Donna M. Cardarelli, a candidate for graduation from Hamilton College later this month, has been awarded a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship for study at Buryat State University in Russia.
Cardarelli's project is titled "Investigating Concepts of Native Identity n Buryatia: Linguistic Culture Among Buryat Children." She proposes to investigate the extent to which Buryat people are reshaping notions of "native" cultural identity through a careful analysis of their children's use of language in the public classroom. Her research in the public school has two objectives: to observe, document and analyze Buryat children's speech patterns in terms of syntactic structure and jargon lexicon; and to study the extent to which Buryat people currently support native language use and education in the public school.
The purpose of the Fulbright grants is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. The grants are funded through an annual appropriation made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State and by foreign governments, universities, corporations and private donors. The J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board, composed of 12 educational and public leaders appointed by the president of the United States, establishes criteria for selecting candidates and has the final authority for awarding the grants.
Cardarelli, the daughter of Donald and Debra Cardarelli of Jamesville, NY, is majoring in Russian Studies at Hamilton. Upon her return to the United States she plans to continue study of Russian society and culture by pursuing a master's and Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures.
While at Hamilton, Cardarelli has been a teaching assistant in the Russian Studies department; book review assistant for The Slavic and East European Journal; and an English tutor at the Oneida Indian reservation. She spent the fall, 2000 semester at Yaroslavl State University in Russia, where she instructed a preparatory class for college students in English.
