The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Mary Ann Bodine Al-Sharif, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Education, has received a Fulbright United States Scholar Program award for Saudi Arabia.
Through the award, Bodine Al-Sharif will live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and work with the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences’ Department of Medical Education while focusing on her research project, “An Institutional Perspective of the Practice, Policy and Context of Saudi Higher Education.” Through her research project, she will examine the structures and functions of higher education within the kingdom and will partner for research with Department of Medical Education faculty and students.
During her time abroad, she will also provide training for qualitative research and methodologies to aid in the research process.
“This is an exciting opportunity to create a collaborative research partnership within Saudi’s developing higher-education system, and I am extremely appreciative of the faculty at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University and their leadership who have agreed to work with me on this project,” Bodine Al-Sharif said.
Bodine Al-Sharif credits the Social Science and Justice Research Faculty Fellowship sponsored by the UAB Institute for Human Rights, which supported her in the initial stages of the grant writing process, and UAB’s Susan Spezzini, Ph.D., program director of English as a Second Language and World Languages and a former Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Paraguay, who guided her through the Fulbright grant formatting process.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 professionals of all backgrounds and fields the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
Bodine Al-Sharif will begin her Fulbright journey in November 2024.