News and Events

As we monitor the impact of COVID-19 and its effects on communities and higher education worldwide, IIE-SRF is continuing to closely work with and provide support to our fellows and partners. We remain committed to continuing to provide life-saving support and academic opportunities to threatened and displaced scholars.

IIE is monitoring information and following guidance in real time from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and local governments. At this time, IIE is operating and open globally, and IIE-SRF team members are working virtually. IIE-SRF fellows and partners may contact their IIE-SRF program officer or program representative with any questions or concerns.

The Finnish National Agency for Education and (EDUFI) and IIE-SRF would like to congratulate Dr. Fathiah Zakham, who has been named a winner of the 2020 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World! Dr. Zakham, a microbiologist from Hodeidah University in Yemen, was honored with the award for her work using biotechnology and bioengineering to develop rapid, accurate and cheap tools for the diagnosis and management of tuberculosis and other emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Zakham is an IIE-SRF fellow and EDUFI scholarship holder who is currently undertaking an appointment at the University of Helsinki.

IIE-SRF's 2019 Beau Biden Scholar Barakatullo Ashurov is profiled in this article about his experience at his host instituion, Boston College. Having faced faced censorship and the threat of imprisonment in his native Tajikistan for his "efforts to prioritize the community-centered documentation and preservation of minority languages and cultural expressions," Dr. Ahsurov explains that he has relished the opportunity to resume his work at BC and at Harvard University, where he undertook his first-year IIE-SRF fellowship. While at BC, Dr. Ashurov has taught courses on the political and cultural history of Tajikistan, Zoroastrianism, and Sogdian sociolinguistics. He is also writing a book that explores the history of Christianity in Central Asia from an ethnolinguistic and ethnocultural perspective.

Alumna Eqbal Dauqan of Yemen has been awarded the 2019 Cross-Cultural Bridge Builder at the University of Agder in Norway! Dr. Dauqan, an associate professor of biochemistry at UIA, was recognized for her ability to "seize every opportunity to create multicultural relationships and [promote] a common understanding and greater cultural tolerance." She undertook IIE-SRF fellowship appointments at the National University of Malaysia.