In the News

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.