The International Transition

Duke staff teach internationals to cut through a maze of life in Durham

By Nancy Oates

Monday, September 18, 2006

Professor Sattar Jawad has survived difficult times. The Baghdad Mirror, where he served as editor, was bombed. His office at Baghdad University, where he was dean of the College of Arts, was looted. Harassment from the religious militia in Iraq scattered his family of five into four different countries.

He handled all of these situations, but when he came to Duke and had to negotiate with the power company to get his security deposit back, he decided he needed help.

Nancy Hare Robbins, who as assistant director of Duke’s Center for International Studies (CIS) encourages international faculty to resolve difficulties themselves, this time thought it was necessary to make a helping hand.

“I made that phone call,” Robbins said. “Even I have a hard time dealing with the bureaucracy of utilities.”

Jawad's Journey

After the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Sattar Jawad, who had taught Shakespeare and other British and American literature at Baghdad University for more than 30 years, was harassed by religious fanatics wanting to impose their beliefs on students and scholars. Jawad received threats against his life, which he took seriously after the office of the newspaper where he was editor was bombed in March 2004.

A friend in the U.S., the former president of St. John’s College, contacted Duke, which had recently joined the Scholars at Risk program, about offering a position to Jawad. President Richard Brodhead pieced together funding for a visiting professorship through the help of the Institute of International Education.

Though Jawad’s wife has an American visa, health problems led her to go to Jordan to live with their son, a lawyer for a British company. Jawad and his wife have two daughters, one in Iraq and one in Sudan.

Jawad’s post at Duke ends in August 2007. After that, his plans are uncertain. He misses his students at Baghdad University and his library.

“I’m praying for peace, and if that happens, I will dash back home,” Jawad said. “I don’t believe this is the end of Earth. There must be a change. I am praying for peace to prevail for all in the Middle East.”

Duke is richer for its international community, but the transition for international scholars isn’t always easy, particularly with the move is made under difficult circumstances such as war. In particular, staff members at International House and the Center for International Studies go beyond welcome-wagon niceties to give practical assistance that teaches visiting scholars the competencies they need to thrive in American culture.

Last year alone, Robbins prepared the visa paperwork for three visiting scholars. She picked them up at the airport, even when they arrived after midnight. She added them to her cell phone plan to save them money on set-up fees and long-term contracts. Two stayed in her house until they could find permanent lodgings.

When Jawad arrived in October, she helped him find a hotel. Because none of his suitcases made the flight, she came back the next morning and drove him to a store to buy sundries to last until his luggage arrived.

“My job could have ended there,” Robbins said. But she found office space for him in the Franklin Center where she works, and when he stopped by her office to discuss various issues of settling in, she introduced him to a number of others who could help him find answers.

“I didn’t think he should depend on one single person,” she said.

The goal, said Lisa Giragosian, assistant director of International House, is to teach foreign scholars the skills they need to handle life’s daily issues on their own.

International House offers a wealth of personal assistance to many of Duke’s foreign nationals. Every weekday afternoon, International House holds an orientation that covers issues from housing, transportation and registering children for schools to shopping, English classes and programs for spouses. Volunteers from the community organize English conversation classes and drive visiting scholars and their family to the Social Security office and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Two Saturdays a month, volunteers chauffer non-driving visitors to local stores. Next month the staff will lead a workshop on how to buy a used car.

“Our mission is threefold,” Giragosian said. “We provide orientation and acclimation. We do advocacy on their behalf in the community and on campus. We do educational and cultural programs. … You’re not going to find this kind of help on many college campuses.”

During the 2004-05 fiscal year, International House assisted 246 scholars; a slim majority from the university, the remainder were affiliated with the medical center.

The connection Robbins has made with the visiting scholars at the CIS extends beyond her job requirements. She invited a Brazilian scholar to her neighborhood 4^th of July celebration and Jawad to her home for Thanksgiving dinner. He immediately hit it off with Robbins’ husband, a classics professor. Since then, the Robbins family has invited him over for many special occasions. Missing his six young grandchildren, Jawad has become a surrogate grandfather for Robbins’ 8-year-old daughter. He recently wrote a poem in her honor.

“We’re showing him hospitality, and he’s showing his appreciation in the way he knows how, which is not the way most Americans would have thought to do it,” Robbins said. “It’s a wonderful thing.”