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As a linguist, Lafi Alharbi has been working
to bridge Kuwait and the United States through
academics and cultural understanding for more
than a decade.
In 1994, Alharbi received his first Fulbright
grant as a Visiting Scholar to the University
of Michigan. That first grant was extremely successful
and ended with Alharbi arranging a five-year scholar
exchange agreement between his home and host institutions.
The scholars involved in the exchange promoted
various activities such as conferences and joint
projects on both the student and the teaching
levels. Encouraged to pursue his research further,
Alharbi went back to the University of Michigan
in 2004. With the events of September 11, Alharbi
was also looking to renew an exchange between
his host and home institutions as a method of
re-examining the communication between Arabic
and U.S. cultures. "I'm looking for a way
to enhance collaboration between the U.S. and
Arabic society and to bring it back to life,"
he said.
This kind of interaction and collaboration is
important for fulfilling research goals. "Without
support, whether moral support or financial support,
such activities will remain only the chitchat
of academics," said Alharbi. "I'm carrying
on that mission to make it materialize in academic
exchange. My role is only no more than a bridge.
I know what the interests are back home and what
the interests are here." Although the task
of creating an exchange program is not easy, Alharbi
is committed to it. "A person who comes with
a mission does not have time to look around and
to relax," he said. "It takes time and
it takes effort on top of my research, but I'm
working on this whenever I'm at conferences. Whenever
I meet colleagues, I just bring those issues up."
Alharbi is enthusiastic about any opportunity
to meet colleagues and to promote collaboration
with those colleagues. This was especially true
when he drove over 10 hours from Ann Arbor, Michigan
to Washington, DC to attend the 2005 Fulbright
Visiting Scholars Conference, The Role of Civic
Engagement in the United States. With the University
of Michigan focusing less on Near East Studies,
Alharbi did not miss the opportunity to meet with
nearby Georgetown University to discuss the possibility
of arranging an exchange program with Kuwait University.
He is also considering the University of Indiana,
Bloomington as an exchange partner.
Alharbi says that much is expected from the academic
community, and scholars and researchers need to
continue to work together to help communities
bond. "The global culture is emerging right
now. Cultures and beliefs are being globalized."
He said, this is because of the "cultural
boundaries involving the language and social behavior,
and even thinking." Being aware of the importance
of cultural understanding and the "global
element within the behavior of academic context,"
Albarbi is conscious not to promote criticism
of other cultures in classes that he teaches.
"Every culture has its own approach for everything
in life; has its own means, has its own goals
and has its own means to achieve those goals."
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"International education
exchange is the most significant current project
designed to continue the process of humanizing
mankind to the point, we would hope, that
nations can learn to live in peace"
--J. William Fulbright |
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