WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Gayle Christensen of Wilsonville, Oregon, a recent magna cum laude graduate of Whitman College, will spend the next year studying as a Fulbright Scholar in Freiburg, Germany.
Christensen, who graduated from West Linn (Ore.) High School in 1994, will study modern German history. She is one of about 1,000 U.S. students who won Fulbright scholarships earlier this year to travel and study abroad during the 1998-99 academic year.
Established by Congress in 1946 and considered the flagship of America's educational exchange program, the Fulbright Program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the U.S. and other countries.
Christensen, the daughter of Chris and Anne Christensen of Wilsonville, will leave for Germany on Saturday, Sept. 19. She will take classes at Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg and conduct additional research at the military archive in Freiburg. Her research will focus on German colonial history, specifically the former German colony of Qing Dao in China.
Recent research has cited German colonialism, especially in Africa, as a precursor to naziism. Christensen will study whether policies implemented in the Qing Dao colony were an example of national socialist tendencies. She hopes the study will provide both "deeper insight into Sino-German relations, which is becoming increasingly important as China emerges as a new global power," and "increase the understanding of German racial issues both in the discussion of the Holocaust's origins and current questions of Germany's role in race relations within the European Union."
Christensen first visited Germany through a student exchange program at West Linn High School. She also spent the spring semester of 1997 in Germany taking part in one of the study abroad programs available at Whitman.
Her Fulbright project was inspired when, as a study-abroad student in Freiburg in 1997, she interned with a professor who has researched the field of German colonial history.
Following her year-long Fulbright study, Christensen plans to pursue a master's degree in international or German studies and a doctoral degree in modern history or German cultural studies. Her tentative career aspirations range from working in the U.S. foreign service to working as a foreign correspondent for a major newspaper or magazine. She also is interested in some day teaching at the college level.
Christensen, who graduated from Whitman in May, completed an honors thesis in history while earning a second major in German language and literature. Her history honors thesis, titled "The Media Speaks: A Portrayal of the Decision to Unify Germany," examines how the U.S. and West German media portrayed the unification process.
Dave Holden, Whitman Office of Communications, 509) 527-5902
E-Mail Address: holden@whitman.edu