Instructor Receives Fulbright Award
English instructor Francesca Caparas has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to spend next year teaching and conducting research in the Philippines.
Caparas, known to many on campus as “Chesa,” plans to examine the development of digital
literacy in the Philippines, while serving as a visiting research fellow at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus in Quezon City.
“As an educator, I am fascinated by the ways that new technologies impact not only how and what we learn but, on a more fundamental level, how these technologies impact what counts as knowledge,” Caparas said.
Caparas has previously explored digital literacy with students in the "Critical Reading, Writing and Thinking" course she teaches for the English Department. She also teaches in De Anza’s Intercultural Studies program and serves as faculty coordinator of the Jean Miller Resource Room for Women, Gender and Sexuality.
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is sponsored by the State Department to encourage academics from the United States who want to study abroad, and to bring scholars here from other countries. The goal is to promote mutual understanding and sharing ideas around the world. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, service and demonstrated leadership in their fields.
For her research, Caparas plans to interview students and faculty members at three university campuses in the Philippines. Her project is titled, “Like Us on Facebook: Shifting Discourses of Digital Literacy in the Philippines.”
Caparas applied to be a Fulbright scholar after spending part of last summer in the Philippines as an instructor with De Anza’s Study Abroad program. While there, she met other scholars and faculty members at the University of the Philippines, who encouraged her to pursue the project.
“I’m really thrilled – and still a little in shock – to have received this honor,” she said. “I have to say it would not have been possible without De Anza giving me the opportunity to teach with Study Abroad in the Philippines.”