Editor's Note: This story is part of an ongoing series about student excellence at the university. To read more about some of ASU's outstanding students, click here.

It’s fair to say that Jeremiah Chin is not one to shy away from an intellectual challenge. The 26-year-old ASU student is simultaneously completing two graduate programs – a doctoral degree in justice and social inquiry in the School of Social Transformation and a juris doctor in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.  Download Full Image

“It sounded like a good idea at the time,” jokes the soft-spoken Chin, when asked about his decision to pursue the demanding joint-degree option. “Actually, I can see the bleed-over in most courses. Civil procedures, torts and even contracts issues are discussed in justice studies courses. And the 'Theoretical Perspectives on Justice' doctoral course and the 'Critical Race Theory' law class both balance legal and theoretical perspectives. So the degrees are supplementing each other pretty well.”

Chin is committed to leveraging law to achieve social justice, planning to first practice law in the public interest realm. “I’d like to practice with an organization focused on racial justice work, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, or maybe doing NAACP law work,” he says. “Eventually I’d like to go on to teach at a law school.”  

It’s a path that Chin has been forging since his undergraduate days at the University of Utah, where, as a social justice major, his interests already included legal theory and cultural criticism and, as a first-year student, he began working as a research associate in the Center for the Study of Empowered Students of Color. (The Utah center was then directed by Bryan Brayboy, who continues to be a mentor to Chin, now director of the Center for Indian Education at ASU and Borderlands Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Social Transformation.) 

Chin’s early professionalization has also been shaped by his involvement with the national LatCrit (Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory) collective. The organization highlights Latina/o – and other traditionally subordinated communities’ – concerns and voices in legal discourse and social policy. 

By his sophomore year, he was engaged in student activism on a range of justice issues, as well as intellectual analysis and critique of the political and cultural milieu in which student activists, especially those of color, experience justice work. His participation in a fall 2006 LatCrit conference panel on this topic led to his co-authorship of a 21-page article published in the Nevada Law Review the following summer. 

Chin next attended LatCrit in 2011 as an ASU graduate student, with the help, he says, of ASU professor Mary Romero and Brayboy. The paper he delivered there, “What a Load of Hope: The Post-Racial Mixtape,” was eventually published in the California Western Law Review.  

“Jeremiah wrote a brilliant analysis of how recent legal constructions of race, rooted in the rhetoric of colorblindness and individual rights, are dismantling the legal achievements of the civil rights movement,” Brayboy explains. “Symptomatic of the shifting legal rhetoric, for example, is a Supreme Court opinion citing Brown v. Board of Education to support the de-integration of public schools.

“As a mentor, I can say it’s been thrilling to see this young man develop his voice as a scholar ... a powerful voice in illuminating important legal and justice issues of our time.” 

This fall, the above observation was validated in an international arena, when Chin earned LatCrit’s highest student honor; in October he was named the 2013 LatCrit Student Scholar and given Best Paper honor. The competition is open to students pursuing intellectual agendas in race, ethnicity and the law, who are writing in English in any accredited degree program in the world. A portfolio of material, including a previously unpublished paper, statement of purpose and vita is judged by a distinguished faculty panel.

Chin's paper "Red Law, White Supremacy: Cherokee Freedmen, Tribal Sovereignty, and the Colonial Feedback Loop" was a standout among this year’s submissions, as was his documented involvement in social justice activism. In the paper, he looks to alternatives outside federal courts to resolve complex disputes arising from a 2007 Constitutional amendment passed by the Cherokee Nation that essentially terminated citizenship of some 2,800 living descendants of Cherokee Freedmen (slaves once owned by Cherokee citizens). 

“My research explores a potential avenue of change that would recognize the Cherokee Freedmen as Cherokee citizens, without relying on a federal court decision. A court decision for the Freedmen would override the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation and set a dangerous precedent in federal Indian law,” Chin explains. “A victory for the Cherokee Nation would ensure their sovereign status, but perpetuate Black disenfranchisement.” 

His solution harnesses the power of Article 6 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP), which asserts that “every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.”

“I suggest expanding the conceptual understanding of Indigineity to apply to Cherokee Freedmen and applying DRIP through Cherokee courts,” writes Chin. “The Cherokee Nation has consistently expressed support for DRIP and urged its application in the United States. If the Cherokee Nation is serious about making DRIP a real manifestation of the power of Indigenous peoples, why not set the example? 

“The first step is recognizing that the Freedmen are Indigenous peoples, regardless of Indian blood quantum. As the direct, traceable descendants of freed slaves, Freedmen are peoples who did not immigrate to the United States, but were forcibly taken from their ancestral lands and enslaved by the United States, the Cherokee Nation and other sovereigns. While Freedmen may or may not be ‘Indian’ in the U.S. federal sense, they are Indigenous in the international, historical sense as peoples who ‘have suffered from historic injustices as a result of, inter alia, their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources,’ thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.” 

Chin developed the paper in professor Rebecca Tsosie's law course on Critical Race Theory and he's integrating the research into the master's-in-passing thesis he's completing in the Justice and Social Inquiry doctoral program. 

The prestigious award covered airfare, registration, meals and lodging to attend the 2013 LatCrit Biennial Conference and faculty development workshop in Chicago in October. It also includes the assignment of a LatCrit faculty member to offer mentoring as Chin further develops the paper for publication.

“I am so proud of Jeremiah for earning this award,” says Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, faculty director of the Indian Legal Program in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and Chin’s coach for the 2012 moot court competition. “Jeremiah is one of the most persuasive oral advocates in the Indian Legal Program. His strong advocacy, superb analytical skills and intimate knowledge of federal Indian law resulted in his team advancing to the semi-final round at the National Native American Law Students Association Moot Court competition.” 

In addition to juggling his coursework and extracurricular interests, Chin also holds a graduate assistantship in the Center for Indian Education, working with Brayboy to research a variety of issues related to Indigenous education, law and conceptions of sovereignty. 

“I’m currently reviewing articles, book chapters and other publications that relate to colorism,” he explains. “We’re looking at how race and also basic differences in appearances in skin tone impact American Indian students’ experience in society in general, and in educational settings specifically. For example, we’re digging into old Senate hearings to see how American Indians were talked about by those in power and to see what kinds of benefits they did or didn’t receive in terms of education or in the way they were treated in general.”

Brayboy continues to appreciate the intellectual rigor and range of perspectives Chin brings to his work. 

“Jeremiah is a rare talent,” Brayboy says. “He is well-read, deeply thoughtful and brings an intellectual engagement to issues of justice that is uncommon. His recent LatCrit award corroborates what we have known to be true for a long time: Jeremiah Chin is very, very bright, committed to issues of justice and is primed to be an advocate for those in our society who need a champion.”

A team of ASU undergraduate students took first place in the Supercomputing 2013 (SC13) Student Cluster Competition held Nov. 20-21 in Denver. The competition required students to work nearly non-stop over a 48-hour period to assemble and test a small computing cluster – a group of tethered computers that can perform a series of applications.

The team included juniors Clint Shuman, a computer science major; Gabe Martin, a computer systems engineering student; Ben Prather, a physics major; and Christian Ivaneok, an informatics major. Download Full Image

The students competed against three teams in the Commodity Cluster track, which limits the students to a budget of $2,500 and a strict energy draw limit of 15 amps. Prior to the competition, the students worked with mentors from ASU’s Advanced Computing Center (A2C2) to build the cluster, using affordable and commercially available components. A2C2 was the ASU team’s sponsor. Support for the team was also provided by the School for Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering.

“The team’s goal was to have all of the hardware selected and set up so that all we had to do at the competition was power it up, do some fine-tuning, submit it different tasks and watch the machine successfully complete each challenge,” says Frank Timmes, a team mentor and the director of A2C2.

Teams raced to complete the most software applications in front of an audience and other competitors. For one task, students were given the data set for Weather Research Forecasting software to run on their cluster. They were instructed to set it up and simulate the monitoring of Hurricane Sandy. After working through a variety of tasks, each team was interviewed by a team of judges who tested their knowledge of the diverse applications.

In the Commodity Cluster track, the ASU team won an award for the Lowest Dollars-per-gigaFLOPS by spending just $4.96 per gigaFLOPS. FLOP refers to “floating point operations.” In simple terms, the ASU team was able to do the most cluster operations per dollar spent.

“Using minimal energy is important because it generates less heat, and less heat means less money has to be spent on an advanced cooling system,” says team member Ivaneok. The Commodity Cluster track included a “green computing” goal, which the ASU team’s cluster was able to meet by performing the most gigaFLOPS (per dollar) per watt of energy.

Ivaneok says the team chose to pursue the Commodity Cluster track challenge because they didn’t want to rely too heavily on industry sponsors to provide good equipment. “We liked the challenge of doing it with limited means,” says Martin.

An additional challenge for the ASU team was competing with only four team members, while other teams had five. Ivaneok says he is proud of their ability to bring home a first-place award despite this disadvantage.

Both Ivaneok and Martin describe the competition as a lot of fun. “We’re all a bunch of geeks and we had a lot of fun getting to know the other teams. There wasn’t anything cutthroat about the competition,” says Ivaneok.

Most team members got involved because of their interest in the technical aspects of learning to build a cluster. But in the end, they say they’re glad they entered the competition because of the time spent together and the networking opportunities.

“It was especially motivating to meet industry workers that got their start at the same competition five years earlier,” says Ivaneok.

“The competition taught me a lot about networking and social skills,” adds Martin.

The ASU team was mentored by Timmes and other A2C2 staff members, including Charlie Collins, the operations manager; Mohamed Sayeed, applications specialist; and Marisa Brazil, the senior coordinator of projects and programs.

“We wanted to mentor this team because we believe in the fantastic educational and career enhancing opportunities this provided for the students,” says Timmes. “The opportunity will give them a deeper understanding of the technology used in much of 21st-century science and engineering,” he adds.

Ivaneok says, “I speak on behalf of all of us in expressing our appreciation for the mentorship that the A2C2 mentors provided us. Honestly, working with them and my teammates in this competition is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s even up there with hockey and off-roading.”

The team hopes to obtain the sponsorship they will need to compete again next year.

The Student Cluster Competition was part of the annual Supercomputing Conference (SC13) sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society. The conference offers a complete technical education program and an exhibition to showcase the many ways high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce.

Written by Rosie Gochnour

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Editor's Note: This story is part of an ongoing series about student excellence at the university. To read more about some of ASU's outstanding students, click here.

Brenda Soto is the whole package – brains, beauty and a humble attitude that has taken her from a small town in Mexico to life in the spotlight as a prominent role model for the Latina community. Download Full Image

Soto’s family made the decision to move to Arizona to pursue a better life and quality education. The move paid off as she is now studying civil engineering at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She plans to become a structural engineer and work on bridges and building infrastructure.

Earlier this year she was crowned Miss Arizona Latina, a pageant competition that celebrates Latina beauty and culture in both the state and the nation.

Before she took the crown, Soto went through weeks of rigorous training that included etiquette classes, fitness classes and runway and interviewing techniques. During this time, she also had to juggle studying for her finals.

“The coronation was really nerve-wracking. I was shocked when I won because there were 32 other girls in the competition. I had previously done some modeling as a hobby, but never anything like this,” she said.

After the Miss Arizona Latina pageant, Soto went on to compete in the Miss United States Latina competition. She didn’t win, but describes the ordeal as “life changing,” nonetheless. She says she enjoyed being around a group of girls who shared similar dreams and values.

“It helped me grow both personally and professionally into a more well-round individual,” she said.

The Miss Arizona Latina Organization holds a series of community service events throughout the year. Earlier this year, Soto took part in a school supply fundraiser for young children in need.

Being in the spotlight has given her the opportunity to act as a positive role model for young Latina girls.

“A lot of girls will message me on Facebook and say they look up to me. Seeing me succeed has given them hope that they can accomplish their dreams. It inspires me to be the best I can,” she said.

This spring, the ASU junior will travel to San Diego with the Concrete Canoe team to present at a conference sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers. She is also searching for an internship to gain hands-on training in the field.

For a while it seemed that João Paulo Faria Tasso would be a professional soccer player.

The Brazilian doctoral student from the University of Brasília (UnB), who is studying sustainable tourism at Arizona State University as part of the year-long Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program scholarship, played for local and state clubs and teams, and stayed away from home beginning at age 13 for soccer. Download Full Image

“Then, at the age of 18, I sustained a leg and ankle injury, and my soccer days came to an end,” Tasso says. “It was disappointing, but not heartbreaking. My family had always encouraged me to focus on my education, so I just shifted 100 percent of my attention to sustainable tourism studies.”

Tasso’s doctoral dissertation research, the majority of which has been conducted at the Laboratory for Tourism and Sustainability at UnB, is focused on sustainable tourism. More specifically, he studies how the phenomena of social inclusion and exclusion affect the economic status of natives living in regions with tourism potential.

“Brazil is one of world’s leading destinations for ecotourism,” he says. “As a sustainable tourism researcher, I look for opportunities that can further develop the tourism industry and, at the same time, benefit native populations, most of which remain mired in poverty.”

To learn and understand their lives and needs, Tasso once spent a month with local farmers and fishermen families that have no access to sewer and others basic facilities.

“It changed my perspective on life,” he says. “They were very happy with what they had. Their only need was to be acknowledged and recognized for the role they play in sustaining the fragile ecosystems they reside in. Their traditional activities, products and workforce need to be protected by the tourism market and included systematically.”

To gain an outlook on global sustainable tourism and ways in which it can benefit poverty-ridden natives, Tasso decided to apply for the BSMP scholarship program, launched by the Brazilian government to boost international education and collaborative research. He arrived at ASU six months ago.

“ASU has proved to be a great experience for me in terms of education and campus life,” he says. “I am working under Kathleen Andereck, director of the School of Community Resources and Development, to understand topics such as sustainable communities and livelihoods, community resilience, sustainability and equity, structural cohesion and embeddedness, community-based tourism, etc.”

In terms of campus experience, Tasso appreciates the discussion-oriented classes and the sense of family offered by the ASU community. He has made a number of friends from all over the world with whom he plays soccer and, sometimes, the guitar. The Brazilian native has even cheered on the Sun Devils at football games.

“It’s not easy to live a year in a country that is culturally different,” he says. “I have moments when I miss home or Brazilian food or speaking Portuguese, but the friendliness and warmth of people at ASU has been a great support system.”

In the long term, Tasso sees himself educating people on the advantages of sustainable tourism. He also hopes to demonstrate that a fair-trade agreement between the poverty-stricken native population and hospitality industry can enhance job opportunities, maintain or enhance the price of local products, and provide financial stability for locals.

“The challenge of doing something for someone drives me,” Tasso says. “It would be an honor for me to improve the lives of thousands of Brazilians through my work.”

Arizona State University has been selected as one of 20 leading U.S. universities to serve as an academic institute for the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the new flagship program of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

Led by the College of Public Programs, ASU will host 25 young African leaders for a six-week professional civic leadership training institute at the Downtown Phoenix Campus. Download Full Image

Launched in 2010, YALI is the Obama Administration’s signature effort to support young African leaders in their effort to spur growth, strengthen governance and enhance peace and security across Africa. The new Washington Fellowship aims to create opportunities for young leaders to gain practical new skills that can be applied to public service and business.

“We are very excited to be part of this effort. Through this program, we leverage our college’s strengths in social entrepreneurship and civic engagement to advance efforts to enhance the leadership skills, spur innovative thinking and connect young leaders from around the world,” says Jonathan Koppell, dean of the College of Public Programs.

Welcoming promising leaders

ASU’s effort brings together faculty and practitioners from the School of Public Affairs, School of Community Resources and Development, MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program and Changemaker Central.

Washington Fellows will learn through applied coursework tailored to their cohort. Curriculum will help fellows gain broad understanding of citizenship, ethics, leadership, community building, economic development and the role of technology in community engagement. They will meet with civic and community leaders – including the large African refugee populations who call Phoenix home – and see firsthand the challenges and successes in developing strong civic leadership models through trips to communities throughout Arizona.

The transdisciplinary program combines social entrepreneurship with innovative community development and civic leadership best practice models. The goal is to provide a basis for exploring capacity building and fostering positive change. The coursework covers a range of organizational activities and structures, including public, private and nonprofit.

Changemaker Central will lead unique service learning experiences for each fellow. Through ASU’s connections in the Phoenix area, participants will have the opportunity to gain skills relevant to their focus area – economic development, food security, education or other core concerns for their communities.  

All 500 participants around the country will attend a summit in Washington D.C. and 100 fellows will stay for follow-on internships throughout the U.S.

Leveraging international expertise, connections

Students from more than 120 countries around the world attend ASU, ranking it 11th among all colleges and universities in the country as a top choice for international students. During the 2012-2013 academic year, international student enrollment increased by nearly 30 percent to 6,645 students.

“Hosting the Washington Fellowship for Young Leaders program is an excellent opportunity for ASU and The MasterCard Foundation Scholars currently on campus. We look forward to providing opportunities for these two groups of future African leaders to engage in dynamic discussions about civic leadership,” says Aryn Baxter, director, The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at ASU.

A first step in a larger effort

The fellowship serves as the beginning of their training. The U.S. Government has a long-term investment in the YALI program, working with institutions to create meaningful opportunities in Africa. Civic Leadership Institutes, such as the one hosted at ASU, will be oriented to young Africans who are civically engaged and serving the public through non-governmental organizations, community based organizations or volunteerism. Civic Leadership Institutes will expose participants to the meaning of civic leadership in the U.S., while building technical and leadership capacity in areas such as citizenship, community building, economic development, grassroots activism, political organizing and leadership, and volunteerism. In order to define the content of the institute and enhance the academic experience, programs may focus on a specific theme or sub-themes, such as organizational management, strategic planning, fundraising, community relations and outreach, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, media and coalition-building.

Fellows also have access to funding. The U.S. African Development Foundation will be awarding over $5 million in small grants during the first three years of the program. The U.S. State Department will help alumni establish and grow organizations or projects through an additional $5 million over the course of the program. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will leverage over $200 million in ongoing youth programs and initiatives through regional hubs that connect Washington Fellows to opportunities.

The program’s goal is to increase to 1,000 participants per year.

The program is sponsored by th Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of th United States Department of State and IREX. To learn more about YALI and the Washington Fellowship, visit youngafricanleaders.state.gov.

ASU men's basketball is partnering with the ASU Chicano/Latino Faculty & Staff Association (CLFSA) for the first Pac-12 game against the Washington Huskies at 6 p.m., Jan. 2, at  Wells Fargo Arena. Tickets are $13 per person and include pre-game activities such as a meet and greet with a member of the basketball coaching staff and a visit from Sparky.

During the game, ASU will honor Alberto Ríos, Regents' Professor and current CLFSA president, for his recent appointment as the inaugural Arizona Poet Laureate. Ríos is the author of 10 books and chapbooks, which are small collections of poetry, three collections of short stories and a memoir. Ríos is a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 1982, and holds the further distinction of the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English.  Download Full Image

There are two ways to order tickets: order online at http://promo.sundeviltickets.com and enter the promo code: LATINO, or call Nick Deutsch at Sun Devil Ticket Sales and Services at (480) 727-3521. A portion of every ticket purchased through the Latino promo code will be donated to the ASU-Latino Partnership Scholars Endowment Fund (formerly known as the Una Promesa Endowment Fund) on behalf of CLFSA. ASU students who meet eligibility requirements may apply for CLFSA scholarships. For more information on how to apply for a scholarship, contact joann.martinez@asu.edu.

Founded in the fall of 1970, ASU CLFSA promotes the academic and professional advancements and educational success of the Chicano/Latino community at Arizona State University. http://www.asu.edu/clfsa/.

Media contacts:

Jason Ludwig, JPL@asu.edu
480.965.6677

Diana Bejarano, diana.bejarano@asu.edu
480.965.1604

Higher education presents endless opportunities to make a positive difference in your life, says Kevin Correa, graduating with a master’s degree (MEd) in higher and postsecondary education. 

Despite working full time while earning his degree, he volunteered time to create opportunities for others to achieve their full potential. Download Full Image

“I’ve been fortunate that my graduate program and career have complemented one another very well,” he says. His graduate research focused on the training needs and development of student coaches in the ASU First-Year Success Center, where he works as a program manager.

“Paraprofessionals such as first-year success coaches play a major role in contributing to student success,” he says. “They are on the front lines of a university’s retention efforts.”

Correa also serves as a facilitator for Access ASU's Future Sun Devil Families program, which helps students and families prepare for college. He holds monthly workshops on college preparation at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix.

The desire to see others aim for a better future also resulted in two years as a mentor for the ASU Obama Scholars Program. He joined ASU organizations such as Chicano/Latino Faculty & Staff Association, Ubiquity and Commission on the Status of Women and is a co-editor of the Diversity Works @ ASU report.

“I’m passionate about higher education and the unique opportunities it affords people, as well as the positive impact colleges and universities have on individuals and society,” he says. 

After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and gaining professional experience in higher education, he decided to head to Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU for his graduate education.

“ASU’s commitment to excellence, access and impact, along with its model as a New American University, align closely with my personal core values,” he says.  

The master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education was also a draw, he says, because of its emphasis on professional development, administration, the integration of theory and practice, and the fact that it is geared toward working professionals.

Correa credits supervisors, colleagues, friends and family for their encouragement in the pursuit of his goals. He plans to remain and advance in the field of higher education.  

“I enjoy the rewards and challenges inherent in the field, and I relish the endless opportunities to make a positive difference in the lives of others.”

Cheryl Lynn Blie of the Diné/Navajo tribe has a burning desire to help her community by alleviating some of its modern ills.

“I grew up in Pinon, Arizona, one of the most economically impoverished places on the Navajo Nation,” she says. As a child she was taught the need for discipline and the duty to care for others. “We are instilled with a strong sense to educate yourself so you can give back to the community and your people someday,” she says.  Download Full Image

Yet she saw a rise in violence in Native American communities that began to replicate urban inner city streets. Youths sometimes succumbed to peer pressure, gang life and drugs. “I wanted to understand specifically about prevention and intervention strategies, and what direction we should go using the data and resources obtained thus far.”

With her master’s degree in criminal justice from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the ASU College of Public Programs, she hopes to help chart a new path for her community.

“The Native American people are very culturally and traditionally rich in our way of life, therefore, we have the necessary tools to live in a harmonious way,” she says. Blie is researching intervention methods that emphasize traditional ties and cultural teachings, as well as other crime prevention strategies.  

After receiving her undergraduate degree in political science from Northern Arizona University, she decided to join the criminal justice program at ASU. 

“From the very first day I met the department chair to working with the amazingly supportive faculty, I could not be any happier with the choice I made,” she says. 

As a single parent working full-time throughout the program, she mastered time management skills from the beginning. “Communication with the faculty, staff and advisors has been key,” she says, in resolving schedule conflicts, meeting all deadlines and requirements for school and maintaining a high GPA. 

Encouragement and support has been essential to her success as a first-generation graduate with a master’s degree. Blie credits her Native American grandparents, parents and daughter, as well as friends nationwide.

“I was raised with the values that as a Diné/Navajo woman, I am to educate myself and become aware of the issues that affect my people so I can have a stronger voice when seated at any table, so we can speak with courage, accuracy and conviction.”

“I have also been honored to be part of ASU Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honors Society. This program has opened many doors for me. Along with the motivation to maintain a high GPA, I have been able to meet with possible employers and seek future opportunities, and provide volunteer service here in the Phoenix area and on the Navajo Nation.”

After graduation, she plans to continue work with Native American communities, possibly as a federal agent or criminal investigator. 

“I am very passionate about the research I have devoted myself to, primarily because it affects my people and the future of my people.”

Born in Assam, India, Yasmin Saikia comes from a long line of academics. Her family raised her to be an educated, secular, successful young woman, and to live in the world as a global individual.

It wasn’t until Saikia came to America to study history, however, that she began to study race and had what she describes as a “psychological unhinging.” The inequality that she witnessed here, in what she regarded as the greatest country in the world, reminded her of the caste system in her native India. Download Full Image

After completing a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Saikia became the first South Asian historian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. There, she began studying the effects of violence and war on women and children. She focused on the 1971 war that led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. Her encounters with men and women in refugee camps in Bangladesh and post-war communities in Pakistan inspired her to pursue a career in peace studies.

Today, Saikia is the Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. Also a professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Saikia studies the cultural and religious turmoil affecting marginalized groups in South Asia.

She recently received the 2013 Oral History Association Book Award for “Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971.” The book has been lauded for changing the field of peace studies by centering people as the agents of change developing a new vision of peace through religious humanism.

OKED writer Lorraine Longhi sat down with Saikia to discuss her research, her role at ASU and the evolving definition of peace studies.

Q: Peace studies is an abstract concept. How do you define peace?

A: Peace studies is a discipline in many European universities and colleges, but it is not a discipline in itself in the United States. In America, when we study peace it’s usually just a course here or there. We seem to think of peace as a personal issue, to reach a level of tranquility within ourselves. But to live peacefully with others requires more than just feeling calm and happy. It requires certain negotiations and compromises and accommodations. That makes it into a field of study. There are no countries in the world that have an official peace policy. There are defense and war policies but no peace policies. So to define that sense of peace, living peacefully and interacting with others peacefully, we have to define it ourselves. It cannot be defined in one word. If you ask a Buddhist, they might say peace is “tranquility.” If you ask a Muslim, they would say “surrender.” If you ask a Hindu, they will say it is “liberation.” But peace is not an afterword for war or violence; it is simultaneous. There’s no definition, but I see it as a healthy anxiety. We have to remember it is a human goal that has to be renewed every day in all of our negotiations and interactions, and through generations. It is a horizon that you aspire to. It is a dynamic thing, constantly evolving. Because it’s dynamic, it demands each one of us be constantly vigilant about our humanity.

Q: Your topics are always relevant in times of war and displacement. How can we look at history to solve problems in the present and the future?

A: These are stories that can be shared anywhere at any time because they’re human stories. I try to write about these things not as a historian, but as a journeying woman, trying to see communities that carry the past with them. It’s important to look at the problems with these communities and examine them. Are they historic problems or are they problems that are created? I’m finding very quickly that these problems do not always have deep histories but that they’re very much constructed by the political conditions of our times. They are sudden ruptures. Cleavages between people are created, and studying how these cleavages are created and constructed is important to look forward to a better future. We have to start respecting people and giving them the chance to express their wants and needs instead of imposing our wants and needs. We can’t pretend we know what they want. The cacophonous voices of diverse human concerns must be listened to and respected.

Q: What is one of the biggest challenges in studying such an emotional issue?

A: It’s an extremely emotional and extremely difficult field. I’m dealing with real people and living subjects. To listen to their stories and to be able to recall these stories and tell them to others is very difficult. It is not simply a story. You’re a caretaker of these people’s lives and I’m trying to relate these lives to others to show how we are all alike. I’m very proud when I’m able to convey these emotions and experiences in a way that others can absorb and think about it. The more awareness we create, the more potential we create for peaceful worlds. From that point of view, I feel that the emotion is well-invested. I want people to realize that we all share the same condition. Hopefully somewhere, some change will happen and people will begin a dialogue with one another.

Q: You’ve studied the impacts of war and displacement on men and women. Now your focus has turned to children. What has that experience been like?

A: Studying men and women made me realize I was studying my own generation’s response to history. But what is the legacy of history that we leave behind? I realized the legacy that we leave to our children is our responsibility. I started looking at how children view peace and violence, and how they judge our generation. From children, I’m seeing a very different understanding of peace and violence. The beauty of children is that they are untainted by political circumstances or divisions of hate and prejudice. Children have a mentality of looking introspectively and asking why, and what does peace and violence mean in real life situations; how it affects the other child. This is very different from the way adults theorize peace, as if it is a “management” issue. For children, the feeling for the other is an institutive thing. It is important to study children and their views because we are living and using their future time now; we are borrowing it from them and we have a responsibility because of it.

Q: How difficult is it to translate the issue of peace studies into your classroom?

A: We are human beings and we have to care about one another. To teach that idea is not very easy without making it touchy-feely. To keep it at the level of a critical idea is not very easy. Additionally, there is nobody else at this university that is directly and fully absorbed in the study of peace. There are people who are tangentially interested in the topic, but I have no one else to speak with about where can we really go with this field of study. You need community, and this community still needs to be developed. My hope is that we can become a community of scholars that is thinking of peace as a field of study at ASU. To build that community is one of my biggest challenges.

Q: Why did you decide to come to ASU and become the Hardt-Nickachos chair?

A: I took this position because it gave me the opportunity to work with history through the lens of peace. I had never visited Arizona before, but because of the nature of this position, I came to ASU. I wasn’t just looking for a job – I was looking for a different kind of job that provides new meaning to my scholarship. I believe that if my research and teaching would impact even one person’s life and make him or her think of issues that concern the well-being of others, I have achieved some success. My purpose is not focused so much on building my career. I am now focused on how my career can enable others to contribute to building ethical communities. The university is a wonderful space for this engagement because we have to deal with a variety of others.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

I’m taking it one step at a time. I started as a historian of medieval South Asia, and now I am historian of peace. At this point in my career, I think I’ve realized that I’ll be doing this for a long time. It has become an ethical, an intellectual and a political issue for me. I’m no longer interested in solely writing histories of big issue and big events, but in writing about issues that enhance the thinking about peace dignifying the human at an individual and collective level. My projects will continue to shift and evolve, but the thrust of my research is grounded in the ethics and politics of peace.

The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies are research and academic units in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Written by Lorraine Longhi, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development

At the height of the civil rights movement, hate crimes, boycotts and police riots filled the front page of newspapers. While there were many notable individuals who played part in progressing the movement, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. whose voice rang the loudest in favor of equality and freedom.

This January, Arizona State University will pay tribute to King with a series of events Jan. 18-23. Download Full Image

The Martin Luther King Celebration Committee and Changemaker Central will host the annual Day of Service on Jan. 18. Those interested in serving their community may register now. Transportation will be provided at no cost to the service locations.

On Jan. 22, the March on West will pay homage to the historical “I Have a Dream” speech that King delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. Interactive educational presentations will help students understand the significance of King's impact on our nation's history and in our lives. This event will take place at 11 a.m. at the Paley Gates on the West campus.

A special breakfast celebration honoring community members, student leaders and local schoolchildren will occur on the Downtown Phoenix campus from 7-9 a.m., Jan. 23. ASU President Michael Crow will be in attendance. This event is by invitation only. To request an invite, please call 480-965-5566.

The MLK Student Rally and Organization Fair is open to the public and begins at 11:30 a.m., Jan. 23 on the Tempe campus. Festivities include presentations, performances, a special speech from MLK Student Leadership Awardee Gabriel Cesar and much more.  

In addition, the university will be closed on Jan. 20 in observance of the MLK Holiday. For more information, visit the MLK Celebration Committee’s website.