Liberal Arts faculty earns Fulbright Award

Sophie A. McClennen, Penn State associate professor of comparative literature, Spanish and women’s studies and co-director of the graduate program in comparative literature, has been awarded a Visiting Research Fulbright 2005-2006 Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies at Dalhousie University, for research on Globalization and Resistance in Latin American Cinema.

The Visiting Research Chair awards are part of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program, which supports collaborative efforts between U.S. and Canadian academic communities on thematic issues of bilateral and global significance at Canada's leading universities and research centers. The award enables prominent and promising scholars and experienced professionals to conduct research and guest lectures.

McClellen's research focuses on the critique of media globalization found in the work of the New Latin American Cinema between 1960 and 1985. The movement's filmmakers believed that cinema played an important role in the construction of identity and that through a radical revision of the cinematic image could change the spectator's understanding of the world and reverse the tide of neocolonialism. McClellen's work argues that understanding this movement and its legacy is essential to the study of resistance to media globalization.

There are up to 24 Visiting Research Chair awards in particular disciplines and five All Disciplines awards presented each year.