Dr. Stark awarded prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award
Dr. Stark was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research at the University of Technology Sydney (Sydney, AUS) in spring 2025.
This prestigious international exchange program supports professionals of high achievement to conduct research worldwide. The award was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. Approximately 400 persons across the USA are awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award each year
Dr. Stark says:
I have proposed a research project entitled “Evaluating virtual reality for eliciting language in aphasia,” to take place at the University of Technology, Sydney, AUS, in Spring 2025. Two million adults are living with aphasia, an acquired language and communication disorder, in the USA. The Australian Aphasia Association (2010) estimated that 80,000 people had aphasia in Australia and ,given increases in young stroke and improvements to healthcare resulting in people living with stroke sequelae for longer, there are likely >140,000 people with aphasia in Australia in 2023. A major issue in the speech therapy field is demonstrating generalization of skills learned in therapy to real-world language and communication, despite natural communication being the top rehabilitation priority for people with aphasia. Virtual reality (VR) is a compelling way to practice skills learned in therapy in a safe, anxiety-free environment, which may result in more language gains. Before demonstrating this, we must lay the foundation for using VR to measure language in aphasia and identify factors that may impact the use of VR for language sampling, which is what this Fulbright project proposes.
University of Technology Sydney is one of few academic sites in the world whose mission is to integrate technology into clinical and translational research. They are leaders in state-of-the-art technology and its application to telehealth specifically in adults with communication disorders and is thus the pre-eminent place to conduct the proposed research. This Fulbright project will enable me to gain firsthand knowledge and experience with a new technology, VR. Further, I will gain knowledge about Australian speech and language services for aphasia, as well as be exposed to cutting edge research that integrates technology into aphasia assessment and treatment. Australia is the home to Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) dedicated to the study of aphasia, with one hub at the University of Queensland and the other at La Trobe University. This Fulbright project will afford me a chance to disseminate my research at these locations, and to network with the impressive cohort of scholars that specifically focus on aphasia.
My goal is to bring back skills and knowledge to my home Department, larger IU community, and research. I look forward to bringing my knowledge and technology into the classroom, as I teach courses on aphasia, aging, language and cognition to both undergraduate and graduate students. I have previously received an award from the IU CEW&T for my mentoring, and from the University for my teaching, which I hope lends credence to my intention to integrate knowledge and skills learned from this Fulbright into the classroom and lab.
More broadly, my research evaluates how aphasia impacts spoken discourse (language beyond the sentence level) and, more globally, communication. My research increases understanding of the fundamental aspects of spoken language and communication from an interdisciplinary perspective by leveraging theory and methodology derived from neuroscience, linguistics, communication sciences and disorders, and cognitive science. Further, my research is translational, having the potential to improve aphasia management by better understanding prognostic factors and strategies that improve communication.