SEATTLE—May 21, 2007—University of Washington Information School Ph.D. candidate Deborah Turner has received a Fulbright award for the 2008-09 academic year. The award, among the most prestigious academic awards bestowed by the Department of State, will allow Turner to continue her dissertation research into how sharing information by talking is different from all the other ways of sharing. Turner will spend a year in Finland to conduct an empirical study of professionals who share information while talking with multinational colleagues in a common second language (e.g., Finnish managers speaking in English with German and Japanese colleagues).

The Fulbright program is the largest U.S. international exchange program, offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. The program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to "enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."

Relatively little research isolates and explicitly studies conversation as a way of sharing information. Turner’s research asks whether emerging leaders can talk in ways that are so systematic that what they say meets criteria of what is considered a document, specifically an oral document. Building on research on how leaders use conversation as a way of sharing information strategically, Turner anticipates her findings may support more systematic approaches to developing leadership skills involving orality. Differences in Finn oral communication norms and those practiced by U.S. populations suggest opportunities to expand research already in progress.

"This award provides me with opportunities to ask deeper questions of my research as I further develop a long term research agenda investigating how people interact with information as they move across contexts over time," Turner says. "Scholars at the University of Tampere—particularly those in the Research Group on Information Management (REGIM) and the Research Group on Information Seeking (REGIS)—have conducted research into conversation and dialog. Becoming affiliated and working with these and other researchers while in residence there will provide opportunities to learn and exchange ideas in substantive ways."

While in Finland, Turner will also be affiliated with the Finnish Doctoral School of Communication Science at the University of Tampere. Her stay will additionally include visits to other institutions including ones in Helsinki, Turku, and Oulu, Finland. Turner’s award is being cost-shared between the Fulbright Center and the Centre for International Mobility, both in Helsinki.

In 2007, the Fulbright Program awarded approximately 6000 grants to support research and education opportunities in 155 countries. Seven Fulbright full grants are awarded for Finland. For more information about the Fulbright program, visit www.fulbrightonline.org.

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