Since Dr. Svorou returned from our first instructional trip to AJKU in early April, she and Dr. Swathi Vanniarajan (Project Director and pictured here) have been hard at work developing educational modules to send to our colleagues in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Here, Dr. Vanniarajan is finishing his second module on language acquisition. We are working on modules for this and more fascinating topics for use at AJKU.
Pictured above, Dr. Roula Svorou visited AJKU at the end of March 2014. She and the rest of the SJSU community send our warmest thanks and gratitude for their unwavering hospitality and kindness. Dr. Svorou said that she was well taken care of and was in awe of the beauty of Pakistan’s landscape and it’s people. While there, she was able to present several lectures on topics including Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, Introduction to Role and Reference Grammar, Grammaticalization & Lexicalization and Semantic Typology of Space and meet with AJKU’s doctoral candidates. Through this trip, we were able to strengthen the bond that we are building with our colleagues at Azad Jammu & Kashmir. This is the second time that SJSU has sent faculty members to Pakistan through University Partnerships and we look forward to welcoming AJKU faculty to SJSU in the fall. Please see more photos of Dr. Svorou’s trip to Pakistan below.
Before Dr. Svorou left Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, for the city of Muzaffarabad in Kashmir, she was able to take in some of the sights of this beautiful city. She writes, “After sleeping for a few hours upon my arrival, Nasim took me around to all the important sites in Islamabad: through the wide boulevards and highways, up the Margalla Hills for a panoramic view of the city, past stately mosques, through a bird zoo to Lake Dawal, then a night view of the Pakistan Monument, and finally to Nasim’s home for a fantastic, delicious home cooked meal by his wife.” We were all so happy to hear that Roula was being so well taken care of! We will be able to return the favor in September and October when we host some of our AJKU counterparts at SJSU.
While in Muzaffarabad, Roula was able to teach several lectures on topics including Grammar and Lexicalization and Introductions to Cognitive Linguistics and Role & Reference Grammar. All of her lectures were well attend by eager to learn students and faculty members.
This trip, as we hope all future trips will be, was not only academically enlightening but also gave us another opportunity to grow our young friendship with our colleagues and the students of AJKU.
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San José State University’s Dr. Swathi Vanniarajan, pictured here on the left, will be working with Ph.D candidates from AJKU to develop successful dissertations as well as creating two Language Acquisition Modules for use at AJKU.
This past Novemeber 2013, our former Contract Manager Hillary Evans and Grant Director Swathi Vanniarajan traveled to Mazaffarabad, Pakistan to meet with AJKU faculty and staff. We look forward to sending Professor Svorou to Pakistan soon and welcoming AJKU faculty this summer!
Everyone involved with the SJSU-AJKU partnership welcomes each and every reader to our new website home. This relationship was borne out of an idea that American and Pakistan universities should work together to further our respective educational goals and to enhance each university’s curriculum. In addition, both universities will exchange faculty through the full three years of the contract. Continue reading Welcome to the SJSU-AJKU Website
San José State University & The University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir 