Hailey Crowel Wins Fulbright Scholarship

May 12, 2006
Contact: Andy Faught

Hailey Crowel, a senior English and comparative literary studies major from Lahaina, Hawaii, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study the role of technology on Japanese literary reading habits. Starting in September, Crowel will spend a year in Japan taking part in intensive language study and interviewing college students.

“E-books and novels downloaded onto cell phones are of increasing popularity in Japan, whereas the trend has not caught on nearly as quickly in the United States,” she said. “I also hope to spend time working with newspapers and advertising agencies to see what implications technological changes have for the advertising and marketing industries in Japan.”

Crowel said the Fulbright experience will be a logical extension of her current internship at the Los Angeles Times, where she has helped the newspaper’s interactive division make changes to its Web site to increase advertising revenue.

Living and conducting research in Japan, Crowel said, will help her develop a cultural competence necessary to develop marketing strategies in global publishing. “To many outsiders, Japan stands as a proud nation with a rich and deep past, while also serving as the epicenter for new and cutting-edge technology,” she added. “These two identities converge and deviate repeatedly in Japanese culture.

Crowel joins Occidental students Shana Khader ’05 of Los Angeles, Becca Shellock ’06 of Whitehall, Pa., and Rachel Yamakawa ’06 of Honolulu in winning Fulbrights this year. Occidental students and alumni have amassed 12 Fulbrights since 2003.

The Fulbright program, which covers travel, education and living expenses, was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.