2018 Visiting Lecturer: Dr Tiffany Cone
We are delighted to announce that our Visiting Lecturer for 2018 is Dr Tiffany Cone, an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Humanities at the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr Cone has experience conducting ethnographic research and producing documentaries in East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific. She has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Australian National University and a BA (Hons) in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Otago. Her primary research interests lie in the field of psychological anthropology and include cross-cultural conceptions of the self, practices of self-cultivation and meaning-making, processes of rupture and healing and Buddhist, Daoist and Sufi philosophy and practice. Her most recent publication is Cultivating Charismatic Power: Islamic Leadership Practice in China (Palgrave, 2018).
From May-August 2018, she will be working with Dr Vivienne Anderson at HEDC on a collaborative research project titled ‘Rethinking the internationalisation of higher education through attention to women’s study narratives in Bangladesh and New Zealand’. This research seeks to explore the study narratives of students from the AUW and female undergraduate international students from Asia studying at the University of Otago. In the process, it will consider the similarities and differences between women’s narratives in these two very different contexts, and reflect on what can be learnt from these narratives regarding the meaning of higher education ‘internationalisation’.
The AUW is home to approximately 700 young women from 15 different countries throughout Asia including Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and China. It was originally established to provide access to tertiary education for young women from impoverished families and/or war-torn countries throughout the region. The broader collaboration thus also offers an opportunity for staff and students at the University of Otago to learn from the experiences of staff at a higher education institution which has long provided education to women who have experienced war, displacement and trauma. Moreover, it will also contribute to knowledge about the changing patterns of educational migration within Asia, offering insights into the impact of these changes for New Zealand.
Dr Cone will give a public lecture at the Dunningham Suite at the Dunedin Public Library on Thursday 2 August 2018 at 12.30pm. We will post further details closer to the time.
