The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Lund Critical Debate

Since January 2025, the United States has slashed billions in international aid—and effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), responsible for administering U.S. development and humanitarian aid around the world. In what has become the largest restructuring of aid in the nation’s history, thousands of UN-administered programs have also lost funding, disrupting critical programs and services, breaking supply chains, and leading to widespread closures and layoffs.

These sweeping cuts affect food security, global health, democratic governance, and more—and the stakes have never been higher. As the landscape of international aid evolves, the world faces new questions about the impact of aid on communities, what makes international aid effective—and how to move forward.

This year's Lund debate from the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies brings together policy and practice experts for an unfiltered look at the future of international aid. Join Einaudi Center faculty Chris Barrett (Dyson/Brooks) and Muna Ndulo (Law) as they tackle these questions: Who benefits from aid? Do some types of aid work better than others? Should we pursue new approaches to international development? What are the best ways to take strategic action in the world while investing in America’s security, economy, and global position?

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Panelists

Chris Barrett is the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and a professor in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy. He is coeditor-in-chief of the journal Food Policy and a frequent commentator and policy advisor on food security and agricultural economics. Barrett won the USAID Science and Technology Pioneers Prize (2013), among many other awards for research, teaching, and public outreach. Read recent Chronicle coverage of Barrett's research.

Muna Ndulo is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law at Cornell Law School and an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of constitution making, governance and institution building, international criminal law, African legal systems, and human rights. Ndulo has served as consultant to the African Development Bank, World Bank, Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Development Program, and other international organizations. He led the Einaudi Center's Institute for African Development from 2001 to 2020.

Moderator

Paul Kaiser is the Einaudi Center's practitioner in residence in fall 2025. Kaiser has extensive experience in international development, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands. His career spans roles at USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and World Bank. Previously, Kaiser taught political science and African studies at Mississippi State University and the University of Pennsylvania.

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About the Debate

The Lund Critical Debate is a signature event of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Established in 2008, Einaudi's Lund Debate series is made possible by the generosity of Judith Lund Biggs '57.

Come to CTB to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think. Conversation Hours are open to any learner, including the public.

Join this info session to learn about 2026 Global Hubs Faculty Research Seed Grants offered by Global Cornell as part of our Global Hubs initiative. Info session attendees will learn about the grant opportunity and application tips through a short presentation and Q&A.

Through these seed grants, Cornell faculty from across the university are invited to apply for research funds to work with collaborators at Hubs partner institutions. Funded projects should lead to tangible outcomes, including the submission of at least one co-authored peer-reviewed publication and at least one application for external grant funding.

Up to 20 applications for research with a Global Hubs collaborator will be funded.

Successful proposals will receive up to $5,000 from Cornell, with the potential for matching funds from some Global Hubs partner universities.

Application deadline: October 15, 2025, 4:00 p.m. ET

Project duration: January 1–December 31, 2026

Virtual information sessions:

September 18, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET (register)

October 1, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET (register)

Learn more and apply for a Global Hubs joint seed grant.

Join this info session to learn about 2026 Global Hubs Faculty Research Seed Grants offered by Global Cornell as part of our Global Hubs initiative. Info session attendees will learn about the grant opportunity and application tips through a short presentation and Q&A.

Through these seed grants, Cornell faculty from across the university are invited to apply for research funds to work with collaborators at Hubs partner institutions. Funded projects should lead to tangible outcomes, including the submission of at least one co-authored peer-reviewed publication and at least one application for external grant funding.

Up to 20 applications for research with a Global Hubs collaborator will be funded.

Successful proposals will receive up to $5,000 from Cornell, with the potential for matching funds from some Global Hubs partner universities.

Application deadline: October 15, 2025, 4:00 p.m. ET

Project duration: January 1–December 31, 2026

Virtual information sessions:

September 18, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET (register)

October 1, 2025, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET (register)

Learn more and apply for a Global Hubs joint seed grant.

"Catholic and Buddhist Ecologies in Tibetan Wine Production in Southwest China"

Brendan A. Galipeau
Lecturer
Environmental Studies Program
Binghamton University

Drawing from material in my recently published book, Crafting a Tibetan Terroir, this talk discusses the historical Catholic roots and modern Buddhist environmental responses to viticulture in Tibetan Southwest China. Vineyards were first introduced to this region by nineteenth-century French and Swiss Catholic missionaries to make sacramental wine, a tradition continued and expanded upon today by Catholic households today. These developments have formed in response to twenty-first century commercialization of the region for tourism, and a desire among Catholic families to differentiate themselves within the wider landscape of wine across Northwest Yunnan Province. Here Tibetan agropastoral livelihoods have been transformed by monocropping vineyards for state supported wineries. Catholic families have resisted these commercialization efforts and instead produce their own wines identified with French history and Catholic ritual. In neighboring Buddhist communities, a majority of households have welcomed state capitalism and viticulture and the new economic opportunities they bring. However, select active Buddhist environmentalists are agitating against these new economies in response to increasing use of agrochemicals and pollution. These reactions are largely driven by perceived degradation of sacred landscapes and failing devotion to mountain deities, observed through changes in the landscape such as glacier retreat.

Brendan A. Galipeau is a Lecturer in Environmental Studies at Binghamton University. He previously served as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan from 2019 to 2024 and as a postdoctoral fellow in Transnational Asian Studies at Rice University from 2017 to 2019. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in 2017 and MA in Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University in 2012.

Galipeau has lived in and been conducting research in Tibetan Southwest China for almost two decades since 2007. His research and publications broadly focus on environmental change and human relations with nature in Southwest China and Taiwan, with a particular focus on agrarian change, hydropower resettlement, and religious ecologies. His work and publications have been featured in a variety of publications and media including Made in China, Journal of Agrarian Change, Human Ecology, Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment, National Public Radio, and the web publication The Third Pole. Crafting a Tibetan Terroir published by the University of Washington Press in 2024 is his first book.

Sponsored: Religious Studies Program

Co-sponsors: East Asia Program, Department of Asian Studies

Speaker:

Chih-Jou Jay Chen, Director of Institute of Sociology, Research Fellow, Academia SinicaPanelists:

Victor Nee, Frank and Rosha Rhodes Professor of Economic Sociology, and Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and SocietyPeter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International StudiesNaoki Sakai, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies

Description: This study compares perceptions in China and Taiwan regarding military unification and threat. Drawing on recent national survey data in China and long-term representative surveys in Taiwan, the findings reveal a widening gap. Many in China favor the use of force and often assume strong support for unification in Taiwan, though views differ across social groups and fall into distinct orientations ranging from moderates to militant hardliners. In Taiwan, confidence in China’s development has steadily declined, more people view China as a threat, and unification support remains marginal. Preference for maintaining the status quo is dominant, while support for independence has grown. Despite consistent willingness to resist aggression, confidence in Taiwan’s defense capacity has weakened, alongside stronger expectations of U.S. support. These mutually reinforcing perceptions sustain polarization across the Strait and raise concerns for regional stability and global security.

This is a hybrid event. To join the livestream, please register here: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7cdUCO70TaG76o8j-56JAA