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The University of Nebraska at Omaha has received a $1.3 million federal grant that a UNO Afghanistan expert said stands to reinvigorate a long-standing relationship between UNO and Afghanistan's oldest and largest university.
Through the grant, UNO's Center for Afghan Studies and its<B> </B>School of Communication will partner to provide development and student-faculty exchange programs for the journalism school at Kabul University, said Tom Gouttierre, dean of international studies and programs at UNO.
The grant, which comes from the U.S. State Department through its Fulbright program, was awarded over three years.
UNO has had a sister university relationship with Kabul University since 1976. In fact, Kabul University was UNO's first sister university, Gouttierre said.
He said he's excited about renewing the relationship between the two universities in a more formal way after 30-some years of conflict and totalitarian control in Afghanistan.
"It's never been a relationship we considered dead," he said. "But in some ways, it was a bit in limbo."
Gouttierre said he looks forward not only to exposing Afghans to journalism as it's practiced in the United States but also to connecting Nebraskans to Afghans who can communicate about circumstances in their country.
Exchanges between Afghans and Nebraskans, too, have a long history. Kabul University's current president, Hameedullah Amin, was a visiting faculty member at UNO during the 1976-77 school year. A geographer, he also took courses at UNO.
From the 1970s through the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, UNO held State Department contracts to help develop programs at Kabul University in education, agriculture, education administration and several other disciplines.
Even after the invasion, the university continued to work with faculty from Kabul University who went to Pakistan as refugees, Gouttierre said. Direct engagement in Afghanistan ended with the country's civil war.
But over the past decade, the Center for Afghan Studies again has been busy, bringing in Afghan teachers for training so that they could train other teachers back home, and training American military personnel who will be stationed in Afghanistan.
The new contract, however, is the first to bring UNO back into direct collaboration with Kabul University in a high-profile discipline, Gouttierre said.
UNO officials will help the Kabul journalism school update curriculum and textbooks and help its students and faculty catch up with journalistic practices in the rest of the world, he said.
"It's a vital, vibrant time for the media in Afghanistan," he said.
UNO staff and faculty probably will go to Afghanistan in December to begin assessing needs there, he said. The first Afghans probably would come to Nebraska in early spring.
Plans call for Afghans to meet and work with print and broadcast journalists in Omaha and in greater Nebraska, including at The World-Herald, just as teachers in the education exchange program visited urban and rural parts of the state, he said.
Scottsbluff and Gering, for example, have a sister city relationship with Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
Contact the writer:
444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
Through the grant, UNO's Center for Afghan Studies and its<B> </B>School of Communication will partner to provide development and student-faculty exchange programs for the journalism school at Kabul University, said Tom Gouttierre, dean of international studies and programs at UNO.
The grant, which comes from the U.S. State Department through its Fulbright program, was awarded over three years.
UNO has had a sister university relationship with Kabul University since 1976. In fact, Kabul University was UNO's first sister university, Gouttierre said.
He said he's excited about renewing the relationship between the two universities in a more formal way after 30-some years of conflict and totalitarian control in Afghanistan.
"It's never been a relationship we considered dead," he said. "But in some ways, it was a bit in limbo."
Gouttierre said he looks forward not only to exposing Afghans to journalism as it's practiced in the United States but also to connecting Nebraskans to Afghans who can communicate about circumstances in their country.
Exchanges between Afghans and Nebraskans, too, have a long history. Kabul University's current president, Hameedullah Amin, was a visiting faculty member at UNO during the 1976-77 school year. A geographer, he also took courses at UNO.
From the 1970s through the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, UNO held State Department contracts to help develop programs at Kabul University in education, agriculture, education administration and several other disciplines.
Even after the invasion, the university continued to work with faculty from Kabul University who went to Pakistan as refugees, Gouttierre said. Direct engagement in Afghanistan ended with the country's civil war.
But over the past decade, the Center for Afghan Studies again has been busy, bringing in Afghan teachers for training so that they could train other teachers back home, and training American military personnel who will be stationed in Afghanistan.
The new contract, however, is the first to bring UNO back into direct collaboration with Kabul University in a high-profile discipline, Gouttierre said.
UNO officials will help the Kabul journalism school update curriculum and textbooks and help its students and faculty catch up with journalistic practices in the rest of the world, he said.
"It's a vital, vibrant time for the media in Afghanistan," he said.
UNO staff and faculty probably will go to Afghanistan in December to begin assessing needs there, he said. The first Afghans probably would come to Nebraska in early spring.
Plans call for Afghans to meet and work with print and broadcast journalists in Omaha and in greater Nebraska, including at The World-Herald, just as teachers in the education exchange program visited urban and rural parts of the state, he said.
Scottsbluff and Gering, for example, have a sister city relationship with Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
Contact the writer:
444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
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