Emory in the World Spring 2007

in the world Spring 2007

Emory University Since 1836 Atlanta, Georgia USA

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elcome to the spring issue of Emory in the World magazine. The year 2007 began auspiciously for Emory University when, in January, His Holiness the Dalai Lama accepted President Wagner’s invitation to serve as Presidential Distinguished Professor. Emory is the only university to be honored with the distinction of having His Holiness as a member of the faculty. There is much excitement in anticipation of his forthcoming visit to Emory in October 2007. This spring, Emory celebrated this special relationship with events that spoke across the disciplines, and you can read about this and more inside this issue of Emory in the World magazine.

Albie Sachs, the anti-apartheid freedom fighter, author, and justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, is another living example of courage and compassion. Sachs visited Emory early this year to share his remarkable life experiences. Emory’s strong links to South Africa cross the university from the arts and sciences to the health sciences.

Vice Provost for International Affairs Holli Semetko meets with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bangalore, India.

Emory’s new Global Health Institute (GHI), launched early this year, is directed by internationally renowned Jeffrey Koplan, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. GHI sponsors a number of major projects in countries around the world. The first GHI-funded projects are already underway, and you can learn more about them in this issue.

Emory’s celebration of International Awards Night was news in the Gulf region when the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing’s Shariffa Al-Jabri flew in from Oman, accompanied by her two sisters, to accept the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award. Emory School of Medicine’s Carlos del Rio won the Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization. Read more inside about the impact of their work.

This issue of Emory in the World also brings news from faculty and students who share their fascinating international experiences with us. Emory in the World publications bring to life the work of faculty, staff, and students who are making a difference in the world, with a design that reflects the vibrancy and richness of intellectual activity under way across the University. Visit www.international.emory.edu to learn more about Emory’s international programs, centers, and institutes, as well as the latest news on people and initiatives, and mark your calendar for the upcoming events in the fall.

It continues to be an exciting time for international at Emory.

Holli A. Semetko Vice Provost for International Affairs Director, Office of International Affairs & The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning Professor of Political Science

UPCOMING EVENTS JUNE 3-15, 2007 The Halle Institute brings 14 Emory University faculty members on its 7th Study Trip to Germany.

JUNE 16-OCT. 14, 2007 “Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land” at the Carlos Museum SEPT. 19, 2007 Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, speaks on “Chindia,” the subject of his forthcoming book.

SEPT. 25, 2007 President James Wagner gives the State of the University Address.

OCT. 20-22, 2007 His Holiness the Dalai Lama visits Emory as a Presidential Distinguished Professor. The visit includes a conference on science and spirituality, an interfaith conference on religion as a source of conflict and a resource for peace building, and a public talk in downtown Atlanta.

NOVEMBER 2007 Emory hosts “Cartooning for Peace” featuring a special exhibition of cartoons at the Schatten Gallery and visits by international cartoonists who will offer lectures, class visits, seminars, and more.

Emory University Since 1836 Atlanta, Georgia USA

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2 Finding Henry

South African Justice Albie Sachs recalls the day he met his assassin.

4 Carlos Museum Delivers Jewish and

Christian Treasures from the Holy Land Bonnie Speed talks about the Museum’s most ambitious exhibition to date.

8 Music and Genocide Emory graduate student Laura Emiko Soltis explores human rights in Rwanda.

10 Globalization in Science Education Science Experience Abroad program receives national recognition.

12 In the Sanctuary of the Great Gods

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14 Emory Global Health Institute GHI tackles health challenges around the world, with Director Jeffrey Koplan.

18 Educating the Heart & Mind His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins Emory as Presidential Distinguished Professor.

20 Emory-Tibet Science Initiative Curriculum planned for Tibetan Buddhist monastics.

22 International Awards Night Emory honors Professor of Medicine Carlos del Rio and School of Nursing alum Shariffa Al-Jabri.

24 International Events

Archaeologist and Art History Professor Bonna Wescoat returns to Samothrace.

Office of International Affairs | Box 52, Administration Building, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 Tel: 404.727.7504 Fax: 404.727.2772 | www.oia.emory.edu Editorial Board: Holli Semetko, Mari Frith, Alma Freeman, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Rafal Raciborski, Mehmet Baysan, Bentley Brown Designer: Saba Sungar, blendedimage.com | Cover: Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery construct a sand mandala, made up of millions of grains of colored sand, at the Carlos Museum during Emory’s annual Tibet Week. During the closing ceremony, the sand from the mandala is swept away into nearby waters so that its healing energies can be carried throughout the world. Photo by Tony Benner

Forgiving Henry

By Katherine Fidler

Built on the site of the Old Fort, one of South Africa’s most notorious prisons in which thousands of people were jailed, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The new Constitutional Court building

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ow does one forgive?” asked Albie Sachs, justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, during the opening of his standing-room-only lecture at Emory. A scholar, writer, lawyer, and anti-apartheid activist, Halle Distinguished Fellow Sachs spoke about forgiveness and reconciliation in a country emerging from decades of racial segregation, based in part on his own experiences during long years of exile in Maputo, Mozambique, before a car bomb nearly killed him in 1988. His life since then and the intimate portrait of recovery painted in his book, The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter, was the focus of a roundtable discussion with scholars at the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI). Sachs’ visit was part of the lecture series “Envisioning and Creating Just Societies: Perspectives from the Public Humanities” co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Public Scholarship (CSPS) and CHI. Sachs first became involved in the African National Congress’ (ANC) efforts to fight apartheid while studying law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 1955, Sachs attended the Congress of the People in Kliptown, South Africa, where he witnessed the adoption of the Freedom Charter. Over the next four decades, the Charter, which called for a racially democratic South Africa, served as the platform for ANC resistance to the policies of apartheid. After receiving his law degree, Sachs worked as a legal advocate for persons facing racially-motivated charges. But in 1966, his ties to the ANC forced him into exile in Mozambique. There, Sachs continued to work with the ANC and became the target of a car bomb planted by the

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was designed to reflect the values of the new constitutional democracy.

The Court’s permanent home, above, was inaugurated by President Thabo Mbeki on Human Rights Day 2004. Photos by Corinne A. Kratz

South African police in 1988. Sachs narrowly survived the explosion but lost his right arm and the sight in one eye.

This act of violence, which might have deterred others from continuing the fight against apartheid, bolstered Sachs’ determination. After many months of recovery – hospitalized in Maputo and London, he learned how to write again with his left hand – Sachs returned to the ANC, helping to craft what would become the South African Constitution. Sachs moved back to South Africa in 1990, serving on the Constitution The main entrance door of the Court is made up of wooden panels each representing a theme from the Bill of Rights, presented in the 11 languages recognized by the Constitution, including sign language.

Displayed throughout the building is Justice Albie Sachs’ collection of over 200 tapestries, engravings, sculptures and paintings created by local artists. Right: A metal sculpture with punctured screens allows for transparency in the building while protecting the wall surrounding the Court.

Committee and participating in the negotiations that transformed South Africa from a racially-segregated nation into a constitutional democracy. After the 1994 elections, President Nelson Mandela appointed Sachs to the newly-established Constitutional Court, a position he still holds today.

In a series of conversations with the Emory community, Sachs discussed his experiences in the fight against apartheid and offered his own profoundly moving views on reconciliation.

Theater Emory also staged a public reading of The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, a play he wrote based on his prison memoir of the same name. Afterwards, Sachs answered questions from the audience. When asked how he endured a stint in solitary confinement, Sachs said he survived by relying on his imagination: he dreamed of a stage where he would tell his story before a large audience, who heartened him with cheering and applause.

Sachs began his lecture by recalling the day he met Henry, the South African policeman who planted the car bomb that nearly killed him. Henry was applying for amnesty under South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and wanted to meet with Sachs before testifying. Sachs admitted he was reluctant to forgive a person who had caused so much suffering: “I remember opening the door – looking at him, watching him look at me. I thought, so this is the man who tried to kill me … he’s shorter than I am, he’s thin and a bit younger.

As we walked down the corridor, his stride was stiff like a soldier’s gait. …We sat down and we talked and talked and talked. Eventually, I got up and said ‘Henry, I have to get back to work. Normally when I say goodbye to someone, I shake their hand, but I can’t shake your hand. Go to the TRC, tell them what you know and do something for South Africa.

Who knows, maybe we will again meet one day.’ I recalled as we walked back down the corridor, that Henry was shuffling along like a defeated soldier.”

For the remainder of the lecture, Sachs discussed the motivations behind the formation of the TRC. Emerging from the 1994 elections as the ruling party, the ANC established the TRC to investigate acts of violence committed by apartheid’s foes and supporters alike. Over time, the TRC emerged as a forum for the victims of violence and repression to speak openly about their experiences. The TRC also allowed the perpetrators of human rights abuses to acknowledge their crimes publicly. If the TRC accepted these confessions, people like Henry would receive amnesty from further prosecution.

As Sachs explained the purpose of the TRC, a central concept emerged: ubuntu. This term, a shortened version of a saying from South Africa’s Bantu-speaking Xhosa culture, expresses the need to recognize the humanity of all persons, regardless of their previous actions. Sachs explained that the act of

Below: (left to right) Justice Sachs, Emory’s Center for the Study of Public Scholarship Co-Director Corinne Kratz, and Emory President James Wagner. Photo by Mehmet Baysan

publicly confessing one’s crimes, or speaking about the suffering that resulted from these crimes, is an act of ubuntu.

The process of reconciliation in South Africa demanded that everyone – both the victims and the beneficiaries of apartheid – recognize the essential humanity in one another.

Sachs also mentioned the dilemmas of the TRC – particularly the problem of uncovering the “truth.” Sachs said “truth is complicated and elusive,” and that instead of trying to pin down the exact details of each case, the TRC needed to convert knowledge into acknowledgement. Only then, said Sachs, was any form of forgiveness or reconciliation possible.

As scholars and activists, we use the words “forgiveness and reconciliation” so frequently that we often forget how difficult it can be to forgive those who have inflicted so much suffering on so many people. Albie Sachs reminded us of the necessity of recognizing the ubuntu of all people, no matter how painful that recognition may be. a Katherine Fidler is a PhD student in Emory’s Department of History.

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Carlos Museum Delivers Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land

By Alma Freeman

The “Cradle of Christianity” exhibition displays one of the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Temple Scroll. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

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ince 1919, the Michael C. Carlos Museum has evolved spectacularly – from a modest display of artifacts as the Emory University Museum into a premier art museum, featuring major collections of Classical, Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Ancient American, African, and Asian art.

Drawing on its strengths in ancient art, and on Emory’s strength in the study of religions, the Museum has recently launched a variety of initiatives using original works of art to explore the beliefs and practices of the five major world religions – Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The Museum is now gearing up for perhaps its most ambitious project to date: a traveling exhibition organized by the Israel Museum called “Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land.”

Running from June 16 – Oct. 14, 2007, “Cradle of Christianity” will trace the shared roots of Judaism and Christianity and will use stunning works of art and dramatic installations to present some of the rarest and most sacred artifacts excavated in Israel – including the burial ossuary of Caiaphas the High Priest and one of the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the famous Temple Scroll.

Carlos Museum Director Bonnie Speed recently spoke with Emory in the World not only about the importance of “Cradle of Christianity” to Emory, but also about the

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Museum’s dramatic emergence in the art world, its ongoing commitment to teaching and research, and its goals for the future as a vital part of the Emory community..

Ossuary of “Joseph son of Caiaphas” from 1stcentury Jerusalem, will be one of the highlights at the “Cradle of Christianity” exhibition. Photo

by Avraham Hay

The Carlos Museum has become one of the country’s premier university museums with major collections of ancient antiquities from around the world. What accounts for the Museum’s success?

Although the Museum was officially established in 1919, its beginnings and locations were humble. The most dramatic period for growth began about 25 years ago through a combination of a significant donor, strong Emory support, a new board, and a growing staff. Once the Carlos family became involved, the Museum was able to renovate the old law school then build an expansion, all the while courting

Above: 5th-century menorah with depressions for oil lamps discovered at the Synagogue at Hammat Tiberias, Sea of Galilee. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Photo by David Harris

Right: 1st century fragmentary Greek inscription forbidding foreigners from entry to the Temple prescient discovered in the Temple Mount area. Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem. Photo by Avraham Hay

donors and collectors. In 1993, with the completed Michael have grown, and that’s how our educational programs have Graves expansion, such visibility really caught people’s developed. We pursued this exhibition in light of an initiative attention. As the museum enhanced its professional staff, in Emory’s strategic plan that concerns “religion and the it began developing more exhibitions and educational human spirit.” This exhibition offers a rare opportunity for programs, which us to bring to Atlanta engendered collaboextraordinary works As we expand our work, we do so in tune with the ration opportunities of art that deal with teaching and research strengths found at Emory, for as a with Emory faculty. early Christianity university museum, we exist to enhance the teaching of and Judaism, and to The Carlos Museum now enjoys an intercollaborate with facfaculty and the student experience. national reputation ulty of the Candler with solid relationships with colleagues and institutions School of Theology, and the departments of Religion, from around the world. As we expand our work, we do Jewish Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies to enhance the so in tune with the teaching and research strengths found visitors’ experience through their scholarship. “Cradle of at Emory, for as a university museum, we exist to enhance Christianity” hits so many high points of who we are as a the teaching of faculty and the student experience. There university museum, located on a campus that has one of is nothing more powerful in the realm of education than the largest, if not the largest, faculties in religion in the object-based, interdisciplinary teaching.

United States.

“Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land” opens at the Carlos Museum on June 16.

What role does Emory’s heritage as a religious institution play in the desire to host this particular exhibition?

I love this question! It goes back to “what does it mean to be a university museum?” As we look at how we organize exhibitions, the primary factor is that it needs to support teaching and training at Emory. That’s how our collections

Can you say more about the exhibition and what type of community involvement there has been in developing the educational programming?

There are works of art in this exhibition that are truly extraordinary, but the power comes more through spiritual or religious context than simply through that of a work of art. We understood from the onset that, in order to present meaningful and challenging educational programs, EMORY in the world

we would rely on the expertise of Emory faculty. As blockbusters or spiking membership, but rather about we started work on this exhibition, we developed two the quality of the exhibition and the quality of the advisory committees: a Faculty Advisory Committee and a educational programs. Once we determine the heart and Community Advisory Committee. The Faculty Advisory soul of an exhibition and how it ties in with teaching at Committee is composed of professors from Candler and Emory, we then sit down and consider how to reach a the departments of Religion, Jewish Studies, Art History, broader audience with quality, diverse, and innovative and Middle Eastern Studies, and they have worked with our programming. In the case of the exhibit “Domains of Education Department to Wonder: Selected Masterdevelop educational proworks of Indian Painting,” grams. Faculty members we had a fabulous array of have also helped to ideneducation programs, rangtify individuals to serve ing from an art historical on the Community Adlook at the life of Krishna visory Committee, which and traditional Indian is made up of religious dance performances to leaders in Atlanta. We hearing Emory faculty have almost 30 religious discuss the history of comic leaders in the Atlanta books in India followed community now on the by contemporary comic Community Advisory book publisher Sharad Committee to help faciliDevarajan talking about tate interfaith dialogue Indian deity-influenced among their constituents comic book superheroes. and to help promote the It was an amazingly rich exhibition in the commuexhibition made accessible nity. We held a luncheon to a wide variety of audiwhere the two committees ences through brilliantly could talk about ways orchestrated and greatly to develop interfaith partvaried educational pronerships, and how this gramming. exhibition could be used Speaking of “Domains as a teaching resource in of Wonder,” the Emory their Sunday schools and “Fabled Beasts in a Landscape” from 1720 is one of the Indian miniature paintDistinguished Writer in synagogues. We held a ings displayed at the recent “Domains of Wonder” exhibition at the Carlos Residence Salman Rushdie second meeting to bring Museum. © San Diego Museum of Art recently attended an evetogether the educators ning reception hosted by and communications people from 170 churches and The Halle Institute, at which the two of you spontaneously synagogues in the region for similar discussions. How do we gave a private tour of the exhibition to all the guests. What help you use this exhibition as a community resource? How were your thoughts on the experience? do we partner for interfaith conversations?

What benefits derive from being a university museum rather than a public museum?

I have a personal answer to this. I became involved with museums because I believe that they are truly educational institutions with a responsibility to add to the scholarship and research in the field. I don’t support the popular blockbuster mentality that has happened over the past 30 years with exhibitions as entertainment. That said, I believe you can do educational and scholarly work and make it fun, accessible, and exciting. That’s the challenge, not the other way around. It has been a relief to work for an institution where the conversations aren’t predominantly about popular

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Another reason why I love university museums! I kept pinching myself! At first, I was intimidated by the thought of tag-teaming on a tour of Indian miniature paintings with Salman Rushdie. However, he was so gracious and great fun. I offered little tidbits about the art – this is not my field of expertise – and he added wonderful facets of culture and history, it was such a learning experience for me.

Especially when we got to the composite paintings produced by artists working together in the workshops of Mughal Emperor Akhbar the Great (1556-1605) and he started talking about the stories. I can easily say it was the most exciting tour I have ever participated in: what a treat!

Above: A visitor views a piece in the Egyptian galleries of the Carlos Museum. Photo by Holly Sasnett. Below left: The Museum¹s galleries of Greek and Roman Art. Photo by Holly Sasnett

Below right: Carlos Museum Director Bonnie Speed in the galleries of Greek and Roman Art. Photo by University Photo

Each year, the Museum welcomes Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Institute as part of Emory’s Tibet Week celebration. Now that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an Emory Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory, are there any plans to exhibit Tibetan art at the Museum?

brightly colored with depictions of Buddhist deities).

We will work with the Rubin Museum of Tibetan and Himalayan Art in New York City, and it will be ready to open on Oct. 20, 2007, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrives at Emory.

We have a very small Asian collection, but the way it has developed is brilliantly suited to our faculty. The scope of Asian art is so vast, from Chinese paintings to Korean ceramics. Without endless acquisition funds (wouldn’t it be terrific to acquire everything Asian?), we have to be savvy in exploring how to develop a collection that will be utilized by Emory faculty. The department that uses our Asian art collection most is the Department of Religion. Therefore, it has made sense for us to develop the collection to focus on work that deals with Asian religions. We do have Tibetan pieces in the collection already, and right now we’re working with Emory College on organizing a small exhibition of Tibetan thangkas (traditional Tibetan paintings that are often

What exhibit would you like to see at the Carlos one day?

Tough question, since there are so many exciting and challenging opportunities out there worthy of exploration (and we have a number of great shows in the works). But wouldn’t it be fun to do King Tut! Not King Tut as a blockbuster, but King Tut as a lesson in history, culture, and art.

We as a university museum with great Egyptologists on faculty and staff could greatly enhance the understanding and experience of such an exhibition. a Alma Freeman is the communications coordinator for the Office of International Affairs.

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Music and Genocide An Emory Graduate Student Explores Her Experience as a Human Rights Volunteer in Rwanda

By Laura Emiko Soltis

“M

usic” and “genocide” are two words that are rarely associated with one another. Yet through the unlikely intersections of experience, they have come to shape the most meaningful direction in my life. When my mother first placed a one-sixteenth-sized violin under my chubby, three-yearold chin, she never imagined that it would be my ticket to see the world. Since then, I have performed in concert halls and on street corners in countries such as Croatia, Poland, China, and Guatemala, and have come to use music as my means of communication and personal connection. The memories I have of musical performance and my awakening into social consciousness are often indistinguishable, as my journeys were often made with a violin case slung across my back.

As an undergraduate, I pursued my interests in the disciplines of violin performance and international affairs. Throughout my coursework, the repeated mention of the genocides that haunted the 20thcentury had a particularly profound impact on me. The more I studied the topic, the more I felt both devastated and intrigued.

In the fall of 2005, I began working at The Carter Center as an intern in its Human Rights Program. While there, I was assigned the task of coordinating a musical program for the 2006 Human Rights Defenders Conference. In partnership with composer Lee Johnson, I contributed to the composition of “Symphony No. 7, Infinitude,” which incorporated the text of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We invited Rwandan singer Corneille to perform at the conference, and when I heard him sing “Reposez en Paix,” (“Rest in Peace”), a song dedicated to his mother who was killed during the genocide in the summer of 1994, I recognized the coherence of my seemingly unrelated interests. I also decided that day that it was time to experience Rwanda firsthand.

I left for Rwanda the day after Christmas with an open mind, but I never anticipated I would change so drastically in the three short weeks that followed. I spent my first week in Rwanda with a host family in Kigali while I attended a local human rights forum.

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Sponsored by the organizations Global Youth Connect and Never Again Rwanda, the forum brought together student activists from universities in Rwanda with a group of international delegates with human rights experience from the United States, Cambodia, China, Mexico, France, and Haiti.

The agenda was focused but ambitious: to discuss justice and reconciliation issues in Rwanda, to initiate action plans such as improving access to HIV/AIDS treatment, to design formal sexual education curricula, and to create public awareness radio programs on the issue of race relations.

We also spent time interviewing Rwandans about their memories of the summer of 1994. In the U.S., any one of their stories would qualify for an intimate interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In Rwanda, however, the citizens undergo a daily battle of remembering and forgetting horrific violence within their collective struggle for lasting peace.

During my stay in Kigali, I also served as a volunteer with Uyisenga n’Manzi, an organization created to help address the problems of the most marginalized individuals after the genocide – namely the quarter million women who were raped (70 percent of whom contracted HIV/AIDS) and the 300,000 children who were left without parents. I maintained a schedule filled with visits to various non-governmental organizations, on community sustainability projects, and meetings with government representatives. My daily work involved writing funding proposals and reports in English, as well as the more interactive task of taking testimony of rural child-headed households and conducting evaluations of the progress of the self-supporting orphan community networks organized by Uyisenga n’Manzi.

There is something very valuable and fulfilling in the act of making the physical journey to the villages ordinarily isolated from outside contact. An interview with a boy named Shinjiro was particularly moving, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I returned. I was with the director of the organization and our translator, and we had traveled two hours to the Eastern Province to record Shinjiro’s experience during the genocide and to monitor his transition into the new house that our organization was building for his family. Shinjiro was much smaller than me, and I was startled to find out that we were both 22 years old. He was just 10 years old when he witnessed his parents’ murder, and after learning that all of his extended family had been killed as

well, he was left to take care of his infant twin sisters by himself. While telling me this, Shinjiro was unable to look anyone in the eyes and mumbled quietly into his shoulder.

The translator commented that his condition was one of the worst cases of post-traumatic stress he had ever seen. Underneath the shade of a banana tree, I asked him occasional questions about his daily routine and at times, we just sat together in silence. As we walked through the rows of maize to visit the construction of his new house, I began singing a Rwandan folk song a friend had taught me. Shinjiro suddenly turned around, and forgetting to hide his smile, joined me wholeheartedly. Leaving Uyisenga n’Manzi on my final day was especially difficult, but everyone at the office seemed confident when they bid me farewell, saying “see you soon.”

As a first-year graduate student at Emory, I am now pursuing a graduate certificate in human rights and studying violin with the School of Music. I will one day return to Rwanda, perhaps to fulfill my promise to a friend to organize a reconciliation concert throughout the Great Lakes region. Of all of the amazing experiences I had in Rwanda, the most important lesson I learned was about myself. In a world of so many injustices, there is one thing that I can control – how I treat each person I encounter in life. It seems almost silly to think that I had to go all the way to Rwanda to figure this out, because while I have long known this, I feel so different now that I can finally and truly live it. a Laura Emiko Soltis is a first year graduate student at Emory’s Institute of Liberal Arts. She is pursuing a graduate certificate in human rights, studying violin and voice, and performing with the Emory Concert Choir.

Laura Emiko Soltis with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, taken during Soltis’ internship at The Carter Center in fall 2005. Photo by A. Poyo

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Globalization in Science Education

By Alma Freeman

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fter just three years, Emory’s Science Experience Abroad (SEA) program is already receiving national recognition. This year, the program was chosen as a “Best Practice” in international education by the Institute of International Educators and received the 2007 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovations in International Education.

“Science is now an international endeavor,” said Preetha Ram, assistant dean for science and Emory chemistry professor of 18 years, “and in order to prepare Emory science students for what is now a global discipline, it is critical that they are exposed to international cultures at an early point in their careers.”

Emory students participate in the summer study abroad program in Siena, Italy.

The Emory Science Initiatives’ Office for Undergraduate Education collaborated with the Center for International Programs Abroad (CIPA) to create a program that would enable science students to stay on track towards their major, pursue their professional and career goals, and incorporate study abroad. Since its launch three years ago, SEA has helped to increase study abroad participation among science students from nine to 20 percent.

Data points to a shift that some say reflects a more global landscape in the field of science. In 2001, 70 percent of all worldwide scientific papers were of non-U.S. origin, while 38 percent of doctorate holders in the fields of science and engineering living in the U.S. were foreign born (according to 2000 U.S. Census data). “When you educate young scientists for the future, they will be working with international scientists and dealing with enormous global issues – it’s better that they get used to working in a multicultural arena, and part of the preparation for this is to send young people abroad to discover things for themselves,” said Ram. Despite reasons that suggest it is important for science students to spend time abroad, participation in study abroad programs among undergraduate science students has statistically remained low. In 2002, nearly 40 percent of Emory undergraduates studied abroad, but only nine percent were science majors. Nationally, science students report a number of reasons for their lower levels of participation including: difficulty in meeting sequential course loads, higher course demands, minimal encouragement from faculty, language barriers, and concern over credit transfers from foreign universities.

By offering science students a combination of summer and semester study programs, as well as research, internship, and

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community engagement opportunities, SEA enables students to tailor intellectual experiences to suit individual backgrounds and needs. For those who may be concerned about taking science courses in a foreign language, SEA offers programs in several English-speaking countries, including semester-long programs in world-class universities such as Imperial College in London, University of St Andrews in Scotland, University of Melbourne in Australia, and University of the Virgin Islands.

In order for these programs to flourish, particularly semesterlong programs, explained CIPA Executive Director Philip Wainwright, involvement from science faculty at an early stage in program development and student advising is extremely important. Emory’s first semester exchange program – the neuroscience and behavioral biology program at the University of St Andrews – grew from faculty connections between the two institutions. Many years of research collaboration between chemistry Professor Dennis Liotta and his colleague

Anthony Barrett of Imperial College paved the way for an ongoing science exchange there. Efforts such as these have led to a growing number of science faculty who now serve as SEA student advisors. After visiting the National University of Singapore and the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea in March, Ram and Wainwright soon expect an exchange agreement with the two institutes to become available to Emory science students.

Summer abroad opportunities offering science courses taught

by Emory faculty include the chemistry studies program in Siena, Italy, an environment and ecology program in Queensland, Australia, and starting this year, a global health interdisciplinary studies course in South Africa.

Students with prior research experience may also apply for international research fellowships to do work abroad. Participating countries thus far include: France, Italy, Scotland, Spain, Australia, Venezuela, England, South Africa, and Thailand.

Before going abroad, an Emory faculty member must partner with the student to prepare them for research and to pair them with a mentor abroad. This program, International Research Experience in Science, is jointly supported internally by funding from the SIRE program in the College, CIPA, and external organizations such as the Howard Hughes International Scholars and the German Academic Exchange (DAAD).

Anthropology and biology major Dorothy Chyung spent a summer at a lab in Thailand conducting anti-malarial drug research. Her experience allowed her not only to explore a different culture, she said, but also exposed her to different research styles, such as recycling lab equipment that is often disposed of here and a different hierarchical structure of command in the lab.

SEA also offers science students opportunities abroad through

internship and community engagement programs. Opportunities include an internship at a vineyard in Italy as well as plans to place Emory science students in an internship program at IBM in the UK. Ram hopes to continue developing these types of programs through the budding Adopt a Scholar Program that encourages Emory alumni around the world to “adopt” an Emory science student. By doing so, alumni could help support students financially while abroad and become an integral part of their experience.

Emory chemistry major Nicholas Justice recalled his experience in Siena, where he completed SEA’s summer, internship, and semester programs during part of his junior year. As an intern at a vineyard just outside Siena, Justice worked alongside Italian interns to analyze wine during fermentation in labs.

Although the people with whom he worked at the vineyard weren’t able to speak English perfectly, he picked up Italian quickly and the experience he had navigating through language and cultural barriers has helped him to become more flexible and understanding now back at Emory. “It’s very important to work across language barriers because they exist everywhere, and certainly working in a lab with someone who didn’t speak English taught me a lot about how to work with international guests at the labs at Emory,” he said.

CIPA’s Wainwright emphasized that no matter which route a student chooses to take, the most important decision is to take advantage of study abroad as an undergraduate. “When you look back after you have been practicing medicine for 40 years, you may reflect and wish that you would have taken a little time to enjoy the wealth of opportunity that study abroad offers everyone.” a Alma Freeman is the communications coordinator for the Office of International Affairs.

Emory Around the World: Study Abroad Facts Percentage of Emory students that study abroad: 40

Percentage of national study abroad students who are female: 70

Number of study abroad programs available to Emory students worldwide: 100

Percent increase of Emory science students who studied abroad in the last three years: 11

Emory’s national rank for study abroad participation: 12

Number of Emorysponsored, faculty-led summer programs held each year: 20

Number of U.S. students who studied abroad for academic credit in 2004-2005: 205,983 Sources: CIPA and Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2006 Report EMORY in the world

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In the Sanctuary of the Great Gods

By Bonna D. Wescoat

Pilgrims to Samothrace came from cities across the Mediterranean to be initiated into the Mysteries of the Great Gods.

Their first opportunity to gather as a group was in the Theatrical Circle on the Eastern Hill pictured here.

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s an archaeologist, I am inevitably asked, “Have you found anything exciting?” But “exciting” is always relative. Finding the palm of a marble hand might not sound like much, but when that hand belongs to the great Winged Victory of Samothrace, it is very exciting! The story of its discovery by my mentor Phyllis Williams Lehmann – and of her subsequent search for the fingers in Vienna’s wartorn Kunsthistorisches Museum, and the reunion of the hand with its owner in the Louvre – exerted a powerful magnetic force on me. I went to Samothrace during my first summer in graduate school, unaware that 30 years later, I would be returning, now with my own graduate students.

Samothrace – a great, wind-swept rock rising like a beacon from the northern Aegean Sea – forms a touchstone between the Dardanelles and plains of Troy to the east and holy Mt. Athos to the west. According to Greek myth, Dardanos left Samothrace to found the Trojan race. Kadmos of Phoenicia came to Samothrace in search of his sister Europa, but instead found Harmonia. At their wedding, Harmonia’s brother Eetion seduced the earth goddess Demeter, bringing forth Plutos (wealth), but for his transgression, Zeus struck him dead with a thunderbolt. Later stories treat Eetion more kindly: Zeus instead instructs him in the mysteries that became the island’s most sacred rites.

Rooted in journey, these stories serve as a fitting mythological backdrop to the real voyage that pilgrims later made to the Sanctuary at Samothrace to be initiated into the mystery cult of the Megaloi Theoi, the Great Gods. We have only a shadowy notion of who these pre-Greek Great Gods were, but the Sanctuary has the unmistakable aura of sacred ground.

Facing the sea and set in a cleft at the base of a mountain, it

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feels spiritually integrated with the divine forces of earth, sea, and sky, which played a vital role in the mysteria.

Initiation took place only on Samothrace, but initiates established gathering places called Samothrakeia around the eastern Mediterranean and into the Black Sea littoral – something like an ancient network of Masonic Lodges. Membership had its privileges. Not only did it afford special protection at sea and in times of peril, but initiates also became “both more pious and more just and better in every respect than they were before,” according to Diodorus.

What happened during the initiation was to remain secret, and the ancients generally kept their promise. Our best opportunity to understand the cult, its participants, and the significance of the Sanctuary is therefore through archaeology.

In 1444, Cyriacus of Ancona became the first scholar to visit Samothrace and record its antiquities. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, teams of French, Austrian, and Czech archaeologists excavated the site, and since 1938, American archaeologists have worked there. Over the last 70 years, most of the area within the Sanctuary has been excavated.

Our team, under Director James McCredie, is now engaged in an intensive program of interpretation and publication.

The project I lead concerns the complex of buildings and monuments that make up the first major gathering place within the Sanctuary. Although the ancient texts are mute, the configuration of architecture and topography speaks volumes. Here, prospective initiates from across the Mediterranean were forged into community as they prepared to enter the heart of the Sanctuary. In its prime, the area’s sunken orchestra was framed by tiers of grandstands and

dozens of bronze statues that engaged the approaching pilgrim and bore permanent witness to the actions performed in the space.

The entire complex was dominated by a splendid Doric edifice, the only material achievement of the blood successors to Alexander the Great (his half-brother Philip III and his son Alexander IV).

Wescoat (left) and Emory art history graduate student Rachel Foulk measure a several-ton threshold building block from the Sanctuary site.

For me, an architectural historian, Samothrace is a treasure trove of splendidly innovative buildings donated by Hellenistic royalty, both for piety and politics. In Greek stone architecture, every part has its place; the science of putting the buildings back together, either on paper or in reconstruction, involves tracing the ancient masons’ work, block by block. Many Greek buildings are predictable, but at Samothrace we specialize in the unpredictable, both in design and function, which makes for more interesting and more challenging research.

Work at the Sanctuary has made Emory a familiar name in the northern Aegean. Art History graduate students from Emory – along with students from New York University’s Institute of Fine

Greek buildings are predictable, but at Samothrace we specialize in the “Many unpredictable, both in design and function, which makes for more interesting and more challenging research.”

Arts and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design – form the backbone of our team. Emory graduate students Jennifer Palinkas, Amy Sowder, Susan Blevins, Anthony Mangieri, A. Christy Balthis, and Rachel Foulk have taken on the diverse range of projects that fieldwork demands. Carlos Museum Curator Jasper Gaunt is completing the catalog of bronze finds from the Eastern Hill, and Classics professor Sandra Blakely has studied the Kabeiroi and explored the Samothracian cult in the larger context of the Mediterranean. Funds from the Institute for Comparative and International Studies have supported crucial aspects of the work. We work in close collaboration with our Greek colleague responsible for the island, archaeologist Dimitris Matsas.

As we wrap up work on the Eastern Hill, we are already turning to our next major project, on celebratory dining within the Sanctuary.

At Samothrace, the debris of holy feasting and drinking remains both the earliest and the latest evidence we have for the practices of the cult. Among the several splendid dining facilities, one in particular captures the imagination – a grand marble edifice with Ionic columns, flanked by dining wings in the manner of the fanciest dining rooms in the Macedonian palace at Vergina. This building, however, was given not by royalty, but by a private woman from the city of Miletos, in modern Turkey. Women were known to be patrons of architectural projects, but not this early and not this far from home.

We aim to learn more about the Milesian Lady and her extraordinary gift. Each summer we return to the island, certain in the possibility that we just may be the ones to find the head of the Winged Victory. a Bonna D. Wescoat is an associate professor in Emory’s Art History Department and Adjunct Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Excavations in Samothrace, at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She currently serves as Whitehead Visiting Professor at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and will return to Emory in the fall.

The most famous discovery from the island, the Winged Victory of Samothrace found in 1863, now stands at the top of the grand staircase in the Louvre museum in Paris.

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Emory Global Health Institute

By Rebecca Baggett

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ome great ideas appear in a flash, while others come after months of careful thought and deliberation. The latter scenario is the case with the Emory Global Health Institute, a university-wide initiative whose mission is to advance Emory’s efforts to improve health care around the world.

Established in September 2006 and officially announced to the public in January 2007, the Emory Global Health Institute is a direct result of the University’s recent 18-month strategic planning process. According to Emory President James Wagner, “the Emory Global Health Institute is the flagship program fulfilling Emory’s strategy to pursue the universitywide initiative ‘Implementing Pathways to Global Health.’”

In addition to the strategic planning process, faculty and students from across the University engaged in a 14-monthlong discussion to develop goals and objectives for the Emory Global Health Initiative, the precursor to the Institute. This multidisciplinary dialogue revealed the critical role all of Emory can play in improving global health. “The Emory Global Health Institute is a university-wide effort drawing on faculty expertise both within and beyond the health sciences,” said Wagner. “There are essential roles for economics, government, law, religion, culture, art, and communications to

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play in advancing health issues around the world.”

Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for Academic Health Affairs of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, is a natural choice to lead the Institute. A 26-year veteran of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Koplan served for six years as the Center’s director.

Goals and Activities The primary purpose of the Emory Global Health Institute is to support Emory faculty, students, and alumni in their work to find solutions to critical global health problems. Its goals are to strengthen the University’s academic infrastructure around global health, develop and nurture global health partnerships, and foster global health research and scholarship.

The Institute hopes to achieve these goals by identifying and hiring new faculty, providing funding support to faculty conducting innovative global health research and programs, expanding travel abroad learning opportunities for Emory students, establishing new global health training programs, and convening global health experts through conferences, seminars, and symposia.

In its first few months, the Institute has gotten off to a fast

start. It has provided resources to support the hiring of Venkat Narayan, Hubert Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, released its first request for proposals, announced 10 global health initiatives in the first round of funding (see sidebar on pp.16-17), and established an undergraduate minor in global health, culture, and society.

Why Emory?

The establishment of the Emory Global Health Institute is “a natural evolution for the University,” Koplan explained.

The Institute builds on the strong foundation in global health research and training laid by the Emory University School of Medicine, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the Rollins School of Public Health, the Emory Vaccine Center, and other departments such as anthropology, biology, chemistry, theology, and area studies. “We are building on our strengths,” Koplan said.

Photos from top: Bentley Brown-Chad, Juli Powers-Bolivia, Jie Liu-China. Opposite page photo by Go Tanaka-Bangladesh

Emory’s relationships with prominent public health organizations and agencies made it an ideal place to launch a worldclass academic center for global health. The University’s longstanding partnerships with neighboring organizations such as the CDC, The Carter Center, the Task Force for Child Survival, and CARE make Emory unique among its peer institutions. Its close linkage with the Georgia Institute of Technology is also important as engineering collaborations are crucial to the success of certain global health projects.

And the relationships Koplan formed during his 26-year tenure at the CDC, and the new ones he is forging while leading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded International Association of National Public Health Institutes, will facilitate partnership-building activities for the Institute.

While Emory is uniquely situated to found global health initiatives, the University has placed the Institute in a position that sets it apart from many other academic global health centers. To date, the Institute is the only center of its kind that has received a substantial internal investment from its home university. The University budgets $110 million for the Institute, with $55 million coming from strategic plan and building funds and $55 million from other sources. These funds have enabled the Institute to build programs quickly so that faculty and students can benefit immediately. This, in turn, should lead to better health, faster, for the people they are working to help.

International Impact While the term “global health” includes health conditions that occur within the United States, the Institute’s focus is international. It has chosen to place a special emphasis on the health of populations living in developing countries where health problems are abundant and health care resources scarce.

The purpose of supporting global health activities is to improve the health of people around the world, which could have a positive influence on international relations. “Public health EMORY in the world

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First Phase of the Emory Global Health Institute-Funded Initiatives and Events Center for Global Vaccines: A Collaboration between Emory University School of Medicine and the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB, New Delhi, India)

projects in which you share experience, knowledge, and improve outcomes are great opportunities for bonding, uniting, and building good will,” argues Koplan. “When you share a common purpose and people are healthier as a result, that brings you closer to people who perceived you to be different before the project began.”

The Center for Global Vaccines (CGV) is a joint venture of the Emory Vaccine Center and the New Delhibased International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The primary purpose of the CGV is to improve the control of infectious diseases around the world with a special emphasis on those diseases that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations in the developing world.

Republic of South Africa Drug Discovery Training Program Emory is collaborating with the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to train African scientists in early stage drug discovery with the goal of combating infectious and immunologic diseases that disproportionately affect impoverished populations in the developing world. Emory has unique strengths in drug discovery, particularly in developing country therapeutic needs such as HIV/AIDS. There is a dearth of drug discovery scientists in Africa.

Partners in Global Health: Emory University and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP) of Mexico

Community Partners Leadership Fellows Program, Phase I: Scenarios from Africa The Community Partners Leadership Fellows Program provides fellowship opportunities at Emory to proven community leaders working for community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations located in Africa. This fellowship program is unique in that it targets community leaders, who are typically not eligible to apply for traditional academic fellowships.

The program helps small- and medium-sized CBOs/ NGOs that are partnering with Emory to develop their capacity by training the community-based leaders who are essential to their success.

Republic of Georgia Emergency Department Program The purpose of the Republic of Georgia Emergency Department Program is to modernize the emergency departments of the Central Clinical (Republican) Hospital in Tbilisi and the Imereti Regional Hospital in Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia. This program builds on the successful partnership Emory University has with the Iashvili Children’s Hospital in Tbilisi, which resulted in the transformation of its emergency services from a Soviet style “admitting room” to a modern emergency department.

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Koplan believes that working with partners in other countries is a two-way street, and that Emory will get as much as it gives by working with its global partners. “We hope that the countries and institutions we work with will feel good about our work and want to work with us again.

We hope they think we are good partners and collaborators and that we are respectful of their needs and the value they bring to us,” he said.

Koplan is equally interested in being a good partner with other internationally-focused entities at Emory. “We’re eager to promote collaborations across the University and look for opportunities to coordinate activities and undertake joint initiatives,” he said.

President Wagner agrees: “We expect the Institute to draw from and contribute to all of our international activities.

‘Internationalization’ is one of the four underlying themes in Emory’s strategy. It encourages us in all of our educational, research, and outreach activities to consider international possibilities and ramifications of our actions.

The Emory Global Health Institute, the Office of International Affairs, the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing, Journeys of Reconciliation, the Emory-Tibet Partnership, The Halle Institute, and many others direct us explicitly to international opportunities and issues.” a Rebecca Baggett is the communications and program manager of the Emory Global Health Institute.

Photo by Maya Ravani-Kenya. Opposite page photo by Kinnery Naik-India

The Partners in Global Health Program builds on an existing collaboration between Emory and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP), located in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The purpose of the Partners in Global Health Program is to strengthen and significantly expand this existing relationship, and as a result, create new and innovative opportunities for interdisciplinary global health programs.

Program in Globalization, Global Migration, and Health The Emory Global Health Institute has provided seed funding to establish a research program to address the impact of globalization and global migration on the health of populations, specifically the effect on the cardio-metabolic risk factors of targeted populations.

The program will develop and implement a scientific workshop, publish the proceedings, and publish a literature review on the current state of research regarding the cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium Global Tobacco Control Initiative The Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC) provides innovative trainings, technical assistance, and educational materials to strengthen partnerships in the U.S. tobacco control community. The TTAC Global Tobacco Control Initiative takes the organization’s mission to the global arena by providing technical assistance to countries strategically targeted by the tobacco industry and to countries that are working to decrease tobacco use and increase tobacco free environments, starting with Canada, Thailand, and Uruguay.

Visiting Professor in Global Health Communications In spring 2007, Arvind Singhal, Presidential Research Scholar and Professor at Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University lectured undergraduate and graduate classes and connected with Emory faculty members with an interest in global health and global health communications.

Global Government Health Partners Forum 2006 In November 2006, Emory’s Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing coordinated the Global Government Health Partners Forum 2006: The Breaking Point – Human Resources for Health. The forum focused on the external and internal forces of health worker shortages with the goal of preparing health leaders to develop effective policies to manage the shortage globally, nationally, and regionally. The forum was the only event in 2006 to which all chief medical officers (CMO) and chief nursing officers (CNO) in health departments and ministries from around the world were invited to participate.

Conference: What’s Indian about HIV/AIDS in India?

Participants at this multidisciplinary conference discussed how economics, culture, and systems of representation have converged to shape the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. The goal of the conference was to explore comprehensive, context-sensitive responses to public health threats through discussion on the “Indian-ness” of HIV/AIDS. It featured leading scholars in public health and communications as well as practitioners from organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Development Programme.

For more information on initiatives and for updates on future additions, visit www.globalhealth.emory.edu

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H

is Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama has been named Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory University, the first university appointment accepted by the 1989 Nobel Peace Laureate and leader of the Tibetan exile community.

The Dalai Lama will deliver his inaugural lecture during an Oct. 20-22 visit to Emory, during which he will participate in a conference on science and spirituality, and an interfaith session on religion as a source of conflict and a resource for peace building. His Holiness is scheduled to give a public talk, “Educating the Heart and Mind,” at an Emory-sponsored event in Centennial Olympic Park Oct. 22.

“

I firmly believe that education is an indispensable tool for the flourishing of human well-being and the creation of a just and peaceful society, and I am delighted to make a small contribution in this regard through this appointment.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Joins Emory as Presidential Distinguished Professor

By Nancy Seideman

“I look forward to offering my services to the Emory students and community. I firmly believe that education is an indispensable tool for the flourishing of human well-being and the creation of a just and peaceful society, and I am delighted to make a small contribution in this regard through this appointment,” said the Dalai Lama. “I have long believed in and advocated a dialogue and cross-fertilization between science and spirituality, as both are essential for enriching human life and alleviating suffering on both individual and global levels.”

The Dalai Lama’s appointment is the most recent outgrowth of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, which was founded in 1998 to bring together the best of Western and Tibetan Buddhist intellectual traditions.

Emory is recognized as one of the premier centers of study of Tibetan philosophy and religion in the West, primarily due to the university’s extraordinary relationship with Tibetan Buddhist institutes of higher learning based in India, including the Drepung Loseling Monastery and the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. One of the most ambitious projects of this partnership is a historic initiative to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan monastics (see p. 20).

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Photo by Emory Creative Group

Educating the Heart & Mind:

“To have a colleague of the Dalai Lama’s stature in our community will be a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to our faculty, staff, and students as we strive to realize the vision of educating both the heart and mind for the greater good of humanity,” said Emory President James Wagner. “His presence will contribute significantly to fulfilling the university’s strategic goals, including bringing engaged scholars together in a strong and vital community to confront the human condition.”

His Holiness Receives Emory Delegation in Bangalore, India His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace Laureate, has his permanent home in exile in Dharamsala in northern India, where he also leads the Tibetan government-in-exile. From there, he travels extensively throughout the world as well as to various Tibetan communities in India. In January 2007, he visited the Tibetan community in the south Indian state of Karnataka, home to the largest number of Tibetan settlements in the country and the most prominent Tibetan monastic institutions.

(left to right) The Dalai Lama signs the documents accepting his Presidential Distinguished Professorship at Emory, presented by Vice Provost for International Affairs Holli Semetko and Director of the of the Emory-Tibet Partnership Geshe Lobsang Tenzin.

Many of Emory’s university-wide strategic plan initiatives address the interface between religion and science. His Holiness has pioneered in promoting a genuine and substantive dialogue between science and spirituality. Emory’s commitment to developing and implementing a science education program for Tibetan monks and nuns will help realize the Dalai Lama’s vision of offering comprehensive science education within the monastic curriculum.

As Presidential Distinguished Professor, the Dalai Lama will continue to provide private teaching sessions with students and faculty during Emory’s study-abroad program in Dharamsala, as well as provide opportunities for university community members to attend his annual teachings. He also will make periodic visits to Emory to participate in programs. Emory will establish a fellowship in the Dalai Lama’s name to fund annual scholarships for Tibetan students attending Emory undergraduate and graduate schools.

The Dalai Lama has devoted his life to the non-violent resolution of the Tibetan-Chinese conflict and to the preservation of the Tibetan history, education, culture and traditions. The 1959 occupation of Tibet by China forced the Dalai Lama to flee his country and take exile in India, where he serves as the political and spiritual leader of six million Tibetans worldwide, including the Tibetan community and government-inexile based in Dharamsala.

In September 2006, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to award the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor in the nation, for his advocacy of religious harmony, nonviolence and human rights throughout the world, and for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue through dialogue with Chinese leadership.a For more information, visit www.dalailama.emory.edu

After concluding an extensive teaching at Sera Monastery in Bylakupee (a three-and-a-half hour drive from Bangalore), attended by many monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, the Dalai Lama flew by helicopter to stopover in Bangalore – Karnataka’s capital city otherwise known as India’s “Silicon Valley.” One thousand meters (3,300 ft) above sea level, the climate of Bangalore remains pleasant year-round.

There, the Dalai Lama received Emory’s Geshe Lobsang Tenzin, director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership and Atlanta’s Drepung Loseling Institute, and Holli Semetko, vice provost for International Affairs to sign the official documents accepting the Presidential Distinguished Professorship. In conversation with them, the Dalai Lama shared his vision of an education that molds both intellect and character, a vision that Emory also shares. Excerpts from his remarks follow: “The problems we see in modern society are closely related with the emotions. The purpose of secular education is not for cultivating religious faith, but rather for creating better human beings, better families, and a better society. Emotions are naturally a part of that, and are very much involved in that. Modern education up to now, however, has not paid adequate attention to the area of emotions, and has not provided adequate information about the emotions and how to deal with them. So the ancient Indian traditions and ancient Indian thought could be beneficial in this field.

In Hinduism, and in Buddhism as well, one finds a great deal of discussion about the nature of emotions, of samadhi (meditative concentration), and related issues. So for the sake of promoting a healthy society, a healthy human family and healthy individuals, I feel that some research work, and some new ideas or new methods in the field of education on how to deal with the emotions is important and necessary – not as a religion, but rather as just the training of the mind.

Here I think there is a potential for the Buddhist tradition to make some contribution, but not just by some lamas or scholars giving talks – not in that way – but through more detailed research work, more discussion, collaboration, and experiments. If this can take place not just through the work of one or a few individuals, but through the efforts of an entire university, I think it would be very healthy. It would be a healthy way to go about it, and it would be very good. So I’m looking forward, as a professor now, to making some contribution to this, although I don’t know how much of a contribution I can make!”

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Emory-Tibet Science Initiative Launches Curriculum for Tibetan Monastics

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his December, an Emory delegation will travel for one month to Dharamsala for the inaugural workshop of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative’s (ETSI) plan to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan monastics.

First launched in February 2006 under the leadership of the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives Geshe Lhakdor, the initiative originates from the Dalai Lama’s commitment to science education within Buddhist monasteries and nunneries as a tool for not only understanding the world, but also as a way of conveying Buddhist contemplative wisdom in a practical way to help relieve suffering. During Geshe Lhakdor’s visit as a Halle Distinguished Fellow, Emory College Dean Robert Paul called a meeting in which Geshe Lhakdor invited the university to collaborate on the design and implementation of a comprehensive science program for Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns. The invitation was met with an enthusiastic response from both the University’s administration and science faculty.

“Overcoming the Western prejudice that the mind can’t possibly have any effect on your body leads to a much more expanded possibility of ways in which health can be maintained by the science of the mind and can also lead to avenues of healing. It’s a really unique situation, where something we regard as a religious tradition can collaborate in a very scientific way with contemporary Western science. … We have the unique capacity to do this because of our strengths in both

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religion and science, in the study of Tibetan Buddhism and in the fields of psychology and psychiatry,” said Paul.

Directed by Preetha Ram, assistant dean for science and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin, director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, the Initiative is comprised of faculty from the departments of science and humanities, as well as scholars from other universities and institutions. Organized through the Emory-Tibet Partnership and Science Initiatives in the Office for Undergraduate Education, ETSI oversees the development of the curriculum and the materials and will also design a sustainable instructional model. ETSI’s on-campus academic programs are administered through Emory College’s Program in Science and Society.

On a recent trip to Dharamsala, Emory delegates Ram, Geshe Lhakdor, Charles Raison, assistant professor in Emory’s School of Medicine’s Mind-Body Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Geshe Lobsang met with the Dalai Lama to discuss his views on the EmoryTibet Science Initiative.

The following page features edited excerpts of the Dalai Lama’s statements during this meeting.

For more information, visit www.college.emory.edu/tibetscience An Emory delegation recently traveled to Dharamsala, India to visit the Dalai Lama and to hear his ideas for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.

Those present included (left to right) Geshe Lhakdor, director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives; Preetha Ram, assistant dean for science; His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Charles Raison, assistant professor in Emory’s School of Medicine’s Mind Body Program; and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin, director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership.

The Dalai Lama: I am very happy that you have taken such initiative with this project.

Top left photo by Emory Creative Group

Basically, there are three aspects that can be identified with regards to pursuing a Buddhist path: the ground reality – and based on that ground reality – how you adopt the spiritual practice of the path, and then finally to actualize what was once [considered] just practice.

So, I think in the first arena, the question of, “What is reality?” is a question of both external reality and internal reality. Modern science uses particular methods and instruments to investigate that reality. The Buddhists, using their particular method, also explore this arena. So, whether it’s the “reality” of the particle or “reality” of the mind and emotions, the ultimate concern is the nature of reality. And that, of course, is another thing: the reality of ultimate nature.

That’s emptiness – emptiness on the basis of interdependency.

The concept of emptiness, I think, is very useful. It gives us the ability to recognize that all of nature is interrelated in the Law of Nature. So, the dialogue or collaboration between modern science and Buddhism is grounded in the first of those three aspects – ground reality or the Law of Nature. That arena is suited for addressing the question, “What is reality?”

For Buddhists, after coming to some understanding of reality, how does one utilize this understanding to bring about change?

How are we able to benefit from our insight into the nature of reality? … Buddha himself told us, “You should investigate, you should explore.” It is not necessary to cling dogmatically

to the Buddha’s every word. The Nalanda scholars provided us with a certain proper way of thinking and investigating.

Indeed, presently in the monasteries the Buddhist studies are augmented by the study of other ancient philosophical traditions for the sake of comparison. So, clearly Buddhist studies should not be limited to only Buddhist philosophy. Some of our older scholars may not agree with my view. …

So, according to the Nalanda tradition, we should utilize our intellect and take the liberty to further investigate new subjects like modern religion and modern science. Especially with regards to modern science, new knowledge is there with certain clear evidence. That we must accept. We must engage the Buddhist understanding of the natural world with the modern scientific understanding. Similarly, I think, science can benefit from engaging with the Buddhist understanding of consciousness and emotions – the nature of the mind.

For a few years now we have assembled a group of select monastic students for an introduction to modern science.

This is no longer sufficient. Now we must institute in the monasteries and nunneries long-term programs in all modern subjects, especially modern science. Of course, that means that we need teachers from our own people. As such, for the time being, I think it is not necessary and indeed would be rather difficult to introduce a curriculum to all monastic students. Instead, the selected students should be trained until such a time that they are qualified in the sciences. Then eventually we can introduce a curriculum into the monastic institutions themselves as part of their studies. a

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Emory Honors International HIV/AIDS Expert Carlos del Rio

By Alma Freeman

Provost Earl Lewis (right) presents this year’s Creekmore Award to Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine and chief of the Emory medical service at Grady Hospital

On March 26, at this year’s International Awards Night, del Rio found himself on stage again when Emory presented him with the 2007 Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization. Named for Marion Creekmore, Emory’s first vice provost for International Affairs, the Creekmore Award was established in 2000 by Coca-Cola executive and Emory benefactor Claus M. Halle and is given each year to an Emory faculty member who excels in the advancement of the University’s commitment to internationalization. Along with the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award, given to Omanian Shariffa Al-Jabri (see sidebar), the award is one of the highest honors for internationalization at the University.

After graduating from medical school at Mexico’s Universidad La Salle in 1983, del Rio moved to Atlanta where he completed his Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases residencies at

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Emory. In 1989, he returned to Mexico where he served from 1992-1996 as the executive director of the National

(left to right) Emory President James Wagner, Carlos del Rio, Marion Creekmore, and Dean of Emory’s School of Medicine Thomas Lawley

AIDS Council of Mexico (CONASIDA), the Federal agency responsible for AIDS policy in Mexico. It was there that he realized, through close work with the World Health Organization (WHO), the global catastrophe that HIV/AIDS was going to be and the urgent need to continue promoting research. In 1996, del Rio returned to Emory as associate professor of medicine and adjunct associate professor of International Health in the Rollins School of Public Health. “I returned convinced that Emory is uniquely positioned among peer institutions to become an international leader,” del Rio said during the awards ceremony.

“Since his arrival at Emory, Dr. del Rio has worked tirelessly to increase Emory’s stature as an internationally recognized institution in the area of infectious diseases,” said Emory School of Medicine Dean Thomas Lawley. “His multitude of accomplishments in citizenship, teaching, and research are done while he carries out a busy medical practice and is recognized as an outstanding physician.”

Some people say that del Rio does the work of three people, while others insist there must actually be three of him. In addition to his work at Grady Hospital and his role as a professor at Emory, del Rio serves as co-director for Clinical Science and International Research of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), where he was instrumental in having the Center designated as a United National AIDS Program (UNAIDS) Collaborating Center.

In 1997, del Rio obtained an international training grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to form the AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP), where he serves as program director and principal investigator. Designed initially to train young investigators from Mexico, the Republic of Georgia, Armenia, and Vietnam as AIDS researchers, AITRP – thanks to the determination of del Rio and his colleague Hubert Department of Global

Photos by Wilford Harewood

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s professor of medicine and chief of the Emory medical service at Grady Hospital, Carlos del Rio has had a lot of proud moments, but Nov. 30, 2006, sticks in his mind as one of the most memorable. On stage at the National Theatre in the Republic of Georgia, before the opening of the ballet season, first lady Sandra Roelofs presented del Rio and his colleagues, Dale Morse, director of the Office of Science and Public Health at New York State’s Department of Health, Jack DeHovitz, professor at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, and Kenrad Nelson, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, with an award recognizing their 10 years of work in the field of HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Georgia. Seeing this level of engagement from the Georgian government was a moment to remember, recalled del Rio, as high level political commitment is critical in advancing the fights against AIDS.

Health Professor Susan Allen – recently submitted a successful competitive grant renewal application for the program, which has now added collaborations in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Rwanda. Although not the primary purpose of the AITRP grant, through the program, del Rio has helped to facilitate exchange programs through which students from the schools of Medicine and Public Health as well as medical residents have gone overseas to do research. Del Rio has also helped develop a collaborative exchange program with his former medical school in Mexico that allows medical students from Mexico to come to Emory and senior medical students from Emory to go to Mexico on electives.

Del Rio’s research specializes in issues related to the early diagnosis of HIV, with a focus on access to care and the barriers faced by those infected with HIV. He is particularly interested in the impact of HIV in developing countries, including the use of antiretroviral drugs as well as the ethics surrounding HIV care and research.

Del Rio is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Latin-American AIDS Initiative (SIDALAC), the Monitoring of the AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network and the Education Committee of the HIVMA (HIV Medicine Association) of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Since 1998, he has served as associate editor and as an editorial board member of AIDS Clinical Care, a journal published by the New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of AIDS, Women, Children and HIV and Global Public Health. He has coauthored five books, 30 book chapters, and over 100 scientific papers.

2007 Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award Winner, Shariffa Al-Jabri “Shariffa, you make Emory very, very proud,” said President James Wagner after presenting Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing graduate and director of Nursing Affairs for the Oman Ministry of Health Shariffa Al-Jabri with this year’s Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award.

The annual Sheth Award, established by Mahdu and Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, recognizes Emory’s international alumni who have gone on to achieve prominence in their careers around the world.

“It is a great honor that an alumna of the School of Nursing was selected as this year’s Sheth Award winner. We are extremely proud of Ms. Al-Jabri’s dedication to the promotion of health in her country and for her commitment to the field of nursing and midwifery. She shines brightly on Emory and our school,” said Marla Salmon, dean of Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.” Al-Jabri served as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the Rollins School of Public Health from 1995-1996.

“It is so great to feel appreciated and what this award does is make you [want to] work more and more,” said Al-Jabri, who traveled with her two sisters from Oman for the ceremony.

“For health workers, our problems and issues are the same wherever you go. … Emory has provided me the opportunity to gain knowledge and to apply that knowledge in my country.”

The most rewarding aspect of working in the field of HIV/AIDS, said del Rio, who travels nearly 60,000 miles a year, is getting to know the other people involved, whether it be the staff at Grady Hospital, the patients at a clinic in Ethiopia, or researchers in Georgia. “Through my work,” said del Rio, “you get to see how lucky you are for the things you have, and you see how people in other countries are living. … To meet the people working on the ground everyday is rewarding, because at the end of the day, these are the people who really make a difference. a Alma Freeman is the communications coordinator for the Office of International Affairs.

Top left: Sheth Award winner Shariffa Al-Jabri. Top right: Al-Jabri’s sisterin-law Zakia Amour Al-Suqri (left) and sister Zakia Saif Al-Jabri traveled from Oman for the ceremony. Bottom: (left to right) School of Nursing Dean Marla Salmon, Professor Jagdish Sheth, Shariffa Al-Jabri, Madhu Sheth, President Wagner, and Vice Provost for International Affairs Holli Semetko

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International events

Emory Alumni Celebrate Israel Chapter’s Inaugural Event Last October, members of the new Emory Alumni Israel chapter held their inaugural event at the Liberty Bell Garden, Jerusalem’s central city park. Created in 1976 in honor of the U.S. Bicentennial, the park holds a replica of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell. There are nearly 60 Emory alumni living in Israel.

For more information on the Emory Alumni Association, visit www.alumni.emory.edu

(left to right) Amanda Sue Niskar 95PH, Jackie Bitensky 90C, Ben Brewer 05C, Julie Nemirovsky 06B, Lauren Skiba 06C, and Richard Kanton 68C

Conference on International Finance The Halle Institute’s Program on Governance and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta hosted the sixth meeting of a research group on the Political Economy of International Finance (PEIF), co-sponsored by Emory’s Department of Political Science and the UCLA International Institute. The conference was devoted to scholarship on the economics and politics of international monetary and financial arrangements. The papers presented addressed the effects of political risk on the behavior of multinational corporations, the effects of currency unions on monetary policy autonomy, the impact of globalization on political accountability, the influence of hard pegs on monetary and political credibility, and the role of non-economic partnerships in promoting international economic exchange. “The quality of the discussion and the mix of economists, political scientists, and policy-makers is what makes this conference so special and unique,” said Mark Hallerberg, associate professor of political science at Emory University.

For more information on the conference, visit www.halleinstitute.emory.edu

President Mádl of Hungary Visits Emory “Although the official 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was held nearly a year ago,” said Senior Visiting Scholar in Emory’s Department of Russian and East Asian Studies Gyula Kodolányi, “the last ripples and hopes of the revolution really didn’t die out until March of 1957.” It was perfect timing to commemorate the revolution at Emory in March 2007. Panelists included, among others, former President of Hungary Ferenc Mádl who also spoke at the World Law Institute’s inaugural conference. Launched with a dinner held at The Carter Center, Mádl and his wife Dalma presented former President Jimmy Carter with a medal as thanks for his efforts on behalf of the Hungarian people.

For more information on the conference, visit www.law. emory.edu

Speakers at the panel included: (left to right) Hungarian Ambassador to the United States Andras Simonyi; Vice Provost for International Affairs Holli Semetko; Gyula Kodolányi; Ferenc Mádl; and AcademyAward-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who showed details from his 1962 film Hungary in Revolt.

Hunter-Gault Offers New News Out of Africa As a member of Emory’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Board (EMEA), Awardwinning journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault visited Emory for the Board’s annual meeting and also took time as a Halle Distinguished Fellow to speak about her new book, New News Out of Africa. The first black woman to attend the University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault has lived in Africa since 1997, where she has worked as chief Africa correspondent for National Public Radio, and until 2005 as Johannesburg bureau chief for CNN. For more information on this event, visit www.halleinstitute.emory.edu Photo by Alma Freeman

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EMORY in the world

Conference on HIV/AIDS in India Emory’s South Asian Studies Program hosted an interdisciplinary conference on the question “What’s Indian About HIV/AIDS in India?” India now surpasses South Africa with more than 5.2 million cases of HIV/AIDS afflicting the country’s most productive age group. Over 150 leading academics and experts from India and the U.S. discussed the various ways the global community has reacted to the epidemic in India and also considered future scenarios.

For more information, visit www.asianstudies.emory.edu/sa

Hubert Professor of Global Health Venkat Narayan speaks during the conference held at the Emory Conference Center. Photo by Mehmet Baysan

Rushdie Delivers Sheth Lecture Salman Rushdie delivered the first public lecture of his five-year tenure as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University. Part of the Sheth Lecture Series in Indian Studies, the lecture focused on an extraordinary set of paintings – the Hamzanama or “The Adventures of Hamza” – commissioned by the Mughal Emperor known as Akbar the Great, who was only 13 years old when he ascended to the throne in the mid 16th-century. Over the course of 15 years, 100 artists worked in teams to create 1,400 “composite” paintings bound into 14 volumes, a feat that Rushdie called “an example of what human beings can achieve when their creativity is brought together in a common cause.”

For more information, on the Sheth Lecture Series, visit www.asianstudies.emory.edu/sa Emory’s Distinguished Writer in Residence Salman Rushdie. Photo by Ann Borden

Emory Hosts Tibet Week “His Holiness argues that true compassion must start from one’s self – an individual who is incapable of caring for his or her own welfare will be unable to connect with others,” said Halle Distinguished Fellow Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the principle English language interpreter for the Dalai Lama and Halle Distinguished Fellow, at a lecture during the annual Emory-Tibet Partnership sponsored Tibet Week held at Emory March 19-24.

The week began with an introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation given by the Brendan Ozawa de Silva, associate director of the Drepung Loseling Monastery. The next day marked the beginning of a five-day exhibition of sand mandala painting, during which monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery crafted an image of White Tara – a female Buddha representing enlightened wisdom – by artistically pouring millions of grains of colored sand into place and sweeping the work away on the last day. The exhibition also featured a workshop for children to participate in the joyful process of mandala sand painting.

The week’s other events included a film screening of Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet as well as a lecture on Tibetan art and global culture given by Robert Barnett, director of

Geshe Thupten Jinpa at Emory. Photo by Craig Semetko

Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University. Emory students were also given the opportunity through an information session to learn about Tibetan studies at Emory and abroad at Emory’s partner institution, the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, in Dharamsala, India.

For more information on Tibet Week, visit www.tibet. emory.edu

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UNIVERSITY Office of International Affairs | Box 52, Administration Building Emory University | Atlanta, Georgia 30322 USA

Back cover art: On display at Emory’s Schatten Gallery from March 19-May 21, “Dreaming Cows” is a series of nearly 70 paintings, pen drawings, and color photographs from artist Betty LaDuke that reflect her experiences as she visited Heifer International’s “Not a Cup But a Cow” project sites in seven countries. The exhibit is presented by Emory’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies program and Heifer International, an organization that provides livestock, trees, training, and other resources to help poor families to become more self-reliant. For more information on Emory’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, visit www.lacsp.emory.edu