Fulbright Impact: Uma Segal
Social impact can encompass a wide range of ideas and projects that positively affect the communities we live in. We are delighted to showcase a Fulbright alumna working with Human Rights and international law projects that are contributing to a better world.
An Article by Claire Shea (Fulbright/SiPN Intern, Summer 2024)
Uma Segal – Former University of Missouri—Saint Louis, Curator’s Distinguished Professor Emerita | Founders’ Professor | Curators’ Distinguished Professor
Fulbright alumna, Uma Segal, came over to Portugal in 2018 to the Alto Comissariado para as Migrações (ACM, IP) to focus on social work and migration.
Uma developed a project with the High Commission for Migrations (ACM) for the training of ACM’s team on the assessment of refugees’ professional skills. She was awarded a Fulbright grant in Portugal, and worked extensively on research surrounding social work, more specifically with migrant and refugee community integration.
We interviewed Uma about how her Fulbright grantee experience in Portugal shaped who she is today and the impact she hopes to create in the world of human rights and international law.
1. How have you used your experiences in Portugal in your role as a professor?
In 2018, I had the honor of serving as a Fulbright Specialist working with the High Commission for Migration for the month of June. My role was to provide feedback and an external perspective on its refugee integration programs that were really beginning to “take off” about that time.
I had experienced at least four prior professional academic visits to Portugal teaching seminars in Porto and Braga. These ranged from two weeks to two months, however, the Fulbright Specialist experience was unique, practice focused, and in my area of specialization – migrant integration.
My courses and professional seminars on migration that I have taught in the U.S. since 2018 have included a healthy dose of my exposure to the variety and new projects that I experienced in Portugal, and from which the U.S. students as well as U.S. practitioners can learn. However, the One-Stop-Shop with its client focus can be used in other social welfare areas, and I have discussed this extensively in my social work classes and with colleagues.
The experience in Portugal also helped inform my interpretation of my research, and I have integrated these understandings into journal and book chapters that I have written since my experience in Portugal.
On a more personal note, I was able to experience Portuguese peoples in urban, suburban, and rural settings, and it was refreshing to see the welcome of the foreign born and aims to integrate them into Portuguese society. I was also impressed with the willingness of professionals to share their experiences as well as to be open to new ideas. These impressions are also integrated into my teaching and my discussions with other academics and practitioners in the U.S.
2. What are some of the biggest challenges you face when it comes to your work now? And how have you overcome them?
This may be a question that perhaps could have been posed to me earlier in my career. I have just retired (June 2024), and the challenges I now face are in developing new and practice-driven avenues to pursue my interests in immigrant and refugee integration.
As far as my international work on migration and international travel, my greatest concern was whether I could manage cultural differences without offending people in the country I was visiting or in which I was working. Over the years, I learned that more important than cultural differences, which are, indeed, important, is the realization that basic respect, empathy, engagement, and openness to learning are sufficient ingredients to overcome differences in language and culture.
I include a LinkedIn message I recently posted:
3. If you could have one impact on the people of the United Sates now and/or in the future, what would it be?
If all individuals and groups of the U.S. (or the world) were to truly understand the interconnectedness and value of people around the globe and our need for each other, and if I was instrumental in bringing about this understanding, I would be amply rewarded.
4. What advice would you give someone from the United States who wants to apply for a Fulbright grant?
Recognize that, regardless of which Fulbright grant for which one applies, as a Fulbright student, researcher, teacher, or specialist, what one gains is significantly more than what one will give. To maximize one’s experience and benefits, one must be willing to listen, watch, and learn and bring these learnings back to the United States to share with others and for the development of one’s own career and to contribute to the U.S. society and culture.
As one plans one’s application, “plan” what one hopes to want to learn and what one would like to potentially bring back to inform others in the United States. This should be clearly indicated in one’s application to Fulbright, as the aim is to exchange knowledge, experience, and relationships, including developing long-term professional collaborative contacts across borders.
It is important to recognize the relevance of one’s learnings in Portugal to help increase global understanding, and that any professional stint in Portugal or any other nation is usually a life-changer. One will view one’s own life and one’s experience in the United States through a very different lens when one returns home. This is especially so if one does a traditional six-month or one-year Fulbright. One should use the opportunity to connect with the Portuguese people and try to learn at least basic Portuguese if one can, as language facility is the main ingredient in understanding a culture. While it is pleasurable to “hang out” with other Fulbrighters, it is extremely important to connect on a social level with non-Fulbright Portuguese citizens.
Finally, be prepared to find wonderment and enjoyment in the experience.
Thank you for participating in this series, Uma! We wish you all the best!