‘Experience is the only teacher’: Academic ambassadors interpret ‘mutual understanding’

The Vietnam War posed significant challenges to academics on educational exchange who were expected under the Fulbright program to be ambassadors as well as researchers. The CIA surveillance of the anti-war movement and political interference in the administration of the Fulbright program from government caused academics in both Australia and America to defend the autonomy of the Program. How did scholars interpret the ambassadorial expectation when they were opposed to their government’s foreign policy? Many also found they could not speak critically of their national government without antagonising their hosts. Living up to the Fulbright program’s ideal of achieving ‘mutual understanding’ was very much a matter of learning by experience, to be interpreted by scholars for whom research was actually the priority.

‘Bright scientific moles’ v. ‘goodwill ambassador extroverts’: Choosing a Fulbright scholar

Tensions between Australia and the US over administration of the Fulbright program soon became apparent in contests over which researchers should be given awards. The US retained control over the decisions within the Board of Foreign Scholarships in Washington and on occasion exerted pressure about the kind of scholars that were wanted. Australian selection committees tended to favour scientists, the US wanted to send humanities and social science scholars as more appropriate interpreters of culture. From these discussions we can see what US cultural diplomacy looked like and what influences were brought to bear.

‘Just because one is a woman’: Forging careers and changing the gender landscape

Women were recipients of awards under the Fulbright program from the first year of its existence in Australia. They were keen to take advantage of the opportunity for educational exchange and in doing so they changed the gender dynamics of universities. The Fulbright program supported fields in Australia where more women were employed and that were not yet disciplines taught in the universities. Women academics were participants in creating new fields, and reorienting Australian higher education from its British orientation. They encountered discrimination within the administration of the program and it took a long time for women to be appointed to the Board of the Fulbright program, and until 1990 for the first woman to become its Chair. From then on women increased their proportion of the awards being made.

‘Mutual benefit’ v. ‘the needs of the country’: Programming academic fields

A vital aspect of the Fulbright program’s history is showing how the program influenced changes, especially in the development of academic fields. The field of research emphases in awards reveals how tensions between the US and Australia could surface in regard to what might be seen as changing national preoccupations. Australia at first struggled to attract humanities and social science scholars as it was not seen to be very attractive and Americans preferred Europe or countries in Asia. Fulbright awards were nevertheless valuable in developing fields that made Australia the focus of study, e.g. Australian literature.

‘Free gift’ or ‘infiltration’?: Negotiating the Fulbright Agreement

The Australian Fulbright program began in a period of deepening Cold War tensions. US suspicions of the Australian Labor Party government and Australian negotiators’ suspicions of US cultural diplomacy shaped the negotiations which began as early as 1946. The Australians sought more equality of representation in the administration of the program of educational exchange than the US was initially prepared to allow. After a protracted period of discussions and much delay the Australian Agreement was signed into existence in 1949 with equal representation and better terms than other countries had achieved.

Introduction

Since 1946 the Fulbright Program has been a significant force in shaping a global scholarly community. A US government venture with an unprecedented reach across the world, it has been held responsible for ‘the largest migration of students and scholars in modern history’.1 Although the idea of international educational exchange did not originate with Senator Fulbright, the program has played a distinctive role in the history of international exchange to become ‘the world’s pre-eminent exchange program for scholars and students’....

Education, or ‘part of our foreign policy’?: At war in Vietnam

By the early 1960s the original Fulbright Agreement had expired and a new one was negotiated, as a binational agreement with the Australian government providing equal funding. This was signed in 1964, in the context of increasing miliitary intervention in the war in Vietnam by both the US and Australia. Under the ANZUS and SEATO treaties, signed the previous decade, Australia was a keen ally of the US in Vietnam. The Fulbright program and the Australia-US Alliance were pursued simultaneously by the Australian government. Senator Fulbright visited Australia, criticised the Alliance and became a leading dissenter to the Vietnam War. Academics on educational exchange also became active in the anti-war movement.

‘A steady stream of new problems’: Politics and teething issues

The Australian Fulbright program was implemented after the election of the Menzies’ Liberal Party government. As Australia’s Cold War deepened the Menzies government signed other treaties with the US, establishing the ANZUS Alliance. Administration of the program of educational exchange had to be established amid attempts at political influence and resistance from university staff who still looked to England for prestige and career advancement. The terms of the Australian Fulbright agreement ensured a sound foundation, more autonomy meant the appointment of Australian staff to administer the program and who understood how to reach the Australian university researchers to participate.

Conclusion

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century the Fulbright Program celebrated sixty years in Australia. There had been changes, especially in the funding arrangements, but there were also several continuities. Despite the recommendations of the 1976 Rose report that scholarships were preferably left open, they had in fact become far more targeted and there were many fewer available. The number of scholars going on exchange was significantly lower than in earlier decades. Postgraduates stayed for shorter periods to conduct specific research rather than enrol in lengthy PhDs. Indigenous scholars now had a specific award and the gender ratio of successful applicants had improved, so that between 1990 and 2009 women made up approximately 43 per cent of the total. It was even harder for humanities and social science scholars to compete against scientists and medical researchers. The AAFC board had increased in size, but was still disproportionately male, although it had increased the membership of women to three since the first woman was appointed in 1985. While two women had acted temporarily as executive directors at times of transition between appointments, Dr Tangerine Holt was the first woman to be formally appointed as executive director of the Commission, in 2011....

From ‘White Australia’ to ‘the race question in America’: Confronting racial diversity

How did the Fulbright program evolve in relation to the challenge of racial diversity? For the first several decades of the Fulbright program Australia had a mass immigration program and a White Australia policy of racial exclusion. This influenced the fields of research in which Fulbright awards were made. Aboriginal Australians were the objects of research by visiting American scholars but did not themselves begin to win awards until the 1970s. In the mid-1960s many of those who were leading the call for change in immigration laws were Fulbright scholars. Australians travelling to the US on educational exchange observed racial segregation and some became politically active and influenced movements on behalf of Aboriginal people. The first recipient of the Distinguished Visitor Award under the Fulbright program was African-American historian John Hope Franklin. A special category of award for Aboriginal Australians was initiated in 1992.