Jovonne Bickerstaff
Field: Sociology
Host: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
Grant Dates: 2003

Jovonne Bickerstaff gave this speech at the residence of the French Ambassador to the U.S. on October 28, 2008 for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Franco American Commission on Educational Exchange, which administers the Fulbright Program in France.

Good evening everyone.

My name is Jovonne Bickerstaff and I’m so honored to be here speaking with you tonight to share the significance of my Fulbright experience with you all.

First, however, I’d like to thank the Commission Franco-Américaine, especially the Director Arnaud Roujou de Boubée for being so kind as to think of me to speak and to Ambassador Pierre Vimont for his graciousness in welcoming us into his home this evening to celebrate this truly momentous occasion – sixty years of Fulbright exchanges between the United States and France. And, as this is the only event of the 60th anniversary commemoration to be held in the US, à tous mes collègues français et française, bienvenue aux États-Unis.

Five years ago – five years and twenty-seven days to be exact – I arrived on the doorsteps of the Commission Franco-Américaine in Paris a bit frazzled, more than a bit weary and ... a day late for my Fulbright Orientation. You see, I’d missed my flight from Boston the night before... In my state of slight—well more than slight—nervousness and disarray, I had the blessing of being received warmly, and with considerable patience, by the staff of the Commission, particularly Dr. Amy Tondu and Véronique Bourgerolle. Their welcome and much needed admonitions to relax, ca va aller, Jovonne, sustained me both that day and many more as I came back again and again with tales of woe and angst about my loyer (rent), compte bancaire (accidentally sent to Fointainebleu!) and the ins and outs of scholastic life à la française. And certainly, were Amy & Véronique not so youthful, I would have probably given them many a gray hair.  Navigating the nuances of la vie Parisian and developing an understanding of the mundane functions of life in a somewhat known – yet still so unfamiliar place and culture – were no small feat for me at the tender age of twenty-three.

However, I emerged from the process—and I hope Amy and Veronique would agree—less frazzled, no longer weary, and most of all transformed.

Transformed. Transformation.  Transformation - that for me is the core and heart of the exchange that the Fulbright program provides, certainly for its fellows, but also for the individuals and communities and institutions they encounter. The program provides a rare, but so sorely needed opportunity for individuals to come together to share their experiences, to learn about others, but especially to challenge all those assumptions and perceptions that we hold about one another, which at their heart are grounded in the taken for granted understandings, misconceptions and fears that we have about ourselves. When we get a chance to really spend time with one another, to see people as individuals, feeling and flawed and not just members of nation or group or people, that’s where the potential and power of transformation is held. Transformation – that is the gift that the Fulbright cultural exchange provides.

In my experience, that transformation was manifested in multiple ways. It came in the development of a research agenda and vision regarding the experience of black French of West African origins as they negotiate and challenge the boundaries of French identity, shifting who defines it, how and for what purposes. Research that took me from France to the University of Cambridge and eventually to Harvard University, where I have been able to collaborate with both established and emerging scholars from Canada, Brazil, Israel and the United States on an anti-racism project, research that brings me back, always back, to Paris where it first began. Transformation came in the opportunity to learn about and from my Fulbright cohort in fields ranging from art history and architecture, to medicine, modern dance and opera. I’ve recently been given the occasion, for instance, to serve on the honorary advisory committee for my fellow Fulbrighter Viswa Subbaraman’s newly established opera house, Opera Vista in Houston, Texas, helping him plan an opera festival. That’s the kind of an opportunity that I never could or would have imagined – and which Fulbright connections provide.

Transformation also came in my understanding of what it means to be not simply a researcher, but an intellectual given the rare chance to provide insights into the complexities of other cultures and groups as I’ve given talks about French race relations and minorities to Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, or describing the significance and complexities of American hip-hop to French high school students. Or being placed in the discomforting position of watching horrendous images of hurricane Katrina in 2005 from my friend’s 6th arrondissement apartment in Paris and then, just months later, looking on as riots raged through banlieues of Paris and across France – and being pressured to explain to folks on that other side of the Atlantic, that yes, yes, there’s racism over there, and they have things to work through – but let’s not forget - there’s just as much to be done here, and as bad as things are there, there’s so, so much more than that.

As a black American girl from a low-income, single-parent home in Ohio, still, perhaps the most significant transformation for me is witnessing the possibility that my Fulbright experience opens for those who come from places like mine. Whether I’m heading to talk to kids in my church or at my high school in Akron, or as I speak to black and Arab youth in Paris and tell them about my colleague and friend, Mariam Bagayoko, a Fulbright alumna of Malian origins from France, I get to see the possibility that opens up for them.  They can now believe in their own potential transformation. If someone who looks like me and comes from a poor home can do it, they think, then maybe I can too. The gift of being able to witness that transformation is ineffable.

Five years ago, I was asked to speak at the Fulbright mid-year meeting about how the Fulbright experience would change my life and career. I replied: “My experience has been a constant revelation of things unknown – people, expectations, capabilities, hopes, necessities and limitations – mostly mine – which is to say a constant revelation of who Jovonne is and is not.” I finally answered the question of how it would shape me in the future like this: “That answer has yet to be determined and I will only be able to answer it in retrospect, but it has, without a doubt given me faith in the power of ‘and’  ... and my conception of that possibility is simply this – infinite.”

Possibility, the infinite possibility of “and” and the transformative power that’s held within it, the transformative possibility held within those moments, those occasions when we get to really speak to and see, to learn and know and understand each other - and thus ourselves - that is the blessing, the magic of Fulbright. Congratulations Fulbright on over 60 years of amazing transformation. I look forward to the infinite possibility that the next sixty is certain to bring. Thank you, merci.

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