The Centre for Inclusive Architecture and Urbanism (Ci+AU) at Brac University has created a Visiting Scholar Program to offer researchers from around the world the opportunity to collaborate with our team on short-term projects.
This program aims to generate new ideas and scholarship about a range of subjects including urban design, architecture, environmental management and ethics, and social history. By inviting foreign scholars to engage with our dedicated staff of architects, designers and urbanists, the program hopes to facilitate the meaningful cross-fertilisation of ideas and build a dynamic environment to promote new research.
While in attendance, visiting researchers will be based at the Ci+AU’s offices at Brac University in Mohakhali where they will have access to office space, the Ayesha Abed Library, as well as a skilled research staff familiar with architecture and design projects in Bangladesh and globally. Each visiting scholar position comes with a small stipend that is determined on a project-by-project basis.
Individuals interested in applying to Ci+AU’s Visiting Scholar Program to work on projects related broadly to the study of architecture, urbanism, cities, the environment and social history, are invited to email a CV, a two-page statement explaining their project and its relevance for the Centre’s activities, and any questions regarding the program to Professor Adnan Zillur Morshed at amorshed[at]bracu.ac[dot]bd.
Samuel Jaffe is the inaugural fellow of the Visiting Scholar Program at the Centre for Inclusive Architecture and Urbanism (Ci+AU), Brac University. While at Ci+AU, Samuel will be working with Professor Adnan Morshed on editing a book, tentatively titled “Secret Histories of 1971,” which intends to draw together contributions from 25-30 participants in the liberation struggle, with a particular emphasis on foreign individuals who supported Bangladesh’s cause from overseas and whose stories have not yet been told. In bringing these stories to a broader foreign audience, Professor Morshed and Samuel hope that this project will fuel both awareness and new scholarship concerning Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he recently completed a double master’s degree in international history at Columbia University and the London School of Economics. His master’s thesis “The Bangladesh Information Centre and the East Pakistan Crisis, 1971-72”, which drew upon international archival research and dozens of interviews with former participants, examined grassroots activism in the USA during Bangladesh’s Liberation War. What guides Samuel’s scholarship is a belief that existing international histories of Bangladesh’s Liberation War are overwhelmingly focused on formal diplomacy and pay comparatively little attention to non-governmental actors, particularly activists and humanitarian groups. By engaging with these stories, Samuel hopes to draw attention to the social history of the mukti sangram overseas and to integrate the story of 1971 into broader histories of humanitarianism, human rights, and genocide the post-war period.