ECU geographer earns Fulbright to study in India

GREENVILLE, NC   (May 6, 2004)   —   Holly Hapke, a professor of geography at East Carolina University, received a Fulbright-Hayes Faculty Research Abroad award to continue her research in South Indian fishing villages.

Hapke’s work, “Gender, Caste-Religion and Economic Livelihood in the Fisheries Sector of South India,” examines the relationships of women’s roles in family and the marketplace in the Indian state of Kerala and how these roles are affected by modernization and shifting environmental conditions.

“What the project does is examine the relationship between women’s autonomy in the fisheries sector,” she said. “I look at how ideology and the division of labor among the different religious communities influences their strategies for survival.”

Hapke will conduct research in three villages in the vicinity of Kerala’s capitol, Trivandrum, during the next year. Christian, Muslim and Hindu families will be studied, she said.

This is the second time Hapke has studied in India on a Fulbright grant. In addition to the current Fulbright-Hayes Faculty Research Abroad grant, Hapke is an alternate for a second Fulbright grant, administered through the U.S. State Department.