Detroit Mercy receives fourth Fulbright-Hays Grant

University of Detroit Mercy, in partnership with Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla., has been awarded a new Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) grant to Brazil. It is the University’s fourth such grant. 

The $131,481 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will fund 14 participants — six faculty and administrators in the humanities and six K-12 educators in the areas of world languages, history, social studies and the arts, and two project directors.  

Participants in the project, titled A Study of Brazil’s African Diaspora, will travel to Brazil in July 2024, to explore issues including ethnic and racial affirmation, struggles and triumphs over representation, discourses of harmony and confrontation, and voices of presence and memory. Educators will explore aspects of music, art, literature, architecture, history, folklore, cuisine, religion, dance and language.  

“Each GPA to Brazil is unique in what we study and through the perspective each participant brings,” said Lara Wasner, Detroit Mercy Fulbright liaison. “We are grateful to receive this grant and provide these collaborative educational opportunities that lead to greater understanding of cultures, social justice and transformative educational experiences. These opportunities directly align with the Fulbright objective to increase mutual understanding and peaceful relations between nations.” 

Two examples of outcomes from last year’s participants in the grant included a multi-panel national artwork called Healing Wall, part of which hangs in the Briggs Building on the McNichols Campus, and Detroit Mercy Theatre Company’s premiere of a devised play that illuminated Afro-Brazilian voices while raising awareness of the social, political, spiritual and cultural experiences. 

Applications will open Aug. 1, and will be sent to educators who submit a letter of intent by Oct. 1 to Lara Wasner at wasnerle@udmercy.edu. Learn more about Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad.