Pamela Martin, associate professor of politics at Coastal Carolina University, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to do research at the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador, for one year beginning in January 2009, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Martin will conduct research on the topic: global and local dimensions of energy policy and conservation in the Amazon.

Martin is one of approximately 800 U.S. educators and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

Martin, who joined the Coastal Carolina University faculty in 2003, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. She teaches international relations, and she is also the director of the international and global studies minor, as well as co-adviser to the Globalist Club and the Model United Nations team.

Martin has recently been researching a new proposal by the Ecuadorian government to preserve the rainforest and refrain from drilling for oil. Her research and writing focus on globalization and its pedagogy, nongovernmental organizations, and energy and environmental policy. In January 2008 Martin was presented the 2008 Deborah Gerner Award for Innovative Teaching in International Studies.

Her book, "The Globalization of Contentious Politics: The Amazonian Indigenous Rights Movement," analyzes the benefits and challenges of global processes on indigenous peoples in some of the most remote areas of the world.