May 25 at 7.00 pm "Teaching Cross-Cultural
Perspectives to American Students: A Window into an American Classroom"
a presentation by Dr. Indira Govindan Venue: "Sri Parvathi"
The focus of this talk is on the challenges and rewards of teaching foreign cultures to American students; in particular, it will address how the cultural backgrounds of the instructors and the students invariably shape the nature of discourse on culture itself. This talk will also examine the meaning of cultural competency in the current global order in which American capitalism is still the most powerful force. In the last twenty years, institutions of higher education in the U.S. have been emphasizing the need to prepare their students for an increasingly globalized world. Colleges and universities are rewriting their mission in which "global citizenship" has become the central theme. Cultural competency has become one of the several important skills that American college graduates are expected to develop. The general education curriculum in many institutions now regularly includes courses on the history, politics and cultures of the post-colonial nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Dr.Indira Govindan holds a Masters in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Masters in Urban Affairs from Virginia Tech and a Doctorate in Religion, Drew University. Currently, she is a senior level administrator at Fairleigh Dickinson University located in northern New Jersey, USA. Additionally, she is also an adjunct faculty in the department of history at the same institution. She teaches courses on history, religion and culture to undergraduate students. |
