Andreas had several meetings at UCSB. First he had meetings with people connected with the Global Studies department at UCSB. He talked with Professor Mark Jurgensmeyer about a visiting professor opportunity at SASNET. Professor Jurgensmeyer is an expert on religious violence, conflict resolution and South Asian religion and politics, and has published more than two hundred articles and twenty books, including the co-authored God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Global Civil Society (University of California Press, 2015; co-authored with Dinah Griego and John Soboslai). Connected to the Global Studies program Andreas also visited Victor Faessel to explore the opportunities for SASNET to join the Global Studies Consortium. Faessel is the secretary of the consortium.
Andreas also meet with professor Michael Stohl the director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies to explore the possibilities for SASNET researchers to join the center as visiting scholars. On the centers webpage it is clarified that the mission of the Orfalea Center is to provide an intellectual and programmatic focus for the University’s activities in global, international, and area studies. Professor Stohl was positive to the idea as long as the researcher at SASNET matched the research hubs of the center. For further information about the center click here.
In addition to meetings with people connected to Global Studies Andreas also visited the department of Religious Studies and the South Asian Studies Committee. Just like SASNET the South Asian Studies Committee is an interdisciplinary hub at the university, but they have extended study programs, for example they have a wide range of Indian languages to offer their students. For further information see here. In the meetings with the Chair of Religious Studies, Professor Kathleen Moore and the Chair of South Asian Studies Professor Barbara Holdrege, SASNET and the department of Religious Studies (which the South Asian Studies Committee is a part of) decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to achieve research collaboration in the future. The contract will be announced shortly at our webpage.
Andreas also had meeting at the departments of Social Sciences and Media Studies to explore future research plans with Professor Victor Rios. Rios is an expert on juvenile crime policies and criminalization affect the everyday lives of urban youth. Andreas also meet with Asian American studies, Dr. Sameer Pandya to talk about his South Asian Migrations project and future research collaborations. Besides Pandya’s scholarly work he also a well-known fiction author.