UHart professor awarded U.S. Fulbright Grant

MIDDLETOWN — University of Hartford Associate Professor Katharine Owens has been awarded one of the world’s most prestigious educational honors, a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship.

Next spring, the Middletown resident will teach and do research on marine debris found along India’s southwest coast, according to a press release from the college. Owens’s work in India will model a marine debris and policy action course she taught at the University of Hartford in 2016. At that time, her students collected and cataloged more than 1,600 pieces of trash along Connecticut’s beaches and shared the results with the environmental committee of the Connecticut General Assembly.

“One of the reasons I applied to do this research in India is to have the ability to do a combination of teaching and research,” Owens said in a prepared statement.

She plans to do the work through the University of Kerala. “In my marine debris class, students learn about marine debris policy and at the same time do experiential learning.”

Students collect and categorize debris, see where it comes from, and then share that information with local leaders who can influence policy. Owens said she proposed the project in Kerala after consulting with researchers in India, who verified that the marine debris issue is not sufficiently studied in their country, the release continued.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international education program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Recipients are selected based on academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.

“Katharine is a leader in studying environmental policy and its impact,” said Katherine Black, dean of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. “We are very proud of her accomplishments and we look forward to welcoming her back to share her new knowledge with students at the University of Hartford.”

At UHart, Owens teaches courses on American politics, research methods, public policy, and environmental policy in the A&S Politics, Economics, and International Studies Department. She is also director of the University’s All-University Curriculum, a program for interdisciplinary education. All undergraduate UHart students are required to take at least four All-University Curriculum courses.

Owens earned two bachelor’s of arts degrees (studio art, biology), a bachelor’s of science (anthropology), and her masters’ of science from the College of Charleston, as well as a doctorate from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Owens