AUS students present research at International History Conference

Students of American University of Sharjah (AUS) presented their research at an international conference of Revisiting Refugees' Narratives held on May 15 and May 16, 2014 at AUS. This international conference adopted a multidisciplinary approach to psychology and history and furthermore aimed to combine professional scholarship with undergraduate study.

The conference that was funded by AUS's Collaborative Teaching Grant broke new pedagogical ground because as part of their class assignment and project, students were actually required to write and deliver conference papers. Also, the conference helped push the boundaries for what may be achieved with a collaborative teaching; students who took this course gained the experience of presenting at an international conference and doing interdisciplinary research on a sensitive and challenging topic.

Dr. Stephen Keck, Associate Professor and Head of the Department, Department of International Studies, said, "We are proud of the fact that our students delivered impressive papers and, in so doing, developed a greater capacity to comprehend what is required to address some of the realities of collective mass traumas."

Dr. Sabrina Janine Tahboub-Schulte, Associate Professor International Studies, said, "The conference was unique in its approach by incorporating students' research papers and exposing them to an international interdisciplinary audience. We heard many traumatic narratives but at the same time our joint efforts in focusing on the survivors and trying to shed more light on their voices, I believe we were able to maintain a hopeful message throughout. We strongly believe that all of us greatly benefited from this event."