Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend and other artists to review candidates for Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, today announced that leading musical artists including Death Cab for Cutie, My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, Santogold and Vampire Weekend will review and nominate candidates for the 2009-2010 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships.

The Fellowships, administered by the Institute of International Education, were established to promote the “power of music” as a global force for mutual understanding.

Applications for the 2009-2010 Fellowships are being accepted now through March 1, 2009, with more information available at www.us.fulbrightonline.org. The final selection will be made by the Presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Winners of the 2008-2009 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships are currently conducting research abroad on their self-designed projects, each centered on an aspect of international musical culture. The five 2008 winners include Melissa Adams of Emory University, Ainsley Breault of the University of Southern California, Katherine Good of Loyola University, Chicago; Spencer Orey of the University of California, Berkeley; and Alexis Tucker of Princeton University.

The winners were chosen through a multi-tiered, merit-based selection process beginning with field and discipline merit reviews by U.S. and foreign academic leaders and area experts. Each has been sharing her or his experiences with peers via video reports, blogs and podcasts on mtvU and http://fulbright.mtvu.com/.

2008-2009 Fulbright-mtvU Fellows
Melissa Adams, who graduated from Emory University with a Masters in Public Health, has been on the ground in Uganda working on a hip-hop therapy project in which youth affected by war and by AIDS in Northern Uganda learn to beatbox, break dance, compose positive rap songs and create hip-hop beats with local instruments. She is conducting an assessment of the children's needs and available resources and using the data to determine how best to further meet their psychosocial needs through these therapeutic resources.

Ainsley Breault, who graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Cinema-Television, is in New Zealand researching the role of music in perpetuating Maori culture. She will conclude the project by obtaining a one-year certificate in Maori music at Auckland University of Technology, and will chronicle two significant Maori music events, sharing her findings through two 30-minute rockumentary-style digital videos.

Katherine Good, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Loyola University Chicago with a B.S. in Anthropology and B. A. in International Studies, is working in Mexico to produce podcasts that anthropologically explore the Mexican youth renaissance of performing various pre-rock music styles. A folk musician and independent radio producer, Katherine is working with the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City and the danzon and son jarocho circles of Veracruz to document this growing cultural trend.

Spencer Orey, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Anthropology, is in Mali studying the rich tradition of griot musicians, who are considered living embodiments of cultural knowledge. He is researching the roles musicians played in the Malian transition to democracy and what roles they play currently. From his findings, he will create a compilation CD of music.

Alexis Tucker, who graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in French and African Studies, is in France studying how socially engaged French rap music and hip-hop culture have addressed the aftermath of the 2005 riots and the 2007 French Presidential election. She is producing a multimedia presentation and a documentary that reflect the political role of hip-hop in France.

About Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is the world-renowned, flagship international educational program supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. The Fulbright Program has provided more than 294,000 participants with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, to exchange ideas and to contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

About mtvU
Broadcast to more than 750 college campuses and via top cable distributors in 700 college communities nationwide, mtvU reaches upwards of 9 million U.S. college students – making it the largest, most comprehensive television network just for college students. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, mtvU can be seen in the dining areas, fitness centers, student lounges and dorm rooms of campuses throughout the United States, as well as on cable systems from Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS TV, Suddenlink Communications, AT&T u-Verse and nearly 70 others.

mtvU is dedicated to every aspect of college life, reaching students everywhere they are: on-air, online and on campus. mtvU programs music videos from emerging artists that can’t be seen anywhere else, news, student life features and initiatives that give college students the tools to advance positive social change. mtvU is always on campus, with more than 250 events per year, including exclusive concerts, giveaways, shooting mtvU series and more. For more information about mtvU, and a complete programming schedule, visit www.mtvU.com.

mtvU also owns and operates the College Media Network, the largest interactive network of online college newspapers in the United States, and RateMyProfessors.com, the Internet’s largest listing of collegiate professor ratings. The College Media Network comprises nearly 600 campus publications that serve institutions including Brown University, the University of Illinois, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University, with a combined enrollment of over 5.5 million students, reaching an average of 5 million unique users each month. RateMyProfessors.com reaches approximately 2.9 million college students each month, via the site’s more than 6.6 million student-generated ratings of over 1,000,000 college professors.