John Bundschuh
John Bundschuh, a doctoral candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University, has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office. Doctoral candidates can engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies through the DDRA grant. Nationwide across all disciplines only 100 Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships were awarded.
Bundschuh will conduct research for his dissertation in Japan for seven months examining the topic Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Creation of Narrative Structure in Japanese Kundokugo Buddhist Texts.
Bundschuh's project examines how Buddhist sutras written in Chinese were rendered in Japanese during the Heian period (794–1185 C.E.) using techniques of narrative studies and historical linguistics. Bundschuh will conduct archival research to determine how differing grammatical markers of time create narrative frames in Buddhist discourse and address how the use of these markers varied among differing Buddhist sects and changed throughout the period. More broadly, his research contributes to the conceptions of how stylistic choice distinguishes different perspectives and distance in narration and sheds new light on the rhetorical role of Japanese grammar in presenting the stories within Buddhist texts to a Japanese audience.
Bundschuh earned his Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and Asian studies from Tulane University (2009) and Master of Arts in linguistics from Tulane University (2010). His faculty advisor is Charles Quinn.
The Office of International Affairs administers the Fulbright-Hays program for Ohio State, and grant competitions are held annually. Doctoral candidates interested in applying for the award must contact Fulbright-Hays program director, Joanna Kukielka-Blaser.