Professor Hashemi teaches at the Boulder Microfinance Training Program, Turin
Professor Syed M. Hashemi conducted a training course on “New Pathways for the Poorest” at the Boulder Microfinance Training Program held at Turin from July 14-18. The Boulder MFT Program, running for 20 years, is considered globally the best microfinance training program. Leading experts and professionals come together every summer as faculty. Professor Hashemi has been recognized as Senior Faculty of the program for over a decade of training. In fact he is the only Bangladeshi selected as a Boulder MFT faculty. He has been consistently promoting a poverty focus in microfinance at Boulder, over the last 14 years.
Professor Hashemi attends first meeting of the UNHCR Livelihoods Advisory Board
Professor Syed M. Hashemi is a member of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Livelihoods Advisory Board. The Board is a high level consultative group created to provide guidance to UNHCR on building self-reliance with displaced people. The Board is made up of members with different areas of expertise from development NGOs, research institutions, donor and other UN agencies. The first meeting of the Board, held on July 22 and 23, analyzed the opportunities and challenges of livelihoods programming and generated ideas for improving UNHCR’s capacity to support refugees in meeting their economic needs with sustainable livelihoods.
Professor Piash Karim was a panelist in a seminar entitled “Indian Election, 2014: Implications for Bangladesh and the Region”. The seminar was organized by Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies. Professor Karim discussed the historical variables that have been shaping Indian foreign policy. The recent election in India was discussed in relation to larger global and regional contexts.
Professor Dina Siddiqi participated in an Expert Meeting on the “Use of Character Evidence in Rape Prosecutions in Bangladesh” organized by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) on July6.
Professor Dina Siddiqi also participated in a conversation hosted by the Bengal Foundation on “Prakriti o Purush: Representations of Women and Men in SM Sultan's Art” held at the Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct on July 12. Dr. Siddiqi began by noting Sultan's indifference to notions of social respectability and fame, and the ways his art reflected his political ideology. She argued that, unlike his peers, Sultan represented women's not merely as aesthetic or sexual beings but as laboring subjects. The session also included artist and Professor Dhali Al Mamoon, University of Chittagong and Professor Salimullah Khan, ULAB.
Professor Dina Siddiqi was a panelist on a seminar titled “Bangladesh’s Engagement with the UN Special Procedures” arranged by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) on July 15. Dr. Siddiqi presented a critical analysis of the report on Bangladesh submitted by the Un Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences. She was joined by Professor Mizanur Rahman, Chairperson, NHRC, and Ms Syeda Muna Tasneem, Director General, UN and Human Rights, MoFA.
Professor Dina Siddiqi organized a session on “Prescribed Modernities and Proscribed Pasts? Debates on Islam, Community, and Gender in Bangladesh” at the inaugural AAS-in-Asia conference held in Singapore from July 17-19. Dr. Siddiqi’s paper drew on the figure of stranded Pakistani or ‘Bihari’ to suggest the incongruity of East Bengal’s active embrace of the Pakistan experiment. The panel suggested that neither heritage nor transformations within today’s transnational Bangladesh can be understood without engaging the historical and ongoing production of Islam and community as shaped by pre-histories of Bangladesh.
ASM Shakil Haider, Lecturer at ESS, received PhD admission (with ESRC DTC scholarship) at University of Southampton, UK which will start from Fall, 2014