Living with no running water and limited electricity, Orit Stieglitz spent a year in southern Israel studying the lives of Bedouin women, Muslims who once wandered the Middle East and are now transitioning from a nomadic lifestyle to one that is more urban and stationary.

Stieglitz lived in a village spending her time interviewing and observing the interactions of Bedouin women and their new life, which combines modern appliances with traditional household tasks.

The doctoral candidate is doing dissertation fieldwork in urban planning and development and was one of the 12 Fulbright Institute of International Education fellows from UCLA doing research abroad during the 2004-2005 academic year.

The Fulbright IIE Scholarship, commonly known as the Fulbright Scholarship, provides monetary grants for more than 1,200 U.S. students to go abroad each year to do research. The program places students in more than 140 countries, according to its Web site.

In addition to conducting research, the fellows also act as cultural ambassadors from the U.S. who promote understanding and acceptance, said Cherie Francis, director of graduate outreach, diversity and fellowships for Fulbright.

“A main focus of the (Fulbright IIE) program is culture ambassadorship – how well students can represent the U.S., in addition to research,” she said.

Fulbright IIE fellows must be U.S. citizens with at least a bachelor’s degree, but they cannot have a doctoral degree.

Preference for grants is given to students who have studied primarily in U.S. institutions. Also, though fellows are encouraged to travel to a country they are familiar with, it is preferable that they have not lived in that country for more than six months.

The Fulbright Scholarship, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State, covers transportation and living costs, a stipend, money for research and medical insurance. The participating countries can provide additional financial assistance, and the grants are different for each fellow, according to the Fulbright Web site.

In Stieglitz’s case, Fulbright provided transportation costs for her family in the grant so her family was able to travel to Israel as well.

In each participating country, there are Fulbright organizations that assist the fellows and provide social opportunities for them to bond.

“(The fellows) felt like a family with support,” Stieglitz said, and added that she interacted with other Fulbright fellows, though she was mostly on her own in the village.

Fulbright also has other programs for graduate students. The Fulbright-Hays – Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program, run by the Department of Education, is awarded to doctorate students studying modern foreign languages and area studies not including Western Europe. Applicants should already have expertise in the language and area they are planning to visit, according to its Web site.

For this academic year, 13 UCLA graduate students are participating in the IIE program, while another six are in the Fulbright-Hays program, Francis said.

Both programs accept applications once per year. Applications for Fulbright IIE are due in late October and the deadline for Fulbright-Hays is mid-November.

Laurie Duthie, a doctoral candidate in anthropology, had lived in China for ten years before going back as part of the Fulbright-Hays program in 2006.

She went to China in 2006 to study Chinese executives working in multinational companies for her social anthropology dissertation.

In her eight months in China, she worked on projects for the companies whose executives she was studying, attended company meetings, helped to plan a Chinese New Year banquet, and participated in other social and professional activities with the companies.

In both programs, the fellows must be affiliated with a university in the host country, which assists the researcher.

“Affiliations are very important to make sure what you are doing is appropriate and comply with the law there.” Duthie said.

However, with the Hays program there is a greater focus on completing research and the fellows do not conduct as many social programs with other fellows, Duthie said.

Fulbright IIE fellows should also be flexible in their research plans, said Stieglitz, who had to change her plans when she found that her proposal could not work because of time constraints.

The application process for the Fulbright IIE takes four to six months, Francis said.

While there are general fellowship information sessions throughout the year that include the Fulbright IIE, there are also information sessions for just the Fulbright IIE in the spring and summer in the graduate student resources center, Francis added.