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Alvernia Student Named Fulbright Scholar

by Alvernia University

Feb 08, 2019
Abby Wells

Doctoral candidate to conduct research in Israel


Reading, Pa. –
Alvernia University doctoral student Abby Wells (Ann Arbor, Mich.) has been awarded the United States-Israel Educational Foundation (USIEF) Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.

The Fellowship allows Wells to travel to Haifa, Israel, where she will conduct research on leadership and the religious culture of claimsmaking in Jewish history at the University of Haifa’s department of sociology for 20 months beginning in August 2019.

“It is truly an honor to represent Alvernia University as a Fulbright scholar,” said Wells. “Likewise, I believe this award is a testament to the outcomes and growing importance of Alvernia’s interdisciplinary leadership community.”

Wells is the first Alvernia University doctoral candidate to earn the Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. She expects to earn her doctoral degree during spring 2019 and will defend her dissertation in late February.

“This is a tremendous honor awarded to a very deserving emerging scholar,” said Tufan Tiglioglu, director of the Alvernia University Ph.D. program in leadership. “Abby is an example of the type of leader Alvernia develops and will do a tremendous job representing the university and the country.”

Wells’ research will focus on racial minoritization and Ethiopian absorption since the modern period in Jewish studies, and her assignment in Haifa provides access to vital primary source materials in Isreal.

As a scholar-practitioner, she is currently working on a book project that examines the conceptual dimensions and boundaries of divinity in narrative leadership text. She is also the founder of an unaffiliated synagogue in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Fulbright aims to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through international educational exchange.

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