The Fulbright U.S. Student Program has just announced that University of Iowa graduate student Briana Smith has received a Fulbright award for 2013-14 to conduct research in Germany.

Smith, of Fridley, Minn., is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the UI, where she also received her master’s degree. She received her bachelor’s degree in German history and English from Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minn.

Her project, “Creative Alternatives: Berlin Art Scenes and Cultural Politics, 1976-1999,” examines how East and West Berlin Aktionskünstler (action artists) integrated provocative visual displays into everyday urban spaces in the decades surrounding German re-unification in 1989. Berlin artists creating this “action art” experimented with performance, video, installation, and conceptual art. Smith will follow two generations of action artists from 1976-1999.

With Smith’s award, the total Fulbright award count for UI students and alumni rises to three. To view a related story, visit now.uiowa.edu/2013/05/two-ui-alumnae-receive-fulbright-research-grants-2013-14.

UI International Programs provides assistance to students wishing to pursue Fulbright grants. Undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and alumni wishing to apply for a Fulbright award should contact Karen Wachsmuth, International Programs' academic programs and student services administrator, at karen-wachsmuth@uiowa.edu, for assistance.

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit fulbright.state.gov.