This post was written by Hatchet reporter Amelia Williams.
After Peg Barratt leaves her Columbian College of Arts and Sciences deanship in June, she will spend six months as a Fulbright scholar in Japan focusing on early childhood parenting.
The University announced Wednesday that Barratt, an expert in development psychology, earned a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award, a prestigious government-funded research program that sends 800 American faculty and professionals abroad each year.
Barratt will spend her six-month tenure at Japan’s Kyoto University, conducting research on the relationships between the country’s political and social policies and early childhood practices, like prenatal care, breastfeeding, income support, childcare and child safety
“Japan is a country that, objectively, is a lot like ours. But there are deep cultural differences that I find fascinating,” Barratt said in a release. “I’m interested in finding out how these cultural traditions and policy contexts influence the decisions families make.”
She has conducted research in Japan twice before, in the late 1980s and early 1990s at Osaka University.
She has spent some of her final year as dean in East Asia already, visiting China with other GW officials in November to examine potential academic space for the University’s first global undergraduate degree program at Renmin University.
Columbian College is knee deep in finding Barratt’s replacement, and will announce the next dean this month. Her deanship has helped faculty hiring and research funding improve in the college, but her leadership was bruised by faculty criticism in a survey last spring.
