Register for the conference here!

Workshop: How to Turn Your Fulbright Into a Book ▸

Interactive writing workshop lead by award-winning novelist, poet, and unicorn of many colors, Minal Hajratwala.

Minal Hajratwala (they/she) has been coaching authors since the publication of her first book, Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents, which was called “incomparable” by Alice Walker and “searingly honest” by the Washington Post. It won a Pen USA Award, an Asian American Writers Workshop Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and a California Book Award. She is the author of a poetry collection, Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment, and a travel guidebook, Moon Fiji. As a journalist, she is an editor-at-large at Zócalo Public Square, ran the Sunday Perspective section of the San Jose Mercury News, and was a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at Columbia University. In 2010-11 she was a Fulbright senior fellow in Mumbai, where she edited a groundbreaking anthology, Out! Stories from the New Queer India.

Storytelling: Rushing for the Bus: How my Fulbright in Kosovo made me more connected to my Queer Self ▸

A moderated question and answer session with Peter O'Donnell Gonzalez, a Fulbright ETA to Kosovo.

Kick-off & Welcome (Europe, Africa, and Asia) ▸

We're so excited to meet you. This welcome session is all about meeting other queer Fulbrighters and Fulbrighters-to-be and building community. Best suited for time zones in Europe, Africa & Asia, but all are welcome!

Kick-Off & Welcome (Americas) ▸

We're so excited to meet you. This welcome session is all about meeting other queer Fulbrighters and Fulbrighters-to-be and building community. Best suited for time zones in the Americas, but all are welcome!

Storytelling: I, a queer man, entered a bunch of Kazakh elementary schools and managed to withhold all mentions of gay propaganda ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Yasha Hoffman, Fulbright Researcher to Kazakhstan.

Storytelling: LGBT - Life as a Gay Boy in Transnistria ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Alex Resnick, Fulbright ETA to Moldova.

Panel: Art & Queer Community ▸

with special introduction to Fulbright Prism U.S. West Coast.

A panel discussion on the importance of creativity, archiving, and art history in the queer community.

Featured panelists will be:

Olivia Comstock is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota in Art History, where she researches American 20th century craft art and ceramics. Currently Olivia is in Berlin, Germany for a Fulbright Research and Study award affiliated with the Museum FLUXUS+. Her project involves creating interactive and playful museum education workshops for adult visitors. Prior to her arrival in Germany, Olivia also founded and facilitated a Queer Sewing Circle to skill share and create queer community in a rural area.

Henry Martin (he/him/they) is a writer and academic. Their area of interest is Twentieth-Century American women art dealers, biography studies, and the history of exhibitions, art collections, and museums. Author of Agnes Martin: Pioneer, Painter, Icon (Benjamin Franklin Award), Yappo (Tipperary Artist Award), and contributor to Great Women Artists (Phaidon), they teach at CityLit (London) and NCAD (Dublin). Henry is a Fulbright-Creative Ireland fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in 2022. They have previously written on queer community of Coenties Slip (Agnes Martin, Jasper Johns etc.) and lecture on subjects including sexuality, gender, and queer art.

Alpesh Kantilal Patel is associate professor of contemporary art and visual culture at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, and a lead faculty member of Chautauqua School of Art’s summer residency program in New York. His art historical scholarship, curation and criticism reflect his queer, anti-racist, and transnational approach to contemporary art. His first monograph Productive Failure: Writing Queer Transnational South Asian Art Histories (Manchester University Press, 2017) mobilizes “affirmative criticality" and "productive failure" as conceptual frameworks to produce a more ethical, entangled, and transparent practice of writing (art) history. In 2022, he will be a residential fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Loughborough University, England, where he will work on his new monograph, tentatively titled Transregional Entanglements: Sexual Artistic Geographies.

STorytelling: Saving our flags: Working towards institutional inclusion and radical change for the Fulbright community in Germany ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Tunay Altay, Fulbright ETA to Germany.

Networking (Africa, Europe & Asia) ▸

An opportunity to meet and network with Fulbrighters in your region. Discuss settling into a new country, new education system, new career and more! Best suited for time zones in Europe, Africa & Asia, but all are welcome!

Networking (Americas) ▸

An opportunity to meet and network with Fulbrighters in your region. Discuss settling into a new country, new education system, new career and more! Best suited for time zones in the Americas, but all are welcome!

Storytelling: I'm a queer rights activist and India's first openly gay student to contest a major university election in 2013 ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Gourab Ghosh.

Gourab Ghosh teaches literature at the School of Liberal Arts, NMIMS, Mumbai. He is a theatre artist and has acted and directed in various plays in Bengali, Hindi & English. He is the recipient of Fulbright & Charles Wallace India trust fellowships and performed both in the USA & UK during his fellowships. He is also a queer rights activist and India's first openly gay student to contest a major university election in 2013.

Networking (East Asia) ▸

An opportunity to meet and network with Fulbrighters in your region. Discuss settling into a new country, new education system, new career and more! Best suited for time zones in East Asia, but all are welcome!

Workshop: LGBT Diversity Materials ▸

What unique needs of LGBT people should be covered during Fulbright orientation? Help us generate materials for diversity and inclusion to circulate among Fulbright commissions.

Panel: Fulbright Diversity Collective ▸

with special introduction to Fulbright Prism Ireland.

How and Why to Start a Fulbright Afinity Network: Join Fulbright Noir, Salam, Lotus, and Families to talk about the ups and downs of grassroots diversity advocacy.

Panel: LGBT Mental Health ▸

with special introduction to Fubright Prism the Netherlands.

Panelists Dr. Sharon Horne and Dr. Mark Biddell, both Fulbright alums, share insights on their research on LGBTQIA mental health, globally and in the US.

Storytelling: 8 inch heels on cobblestone roads? Easy!: On starting Macedonia's drag scene and organizing their first Pride protest ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Aleksandar Kajmakoski, Fulbright researcher to Macedonia.

Storytelling: "Why is she so black?" and other Eastern European inquiries ▸

Moderated question and answer session with Caroline Orrell, Fulbright ETA to Moldova.