Juliet Flam-Ross ’19 Awarded Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship in India

Economics major and North Carolina native Juliet Flam-Ross ’19 recalls first falling in love with research while working as a research assistant for Assistant Professor of Economics Maggie Brehm.

She credits her decision to pair that love with the country of India thanks to two distinct experiences: reading Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo; and her mentor Sarah Pierce Taylor, a former visiting assistant professor of Hinduism at Oberlin and scholar of religion in South Asia, who encouraged her to study in India.

“A Fulbright-Nehru research grant to India felt like the perfect culmination of my interests in India and research in development economics,” says Flam-Ross. “In addition to this, it offered an opportunity for me to continue research that I began in India last year with the advisory of Assistant Professor of Economics Evan Kresch and grant funding from Oberlin Shansi and the Jerome-Davis Research Fund. I am extremely humbled by the opportunity to receive the freedom and institutional resources of a Fulbright award.”

Flam-Ross’ research will focus on the ways substance abuse and alcoholism affect families in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. She intends to build on existing research about the negative implications of male alcoholism in India, including domestic violence and cyclical poverty from the lost income spent on alcohol. Her research will be conducted through surveys and ethnographies.

“I hope that throughout my Fulbright research year, I will be able to achieve a higher level of fluency in Hindi and continue to explore my interests as a researcher,” says Flam-Ross. “I also hope that this experience will give me a better idea of what I would like to do during my career.”

While at Oberlin, Flam-Ross was involved with Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

After her Fulbright, she plans to work as a researcher before attending graduate school.