Southeastern Louisiana University Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice Joshua McDermott has been selected to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellowship.
He will conduct research and teach in the Sociology Department at Njala University in Bo, Sierra Leone, the country’s third largest city and largest city in the South of the country.
According to Fulbright Director of Academic Relations Julie Taylor, Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Alumni include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
McDermott’s research focuses on the nature of irregular and informal work in Africa, like work done outside of formal wage work, such as street vending. He plans to continue his research in Sierra Leone, looking at the political behavior and views of college educated young people who are forced to survive in the informal economy. While there, McDermott also plans to finish the field research and writing for his first book. McDermott said he feels lucky and privileged to be able to spend an academic year conducting field research in a place he loves (Sierra Leone) because it is an opportunity not many people get.
