[059] MTSU Professor's Third Fulbright Takes Him To Malaysia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 26, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU PROFESSOR’S THIRD FULBRIGHT TAKES HIM TO MALAYSIA
Sean Foley to Study Arab Muslim Links to Culturally Diverse Southeast Asian Land

(MURFREESBORO) – Dr. Sean Foley, assistant professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University, will embark in mid-September on a 10-month research excursion in Southeast Asia after winning the third Fulbright Fellowship of his career.
Foley will work and study primarily in Malaysia, where he will examine religious links between Southeast Asia and the Arab-dominated Middle East region under the auspices of International Islamic University Malaysia in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
In addition, Foley’s study and lecture itinerary will take him to India, Thailand, and Brunei, an experience he will chronicle with periodic columns in the Nashville-based newspaper The Tennessean.
Foley’s 2010-11 fellowship comes from the prestigious Fulbright Program, which is sponsored by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Marianne Craven, the bureau’s managing director of academic programs, says the program funds faculty and research scholars such as Foley as well as international scholars’ work in the U.S.
“It’s really a program that exemplifies academic excellence, but even more than that, it’s a program that promotes mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” Craven says.
In addition, the Fulbright Program promotes teacher exchanges for primary and secondary schools, Humphrey Fellowships for mid-career professionals to come to the U.S. for a year, and student exchanges that enable American college graduates to go overseas and international students to come to the U.S. for graduate study and language instruction. MTSU alum and graduate student Eric Little will depart in late September for Portugal with a student grant to teach American culture and the English language.
More than 40 alumni of the Fulbright Program have won Nobel Prizes, including former MTSU professor Muhammad Yunus, who, along with his Grameen Bank in his native Bangladesh, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his development of microcredit and microfinance.
Craven says the Fulbright Program changes the proportion of fellowships available as events warrant, including an increased emphasis on the Muslim world after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. However, the goal is to help the United States achieve broad foreign policy priorities and advance bilateral relationships with countries around the world.
“We’ve tended to see Southeast Asia as ‘something else’ or “different,” Foley says. “Some Americans may have had experience—either themselves or their parents—with Vietnam. But it’s part of a larger global network in which the Indian Ocean has been important for a very long time.”

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Although Americans learn relatively little about the region in the news media, Foley says it has probably the most important sea lane in the world in the Straits of Malacca, the gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
As for Malaysia in particular, it provides the world with electronic equipment, petroleum, rubber and palm oil. Foley says it is a commerce-based society that is an important trading partner of the U.S.
“It is certainly a middle-class, well-educated country that has emphasized education and particularly learning English as part of a way of integrating itself into the global economy,” Foley notes.
Foley says it has become a destination for Muslims who seek a lifestyle that provides a balance between tradition and modernity. Sharia law is a part of the legal system, but the government is a constitutional monarchy with a king, prime minister and parliament.
“In fact, the legal code of Malaysia reflects the fact that it is a highly diverse society,” says Foley.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, Malaysia’s population is 50.4 percent Malay, 23.7 percent Chinese and 7.1 percent Indian. Muslims make up 60.4 percent of the faithful, followed by Buddhists with 19.2 percent, Christians with 9.1 percent and Hindus with 6.3 percent.
The locale and the research subject fit Foley’s expertise and experience perfectly. He did his doctoral dissertation at Georgetown University on the Sufi movement, which has a huge following in the region. His most recent book, The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam (Lynne Rienner Press), finds numerous linkages between those six nations and Southeast Asia.
Aside from the professional advantages, Foley will benefit from the company of his wife, Kerry, for the entire 10 months. He says she speaks Russian, Somali and Arabic and picks up new languages with great facility.
Foley recently taped three segments with the Voice of America—one for the Turkish-language service, one for the Persian-language service and one for the Azeri-language service. His Azeri-language interview about Iran and Turkey is available for viewing at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhGKTwWecuQ.
For more information about Foley’s research, go to www.seanfoley.org. An interview with Foley and Craven is available for listening at http://www.mtsu.edu/news/podcast/podcast2010.shtml. Click on “August 8, 2010.”


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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.