AFS Fellow Lisa Gilman Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award

Folklorist Lisa Gilman has been selected as a recipient of Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for the 2026–27 academic year. Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that allow scholars to teach and conduct research abroad to establish long-term relationships between people and nations.

Dr. Gilman is the Director of George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research and Professor of Folklore and English. Being a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, she will participate in a bi-national program of educational exchange between the United States and Iceland and will be teaching two folklore classes with the faculty of sociology, anthropology, and folklorists at the University of Iceland for the spring 2027 semester. She is hopeful that the experience will spur future partnerships between the folklore programs at George Mason University and the University of Iceland.

“One of the best things about teaching folklore internationally is that I always learn as much, or maybe more, from students about their folklore as they do from my teaching. The value of the Fulbright Scholar Award will extend far into the future because I will be able to integrate the knowledge I gain into my teaching at George Mason after I come back, thus expanding our program’s curriculum.”

Lisa Gilman