Dr. Shri Rao, Professor and Chair of the Department of Special Education, Language & Literacy, has been selected for a Fulbright Nehru Award for Academic and Professional Excellence. This Fulbright US Scholar Award, along with a yearlong sabbatical, will provide Dr. Rao with the opportunity to conduct research in Bengaluru, India. Using qualitative methodology, her proposed study will explore local and indigenous constructions of autism in India and how they intersect with globalization and international development. Dr. Rao hopes that the findings will potentially broaden as well as complicate the current understandings of autism and capture a wider human experience. Further, the Fulbright US Scholar Award will provide Dr. Rao an opportunity to build on her current scholarship in the area of disability studies, disability and the Global South, decolonial theory, and perspectives of families of children with disabilities. She is excited at the prospect of collaborating with her host institution Azim Premji University and other local educational institutions in India.
Congratulations, Dr. Rao!