary art history.

Bronte Heron

Bronte intends to use this award to supplement her Fulbright Graduate Award for the pursuit of Master’s of Art degree in Creative Writing, specializing in Poetry, at the New School in New York City. She will expand her technical and imaginative skills as a writer and connect with other creatives in the United States. Upon completion, she wishes to publish her first poetry collection. Further on in her career, she plans to teach poetry.

LRF 2022 Uruguay awardee Brandon Goodale

Brandon Goodale

Brandon is a PhD candidate with the Department of Spanish &Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He will use this award to support his Fulbright research on Variation in Intonation of Uruguay Spanish, and this award will allow him to visit previously unreachable departments and populations.

Grace Perry

Grace recently graduated from Colorado College with a degree in sociology and is conducting research on Exposing (Dis)connects Between Trans Life & Legislative Goals in Uruguay as she prepares to undertake a Master’s degree devoted to community-engaged research and activist scholarship. This project support award will support her need for transcription and translation services for her interviews with trans youth and community members.

Ryan Milov-Cordoba

Ryan Milov-Cordoba won the inaugural Morocco Project Support Award for his project “Streaming the Sooq: Presents, Futures, and Pasts of the Moroccan Darija Hakawati Tradition.” Ryan Milov-Cordoba is completing his PhD in Comparative Literature at the City University of New York. The Project Support Award for Morocco will help Ryan visit remote areas and film documentation of Morocco’s Hakawati story-telling tradition. After Fulbright program, he plans to explore postdocs and assistant professorships at American and Moroccan universities to develop his research into a first book.

Richard Pinkham

Richard Pinkham, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan was awarded an Honorable Mention for his use of the spectrum of cultural and educational exchange programs to foster greater stability and cohesion in the South Caucasus. Through in-person and virtual exchanges for think-tank analysts, academics, students, English language teacher training and new American cultural programming spaces, Richard significantly improved the lives of millions of Azerbaijanis, Armenians, and Georgians.

Jennifer Uhler

Jennifer Uhler, the Regional English Language Officer in Tallinn, Estonia covers Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, but she has also served in Central Asia, East Asia and South America. In all her assignments, Jen has brought an understanding of how English language skills promote cross-cultural communication, open doors to educational and job opportunities, and provide a way to share U.S. culture and values. The impact of her teacher-training programs has lasted long beyond her assignments and have been continued and expanded by her successors. Jennifer is the first Foreign Service Specialist to win the Lois Roth Award.

Alaa Mufleh

Alaa Mufleh, of the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, received an Honorable Mention for her work as a dual-hatted Emerging Voices Specialist and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism Specialist. Alaa’s programs engaged Jordan’s rising influencers, and empowered women and youth through experiential learning activities, designed not just to mitigate vulnerability to radicalization but ensure they are thriving across Jordan’s 12 governorates. A highlight was her programming of Jazz legend Herbie Hancock, culminating in a concert in a 2,000-year-old auditorium resulting in video products and prime-time news coverage that brought jazz into the homes of every Jordanian.

Jane Susi

Jane Susi, Public Engagement Specialist, at the U.S. Embassy Tallinn, Estonia oversees the range of programs that engage universities, think tanks, and other policy-oriented non-governmental organizations. Over her 15 years of service, Jane increased Estonian financial support of the Fulbright Program, greatly expanded the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program, fostered diversity and inclusion in programs and grants, and solidified the Embassy’s cultural outreach to communities outside of the capital city, all the while training and mentoring staff throughout the region. Her work has not only been instrumental to shaping Embassy outreach, but also in helping participants thrive in their programs.

Dorothy Ngalombi

For over 36 years, Cultural Specialist Dorothy Ngalombi has guided the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Uganda through film festivals, concerts, women’s writing retreats and much more. Her upcoming event to commemorate the Fulbright program has a team of Fulbright alumni supporting her because of her dedication to these scholars over the years. The annual Fulbright Kajubi Lecture Series will be another lasting result of the connections Dorothy has fostered. To honor her, the Public Affairs Section in Kampala is creating a Lifetime Achievement Award for its alumni community in the name of Dorothy Ngalombi.

Matthew McMahon

As Deputy Director of the Office of Citizen Exchanges, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Matthew McMahon uses his skills, experience, cross-cultural understanding and creativity, combined with his patience and wisdom, to lead teams to success. Throughout his career, Matt has worked extremely well with Posts and regional bureaus, modeling how ECA civil service managers contribute subject matter expertise, management experience, and broad regional awareness as well as knowledge of relevant domestic issues and constituencies, to support and collaborate with colleagues at Posts to achieve the Department’s foreign policy goals.

*The Prix Coindreau Prize, The Jeanne Varnay Pleasants Prize for Language Teaching, and the CASVA-Henry & Judith Millon Award are currently inactive.