Doctoral students Zoe Griffith and Trina Vithayathil were recently named recipients of Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) grants totaling $57,784. Griffith and Vithayathil were among 84 recipients from 34 U.S. institutions who were awarded fellowships to conduct research in modern foreign languages and area studies in other countries for periods of six to 12 months. Fulbright-Hays projects deepen help the nation develop capability in areas of the world not generally included in U.S. curricula. Griffith will use her fellowship to look at Egypt’s Mediterranean port cities of Alexandria, Rosetta, and Damietta in an attempt to reorient understandings of trade and politics in the eastern Mediterranean in the early modern period. Drawing from little-used archival sources in Egypt, Turkey, and France, she will examine how Egyptian spaces and social groups that have been previously ignored by historians can contribute to our understanding of Ottoman imperial cohesion and transformation in the 17th and 18th centuries. Vithayathil will develop a qualitative study of a contemporary census in India. During her time in India, Vithayathil plans to interview government officials, civil society leaders, and employees of private-sector companies involved directly or indirectly in census operations.