University of Colorado teacher addresses BRAC University seminar
The Department of English and Humanities at BRAC University in cooperation with TESOL Society of Bangladesh organized a seminar titled “Learning the Language of Power: Reflections on Education and Empowerment in Historical Contexts of the Global South” at the university on 20 July, 2023 with Dr. Samantha Christiansen, Associate Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, as the speaker.
Christiansen is a specialist in modern South Asian and world history with particular interest in social movements, political and urban history. She has also served as a program evaluator in international education and is the co-founder and President of Chinook Center, a social justice non-profit in Colorado. She was earlier an Assistant Professor of Asian History and Director of Women’s Studies at Marywood University and has taught at Northeastern University, Babson College, Clark University, and Independent University Bangladesh.
The lecture elaborated on the intersection of education, language and power informed by experiences of the speaker who is a historian of Bangladesh and South Asia. The speaker referred to the examples of the Language Movement in 1952 and also a women’s empowerment project in Sub-Saharan Africa where she was the program evaluator.
Student attends OSUN conference
Umma Maimuna Alam, a final year student of the Department of English and Humanities at BRAC University, joined a university delegation to attend a leadership and civic-engagement oriented Get Engaged Conference 2023 on invitation from Open Society University Network (OSUN) which funded and organized the event at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary from 28 June to 3 July, 2023.
Currently Managing Editor of online multimedia publication OSUN Global Commons, Alam represented her international editorial team in demonstrating how the publication helps in amplifying student voices. Over 60 students from 17 OSUN-affiliated institutions from 16 countries showcased civic and leadership projects during the 7-day conference. The conference highlighted OSUN opportunities, projects and impacts and included critical workshops, a cultural day, hackathons and site visits.
OSUN was announced and inaugurated in 2020 by George Soros, the founder of Open Society Foundation. OSUN’s key mission is to establish collaborations between universities, institutes and think tanks around the world towards teaching, research and other forms of exchanges between faculty members, students and university administrators. BRAC University is the only university in South Asia chosen to join OSUN.
Student’s article published in journal
Saif Mahmood Mahim, a 4th year student of the Department of English and Humanities at BRAC University, has had an article titled “Patriarchal Residue in Mainstream Feminist Texts” published in academic interdisciplinary peer-reviewed Atras Journal on 25 July, 2023 published by Faculty of Letters, Languages and Arts, University of Saida, Algeria. The article is available at
https://www.univ-saida.dz/lla/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/07/volume-2-N-02.pdf
Saif is majoring in English literature and minoring in History. He is currently conducting research for Princeton University’s Global History Lab on themes of citizenship and minorities in relation to communal violence in Bangladesh. He is also an intern at the Centre for Peace and Justice and a student tutor of the School of General Education at BRAC University.