« In August 1978, I landed in Los Angeles and that was the beginning of a “new” turn in my life. »

Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin, France
Directrice de recherche émérite CNRS-CREDA
Professeur à l’Iheal
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
Ph.D. Student – UCLA

In the middle of the 1970s I was a student in urban geography at the University of Paris 1-Sorbonne.  I was then ready to take an interdisciplinary perspective for my research and wanted to work on an American city for the “Doctorat d’État”, as it was called.  By the end of 1976 I heard about the Fulbright program and the opportunity to submit a research project, get a scholarship and become a Ph.D. student in an American University.

At this time I knew nothing about the American system, its public and private universities and I am thankful to the documentalists who at the “Franco-American Commission” took their time to make me understand the rules/to explain the workings of higher education in the United States.  It took me then one year to write a 5-page proposal, to choose the University, and the Ph.D. program which would fit the project.  I was very fortunate to be accepted at UCLA and to get the Fulbright scholarship.  In August 1978, I landed in Los Angeles and that was the beginning of a “new” turn in my life.

I spent several years at UCLA where I found myself involved in a community of people (faculty members & colleagues) dedicated to their work of transmitting knowledge as well as helping students articulate their research intentions.  It was also a learning experience: exchange with people not only belonging to different disciplines but also coming  from different perspectives.  I am grateful to the Fulbright program because it allowed me to achieve my wish, becoming a scholar grounded in urban studies as well as in American studies, able to connect two different national experiences of the West (France and the US), and passing this experience on to students willing to explore cities in the field of social sciences.