Longtime TAMIU professor of Public Administration and author Dr. Mehnaaz Momen has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award to Canada for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Dr. Momen, professor in the TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, department of Social Sciences, will be the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Digitization and Democracy, based in McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Momen’s research project will focus on the acculturation processes that Bangladeshi immigrants residing in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) of Canada undergo as they utilize technology to create a comfort zone in navigating between their Bangladeshi and Canadian identities.
Momen said she is honored to receive the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award.
“I am thrilled to receive the Fulbright Scholar Award,” she said, “I have been dreaming about such an opportunity and consider this an honor to represent TAMIU and Laredo in Canada. My first exposure as an international student was in Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. It feels like a full circle to go back to Canada and conduct research on Bangladeshi diaspora.”
She continued, “I was always concerned with the lack of scholarly research on Bangladeshi immigrants. I hope I can bring my research skills as well as my first-hand experience to contribute new insights through this project.”
Dr. Peter Haruna, TAMIU professor, former Fulbright U.S. Scholar, and TAMIU’s Fulbright Liaison, said that the University is a dedicated Fulbright participant committed to increasing its Fulbright presence.
“We are extremely proud of our colleague, Dr. Mehnaaz Momen’s selection for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award,” he said, “We are honored to be represented by such a strong scholar and researcher in the Fulbright Program during 2024-2025.”
Momen teaches political science and public administration courses in the department of Social Sciences at TAMIU. She worked at a nonprofit organization in Bangladesh and completed higher education in Halifax, Canada, and Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of Listening to Laredo: A Border City in A Globalized Age (University of Arizona Press, 2023), Political Satire, Postmodern Reality, and The Trump Presidency: Who Are We Laughing At? (Lexington Books, 2019), and The Paradox of Citizenship in American Politics: Ideals and Reality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
With her Fulbright selection, Momen joins an elite group of current, former, and retired TAMIU faculty members who have been Fulbright Scholars. Among them are Dr. Adam Kozaczka, Dr. Andrew Hilburn (Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship), Dr. Rafic A. Bachnak, Dr. Susan Berdahl, Dr. Norma E. Cantú, Dr. Stuart H. Davis, Dr. Christian Faltis, Dr. Stanley Green, Dr. Peter Haruna, Dr. Barbara Hong, Dr. Mazhar M. Islam, the late TAMIU professor of history Dr. José Roberto Juárez, Julio Obscura, Dr. Aaron A. Olivas, and Dr. Jaime Ortiz.
Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad.
Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
