Ball State University has engaged in a three year partnership with Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan
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The partnership will improve the American Studies program through the following measures:
- Exchange of faculty & students,
- Increasing the research capacity of lecturers and faculty,
- Updating/developing curriculum and
- Supporting American Studies throughout the country.
The partnership will raise the capacity of the Area Study Centre for Africa, North and South America at Quaid-i-Azam University to provide a high-quality postgraduate program in studies of the United States.
The partnership includes the following areas: government and politics, international relations, history, art, literature, research methodology, and the philosophical, social, scientific and historical aspects of religion in the United States.
Activities include faculty and student exchanges, curriculum development, long distance teaching via internet/digital video conferencing, exchange of resource materials and publications of mutual interest, collaborative research, professional development for faculty, international conferences and joint supervision of Masters’ theses and doctoral dissertations.
Ball State will assist in the strengthening of existing and development of new courses and seminars on research methods and work with lecturers and students in designing research projects.
The relationship will be two-way, with Quaid-i-Azam academic staff and students traveling to Ball State University for intensive workshops and BSU faculty traveling to Pakistan to conduct on-site training and collaborate on research.
The linkage will provide opportunities for Ball State faculty to conduct research in Pakistan with Quaid-i-Azam colleagues, publish jointly authored academic papers, organize international conferences and teach students at both BSU and Quaid-i-Azam in classes brought together in real-time through DVC.
Ball State and Quaid-i-Azam students will form relationships with each other through the shared classes. The project meets a major objective of Quaid-i-Azam in providing regular American input into the studies of the United States curriculum.
The linkage between Quaid-i-Azam and Ball State University will promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and Pakistan.
Currently, QAU and BSU are continuing this collaboration through extending the outcomes and best practices of the original partnership to other Pakistani universities as part of a follow-up UPGP grant program titled “QAU-BSU Partnership Follow-Up Project: Expanding American Studies in Pakistan”. Given Covid-19 restrictions, the current project is being implemented virtually from December 2021 to November 2022.
It was inaugurated on January 20, 2022, in a virtual ceremony attended by the U.S. Embassy officials, Vice Chancellors of all partner universities, Provost and Dean, BSU, UPGP team members; program coordinators, and program participants.
This was followed by an orientation session with the participants before the formal launch of the program activities.
The participants of the program are around 60 faculty members from three Pakistani public sector women universities (Women University Swabi; University of Swat, Women Campus; and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar) from underprivileged areas. QAU and BSU are working to strengthen the BS and MS programs of these universities in Literature, International Relations, History, Religious Studies, Art, Visual Communication, Popular Culture and Mass Media, Library Science, and Research Methodology from a U.S. Studies perspective through curriculum enhancement, faculty development, research training, and the integration of an American Studies theoretical and methodological framework. Additionally, QAU and BSU are also working with the target universities to develop Introductory American Studies classes and explore their potential to offer American Studies degrees. Further, QAU and BSU are providing lectures, seminars, and workshops to enhance the research and publication knowledge and skills of the participating faculty members.
To date, 24 lectures, 24 seminars, 48 workshops, and 35 mentoring sessions have taken place. After the initial lectures and seminars, faculty from these universities started working on research articles co-authored with the BSU faculty that will be published, at the end of the program, in a special issue of the Pakistan Journal of American Studies (PJAS) entitled, “American Studies in Pakistan: Research Initiatives and Curriculum Paradigms.” This issue will be co-edited by QAU and BSU faculty.
The program involves a total of 238 hours of active engagement with the participants and another 247 hours of curriculum and syllabi development. It is expected that at the end of the project the universities will have strengthened the target degree programs and will have explored their potential to offer an American Studies major; the participants will have developed updated curriculum and syllabi in the target areas; the faculty will be better equipped to teach in the target programs; and the collaborative research will have enhanced the knowledge and understanding of the participants regarding American Studies.
