Isaac Webb of Portland, Maine, Awarded Fulbright Grant to Ukraine

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Isaac Webb

LEXINGTON, VA (05/24/2013)(readMedia)-- Washington and Lee University 2013 graduate Isaac Webb, of Portland, Maine, has received a Fulbright research/study grant to the Ukraine for his project "Disability and Invisibility: Human Rights for the Handicapped in Soviet Ukraine from Brezhnev to Gorbachev."

"I became interested in the disabled through my work at the Magnolia Center with W&L's Campus Kitchen," Webb said. "Through my coursework in Russian Area Studies and history, I learned about the Soviet Union's often inhuman treatment of the disabled. The Fulbright presents an interesting opportunity to investigate the impulses behind this treatment and will hopefully raise questions about society's obligations to its most vulnerable citizens."

A history and Russian Area Studies double major at W&L, Webb will review records in various places, mostly in Kiev, including the Central State Archive of the Highest Organs of Government and Administration of Ukraine to research the agencies of health care, insurance, social welfare and education to understand how the Soviet government handled the problem of disability in Ukraine.

Webb also will study the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine's records to determine if and how the Central Committee and various public organizations considered disability. He will also examine other archives, letters and newspaper articles to understand Ukrainian disability better.

"I will investigate whether the provision of social welfare benefits to the disabled in the Ukrainian republic differed from the provision of these benefits the Russian republic," Webb said.

Webb has received honors in history and the Elizabeth Garrett Scholarship for Excellence in History. He was awarded a Johnson Opportunity Grant for the summer of 2012 when he worked at the Memorial Society in Moscow, examining the relationship between disabled veterans living in Moscow after World War II. He was a Marshall Undergraduate Scholar and belongs to Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

He was overall student coordinator for Volunteer Venture Pre-orientation Program, a leader on the Campus Kitchen Leadership Team, manager of Campus Garden Operations for Campus Kitchen, a driver for Traveller Safe Ride Program and a student representative to the International Education Committee. He studied at the Middlebury College C.V. Starr School in Moscow in spring and winter 2013.

Sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship international exchange program.