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Three faculty members earn Fulbright awards

By Kari VanDerVeen
July 13, 2009

Three St. Olaf faculty members will spend the upcoming academic year in Asia after each was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant.

Fulbright
The honor will take Associate Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak to Japan, while Professor of Biology Anne Walter and Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Mike Swift will head to India. They are among approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad during the 2009-10 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

Japanese civic engagement
Tegtmeyer Pak will study how Japanese higher education shapes civil society. "I will investigate the extent to which Japanese universities think they should help create engaged citizens -- that is, people who volunteer, vote, and cooperate with others to voice their political and social concerns," she says. Tegtmeyer Pak notes that much attention and effort in Japan has gone to the compulsory education system, but less is understood about how Japanese higher education shapes civil society. "I aim to discover if Japanese universities seek to create engaged citizens, and if so, how?"

As a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, Tegtmeyer Pak will interview faculty and gather documents at six universities, half in the Tokyo area and half in Niigata, on Japan's western coast. Tegtmeyer Pak's research as a Fulbright Scholar will expand upon work she's done at St. Olaf incorporating civic engagement into her teaching, including her participation in a Civic Engagement Institute for faculty members last summer.

Teaching in India
Walter and Swift will serve as visiting lecturers in the Zoology Department at Madras Christian College (MCC) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South India. MCC has been a leader in new pedagogical approaches in India, making it an ideal institution for Walter and Swift to help implement approaches to learning that encourage more creative thinking. India's educational system has historically revolved around rote learning, but Walter notes that a national movement is building in favor of more engaged and interdisciplinary learning, especially in the sciences and mathematics. Walter and Swift, who are married, will bring a liberal arts style of teaching to MCC, helping students think about how they can take a theory and put it into practice in new and creative ways.

"In the sciences, there is a place for some didactic learning and there are certain things that you need to know. But the ultimate goal is to develop deep understanding and to think creatively about how to move forward scientifically," Walter says. "It is essential to bring clear scientific thinking to some of society's significant challenges, such as providing environmental protection, health care, clean water and food security."

One of the key reasons Walter and Swift applied to teach in India is because they are the co-advisors -- along with Assistant Professor of Biology Sara Fruehling -- of St. Olaf College's Biology in South India program, which each year offers 10 students a chance to work on two independent research projects at several sites in southern India. Research topics range from rural health care and diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis to wildlife and mountain ecology.

Although Walter and Swift -- who have led the Biology in South India program since the mid-1990s -- have traveled to India a number of times to visit the program sites, living in the country for much of an academic year will enable them to become more familiar with site supervisors as well as the culture. "We'll be much better able to advise students not only about particular sites where they're going, but we'll know a lot more about living in India and will be able to advise them about how to prepare for what they're going to encounter," Swift says.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.