ASU and Kinnaird College, a 100-year-old Pakistani women's college, have partnered for a three-year exchange program that will be funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of State. Students and faculty from the ASU Department of English and Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict will work together to facilitate the program.
In the spring, ASU faculty will travel to Kinnaird to teach workshops that focus on a variety of topics, which include studying American literature, developing pedagogies and transforming research into publishable scholarly articles. Students and faculty from Pakistan will travel to ASU in fall 2014.
Claudia Sadowski-Smith, professor of English and American studies, said Kinnaird students will take a course titled “The Internationalization of American Literature.” The course will be open to ASU students as well.
“We’re trying to create a course in which they’ll find out about not just American literature, but different approaches to the study of literature,” she said. “The goal is to have them develop their own courses. Many people outside of the U.S. are interested in studying U.S. literature, so this is part of a much larger field and undertaking.”
Sadowski-Smith said many of the students and faculty from Kinnaird have been trained in linguistics and are interested in studying literature comparatively. She said in addition to the course, there will be a speaker series and mentoring program for student research.
Yasmin Saikia, history professor and Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies, said she saw the focus on literature in this program as a great bridge and way for students from different cultural backgrounds to relate to one another's concerns.
“On one level, it is learning discipline and on another it is learning common ground, developing human understanding,” she said. “It seemed to be attractive to the State Department and they said, ‘OK, we want to give this grant to ASU.’ A million dollars for humanities is a large amount. Humanities grants are often not so large.”
Saikia, who also serves on the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, will act as a laison to the Pakistani community during the exchange.
She said she believed some of the cultural and academic differences for Kinnaird students would prove to be challenging, but rewarding. In Pakistan, classes are not nearly as student-centered as they are in the U.S., and reading assignments are substantially smaller.
“Taking these classes will be a learning tool, and living here alone will be a huge learning tool — many of them have only lived with their families,” she said. "At every level, they will be exposed to something that will be a life-learning experience for them."
Carolyn Forbes, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, said part of the overall goal of the exchange was to promote cutting-edge research and give real world application to initiatives.
“We have a rich understanding of religion and secularism in public life,” she said. “I have to say there’s a lot we do in religion that has to do with the stories that people tell. Stories can make a real difference for people, and that was the appeal with literature. It has a way of transcending cultures.”
Forbes said when applying for the grant, ASU was aware Kinnaird might be one of the colleges with which they could partner. Kinnaird had the opportunity to tell the embassy which university it was interested in.
“Yasmin had been leading efforts," Forbes said. "She knew it was the kind of a place that we could make a real difference for. It was one of these great opportunities that captured our imaginations. We just really feel a strong affinity with them (Kinnaird). It has been a meeting of hearts and minds.”
Reach the reporter at cncalde1@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @katie_calderon
