THREE FACULTY MEMBERS RECEIVE FULBRIGHT GRANTS

Three faculty recently were awarded Fulbright grants to teach and study overseas: Eileen Abrahamsen, associate professor of speech-language pathology; Jie Chen, associate professor of political science; and Tim Havens, assistant professor of communication.

Abrahamsen will teach at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, starting in February. She will return to the U.S. the following June. This is the second Fulbright for Abrahamsen, who supervised language therapy at health centers in Malta 1995-96.

Abrahamsen, now is in her 24th year at Old Dominion, will teach students about children's language disorders in the communication disorders department at Comenius. She will also teach a class on early intervention with children with language disorders.

Havens leaves for Hungary in late June and returns in December. While overseas he will conduct research on the uses of imported television programming in Hungary, asking how television purchasing and programming practices have changed since the transition from socialism to market capitalism.

He also will look at the cultural implication of the changes. Havens, who has been at Old Dominion since 2000, plans to conduct extended field work and interviews with professionals at each of the major terrestrial, cable and satellite television networks.

Chen was awarded his Fulbright to study in China a year ago, but deferred acceptance of it because the political situation in his homeland at the time. Several American scholars, particularly those of Chinese origin, were being detained and in some cases arrested by the Chinese government.

He left May 16 on a research trip to conduct a public opinion survey of Chinese citizens living in rural areas. Working with a partner at the People's University of China, Chen will address attitudes toward democracy, particularly toward individual liberty versus social order. He will compare this data with his previous research to assess whether attitudes differ between people living in rural and urban settings. Chen, who has taught at Old Dominion since 1997, will return to the university for the fall semester.