Rebecca Macklin Receives Fulbright Award

Through the Fulbright programme, Rebecca will spend a year at Cornell University from 2017-2018 as a Visiting Student Researcher under the supervision of Professor Eric Cheyfitz. In 2010, Rebecca Macklin gained a First Class degree in English Literature from Lancaster and she is now a PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Leeds. She will carry out research into postcolonial and indigenous engagements with globalization, with a specific focus on contemporary South African and Native American fiction – her interest in which first arose through her BA programme at Lancaster. Situated within the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Rebecca will have the opportunity to work with leading scholars in the field as well as undertake engagement work with local indigenous communities. Rebecca comments: “I am proud to have been selected as a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar and am excited to spend a year at Cornell University, which would not be possible without the support of the Fulbright Commission. My interest in Native American literature goes back to my time at Lancaster, when I studied authors including Gerald Vizenor, Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko as part of a programme on American Literature. Looking back, it wasn’t – and still isn’t – the norm for a British university to teach an array of Native American texts and it was because of this that I was introduced to some of the authors that I am researching today. So I am grateful to Lancaster and hope that we see more British universities incorporating the fantastic works being produced by indigenous authors into their courses. Having studied Native American literature from afar for years, it will be invaluable for me to have access to the unparalleled resources and dynamic research culture at Cornell."