UH Manoa Andrews Chair Presents "Islam & America: a War Time Story"

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Ricardo Trimillos, (808) 956-6085
Chair
Steven O'Harrow, (808) 956-2676
Posted: Mar 11, 2003

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s Center for Southeast Asian Studies announces the 2003 Andrews Lecture, "Islam & America: A War Time Story," to be presented by Dr. Wazir Jahan Begum, binti Abdul Karim, on Wednesday, March 19, at 3:30 p.m., in the Center for Korean Studies auditorium at UH Mānoa.

Originating from Malaysia, Karim was selected as UH Mānoa‘s Southeast Asian Studies Andrews Professor for 2003, and teaches a seminar entitled "Asian Perspectives on Asia." The seminar examines current issues of politics, economics and culture, which threaten Asia‘s autonomy and deconstruction.

Karim, who received her B.A. in social sciences at the National University of Singapore and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology and political science at the London School of Economics, is a professor of anthropology at Universiti Sains Malaysia and director of the Academy of Social Sciences. She has conducted extensive research on indigenous minorities in Peninsular Malaysia, women in politics, culture and religion, and more specifically, issues of social transformation.

A pioneer for women and minorities, Karim founded the Southeast Asian Women‘s Studies Association in 1978, initiated the formation of the Academy of Social Sciences, co-founded the Southeast Asian Association of Gender Studies in 1995, and was the first woman anthropologist in Malaysia to live with aborigines in the Mangrove rainforest. She was recently appointed the founding director of KANITA, the Women‘s Development Research Centre, which is the first research and advocacy center on women‘s development to be set up in a university in Malaysia.

Karim has authored and edited several books on minorities and women including "Emotions of Culture: A Malay Perspective," "Women and Culture: Between Malay Adat and Islam" and "ʻMale‘ and ʻFemale‘ in Developing Southeast Asia." She has received several fellowships, visiting professorships and awards for academic excellence including the Ford Foundation Fellowship, the Fulbright Fellowship, the University of Oslo Visiting Professorship at the Institute of Anthropology, and the Rotary Gold Medal in 1999 for outstanding achievements in the social sciences.

For more information, call 956-2676. The lecture is free and open to the public.