Professor and Two Alumni Receive Fulbright Awards

Stacy Mattingly, an assistant professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department, has been named a Fulbright US Scholar Award recipient; and alumni Shanelle Villegas (BFA ’19 contemporary theater), a Boston Conservatory at Berklee graduate, and Berklee College of Music graduate Lili Chey Warren BM ’23 have received Fulbright Open Study/Research and Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Awards, respectively, from the US Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Villegas is the first Conservatory alumna to receive a Fulbright, while Warren is the first Berklee alumna to receive an English Teaching Assistant Award.

As Fulbright participants, Mattingly, Villegas, and Warren will study, work, and conduct research abroad for the 2024–2025 academic year. Last year, Michael Doughty BM ’23 received a Fulbright/Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music Award, and Michael Lucarelli MM ’20 received a Fulbright US Student Program Open Study/Research Award. Previously, Calvin McCormack MM ’21 was the recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru Award; in 2021, Devina Boughton BM ’21 and Andrew Skinner MM ’20 received Fulbright US Student Program Open Study/Research Awards.

Stacy Mattingly

Mattingly, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, will work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she will lead a semester-long creative writing incubator for students at the University of Sarajevo’s faculty of philosophy. Her goal is to build a sustained, vibrant, collaborative community of young people who evolve as writers and artists while they engage with established writers, translators, editors, the city, and the wider literary world. Mattingly seeks to complement, support, and partner with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s literary and cultural infrastructure to invest in this generation. 

“We are thrilled that Stacy Mattingly is being recognized with a Fulbright Award,” said Jennifer Beauregard, interim chair of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department. “This opportunity will allow Professor Mattingly to expand her work with authors in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as enrich the classroom experience for her students here at Berklee.”

Shanelle Villegas

Villegas, a native of Roxbury, will study in London, where she will examine the ways in which physically and emotionally absent fathers perpetuate intergenerational trauma within Black and Ghanaian families in their part-creative, part-sociological and auto-ethnographic study.  This research will be utilized for her solo-memoir play titled X: The Soul Wound Memoir, which focuses on topics such as parental emotional absence, oppressive institutions of patriarchy and racism, and intergenerational trauma within Villegas’s family. Their research will be conducted alongside the Talawa Theatre Company to gain a deeper knowledge and stronger relationship with the Black-British theater community in London. Villegas will also conduct interviews with Ghanaian immigrants in the city, and perform her completed script in a staged reading with all participants.

Lili Chey Warren

Warren, a native of Pittsford, New York, will live in South Korea, where she will provide students with the communication skills to speak confidently in English, and immerse herself in her South Korean heritage. Warren lacked connection to her culture outside of her immediate family growing up and will use the opportunity to develop an understanding of her background as a biracial Asian American. Her passion for teaching and coaching as an instrument, music theory, and performance instructor will be vital to her role working with students as they learn English. 

“We are so proud of both Shanelle Villegas and Lili Warren for receiving Fulbright awards,” said Roya Hu and Ryan Braaten, Fulbright advisors for Berklee. “It is wonderful to see our graduates from the College and Conservatory dedicating their creativity and resources to such important projects, and we are thrilled the Fulbright program has continued to recognize our alumni for their tremendous scholarship. We wish them the best of luck as they continue to research, create, and learn in the upcoming year.”

The Fulbright and Berklee

Fulbright recipients are selected in an open, merit-based competition that considers leadership potential, academic achievement, and record of service. As Fulbright alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed honorees, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 62 Nobel Prize recipients, 80 MacArthur Foundation Fellows, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 41 current or former heads of state or government. 

In 2022, Berklee was recognized as a top producer of Fulbright US students by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The nation's top-producing Fulbright institutions are highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education annually. The Fulbright application is administered at Berklee through its designated Fulbright program advisor. Inquiries can be sent to fulbright@berklee.edu.