News Release
May 1999
Moravian College announced that graduating senior Marianne
Zwicker has been selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.
After graduation, Zwicker, a German major, will travel to Berlin and
conduct a yearlong independent research project, "Remembering the
Gypsies: The German Sinti and Roma Since 1945." Her Fulbright Scholarship
is only the third such award given to a Moravian student in recent history.
Patricia McAndrew, class of ’68, an honors history student received
a Fulbright to work with a well-known Danish ballet master and Helen
Bachonin, class of ’65, received a Fulbright for study at the
University of Madrid.
Marianne Zwicker has been invited by professor Wolfgang
Benz, director of the Zentrum für Antisemitismuforschung at the
Technische Universität Berlin to spend a year at the center. Zwicker
will conduct research into the life and times of the Gypsies in Germany
since the end of World War II. The main focus will be to determine the
extent that Gypsies are still victims of discrimination in Germany.
Her research will expand on her senior honors thesis, "It is most
important that one speaks of it: the German Gypsies in the Holocaust."
Zwicker, president of the Moravian College German Club,
both speaks and writes well in the German language. In addition to the
Fulbright Scholarship opportunity, her future plans include going to
graduate school to study the German language and German history.
Interestingly, Zwicker spent a year in Germany during
the seventh grade. Her father participated in the Fulbright teacher
exchange program. It was there where she began to become proficient
speaking German.
While at Moravian, Zwicker participated in numerous social,
political, and cultural activities. She is an accomplished violinist
who played with the Moravian College Orchestra. She sang with the Moravian
College Choir, Women’s Chorus, and the Central Moravian Church
Choir. Zwicker chaired the AIDS Memorial Quilt Education Committee.
She was president of the Dorm Council, a member of the Zinzendorf Literary
Society, and a member of the women’s tennis team. Zwicker’s
hometown is Hamilton, Massachusetts
Zwicker received strong support for her application from
Dr. Hans Wuerth, professor of German at Moravian. "Marianne is
researching an aspect of the Holocaust often ignored, underestimated,
or poorly understood: the systematic persecution of gypsies in general,
of German gypsies in particular, before and during the National Socialist
regime," Wuerth said. "She is superbly qualified to continue
her most ambitious and commendable project that deals with the Sinti
and Roma gypsies in Germany today."
"We are very pleased that Ms. Zwicker was selected
to receive the Fulbright Scholarship," said Moravian College president,
Dr. Ervin J. Rokke. "The Fulbright is a very prestigious award.
Ms. Zwicker has been an outstanding student at Moravian College and
it is fortunate that she will have the opportunity to expand upon her
research of the Gypsies and the Holocaust while studying in Europe."
The U.S. Congress created the Fulbright Program in 1946,
immediately after World War II, to foster mutual understanding among
nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Today the Fulbright
Program is the U.S. Government's premier scholarship program. It enables
U.S. students, artists and other professionals to benefit from unique
resources all over the world.
Each year the Fulbright Program allows Americans to study
or conduct research in over 100 nations. The Institute of International
Education (IIE) coordinates the activities relevant to the U.S. graduate
student program and conducts an annual competition for the scholarships,
most of which are for one academic year of study or research.
The Fulbright Full Grant provides round-trip transportation;
language or orientation courses, where appropriate; tuition, in some
cases; book and research allowances; and maintenance for the academic
year.
The U.S. Student Program is designed to give recent B.S./B.A.
graduates, masters and doctoral candidates, and young professionals
and artists opportunities for personal development and international
experience. Most grantees plan their own programs. Projects may include
university coursework, independent library or field research, classes
in a music conservatory or art school, special projects in the social
or life sciences, or a combination.
