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Michael Portal Named a Fulbright Scholar

Congratulations to Michael Portal for being named a Fulbright Scholar for 2022. The Fulbright program recognizes rising scholars and provides the opportunity for them to travel to a country outside the United States to engage in research while embedded in a community. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in […]

Congratulations to Michael Portal for being named a Fulbright Scholar for 2022. The Fulbright program recognizes rising scholars and provides the opportunity for them to travel to a country outside the United States to engage in research while embedded in a community. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think.

As the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, Michael Portal will spend the 2022-2023 academic year conducting interdisciplinary research at the Universiteit Antwerpen. His research concerns the Flemish emphasis on samenleven (“living together”) and its significance for Antwerp’s Jewish communities. His research project asks, “What is it that unites these distinct Jewish communities?”. This work extends scholarship on community formation and maintenance. Portal will be a research fellow at Universiteit Antwerpen’s Institute for Jewish Studies, the Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, and the Urban Studies Institute.