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Release date: Dec. 15, 2004
Emory Faculty, Students Work for Change in the World
Contact:
Deb Hammacher: 404-727-0644, deb.hammacher@emory.edu
Elaine Justice: 404-727-0643, elaine.justice@emory.edu Emory University faculty and students are using both classroom teaching and research to work for positive change around the world, whether it's mobilizing action on the Sudan crisis, opening a home for street children in India or studying the future of Islamic law. Most who shun the ivory tower image do so out of personal conviction: "Scholars have a social responsibility to give back to the community that trained and invested in them," says Emory's Abdullahi An-Na'im. Below is a summary of the latest scholarship across the Emory campus that is making a difference in the world. Table of contents:
1. Response to Sudan Crisis Part of Growing Campus Movement
2. An-Na'im Studies Future of Islamic Law
3. National Program Pairs Student Tutors With Elderly Immigrants
4. Emory Forms Partnership With Inner City Neighborhoods
5. Lipstadt's "History on Trial" Recounts Successful Defense of Truth
6. Emory Students to Open Home for Street Children in India
7. Course Shows Students How Concern Leads to Action
8. Students Propose Economic Development Projects for Mali
9. Theology School Strengthens Korean Connection
10. Emory Acquires Microfilm of Cambridge's "Cairo Genzia" 1. RESPONSE TO DARFUR CRISIS PART OF GROWING CAMPUS MOVEMENT
When Deborah Lipstadt faces students in her course on the Holocaust at Emory, she always gets the same question: Why didn't anyone try to stop it? "As a professor of Holocaust studies, I have a responsibility to stand up and do something about genocide when I see it happening," says Lipstadt, author of "Denying the Holocaust." That's why Lipstadt spearheaded a campus-wide response to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. The effort has brought together students, faculty and staff from across the university to mobilize public support and action. Emory's Sudan Working Group also is plugged in to a growing activist movement on Darfur at campuses across the country.
For more, click here 2. EMORY'S AN-NA'IM STUDIES FUTURE OF ISLAMIC LAW
Emory University human rights scholar/activist Abdullahi An-Na'im is in the midst of a two-year research study on the future of Islamic law--Shari'a--and the role of religious neutrality in Islamic societies. Through the project, he hopes to "provide much-needed support to liberal Muslims everywhere who are struggling to reconcile their genuine convictions with their commitment to constitutional democracy and the protection of human rights within their own societies."
For more, click here. 3. NATIONAL PROJECT PAIRS STUDENT TUTORS WITH ELDERLY IMMIGRANTS
Emory students are among those taking part in a new, nationwide service-learning initiative that pairs U.S. college students with elderly immigrants and refugees who want to learn English--for many, a step on the path to U.S. citizenship. Project SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders) gives students the opportunity to put their classroom knowledge to work while connecting to some of Atlanta's immigrant communities. Emory is one of 18 colleges and universities across the country with SHINE programs, including the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, several schools in California and Temple University, where the program is based.
For more, click here. 4. EMORY FORMS PARTNERSHIP WITH INNER CITY NEIGHBORHOODS
The neighborhoods of Riverside and Hollywood Courts may be 10 miles away from Emory's tree-lined campus, but they are now close partners, thanks to a $400,000 Community Outreach Partnerships Center grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Student mentoring, parenting skills enhancement, competitive debate training, community psychology education and master's in teaching student rotations are just some of the initiatives underway or in the works. For the students and faculty involved, this effort takes community-based and experiential learning to a whole new level.
For more, click here. 5. LIPSTADT'S "HISTORY ON TRIAL" RECOUNTS SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE OF TRUTH
Emory University's Deborah Lipstadt made international headlines in 2000 when she was exonerated in a British court on libel charges brought by a Holocaust denier. At issue were passages from Lipstadt's 1993 book, "Denying the Holocaust," in which she named David Irving one of the most dangerous proponents of the denial movement. In her forthcoming memoir, "History on Trial," Lipstadt says the road to victory was anything but easy, and she commends Emory's defense of historical truth. The book is set for publication in February by HarperCollins.
For more, click here. 6. EMORY STUDENTS TO OPEN HOME FOR STREET CHILDREN IN INDIA
Street children in India, many of them drug-addicted and facing a bleak future, have found student advocates a world away at Emory University who are intently working to open a home for them by March. The impetus is Emory sophomore Elizabeth Sholtys, who, after extensive volunteer work and public health research in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), says she could not simply walk way from the many children she met without vowing to make a difference in their lives. The result is the Ashraya Initiative for Children, a nonprofit organization formed to open the home in Pune, India.
For more, click here. 7. COURSE SHOWS STUDENTS HOW CONCERN LEADS TO ACTION
Anthropology professor Valerie Singer wants her Oxford College students to think about activism and what moves a person from concern to action. She took her class to observe a recent protest at the U.S. Army's Fort Benning, home to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Formerly named the School of the Americas, critics cite a list of notorious alumni that includes Latin American dictators, among them former Panama Gen. Manuel Noriega. "I want students to think about the process of activism. Social movements have had a huge impact on history in many ways, and those ways often get erased or forgotten by history."
For more, click here. 8. STUDENTS PROPOSE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR MALI
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, head of The Carter Center and a member of the Emory faculty, hopes the university will be a center for scholarship about the developing world. When the former president asked recently what could be done here to help impoverished Mali--where The Carter Center has worked for years to eradicate guinea worm--sociology lecturer Sam Cherribi stepped up to the plate. Cherribi created an interdisciplinary course, Economic Development in Africa, that already is a model for other universities. Teams of students developed plans for potential economic development programs to address real-world issues in the country where a quarter of all children die from malaria before their fifth birthday. One student team already is pursuing funding for its project.
For more, click here. 9. THEOLOGY SCHOOL STRENGTHENS KOREAN CONNECTION
Emory's Candler School of Theology is enhancing its longstanding connections to the Korean peninsula by embarking on a three-year program to strengthen its ties to schools there and expand services to Korean and Korean-American students on its Atlanta campus. Funded by a $270,000 grant from The Henry Luce Foundation Inc., the program is increasing scholarship aid, adding Korean language resources to the Pitts Theology Library, enhancing English language instruction and providing funds for faculty mentoring of Korean students.
For more, click here. 10. EMORY ACQUIRES MICROFILM OF CAMBRIDGE'S "CAIRO GENIZA"
"Emory is home to the largest concentration of scholars outside Israel who study Judeo-Arabic and the interface between Jewish and Arab cultures," says Gordon Newby, chairman of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies at Emory. That's why Emory's recent acquisition of a complete microfilm set of Cambridge's Cairo Geniza--a collection of 750,000 manuscript leaves from the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo), Egypt--comes at exactly the right time. "Nearly two dozen faculty across several departments actively teach and research in these areas. The Geniza is a window into the center of where our present-day civilization developed, and thus Emory is the place to look through that window."
For more, click here. ### Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system. Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory.
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