Graduate Student Learning Chinese Won Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Do Research on Modern Chinese History

Zachary Clark, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of History, and a Chinese language learner, received the Fulbright-Hays fellowship which will fund his research in Taiwan for the year of 2024. The fellowship will allow him to conduct archival research for his dissertation which focuses on modern Chinese history. The Fulbright-Hays Program awards grants in a variety of disciplines that can focus on research, language study, teaching experience, and group projects abroad to promote foreign language and area studies. Zachary will spend ten months in Taipei visiting archives and reading Chinese language newspapers, diaries, and documents. He will also be immersing himself in the local community through living in a traditional Taiwanese neighborhood.

As a student learning Chinese language in the Department of Asian Studies, Zachary benefitted greatly from the language training he received, which enabled him to fully converse and interact with the local native speaking population when he studied abroad at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) over Summer 2022. According to Zachary, the opportunity to live and study in a native speaking environment, through the PSU-NTNU Huayu Best Exchange Program, helped his Chinese language skills improve drastically and played a critical role in his current research and career aspirations. He strongly encourages anyone interested in Chinese language acquisition to apply for Fulbright study opportunities, and engage with as many native Chinese speaking environments as possible.