{"id":44427,"date":"2017-03-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=44427"},"modified":"2017-03-09T14:00:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T19:00:02","slug":"asian-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/03\/09\/asian-atmosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_44430\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/03\/09\/asian-atmosphere\/18635-jim-hannah-student-profile-ummey-tabassum-2-24-17-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-44430\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44430\" class=\"wp-image-44430 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2017\/03\/Ummey-Tabassum-18635-010-508x342.jpg\" width=\"460\" height=\"310\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ummey Tabassum, a student in Wright State&#8217;s Master of Public Administration and International Comparative Politics programs, attended a prestigious Harvard conference on issues in the Asia-Pacific region. (Photo by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ummey Tabassum, a Wright State University graduate student from the South Asian nation of Bangladesh, took part in a prestigious conference at Harvard University convened for future leaders to discuss issues in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n<p>The 2017 Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations was held Feb. 17-20.<\/p>\n<p>The project is an internationally recognized student-run organization at Harvard that hosts forums to discuss the most important economic, political and social issues in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n<p>About 300 students attended the conference. The delegates hailed from India, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Australia and other countries. Past speakers at conferences include Kim Dae-Jung, former president of South Korea and 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Peter Hollingworth, governor general of Australia; Ban Ki-moon, former secretary general of the United Nations; and John Thomas, former U.S. ambassador to Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum was told that this year\u2019s application process to attend the conference was particularly competitive, but that her application impressed organizers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHPAIR believes that finding common ground in Asian-Pacific issues is a dynamic and innovative process, which integrates ideas and actions from across Asia and indeed, the whole world,\u201d Larry Zhang, executive director, said in a letter to Tabassum. \u201cIt is only through the active participation of highly qualified delegates like you that this understanding and process can be realized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum participated in the Humanitarian Affairs track, an area in which she was especially interested. There were three sessions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFinding Representation in Asia,\u201d with speakers Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch; and Pawan Deshpande, director of the Hindu America Foundation<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMigration and Displacement,\u201d featuring Danilo Mandic, a comparative historical sociologist in Harvard\u2019s Department of Sociology; and Emma Teng, the T.T. and Wei Fong Chao professor of Asian civilizations at MIT<\/li>\n<li>\u201cProtecting Justice During Asia\u2019s Transition,\u201d with speakers Tim Ryan, director of the Asia Regional Solidarity Center; Puvan Selvanathan, CEO of the Bluenumber Foundation; and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, associate professor of law and development at MIT\u2019s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and director of MIT\u2019s Program on Human Rights and Justice<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the Humanitarian Affairs panels featured professors and fellows from Harvard and MIT who discussed migration, displacement and refugee crises. Part of the discussion was about the definition of refugees and how they are differentiated \u2014 whether they are just migrating or if they are fleeing a conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum said the session was highly interactive, offered various perspectives and that she learned a lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great opportunity to explore international relations in terms of Asia, but it was also good for my professional development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum studied politics, philosophy and economics at Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh, a school with more than 600 students from 15 countries across Asia and the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>While working on her bachelor\u2019s degree, she became interested in developmental studies and international relations. She would eventually like to work as an administrator for an international nonprofit development organization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t work in development, who else will?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum enrolled at Wright State in 2014 after winning a scholarship and a graduate assistantship. She is working on her <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/school-of-public-and-international-affairs\/master-of-arts-in-international-and-comparative-politics\">master\u2019s degree in international comparative politics<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/school-of-public-and-international-affairs\/master-of-public-administration\">public administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe professors \u2014 they\u2019re really amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Tabassum plans to share her Harvard experience with fellow Wright State students. She is currently applying for internships and hopes to work on projects in her native Bangladesh after graduation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ummey Tabassum will share what she learned about humanitarian issues with other students and her native Bangladesh. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/03\/09\/asian-atmosphere\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":44429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2060,725,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44427"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44433,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44427\/revisions\/44433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}