Dede received a research award from the Traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).  In addition, Dede received an institutional award from the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad (FRA) program. This latter program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and provides fellowships for faculty members to conduct research overseas in the fields of modern language and area studies for  three to 12 months.  The terms of the awards stipulate that Dede cannot accept both fellowships, so he is in the enviable position of having to decide between the two.

Dede’s research project is titled “Contact and Change in the Chinese Dialects of Qinghai.” Four months in China will allow Dede to gather naturalistic speech samples from native speakers of Qinghai Chinese dialects, train local researchers in language-gathering and documentation techniques, and work with local scholars on the social history of northeastern Qinghai to further elucidate the historical language-contact scenario and subsequent evolution that created the mixed language phenomenon there today. Generally, this will allow for the testing of theories of language evolution.

Recipients include Ian Hooper (teaching award, Germany), Katie Loebner (teaching award, Indonesia), Matthew Nelson (teaching award, Russia), Brandon Nichter (research award, Chile), Kate Phillips (teaching award, Thailand), and Katherine Spingarn (teaching award, Germany).

To learn more, explore this interactive map and read about the Fulbright recipients in the online newsroom.