NYU Abu Dhabi Senior Receives Prestigious Fulbright Study Grant

Annalisa Gaglano, Class of 2016, plans to continue her studies of refugee issues in Greece.

Press Release

Annalisa Galgano will travel to Greece to study how the Greek leftist social solidarity movement has supported refugees in Athens

NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Class of 2017 student, Annalisa Galgano, 22, has been awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright Study Grant in support of her individual research project, “The Solidarity Movement Model for Refugee Service Provision.” Building on her previous research with refugees in Athens, Galgano aims to conduct ethnographic and interview-based research to understand the solidarity model of refugee support and how it has facilitated the social and economic integration of refugees in Greece. Her findings will contribute to research on the Greek solidarity movement and help to form policy recommendations on refugee housing and integration.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for individually designed study or research projects and offers opportunities for students to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries.

Originally from Colorado, U.S., Galgano has had the opportunity to study public policy in Spain, Ghana, China, and Argentina during her time at NYUAD. In addition to co-founding NYUAD’s peer support program, Galgano has worked with a safe house for trafficking victims and spent summer 2016 in Greece conducting field research with refugees for her senior Capstone Project. She will graduate in May and travel to Greece to begin her research in September.

Galgano said: ​"Conducting my Capstone research in Greece was one of the most transformative experiences of my life, and I am thankful beyond words to have the opportunity to return to Greece with the Fulbright program next year. Through this project, I hope to better understand how public policy can encourage refugee integration in a way that benefits both refugees and local host ​communities. I am so grateful to Professor Sophia Kalantzakos for connecting me to this issue in Greece, and to my many other mentors at NYU Abu Dhabi who have guided me through this process."​

Upon completion of her Fulbright research, Galgano plans to continue working in migrant affairs and eventually pursue a graduate degree in Public Administration.

Notable U.S. Student Fulbright alumni include ambassadors, members of U.S. Congress, judges, university presidents, artists, professors, and journalists. For more information about the U.S. Student Fulbright program visit: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/about/fulbright-us-student-program


About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 115 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.