Spotlighting the History Department
As the summer kicks off, while many Queens students recharge for next semester, soaking up sunshine and catching up on sleep, Dr. Sarah Griffith, a professor in the History Department, is packing her bags for something bigger than vacation. As a 2019 recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, a prestigious award from this United States cultural exchange program, she will be flying to Japan for a 5-month cultural immersion program next year.
Fulbright Scholars teach college classes and give public lectures in their field. Along with Fulbright’s vision, Griffith will pursue her own research agenda. “The Fulbright Scholarship was founded in 1956 with a mission to foster intercultural exchange and understanding,” but also provides her with “ample time . . . for scholarly research as well,” said Griffith.
Applying for the scholarship was no small task. “The application process is quite lengthy and highly competitive” said Griffith. She submitted “a letter of interest that describes [her] teaching and research expertise, views on intercultural exchange,” as well as “sample syllabi, published research, and numerous letters of recommendation.”
During her time at Queens, she has taught “many different courses in both the Department of History and the General Education program.” She has also worked with Queens excellent study abroad opportunities, leading the John Belk International Program trip to Japan. Countless students have highlighted Queens’ small class size and deeply involved professors as a highlight of their learning experience. From a faculty perspective, Griffith says “building of relationships [with students] is one of my favorite parts about being an educator.”
Even though she is constantly sharing knowledge, Griffith is always learning. Her personal “research focuses on the transpacific migration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” said Griffith. Most recently, her work directly bridges the two continents, “explor[ing] the lives of Japanese and American Christian women who migrated back and forth from Japan to the United States in the pre-World War II era.”
Griffith’s research delves into the climate in which these individuals were immersed. She says she is “especially interested in the forces that inspired these women to migrate, the limitations they faced and how they challenged these limits, and the sorts of social and organizational networks they built across massive geographic spaces.”
Her own journey will provide her with additional insight and sources. “While some of the archives I’m using for this project are located in US repositories, many others are only accessible by travelling to Japanese archives” said Griffith. These new sources will “detail the organizational alliances they built and how they leveraged these networks to advocate for immigrant assimilation, women’s rights, and internationalism in the pre-WWII era,” said Griffith.
As a scholar and an educator, she is also conscious of the international differences in teaching and learning. “The Japanese educational system tends to emphasize lecture and rote learning, [whereas] liberal arts colleges like Queens encourage discussion and the development of skills in critical thinking” said Griffith.
Those skills were put to the test in the strenuous application submission, and then Griffith faced 4-5 months of suspense. She said her credentials were “reviewed . . . by the US Fulbright Commission, the State Department, and the foreign commission,” and she was finally awarded the Fulbright Scholarship.
As “an avid cyclist and foodie” as well as a scholar and historian, she is excited to learn “more about the Japanese educational system, and culture at large.” Griffith, an illuminating force in the Department of History, will be returning to the College of Arts and Sciences with even more knowledge. In the meantime, “It’ll be fun to see how my experiences at Queens translate to” a new “learning environment [in Japan]” said Griffith.
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