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BY YINGJIA WANG

In print | November 1, 2007

The Fulbright Scholarship, which allows graduates to study for a year in a country of their choice, has garnered special interest this year on the Swarthmore campus, both in terms of a number of increased applicants from the college and the activities of Fulbright Scholars abroad.

One recent Fulbright Scholar, Emily Robbins ‘07 is currently abroad in Syria. Robbins’ time in the Middle East recently included a visit to the Nahar al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, which has been the site of combat between the Lebanese Army and the radical group Fatah al-Islam.

According to Fellowships and Prizes Advisor Melissa Mandos, last year the college saw approximately 24 applicants for the scholarship while this year that number has risen to 43 applicants.

On average, around eight students receive the scholarship each year, although Swarthmore has had as many as 11 winners in one year.

The Fulbright Web site specifies that the award gives recipients grants to fund study, conduct independent research or perform teaching assistantships for a full academic year in 140 countries around the world. “Another emphasis of the Fulbright is the international fellowship. You are not going over only to do research, but to act as an ambassador for the U.S.,” Mandos said.

Robbins’ interest in the Middle East grew out of tragedy. In 2003 her cousin Rachel Corrie was in the Gaza Strip acting as a peaceful protestor against the Israeli occupation when she was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer.

Corrie had been trying to prevent the demolition of a house by standing in front of the structure – the bulldozer did not stop for Corrie.

“The incident threw my family into the conflict between Israel and Palestine. That was also when I started college, and I decided someone in the family needed to learn Arabic,” Robbins said.

Fortunately for Robbins, Swarthmore began sending students to the University of Damascus in Syria for semester-long intensive Arabic language instruction while she was at Swarthmore, and during her junior year, Robbins took advantage of the opportunity to study in Syria. She then received a grant from Swarthmore to return to Syria for the summer to continue the thesis research that she had already begun.

Robbins’ passion for the Middle East was apparent to many around her. “I knew her in a capacity as a student and as someone who had a really profound and enduring interest in Syria and Lebanon in particular. She was very interested in the larger social implications of the gendered world in the Middle East,” religion professor Tariq al-Jamil said.

Robbins is living in Damascus once again this year. In addition to continuing her study in Arabic, she is also interning with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and working with a women’s rights magazine.

One of the focal points of Robbins’ experience in Damascus thus far, however, falls outside of these activities.

Robbins recently visited the Palestinian refugee camp Nahar al-Bared in Lebanon, which was formerly home to approximately 40,000 refugees.

Her visit to the camp was a personal trip and was not related in any way to her work with UNRWA. The camp has been the site of fighting between the Lebanese Army and the Fatah al-Islam, which, in the past five months, has been identified by the United States as a terrorist organization.

During the fighting, all residents of the camp were forced to leave. According to Robbins, Fatah al-Islam was defeated in September of this year, and refugees were allowed to return to their homes in the middle of this month.

Only about a tenth of the camp’s former inhabitants have been let in thus far.

Robbins said that the camp has been completely demolished.

“My friend kept saying over and over again, ‘It looks like an atom bomb has been here.’ That was what it was like walking through the camp,” Robbins said. “The people who live there and who have come back are coming back to nothing. Their homes have been destroyed, and their lives have been destroyed. After five months of living in very crowded and dirty places, they’ve come back to nothing.”

Robbins also saw images and heard stories that seemed to point fingers of blame towards the Lebanese Army.

“Perhaps more disturbing is that a lot of the residents of the camp are coming back and finding all of their nice shirts used as toilet paper and finding feces everywhere … I saw a graffiti picture, and it was a picture of a man on a donkey and the donkey was a Palestinian and the man was a Lebanese soldier,” Robbins said.

“People try to leave the camp to find food, and when they come back, the guards take their food … A lot of things are happening that make it seem like the Lebanese army was doing more than just fighting Fatah al-Islam. It looked like they went farther and purposely destroyed the homes. It seems like they may be abusing the residents now that they are back,” Robbins said.

Additionally, the Lebanese Army is in control of the camp and has been denying journalists and Westerners access to the camp. Robbins was able to gain entrance to the camp because she had a friend who lived there. Robbins was also fortunate enough to encounter a friendly guard at the gate.

Delving further into controversy, Robbins noted that the Lebanese Army has received significant funding from the U.S. government, and she questions how that money has been used and how aware American citizens are about its allocation.

“Because it was U.S. money that was funding the Lebanese army, it is important as US citizens to know where our money is going. Not to say that I necessarily support Fatah al-Islam, because I don’t, but if the U.S. is giving money, it needs to check up and follow up on the money and where it has gone,” Robbins said.

“I’m not sure how much money [the] US gives to Lebanon, but UNRWA has made pleas to rebuild, and the U.S. has only given $5.5 million dollars for the rebuilding of the camp, and apparently it was very hard for them to give up this money.,” Robbins said. “When you think of a camp of 40,000 – 45,000 people, that money does not go that far.”

As the Fulbright Scholarship was key to enabling Robbins’ unique experiences, the increased number of Fulbright applicants comes as an indication of the hopes of many other students to have similar opportunities.

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