Indian engagement
by Michèle Nardelli
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard attended two significant functions in India at the beginning of September, both highlighting the depth of UniSA’s engagement in India.
In New Delhi, Minister Gillard launched the South Australian-based International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding globally, with the aim of broadening the scope of the new research centre and attracting research engagement from India and the Asian region.
Dedicated to research that seeks to define, understand and transcend the divide between Muslim and non-Muslim cultures; the Centre has already attracted $10 million in funding from the Australian and SA Governments.
Ms Gillard said the launch of the Centre in India would help to encourage more of the world’s top researchers and thinkers to engage with its important research agenda.
"There is expertise here (in India) and in many countries across the Asian region that we can learn from," she said.
"The goal is to build a worldwide community of outstanding scholars with a commitment to understanding and exploring the cultural and sociological factors that influence Muslim and non-Muslim relationships."
UNESCO Chair in Transnational Diasporas and Reconciliation Studies, UniSA Pro Vice Chancellor for Education, Arts and Social Sciences and foundation leader of the Centre, Professor Pal Ahluwalia said the research agenda will go beyond religious differences.
"We want to move beyond basic religious dimensions to examine the complex cultural, economic, and sociological factors that affect tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim communities and to look at how notions of ‘otherness’ impact on media portrayals of the issues and influences the political dynamics worldwide," Prof Ahluwalia said.
Speaking at the launch UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said plans for the Centre included 10 new PhD scholarships for study in South Australia over the next three years.
He said the structure of the Centre also emphasised international engagement, incorporating an international Advisory Board and Council of Distinguished Scholars that would include distinguished academics from around the world, including India.
And in Chennai the Deputy Prime Minister had the opportunity to get a personal view of one of UniSA’s longest running student-based collaborations in India, the exchange relationship with Madras Christian College (MCC).
Minister Gillard met and talked with four Australian exchange students from UniSA’s School of Social Work and Social Policy who are engaged in educational field placements in Chennai. She also met students from MCC who have returned from their stint at UniSA and heard from a group of six Indian students on exchange in Adelaide now.
The roots of this program date back to 1996 when UniSA’s School of Social Work and Social Policy together with the Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) established a collaboration that saw the first UniSA students travel to India. Between 1996 and 2006 more than 80 UniSA students have studied and worked as part of the RUHSA collaboration and from 2007 UniSA has welcomed 22 students from Madras.
Prof Høj said all of the exchange students gained an enormous amount - developing an international perspective on their field of study and the experience of applying their learning in a new cultural context. And support for the program is being boosted with two new UniSA Presidential scholar-ships being offered for social work students from India to complete PhD studies in social work with UniSA.