Three Middlebury Faculty Members Awarded Fulbright Fellowships
Three Middlebury College faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards to teach and conduct research abroad during the 2026–27 academic year. The fellowships, administered annually by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, foster mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through educational and cultural exchange.
Rachael Joo, professor of American studies, will travel to Seoul to investigate the role of social media in reinforcing divisions during international sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup. Matt Lawrence, Dahl Family Professor of Computational Social Sciences, will teach courses at Japanese universities focused on the American Dream as a lens for understanding American culture and society. Obie Porteous, associate professor of economics, plans to teach and conduct research in Senegal focused on the potential economic impact of revenues from newly developed oil and natural gas reserves, particularly on the agricultural sector.
“We are honored that Rachael, Matt, and Obie will continue Middlebury’s long tradition of faculty pursuing internationally recognized scholarship through Fulbright awards,” said Michelle McCauley, executive vice president and provost. “Their work not only advances research in their fields but also brings new global perspectives and experiences back to the classroom.”
Obie Porteous, associate professor of economics: Agricultural Transformation Following Natural Resource Discoveries
Obie Porteous will use his Fulbright award to study how new natural resource revenues in Senegal could affect the country’s broader economy, particularly within the agricultural sector, which is critical to local livelihoods and food security. Senegal recently began producing oil and natural gas from large offshore deposits, positioning the country to become a major exporter of natural resources in the years to come.
Porteous will be based at Gaston Berger University in the Department of Economic Sciences, where he will teach courses on international trade and agricultural economics. The university is located in Saint-Louis near the mouth of the Senegal River Valley, a major agricultural region.
“I am hopeful that the results of my research will benefit policymakers in Senegal, as well as farmers and other stakeholders in the Senegal River Valley near Saint-Louis, as they work to reposition the local agricultural sector in response to Senegal’s emergence as a major natural resource exporter,” Porteous wrote.
An expert on international trade and agricultural markets in African countries, including Senegal, Porteous plans to interview farmers ranging from small family operations to large commercial farms. He also plans to adapt a quantitative spatial model he previously used to examine how oil revenues in Nigeria, Angola, and other African oil-exporting countries increased agricultural imports and reshaped local farming economies. That research found a shift away from internationally traded crops such as staple grains and cash crops towards locally consumed, non-traded crops like fresh fruits and vegetables.
“Once built and calibrated, the model can be used to simulate the potential effects of increasing natural resource revenues in the coming years,” Porteous wrote. “It will be a special opportunity to witness and document the beginning of this transformation and explore potential policy responses that could support it.”
Porteous, who joined the Middlebury faculty in 2016, conducts research in the fields of international trade and development economics, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He has published widely in journals such as the Journal of International Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and the Journal of Development Economics.
Rachael Joo, professor of American studies: Nationalisms and Polarized Politics through the Prism of Sport
In her 2012 book, Transnational Sport: Gender, Media, and Global Korea, Rachael Joo examined how the South Korean national team and elite athletes once served as unifying symbols for people in South Korea and Korean communities abroad, while also exploring the connection between sports, media, and national identity. Joo said that relationship has since become more polarized due in part to the rise of social media, political extremism, and commercial advertising.
“In my previous research, I worked on the assumption that international sporting events brought national audiences together through a shared sense of purpose,” Joo said. “But I am starting to feel skeptical about the power of international sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics to unite a nation. My new research investigates the role of social media in reinforcing divisions during these international sporting events.”
For her Fulbright, Joo will travel to Seoul to study how different groups of South Korean fans experience and discuss the 2026 FIFA World Cup by watching matches alongside fan communities with varying political beliefs, religious affiliations, and other identities. She will also participate in fan groups on platforms such as Facebook and KakaoTalk and attend organized viewing events.
Joo plans to write journal articles comparing her findings with earlier research from the 2002 Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup, which took place before the widespread use of smartphones and social media. “I aim to contribute to the field of sports studies by critically assessing whether and how modern international sports generate a shared sense of nationalism, and if so, which version of ‘nation’ emerges and for whom,” Joo wrote in her proposal.
In addition to her 2012 book, Joo has published widely on the transnational circulation of mass media since joining the Middlebury faculty in 2007. She coedited A Companion to Korean American Studies, featuring interdisciplinary work by scholars who have contributed to the field of Korean American studies. She has also published articles on sports, media, identity, sexuality, food culture, and the cultural politics of golf. She is publishing a book on Korean golf titled National Greens: The Natures of Korean Golf through Duke University Press in spring 2026.
Matt Lawrence, Dahl Family Professor of Computational Social Sciences: Teaching the American Dream in Japan: Courses about Higher Education and Social Mobility in the U.S.
The main focus of Matt Lawrence’s Fulbright program is teaching courses at Japanese universities about the American experience, with a focus on the American Dream—a topic he also teaches at Middlebury. “I believe that learning how people ‘get ahead’ is an ideal entry point for understanding American culture and society,” he said.
While writing his Fulbright application, Lawrence said he repeatedly returned to a quote from The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, a book he uses in several of his courses: “The decisions you make about higher education and the decisions that are made for you play a critical role in determining the course of the rest of your life.” He said he looks forward to exploring what that idea means to students in Japan during his Fulbright experience—an opportunity he describes as “a transformative moment in my own development as a teacher and scholar.”
Lawrence will teach a course at Japan’s National Defense Academy on U.S. higher education as a pathway to social and economic mobility and another at Yokohama National University on how mobility shapes long-term outcomes such as family life, income, housing, and civic engagement. He plans to adapt a project he uses at Middlebury in which students analyze factors such as social capital, educational quality, transportation access, and civic participation to better understand what shapes outcomes in local communities.
As a sociologist of higher education, most of Lawrence’s work focuses on the role of colleges and universities in promoting social mobility. “Japan offers a great comparison for studying and teaching about that relationship,” Lawrence wrote in his proposal. “In the United States, higher education is often described as ‘the great equalizer,’ with research showing that the students who benefit most from college are those least likely to attend.” Recent scholarship suggests that this pattern does not hold in Japan, he added, noting that “this contrast will give Japanese students, and me, a valuable comparative framework for understanding the links between education and later life outcomes in each country.”
Lawrence, who joined the Middlebury faculty in 2016, has published widely on the relationship between higher education and social mobility. His research focuses on inequality, postsecondary education, and the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage and disadvantage. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, American Educational Research Journal, and other leading academic journals.
About the Fulbright Program
Established by Congress in 1946 and administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program promotes mutual understanding between the United States and other nations through academic exchange. Fulbright fellowships support scholars teaching and conducting research abroad while advancing U.S. public diplomacy efforts. Each year, the program supports approximately 8,000 students, scholars, teachers, and professionals, including more than 800 U.S. scholars in over 160 countries.