The experiences that growing up in or experiencing different cultures afford have been extremely influential for many people. Professor Alison Honour’s tendency to “back the underdog” comes from spending time growing up in places like the West Indies and the Caribbean where educational inequality was stark. Dr Emma Wragg, who grew up in Zambia, now researches unplanned settlements in Zambia, using her academic position to make sense of what she had observed as a child. Meanwhile, for Dr Brigitte Clark, the decision to enter research itself was informed by the political situation in South Africa at the time.
Knowledge is thus gained through exposure to cultural and institutional difference and this in turn positively influences research. Dr Farzaneh Yazdani has bought perspectives gained through travel and living in Iran, Jordan and the UK to her discipline:
Travelling helped me to bring the concept of sociology and later even politics into my understanding of occupational therapy and counselling.
Dr Farzaneh Yazdani, Occupational Therapy
Helen Wilson’s role at Brookes has seen her travel to a myriad of places and this has been hugely instructive to Helen’s own development:
Knowledge is thus gained through exposure to cultural and institutional difference and this in turn positively influences research. Dr Farzaneh Yazdani has bought perspectives gained through travel and living in Iran, Jordan and the UK to her discipline:
I’ve learned so much by meeting people from different countries.
Helen Wilson, Education
The international dimension of research itself is also extremely important to colleagues. Professor Tim Shreeve has an international network of colleagues and he finds having these external links central to supporting his career. Dr Bridget Durning is extremely proud that her highly successful book on environmental assessment and management has now been translated into Chinese. Meanwhile, Dr Verena Kriechbaumer’s network of colleagues across the world meant that she was awarded a fellowship from the Korean Brain Trust to work with scientist Woong June Park in South Korea, which she took for three months.
The fellowship in South Korea was probably one of the best times in my life
I’ve learned so much by meeting people from different countries.
Dr Verena Kriechbaumer, Plant Biology
Academia is a necessarily international profession, with knowledge being generated through exposure to new ideas and different practices. It is only through crossing borders that breakthroughs in knowledge can be generated. Keeping the international spirit alive and animated at Brookes is essential.