UB Grad to Study in Canada under Fulbright Grant

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Seattle native Geoffrey Rhodes has been awarded a foreign scholarship from the J. William Fulbright Foundation to study filmmaking in Canada during the 2005-06 academic year.

Rhodes, who received a master of fine arts degree from UB in May, is a 1991 graduate of Lake Washington High School, Kirkland, Wash.

He received a bachelor's degree in Italian literature from the University of Washington in 1996, and a bachelor's degree in media production from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., in 2001.

Rhodes says he expects to spend up to three years in Canada completing a doctorate in communication and culture through a program offered jointly by Ontario's York University and Ryerson University in Toronto.

"The program employs a new model involving practicing art scholars," Rhodes says.

"My work will involve continuing studies in semiotics and media theory combined with art practice in filmmaking, installation video and other media. It is an extension of my current work, but in a large cosmopolitan city with an international population."

Rhodes will be one of more than 1,000 American students to travel abroad for the 2005-06 academic year through the Fulbright Program, established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

Rhodes is the son of William T. and Judy Rhodes, formerly residents of Seattle who now live in Florida, where William Rhodes is a professor of electrical engineering at Florida Atlantic University.