Rider Students Videoconference with Peers in Iraq
As the clock ticks past 9:10 a.m. in Lawrenceville, N.J., eight Rider University students wonder what a similar group of learners is thinking 6,000 miles away in Najaf, Iraq, at the same time. On either side of an intercontinental videoconferencing connection, which is just moments from being established, there is nervous but excited anticipation among the students. What will be discussed? Will we find common ground?
Sitting in the room, it’s hard not to consider that not so long ago, a number of factors would not have allowed this video meeting. But technology has made the world smaller – and more familiar – to these students, to whom the term “global village” is not some high-minded concept, but a reality.
The day is, in fact, part of a program called Student Global Village, in which a number of interested students from Rider have the opportunity to interact with their counterparts from Kufa University in Najaf. Each group is led by a facilitator, but the conversation is virtually free-form, with students wanting to know how the others view a host of subjects as serious as American-Iraqi relations to as whimsical as their fast-food of choice.
“It’s an attempt to create a campus climate open to discussion about difficult themes, while empowering students with the knowledge that governments are not the only means of creating linkages, or even making peace, among different people,” said Dr. Roberta Fiske-Rusciano of the Department of Global and Multinational Studies, who facilitated the videoconference on Rider’s end.
Rider students have previously participated in videoconferencing with students from international universities, but never before with their peers in Iraq.
“The uniqueness of this sort of course rests with the idea of a sustained, semester-long dialogue with two university classrooms, interested in the same issues,” said Fiske-Rusciano.
Early in the discussion, an Iraqi student posed the question “What is Iraq to you – a land or a people?” Opinions in the Rider class were varied.
“I recognize you as people,” answered one student. “But sometimes, because of the war, I focus more on you as a nation.”
Another was able to find a stronger common ground. “I see you more as students than Iraqis,” she said. “You’re trying to learn about us just as we’re trying to learn about you, but we never hear about Iraq as a culture, like your festivities; we just read about you as a country.”
In Najaf, an Iraqi student recalled the demonstrations in the United States prior to the war in Iraq. “I remember the demonstrations where Americans were saying ‘we are not against Iraq,’ and that made me feel better,” he said.
Fiske-Rusciano said it was the sort of dialogue that the technology promised. “Videoconferencing while studying culture, history, and conflict-resolution, puts a human face upon the ‘Other’ and trains students to use their skills to look for solutions to problems,” she said.
One segment of the discussion focused on the wearing of hijab, the traditional head-covering worn by many Muslim women worldwide, including Iraq. One Iraqi student, clad in hijab, was direct in her query: “What is your opinion of women who wear hijab?”
While the Rider students were universally respectful of the practice – “I accept it and don’t see any problem with it; it’s no different to me than what I might wear is to you” said one woman – there seemed to be a polite insistence among the Iraqi women that the Americans still did not grasp its significance.
“We wear hijab because it is a command from Allah to protect us from bad things,” said one. “For example, the bad looks of men.”
The Iraqi facilitator, a professor at Kufa, added that religion is not the only reason for the custom. “Women are free to wear hijab or not. The reasons are not just due to religion but tradition,” she explained. “We also have examples of women in history who wear hijab. Mary, the mother of Jesus, wore hijab, according to evidence.”
With an international camaraderie clearly developing, the conversation turned to lighter areas of pop culture, with one Iraqi student declaring that the most popular television show in his country is The Simpsons, and wanting to know how the show is enjoyed in the United States. Moments later, three Iraqi men laughed their way through an impromptu rendition of Subway’s “five-dollar footlong” advertisement.
Fiske-Rusciano said that while plans were already in the works to make Student Global Village a four-credit class, the students and instructors in Iraq wanted to begin immediately. Nevertheless, Student Global Village (GMS 285) will debut as a three-credit course in spring 2010, and will include lecture, plenty of in-class discussion and, of course, videoconferencing with Kufa.
For more information on Global Student Village, please contact Dr. Roberta Fiske-Rusciano at ext. 5761.
