Ten Georgetown graduates and students will live, work and study in countries across the globe as Fulbright Fellows this year.

The graduates and students who were awarded grants from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board will study abroad and complete independent work during the 2004-05 academic year.

Charles Kiamie III (GRD ’04) is studying comparative politics in Jordan. He arrived in Amman in September and will work there through May.

Kiamie is conducing research at the University of Jordan on wealth distribution in the Arab kingdom and the possible emergence of new social and political classes there.

He said his interest in this subject was sparked by “a combination of my Arab-American background, undergraduate studies of the Middle East at the George Washington University and the University of Oxford, extensive travel and internships.”

He also interned at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan, last summer.

“I like to tell people that while the study of the modern iddle East and Arabic language has become quite trendy post-Sept. 11, I’ve been committed to the region’s issues since the mid-1990s,” he said.

Kiamie earned his master’s in May 2004 from Georgetown’s joint M.A.-Ph.D. program in Arab Studies and Comparative Government. He said he plans to continue work on his Ph.D. when he returns to campus next year.

Meredith Oyen (GRD ’04), is studying modern history in China. She arrived in Nanjing three weeks ago. Over the next 10 months she will also study in Hong Kong, Beijing and various parts of Guangdong province.

She is doing research for her doctoral dissertation on immigration and overseas Chinese issues that have arisen between the U.S. and China since the 1950s.

“Most of my time is spent in libraries and archives looking at old documents and publications,” Oyen said.

She also said it is difficult to say what led her into this field.

“I’m interested in modern history and its connections with current events,” she said. “From a contemporary perspective, China is one of the more interesting and important relationships for the United States.”

Her work teaching English as a Second Language programs prompted her to study immigration, she said.

“On the immigration angle, I think I thought of it only because I teach ESL as a volunteer and have for years and years,” she said. “From that inauspicious start I fell quite happily into my current project.”

Oyen is working on her Ph.D. in history at Georgetown’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She said she plans to write her dissertation and complete her graduate studies when she returns to the United States.

There are eight other Fulbright Fellows from Georgetown working in Syria, Qatar, Austria and several other countries.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State. Approximately 2,000 grants were awarded nationwide on the basis of academic achievement and leadership potential this year.