FAU | FAU Celebrates Six Fulbright Scholars for 2026-27 Academic Year

Florida Atlantic University is proud to announce that six faculty and staff members have received prestigious Fulbright awards for the 2026-27 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. The honorees will pursue teaching, research and international engagement opportunities in India, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Guatemala and France, advancing global scholarship while strengthening FAU’s international partnerships and impact.

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational and cultural exchange initiative. Designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and those of other countries, Fulbright provides opportunities for exceptional Americans and participants from more than 160 countries and locations to study, teach, conduct research and collaborate on issues of global importance.

The program marks its 80th anniversary in 2026, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary celebration. Over the past eight decades, Fulbright alumni have included 46 heads of state or government, 63 Nobel Laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners and 83 MacArthur Fellows. Fulbright U.S. Scholars are selected based on their academic and professional achievements, as well as the potential impact of their proposed projects abroad.

The two 2026-27 Fulbright recipients from the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters are:

Stacie Lee Rossow, D.M.A., professor and associate director, choral and vocal studies; associate chair, Department of Music, FAU Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters: Rossow has been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Ireland, where she will partner with the Irish Institute of Music and Song and Maynooth University. Her project, “Irish in Song: A Global Resource for Revitalization,” seeks to preserve and revitalize the endangered Irish language (Gaeilge) through the traditional sean-nós singing tradition. Rossow will document and transcribe songs from multiple Irish dialect regions, develop singer-friendly pronunciation resources and create new choral arrangements that make Irish-language music more accessible to performers and educators worldwide. She also will present lectures, workshops and choral conducting certification courses, strengthening international collaboration through scholarship, performance and cultural exchange.

An accomplished conductor, educator and scholar, Rossow has served on the FAU faculty since 2000 and has led the university’s choral and vocal studies program for more than two decades. Her pioneering scholarship on Irish choral music includes the first academic study of composer Michael McGlynn, now housed in the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin. She has served as studio conductor on four Anúna recordings, premiered numerous works by McGlynn and was a member of the Anúna Summer School faculty. As artistic director of FAU’s Vocalis, she led the ensemble’s 2025 Global Music Award-winning recording, The Wind in the Reeds: The Music of Michael McGlynn and its acclaimed performance tour of Ireland and Europe. In 2026, Vocalis was selected through a national blind audition to perform at the Southern Region American Choral Directors Association Conference, one of only a handful of collegiate treble choirs chosen for the prestigious event. Rossow also has mentored numerous voice students who have gone on to national recognition and professional performing careers, reflecting her longstanding commitment to music education, cultural preservation and international artistic collaboration.

Timothy Steigenga, Ph.D., professor of political science, FAU’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College: Steigenga will spend four months in Guatemala during the spring and summer of 2027 conducting research in partnership with the Central American Institute for Social Studies and Development (INCEDES). His project will examine the long-term effects of migration on communities in Guatemala's Dry Corridor, a region where climate stress, economic challenges and social pressures have contributed to sustained migration patterns. Building on research conducted by INCEDES two decades ago, Steigenga will analyze how migration has reshaped local communities and assess whether migration serves as a successful adaptation strategy or contributes to ongoing cycles of vulnerability. The project will generate scholarly publications and policy recommendations aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of climate-driven migration. As part of the award, he also will teach an FAU study abroad course on immigration and transnationalism that will include opportunities for participation by Guatemalan university students.

A leading scholar of religion, politics and migration, Steigenga has devoted much of his career to understanding social and political change in Latin America and immigrant communities. Since helping establish FAU’s Wilkes Honors College in 1999, he has served in numerous leadership roles, including interim dean, associate dean for campus and community engagement and chair of the Social Science and Humanities Division. He has authored or edited six books and numerous scholarly publications and previously served as a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala in 2006. His many honors include FAU’s Presidential Leadership Award, Researcher of the Year Award and Presidential Award for Community-Engaged Teaching. His work has been supported by organizations including the Ford Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.