Media Contact:
Patricia Arnold
(773) 995-2388
pl-arnold@csu.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fulbright Awards Scholar Grant to CSU Professor Judith Birgin

CHICAGO (NOVEMBER 10, 2008)—Chicago State University sociology professor Dr. Judith Ann Birgen has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research at Uganda Martyrs University in Kampala, Uganda.

A member of CSU’s Department of Geography, Sociology, Economics and Anthropology, Birgen will be in Uganda through June of 2009. She will lecture on sociological research methods and urban sociology, and conduct research on the influence of academic program features and social characteristics of children, families and communities on the success of students and schools.

“Dr. Birgen is representative of the more than 400 outstanding faculty at Chicago State University,” said CSU President Frank G. Pogue. “Her receipt of this award is directly attributable to her record of scholarship related to the African-American experience.”

Birgen holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and a Master of Social Work degree from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her dissertation was on the role of social and self organization in success among African-American Catholics.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of Fulbright Awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership.

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ABOUT CHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY
Chicago State University was founded as a teacher training school in Blue Island, Illinois on September 2, 1867. Today, the university is a fully accredited public, urban institution located on 161-picturesque acres in a residential community on Chicago’s Southside. CSU is governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor of Illinois. The university’s five colleges—Health Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, and Pharmacy—offer 36 undergraduate and 25 graduate and professional degree-granting programs. CSU also offers an interdisciplinary Honors College for students in all areas of study and has a Division of Continuing Education and Non-Traditional Programs that offers extension courses, distance learning and not-for-credit programs to the entire Chicago community.