Cultural exchange helps build understanding among UNCW faculty, Pakistani colleagues


WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — About a year ago, UNCW received the largest State Department grant ever given to a school in the UNC System. The grant has allowed UNCW professors to travel to Pakistan along with welcoming overseas visitors here in the Port City. The purpose is to build a better understanding in both cultures.

“It was really a transforming experience,” UNCW professor Caroline Clements said. “I’m like anyone else. I had stereotypes. I had thoughts that were proved not to be true at all.”

Clements is a psychology professor, but she is also spearheading the project to get the first Center for Teaching Excellence in Pakistan. She recently traveled there.

“I gave a lot of lectures over there,” Clements said. “We actually brought about 130 books to start their Center for Teaching Excellence.”

The grant helps pass on knowledge and techniques that professors like Clements use.

“We are helping them develop curricula and better ways of teaching,” Clements said. “They have more of a traditional classroom environment, kind of a drip and fill method, and we are more active and applied learning and getting our students more out in the community and take the skills from the classroom into the community, so they are excited about learning techniques like that.”

The grant is meant to build collaborations between faculty and students at UNCW and the International Islamic University Islamabad.

“I think the best way to learn about all these cultures is through a dialogue, to get to know better rather than in this culture of breaking news. We always sort of base our understanding on reports,” Assistant Professor Anirban Ray said.

Reports that make some think differently.

“The frame we use to judge others are very limited by our own understanding of the problem,” Ray said.

Ray says playing a game like cricket, which is hugely popular in Pakistan, is a powerful way to build a relationship.

“It’s sort of a nice gateway to understand relationships from a people-to-people level,” Ray said.

The experience sharing culture is helping bridge the divide.

“The Pakistani citizens are more like us than you could possible know,” Graduate student Jeremy Rowley said. “They are interested in Hollywood movies. They are interested in going to the beach. They are interested in pop culture.”

Clements opened her doors for Pakistani visitors back in October to share the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We had turkey and all the fixings, and they cooked and brought over some tradition Pakistani food, and the opportunity to be in my house, to have these people over, just warmed my heart so much,” Clements said.

It was an evening of good food and good fellowship.

“They learned a little bit about our history, and they were able to celebrate a holiday that is just about caring about people and being grateful for each other, and that was such a close moment and so lovely,” Clements said.

The grant continues for two more years, and several UNCW facility members plan to go overseas during that time. A group of Pakistani visitors is expected to come to Wilmington in January for a six-month stay.

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