PhD candidate Ren Capucao—a nurse, nurse historian, and PhD candidate—has been named a Fulbright Scholar for 2022-23.

It's the latest applause for Capucao, whose dissertation study "Pressed into Starched Whites: Nursing Identity in Filipino American History" has earned him grants and accolades from the Virginia Humanities, the Philippine Nurses Association of America, the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry and the Barbara Bates Center for the Studying of the History of Nursing.

"After seeing through my mother's lens as a nurse," said Capucao, "I never replied how exhausting nursing could be and the sacrifices she made to care for her loved ones. For all the trailblazing nurses that immigrated to the U.S., I can only imagine the struggles they faced on top of caring for patients often culturally dissimilar, so I am humbled to have these nurses invite me into their homes and openly share their memories."

[VIDEO] "A Culture to Care"
A look inside the research of nurse historian Ren Capucao 

• //  "Virginia man documents the history of Filipino nurses" (WVTF/NPR, Oct. 2018)
• //  "New Exhibit Uncovers the History of Filipino Nurses in Virginia" (UVA Today, July 2019)
• //  "Why Are There So Many Filipino Nurses?" (VNL, fall 2019)
• // "Why are there so many Filipino nurses? Virginia Beach doctoral student decides to research" (Virginian Pilot, August 2019)
• // "What is it about Filipino Nurses and Courage?" (The Inquirer, April 2022)

Capucao will use the Fulbright grant to travel to the Philippines during the 2022-23 academic year to continue his investigations into Filipino nurses' histories, conducting interviews, collecting oral histories, and diving into historical archives.

Capucao works as a nurse in Richmond and is the editor of the nursing and medical history blog Nursing Clio.

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