Wednesday evening, the speaker series, Women: Voices of Leadership and Voices on the Margins, brought in guest speaker, Dr. Shuchi Karim. Students and staff gathered to listen to Karim speak about her experience as a woman scholar. 

Karim is from Bangladesh and is part of Scholars at Risk (SAR), a program that helps temporarily place displaced scholars at institutions to let them continue their research and studies. 

Director of the School of Multidisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities Julie Mazzei created the speaker series as a way to educate students about women international scholars and create outreach for the program. 

“When I started interviewing women Iraqi academics, I could just hear the desperation in their voices,” Mazzei said. “One woman, as an Iraqi scientist, who had to flee, it was as though she lost her scientific credentials even though she had all these things, nobody treated her like she did.” 

In the future, Mazzei’s goal is to host a scholar for about two years at Kent, where they would be able to teach their own class and continue their research. 

“There’s a disconnect, I’m doing this work, I know these problems exist,” Mazzei said. “We are sitting here at this university talking about how we want a more diverse faculty and we want more diverse voices and they’re here, we just have to bring them in.” 

During the event, Karim talked about her experience leaving her home country and trying to find work in other places. Karim also discussed her field of women, gender and sexuality studies. 

“I have just appreciated seeing her ability to lead and give voice,” Mazzei said. “And I know that is the type of voice we miss when those scholars don’t make it out.” 

Via Gast, a sophomore political science major, heard about the event and thought it would be a great opportunity to hear from international voices. 

“This is a fantastic opportunity to dip my toes in, get some new perspectives on issues, see how a specific program is working and how the people that are leaving the program are doing.” Gast said. 

Gast left the event with an understanding of the importance of programs like SAR and how focusing on international and multicultural perspectives can benefit people. 

“The more students hear about outside their own experience, the better off,” Mazzei said. “It’s a segway to show how much beautiful knowledge there is in the world, and we don’t have it. We need to create opportunities to learn from other people.”

Gast was happy they came to the event and called the speaker fantastic. 

“I think she was a wonderful speaker and incredibly interesting,” Gast said. “I think if you came here and you’re not someone who’s focused on these topics, you can still take so much away from it and just find really fantastic and interesting new ideas to float around in your head.” 

Mazzei hopes students leave having learned many new ideas and concepts they may not have thought about before. 

“I hope they take away how much awesomeness there is around the world that you don’t know about,” Mazzei said. “And you have to go out and look for it.” 

Adrianna Quinlan is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].