PENN STATE DICKINSON LAW PROFESSOR KATHERINE C. PEARSON RECEIVES FULBRIGHT U.S. SCHOLAR AWARD FOR 2024-2025
May 2024 — Katherine C. Pearson, Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law, has received a Fulbright Canada Scholar Program award. Professor Pearson will serve as the 2024-2025 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa. The award was announced recently by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and she will be in residence in Ottawa in the Fall of 2024.
Pearson will be working on a publication that draws from her almost 30 years of experience at Dickinson Law to analyze the impact of national and global aging on the practice of law (including “Elder Law”) and higher education.
“I am excited by the opportunity to live and work in Ottawa, and to meet new colleagues in health law and related disciplines,” said Pearson. “This is my second opportunity to be a residential scholar at a major world university.” In 2009-2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar based at Queen’s University Belfast, where she co-authored a manuscript for a treatise on The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation, (Bisel Pub. 2011) as a guide for older adults, families, counsel, and the courts.
Past Fulbright experience for Pearson has sparked on-going collaboration with scholars in Northern Ireland (Professor Joseph Duffy, PhD., Queen’s University Belfast) and Great Britain (Professor Subhajit Basu, PhD., University of Leeds), including advisory work for the Commissioner of Older People in Northern Ireland. Almost 15 years later, they have remained writing colleagues and close friends. The group’s most recent international law publication will cover the topic “Older People and Access to Justice” for a forthcoming research handbook on Law, Society and Ageing (Elgar Pub., August 2024, edited by S. Westwood and N. Knauer.)
Pearson is planning a deep dive into how Canada approaches cutting edge issues in access to justice, health supports, and care issues for older people, especially as Canada is a leader in a complex world of tightening resources.
ABOUT THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM
Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Over 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, over 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants — recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals — participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year.
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org.