Fall 2010 - Asian University for Women

6
OCTOBER 2010 VOL. 4, NO. 2
Stanford University Dean to Host 2011 Summer Program for AUW Students
The Asian University for Women has enjoyed an association with Stanford University,
one of the world’s leading research universities, since 2007 when AUW founder
Kamal Ahmad first introduced Provost John Etchemendy to the University’s mission.
Provost Etchemendy’s initial interest was buoyed
by Dean Richard Saller’s deep commitment to
the cause, and Stanford subsequently volunteered
to send two of its postdoctoral fellows to
Chittagong each year to join the AUW faculty.
Now, after discussions that were facilitated by
Mrs. Janet Montag, AUW Development
Committee Chair, Stanford has gone one step
further by sponsoring a yearly summer program
on its California campus—located just outside
San Francisco—for 25 AUW students starting in
2011. The course will be taught by none other
than Dean Saller, who heads Stanford’s School of
Humanities and Sciences and is a member of
AUW’s International Council of Advisors.
“Vocational training is about learning routines for doing certain kinds of work that
have been done before … and this is even more starkly true where the teaching
and learning involves rote memorization. And I would say liberal arts education in
contrast is about creative and analytic thought to confront the new and to lead.”
Stanford’s six-week summer program promises to
provide AUW students with a transformative educational
experience. In the program’s first year the
course will focus on “The History of Family and
Women in Western Civilization.” In addition, students
will be exposed to talks by prominent
women in the Stanford community on the subject
of leadership. “The idea [is] to expose the students
to some of the thought leaders in the
faculty on the Stanford campus,” Dean Saller
says. Classes will be held in the mornings
Mondays through Thursdays, and in the afternoons
Stanford teaching assistants will host
discussion sections and one-on-one writing workshops
with AUW students. Beyond the formal
teaching of the curriculum, the program will give
AUW students the opportunity to experience San
Francisco’s various cultural offerings. Every Friday,
there will be a scheduled cultural event and on
Sundays, field trips into the Bay Area. The students
will also live in dormitories on the Stanford
campus to ensure total cultural immersion.
The association between AUW and Stanford
reveals Stanford’s strong commitment to the
region. Dean Saller points to the importance of
AUW’s model of liberal arts in the developing
world. “Vocational training is about learning routines
for doing certain kinds of work that have
been done before … and this is even more starkly
true where the teaching and learning involves rote
memorization. And I would say liberal arts education
in contrast is about creative and analytic
thought to confront the new and to lead.”
Dean Saller plans to create a new program of
Southeast Asian Studies on Stanford’s campus.
“We have a few scattered faculty but we need to
be much more comprehensive in the way we teach
Stanford students about South Asia,” he says.
One way to do this is to strengthen the ties
between Stanford and AUW. The decision to
send postdoctoral fellows to Chittagong each
year is an example of this commitment. The program
has afforded AUW the valuable opportunity
to bolster its teaching staff with researchers who
are expert in their fields.
Lucina Uddin, who is taking a break from autism
research to join AUW as a teaching fellow for the
fall 2010 semester, learned of the position through
an e-mail announcement that was circulated
among the Stanford postdoctoral fellows. “When I
first heard about [the
RICHARD SALLER
Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences
at Stanford University
announcement] I was
surprised. There aren’t
that many opportunities
for research
careers in Bangladesh
because there are very
little resources,” she
says. Research in the
sciences is vital in
developing Asia; such
research can tackle
endemic issues such as the lack of clean water, the
spread of infectious diseases, and the need for
sustainable development.
In the 2011 spring semester, Se-Woong Koo will
serve as the Stanford teaching fellow. He is currently
completing his PhD in religious studies
with a focus on East Asian religions at Stanford,
where he is also a fellow at the Ho Center for
Buddhist Studies. His spring course at AUW,
“Introduction to Asian Religions Through Art,”
will be offered as a part of the core curriculum.
Dr. Uddin received her BS in neuroscience and
PhD in psychology at the University of California
Los Angeles (UCLA), and went on to work as a
research scientist at New York University and
Stanford University. Her research explores the
organization of the brain in individuals struggling
with the developmental disorder autism. In 2010,
she received a five-year Career Development
Award from the National Institute of Mental
Health to continue her research.
As a native of Bangladesh who moved to the
United States shortly after she was born, Dr.
Uddin was happy to embrace the opportunity to
contribute to her home country in a meaningful
and sustained way. “I realized that I was
extremely privileged to have had access to the
education and opportunities available in the U.S.,
and I was drawn to the idea that I could help to
create similar opportunities for women in the
country of my birth,” she says. In addition, she
hopes that her experiences in the sciences will
both inspire and reassure AUW students that
their aspirations are well within reach. “To be
academics, to be scientists, it’s not even really
considered a career path for women here [in
Bangladesh]. I think it’s nice to provide an example
of that.”
Dr. Uddin has designed a course called “The
Mind” that draws from the fields of psychology,
anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, and neuroscience
to examine mental processes—such as
perception, memory, and judgment—and the
relationship between language and thought. She
is also taking advantage of the opportunity to
practice her Bengali and spend time with the
members of her family who live in Bangladesh.
“I never thought that my academic background
and interests would lead me to this type of international
work, but when I realized the unique
contribution I could make to AUW, I could not
turn down the opportunity … I hope that my
time here will be both a rewarding experience for
me personally, and a useful contribution to the
mission of the University,” she says.
Dean Richard Saller of Stanford University, an AUW International Council of Advisors member, discussed Stanford's association
with AUW at a lunch in Hong Kong hosted by the former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong and AUW Patron, Mrs. Anson
Chan. From left to right: AUW Founder Kamal Ahmad, AUW Patron Mrs. Anson Chan, and Dean Richard Saller of Stanford
University.