Professor Syed Hashemi conducted training on “Introducing Bangladesh: A Two-Day Training Program for Expats in Bangladesh”
The UK High Commission had requested BRAC University to develop a two-day training for its staff to provide an introduction to the history, economy and culture of Bangladesh. Professor Ainun Nishat had tasked Professor Hashemi to develop and run the training program. Participants included staff from DFID, the British Council, the Consular Section, the Legal Section and other departments. Nine modules were presented. These included:
Speakers included Ainun Nishat, Syed Hashemi, Riaz Khan, Samia Huq from BRAC University and others from outside. The training was held on November 24th and November 30th.
Wahid Abdallah, Assistant Professor, have attended a conference on "Reflections on “Doing while learning”: A retrospective look at how social innovations scaled across South Asia", organized by BRAC Social Innovation Lab held in Bellagio, Italy on 4 - 8 November 2014. He has talked about "How can we Support Organizational Learning" in the conference which initiated an exciting discussion on effective learning processes in organizational setting. A blog post on the conference can be found at http://blog.brac.net/2014/11/voices-from-across-south-asia-sharing-stories-on-scaling-up-and-what-works/.
Associate Professor Shahidur Rahman's paper on "Brain-drain to brain-gain" has been published in Journal of Asian Profile. The paper studies the changes in the nature of higher education and how the service sector has created a new culture in the education sector.
Shahidur was invited to become a judge in the "HULT" competition organised by BRAC University.
Seuty Sabur, Assistant Professor, was invited to Asian University of Women on November 13, 2014. She had a lunch meet with the AUW students and a seminar in the afternoon titled “Shahbag, the Secular Congregation: Gender, Class, Religion and Ethnicity Question”. Later she presented at TALE talk titled “Dislocation, Discontentment, Disillusion: In Constant Search for Allies/Comrades” in the evening. In TALE she spoke about her personal, ideational, and/or professional journey. She explained how dislocation, discontentment and disillusions has been thee constants, contouring her politics/existence. This narrative was about a person from ‘nowhere’, and how she turns her marginality into privilege to explore the worlds of ‘seen/ unseen’, ‘spoken/unspoken’ and ‘known yet unknown’. Embodying history of particular time and spaces, she unraveled the narratives of middle class – their privileges and politics
Lecturer Meheri Tamanna was invited to the first International Women and Justice Summit held in Istanbul, Turkey on November 25 and 26, to present her talk on “The Perception of Youth on Politics”. The summit was organised by the Turkish Government’s Ministry of Women Affairs and KADEM (an association for Women and Democracy). The objective of the summit was to support the movement of civil societies to promote the civil and human rights for women and the democratic reforms for their socio-cultural, economic and political lives.
Adnan M. S. Fakir, Lecturer, presented his work titled “A Framework for Balancing MFI Regulation” in University of Birmingham, UK at a conference organized by the Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors (IRED). The study develops a conceptual framework for encouraging private investments in the microfinance sector, both for non-profit and for-profit Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Private investments for Microfinance have been becoming a major fuel for its growth and inadvertently the role of the MFI regulatory body in inducing private investments remains a conspicuous issue. Based on a continuous spectrum of light and heavy regulatory laws, the paper explores how a regulatory body can make legal adjustments while aiming at optimal levels of private investment.