Eric Villalobos receives Fulbright grant for research in India

Eric Villalobos, a doctoral candidate in Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion, has received a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Grant to advance his dissertation research in India. 

Villalobos will conduct research in Rajasthan focused on the relationship between political authority, religious communities and medical practice during the colonial era. 

His project examines how Rajasthani kingdoms and Jain merchant communities worked together to promote Jain monks as medical practitioners. Villalobos will explore how religious knowledge and healing practices circulated through the social and political structures of colonial India. 

His research also considers the roles royal courts and merchant communities played in supporting Jain religious figures and establishing their authority as practitioners of medicine. The Fulbright-Nehru grant will allow Villalobos to study materials in the region while engaging with the historical and cultural settings central to his dissertation. 

“Eric’s Fulbright award speaks to the intellectual rigor, cultural engagement and global perspective that Laney doctoral students bring to their scholarship,” said Mike Suh, associate director in Laney’s Office of Professional Development and Career Planning. “Conducting sustained research in India will allow him to deepen his expertise, strengthen international relationships and produce scholarship that contributes meaningfully to his field.” 

Villalobos is the second student from the Graduate Division of Religion to receive a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Grant in two consecutive years. Last year, doctoral student Anya Fredsell received the award to conduct ethnographic research near Madurai, Tamil Nadu. 

Fredsell’s project examines how families maintain connections to ancestral land through the worship of Tamil lineage deities known as kula devams. Her research considers how urbanization and migration are reshaping relationships among family lineage, religious devotion and place. 

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the U.S. Department of State’s flagship international education and cultural exchange program. It provides opportunities for students and early-career professionals to teach English, pursue graduate study and conduct research in more than 160 countries. 

Emory has been recognized as a top producer of Fulbright students and alumni for 10 consecutive years. With the latest recipients, 202 Emory students have been selected for the program.