[483] Fulbright Award Gives MTSU Professor Pace Chance to Teach, Conduct Research in Brazil

Release date: May 27, 2011

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Fulbright contact : Dr. Richard Pace, 615-904-8058 or rpace@mtsu.edu

Fulbright Award Gives MTSU Professor Pace
Chance to Teach, Conduct Research in Brazil

(MURFREESBORO) — Dr. Richard Pace has received another tremendous distinction to add to his academic resume.
Pace, professor in MTSU’s sociology and anthropology department, recently learned he had received a Fulbright Teaching and Research Award. He will be going to Brazil during the 2011-12 academic year “to conduct two timely projects that are part of my ongoing teaching and research specialties in the political ecology of Amazônia and media anthropology.”
Pace said the award will "provide me with an excellent opportunity to accomplish this level of intellectual exchange as I teach and conduct my research in Brazil.
"Essential to the successful completion of these projects is the face-to-face intellectual engagement with Brazilian scholars and students over an extended period of time,” he said. “This is an important milestone I have not had the opportunity to fulfill during my academic career."
Earlier this week, it was announced that Dr. Mohammed Albakry, associate professor of English, was awarded a Fulbright and will teach linguistics at the University of Mohammad the Fifth in Moracco.
Pace’s time in Brazil begins this summer by directing two study-abroad programs affiliated with MTSU: the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies in Fortaleza and Rio, followed by the University's ethnographic field school in the Amazonian community of Gurupá.
"The latter trip will include seven MTSU students who will conduct undergraduate research in the rain forest while learning about anthropological field techniques," Pace said.
Pace will participate in an archaeological project in Gurupá in July, funded in part by a Faculty Research and Creative Activity Committee grant from MTSU.
In August, Pace will begin his teaching duties, all in Portuguese, at the Federal University of Pará in Belem, which is located at the mouth of the Amazon River.
In addition to teaching, he will conduct ethnographic research on the socioenvironmental impact of the Belo Monte Dam on downstream communities, including Gurupá. Once completed, Pace noted, Belo Monte will be the third largest dam in the world and will create massive environmental changes for the people who depend upon the forest and river for their livelihoods.
During his Fulbright year, Pace will work with colleagues from the Federal University of Pará to publish an edited volume in Portuguese on seven decades of anthropological research in the community of Gurupá as well as publishing his data on the cross-cultural impact of television.
Pace, whose research grants have totaled $45,617 from 1981 to present, said he also will work to expand MTSU exchange opportunities for students and faculty in Brazil.
Pace was heavily involved in a photographic exhibit, “MTSU’s Amazon Connection,” that just ended a one-month run at MTSU’s Todd Gallery. The exhibit detailed MTSU’s anthrolopological work in the Amazon for the past seven decades.
He earned his bachelor’s from Indiana University in 1980, and both his master’s and doctorate from the University of Florida in 1983 and ’87, respectively. In addition to being at MTSU since 1997, Pace is an adjoint professor of Latin American studies at Vanderbilt University through 2013. He had held positions at Western Kentucky University, the University of Wyoming, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Butler University and Purdue-Calumet in Hammond, Ind.
The latest announcements mean MTSU students and faculty have received five Fulbright awards in one year. History professor Dr. Sean Foley will extend his current Fulbright in Malaysia through fall 2011. MTSU senior Kim Yarborough was offered a Fulbright for an English teaching assistantship in Spain, and recent graduate Patrick Pratt received a Fulbright to research poverty in Tanzania.
"To have three faculty members and two students on Fulbrights in the same year is outstanding and reflects the excellent quality of our faculty and students," College of Liberal Arts Dean Mark Byrnes said.
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In Brief

Dr. Richard Pace, a professor in MTSU’s sociology and anthropology department, has Fulbright Teaching and Research Award that will allow him to teach and conduct research in the Amazon region of Brazil in 2011-12..

Note: For a high-resolution jpeg photo of Dr. Richard Pace, call 615-898-2919.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. In September 2011, MTSU will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with special events and activities throughout the year — kicked off by a Blue-Tie Centennial Gala on Friday, Sept. 9.

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