Our 2018 Visiting Scholar, Dr Tiffany Cone, writes …
During May to August, 2018 I was hosted as a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Global Migrations at the University of Otago. While there, I was based at the Higher Education Development Centre. During the fellowship, I gave several radio interviews, ran two workshops and gave a public lecture. I also spoke with many in the Otago academic community and outside of it on issues related to refugee resettlement, the role of higher education in responding to their needs, and on the role of the university in general in today’s world.
As well as being able to work directly with Dr Vivienne Anderson at HEDC on our research project, it was great to regularly meet with other colleagues at the department and learn more about their research work. I also took the chance to meet with other academics within the University of Otago community and learnt more about how Dunedin as a city, and Otago as an institution, is responding to the so-called refugee ‘crisis’. I found this time useful to critically reflect on my own institution in Bangladesh, both in terms of our curriculum structure and mission statement and also in terms of how it is serving the refugee community specifically and what we can perhaps do better.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to visit the University of Otago and look forward to building on the many connections made during my time there.
