Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Alumni Edition 26 • Winter 2003 newsletter

Today’s China Through My Eyes The School in Print Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

Acknowledgments Special thanks to all of the staff, students 5th Jaina Studies Workshop and friends of SOAS who have contributed Beyond the Myth to this issue. Contemporary Moroccan Art Photography: Photographs by Glenn Ratcliffe, unless otherwise indicated HRH Princess Lalla Proof-reading: Nicholas Page Designed by: Falconbury Hasnaa of Morocco talks Printed by: Linneys Colour Print to Hicham Benohoud, one of Please send all correspondence to: the artists, at the opening night The Editor on 27 May 2003 for Beyond the Alumni Newsletter Myth: Contemporary Moroccan Art SOAS, University of London in the Brunei Gallery. Thornhaugh Street Russell Square The exhibition was under the High London WC1H OXG In June 2003, the 5th Jaina Studies Workshop, Text and Context in Jainism, organised by Dr Peter Flügel Patronage of His Majesty, King e-mail: [email protected] (Lecturer in Jain Studies, Department of the Study of Religions), took place in the Brunei Gallery. Mohammed VI of Morocco. Copy deadline for next issue: Members of the Jain community in Britain, including two visiting nuns (samani) of the Terapanth end September 2004 Svetambara Jain order, were amongst those who attended. For further details on this, and The views represented in the Alumni forthcoming Brunei Gallery Newsletter are those of individual SOAS Since the Sixties, a new volume, exhibitions, visit: contributors and do not necessarily reflect co-edited by Professors David Arnold and Christopher Shackle, written by senior members of staff, and covering 35 years of the School’s recent history, www.soas.ac.uk/gallery those of the School. was launched in July 2003. The book is available (price £12.99) through Website: http://www.soas.ac.uk SOAS Bookshop ([email protected]). (See page 8). HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa and Hicham Benohoud © Glenn Ratcliffe Front Cover: Director’s Prize for teaching Nadine Gordimer Pillow Seller (in front of a stone hut) from a The prize for 2003 was awarded jointly to Dr Theodore Proferes (Lecturer On 27 May 2003, as part of the AHRB Centre for series of commercial prints made by ATO £1.25m for six major Asian and African Literatures’ public lecture in Ancient Indian Religions) and Ms Zoë Toft (Lecturer in Linguistics). Photographic Association in the 1920s- series, South African author Nadine Gordimer 1930s. [Ref: CWM/LMS China Photographs Box 8/46/22] research projects came to SOAS. Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, spoke and read from Photograph by kind permission of the Honorary Fellowship Awards of around £1.25m from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the her new work, a collection of short stories entitled The Rt Hon the Lord Howe of Aberavon CH QC, who served from 1991-2001 as Visitor Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) have secured funding for six major research projects Council for World Mission (CWM) Loot (Bloomsbury Books). A prolific novelist and to the School, was presented with an Honorary Fellowship by Professor Elisabeth Croll, on: prison history; modern China; the Mahabharata; pronouns and clitics in Bantu; Jaina law; and Archive. The CWM’s archives and library short story writer, Gordimer is best known for Vice-Principal (External Affairs) on 29 July 2003 at the School’s Graduation Day have been housed on permanent deposit at representations of the Jews/Zionism in Pakistani/Indian Muslim discourse. The Late Bourgeois World (1966), Burgher’s Ceremony for postgraduates. SOAS since 1973 and were amongst the Lord Howe Professor Frank Dikötter and Professor Ian Brown (Department of History) were awarded £186k by the Daughter (1979), and My Son’s Story (1990). resources highlighted during an Open Day AHRB for a project entitled: Cultures of Confinement: The History of the Prison in Asia and Africa. Other speakers welcomed during 2002-2003 of the Library’s Archives, Manuscripts and Professor Dikötter has also secured an ESRC award of £232k for a project entitled: Things Modern: New Entrance Hall include: Nu Buchi Emecheta, Michael Arditti, Rare Books Division on Saturday 27 CDPR Material Culture and Everyday Life in China (1870-1950); Dr I Julia Leslie (Department of the Study of Luce Irigaray, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and September for ‘Archives Awareness Month’. In 2003-2004, the Ministry of Finance and Religions) has been awarded AHRB funding of £265k for a project entitled: Epic Constructions: Gender, Robert Young. Economic Development (MOFED), Ethiopia, Myth and Society in the Mahabharata; Dr Lutz Marten (Department of the Languages and Cultures of For further information: on the CWM - has awarded the Centre for Development Policy Africa) has been awarded £248k by the AHRB to research: A dynamic typology of pronouns and clitics in In October, a special issue of the SOAS Bulletin http://www.cwmission.org.uk and on SOAS and Research (CDPR) the Macroeconomic Bantu and Romance; Dr Werner Menski (Department of Law) has been awarded £226k by the AHRB for (Volume 66, Issue 3) from Cambridge archives - http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives Research and Modelling Project (MRMP), with research into: Jaina Law and the Kaina community in India and Britain. And Dr Tudor Parfitt University Press features essays on the Centre’s Back cover: funding of £375,000. John Weeks, Professor of (Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East) has been awarded £110k by the projects. For further information, see: Development Economics, is project leader, with AHRB to research: Representations of the Jews/Zionism in Pakistani/Indian Muslim discourse. http://titles.cambridge.org/journals; to House of the Chief of Djenne, Mali principle researchers Dr Chris Cramer and Dr purchase the special issue, contact Andrew ©James Morris Alemayehu Geda (SOAS and Addis Ababa East Asia separates in two Osmond on [email protected]. For alumni who missed the exhibition of Foundation degree in University). For further details: From August, the Department of the Languages large format photographs by James Morris For details of the Centre’s research, visit: http://www.soas.ac.uk/Centres. CDPR Deputy- and Cultures of East Asia has become two Butabu, adobe architecture of West Africa Artists impression of the new entrance hall. Public Service Interpreting http://www.soas.ac.uk/literatures. (Image reproduced by kind permission of T P Bennett Architects.) Director, Degol Hailu is currently Research separate departments. Dr Bernhard Fuehrer is (14 July – 19 September 2003) in the On 23 September, a co-operation agreement Associate at St Antony’s College, Oxford, till the Chair of the Department of the Languages Brunei Gallery, the pictures are featured in New East Block was signed by SOAS and City University to October 2004, researching under the ESRC and Cultures of China and Inner Asia, and Dr Building work has re-commenced on a 4-storey develop courses in public service interpreting. a monograph by Princeton Architectural Cultures of Consumption £5m research Stephen Dodd is Chair of the Department of the extension to the main building. Scheduled for The first foundation degree, to be launched in press (November 2003), with text by programme (further details: Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea. completion in January 2004, the new block will Professor Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk). 2004, will draw on the range of languages University. Black and white photographs by be dedicated to research activities. offered by SOAS, and City’s experience in training interpreters, to provide training for Enduring Love James Morris were subsequently shown interpreters in public health, law and local On 22 and 23 October, a film crew with Roger (November 2003 – January 2004) at the Generous Benefaction for Auditorium government. The two institutions will work Michell, Director of Notting Hill and Changing Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London. The Khalili Family Trust has generously donated £200,000 for the refurbishment of the SOAS lecture with Praxis Community Projects, the re- Lanes, shot scenes from Enduring Love, a film theatre, which will be known as: ‘The Khalili Lecture Theatre’. Improvements include seats with fold- settlement and training centre for asylum based on Ian McEwan’s novel, in the Brunei away writing facilities, upgraded audiovisual facilities and reflective ceiling panels for better acoustics. seekers and refugees in Bethnal Green, which precinct and Woburn Square. SOAS students Nadine Gordimer book signing Dr Khalili (PhD Art, 1988) is a Visiting Professor of Art and Archaeology at SOAS. has links with many employers. were invited to be extras. ©Glenn Ratcliffe

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 2 3 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

This year, the Spring and In February, the Sir Peter Parker Awards for (AMC); the Jewish Music Institute (JMI); Ingoma; Spoken Business Japanese were dedicated to the Moosootoo and the Institute of Rebetology. Autumn issues of the Alumni memory of Sir Peter Parker, who died Students from the Department of Music have last spring. Newsletter have been launched a website www.worldmusic.london.com combined into one Winter In March, the Persian Society and ‘a forum for musicians to tell people about the issue for 2003. Here is a MTO College (the School of Islamic instruments they play and the groups they’re in’. Sufism) held their first Norouz On 6 July 2003, Timothy West and Prunella Scales Today’sby Xinran Xue China selection of events from: © Bobby Sardar party to celebrate the Persian lead a distinguished cast in a dramatic reading of: New Year. Autumn Term The Epic of Gilgamesh. The reading, based on On 14 March, legendary Professor Andrew George’s Penguin Classics Through My Eyes (September – December) 2002 pianist, Maurice El Médioni translation, took place in the Brunei Gallery and Kaiser Haq and Sarah Maguire joined as Poets was the special guest of the was organised by the London Centre for the I don’t think I am qualified to talk about Public communication in Residence, funded by Royal Literary Fund AHRB Research Centre for Ancient Near East and the London Middle East China today because: The only information ordinary Chinese could Fellowships. Cross-Cultural Music and Institute (LMEI) at SOAS, in association with the obtain from the public media: radio, television 1. China has 56 ethnic groups, with totally Dance Performance, Roots of Rai. 49e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. and newspapers, were the orders of those Ms Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Norway’s Minister different histories, languages and cultures. Its emperors and the political Parties. If you were for International Development visited. Professor Peter Robb geographical area is 42 times the size of the (Professor of the History of India) took over as born blind, no matter how others described the Two new centres were launched, one for Mu-Young – an International Dance Evening, on entire British Isles. Its 5000 years of history 24 March, organised by the Department of Music, Pro-Director from Professor Christopher Shackle beauty of colours to you, you would still have no Law and Conflict; the other for Language featured performers from Korea, Thailand, Egypt, have nourished wealth like that of modern who stepped down in July 2003. way of imagining the difference between yellow Research (CLR). Bali, Spain and India. Europe and poverty as severe as that of the and blue. For people who have lived all their lives On 29 July 2003 it was Graduation Day. Sahara Desert; about 1.4 billion people are Tanuf Salim Nuh, a Soqotran poet, came to the in China without any chance to travel anywhere, it making things, trading, and loving, too, in UK for a month, to work with Dr Miranda is impossible to imagine the right to read, watch Summer Term Autumn Term 2003 hundreds of accents in different languages. Morris (BA Arabic, 1968-1972; PhD Arabic, and listen freely to what you like, and to (April – June) 2003 This is why different people hear such different 1980) on the oral poetry of Western Soqotra. SOAS becomes the first UK institution to offer communicate with the rest of the world. The Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty taught Masters programmes in all major East news and stories about China. The Owa-Obokun appointed Professor J D Y drab, drained information they can get has International, gave the Centre for International Asian literatures: Chinese, Japanese and 2. Peel (Department of Anthropology and I have been away from China for over six numbed the natural desires of most Chinese for Studies and Diplomacy annual public lecture. Korean. Other new degree programmes include Sociology) a chief of Ijeshaland, with the title years, while tremendous changes have been information. Thus, they will take their private an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies; an Bapitan -‘father of historians’. The Sheringham family and SOAS held a taking place on a daily basis. In today’s China, pleasures and topics of conversation from one reception to mark the100th Anniversary of Arthur MA in Buddhist Studies; and a BA in Arabic the eastern regions are developing so fast that secret, a single mistake or a piece of gossip. As I More snow fell in January 2003 in London, Probsthain’s bookshop. Cultural Studies. people find themselves unable to provide once said to a western friend, do not mock the than in the previous 12 years… accurate maps for their visiting friends. bitter taste of our tears, because we have never Zoë Toft (Linguistics) gave a presentation of her The Prime Minister of Malaysia, RH Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, gave a lecture on 22 3. tried anything that is truly sweet. use of the virtual learning What I have experienced in China, whether in Xinran Xue environment (VLE) to September in the Brunei Gallery, entitled: Islam terms of place, the times, the environment or Sex education support her Masters and the Ummah: Re-Examining and Re-Inventing the situation, can only be representative of a Revolution, the Industrial Revolution or the Sex, which is regarded by the rest of the world as a students. The School is Ourselves in the Face of New Challenges. minuscule proportion, like a drop of water Russian Revolution. Therefore it is easy to basic part of human nature, was a defining piloting a VLE to cannot be used to explain the ocean, but only understand the hysteria of the Red Guards during Professor Craig Clunas joined as Percival David characteristic of delinquent behaviour or complement a small the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the way top- Professor of Chinese and East Asian Art. a spoon of tea or a bowl of soup. hooligans in China until 1983. Touching or number of existing degree level intellectuals, peasants and workers alike If you want to be able to understand about today’s hugging someone of the opposite sex could lead courses. See: unquestioningly obeyed their leader’s commands, Forthcoming in 2004 China, I think, no matter from what perspective, to criticism or even imprisonment. Even at home, http://www.soas.ac.uk/vle bowing their heads and allowing their gods to you must work from one premise, which is that in pillow talk between couples could be used as Blue and White for China: Porcelain Treasures in throw them into prison. I know it is difficult for In June, Karen Clarke the past, four social phenomena which are proof after a quarrel for one of them to inform the Percival David Collection, June-December the rest of the world to understand this part of joined as the School’s first accepted all over the world have never really been against the other, which could result in 2004, in the Percival David Foundation. history, but having once observed the sincerity Diversity Advisor. accepted or put into practice there: religious imprisonment or dismissal from their job. Telephone: 020 7387 3909 for further details. with which people from profoundly religious belief, public communication, the legal system Because of the lack of sex education, very many The Strategic Priority Interconnections: The Thirty-First LACUS societies offer their children or their most valuable and sex education. Chinese men and women did not know the Team (SPT) presented its (Linguistic Association of Canada and the United possessions to their gods, you will understand the difference between men and women, or what sex © Glenn Ratcliffe first report to the School. States) Forum, will take place on 27 - 31 July 2004 feelings of ordinary Chinese people towards Religious belief was. This is no joke. They are human beings, but The group was set up to consider future priorities at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). For Chairman Mao. Although Chinese communists Over the last 3000 years, the Chinese regarded the physical part of their nature has been of the School. further information, contact Dr David Bennett were not allowed to believe in any god, the entire Spring Term their emperors and leaders as their god, whose destroyed by political brutality and the ugliness of (Department of Linguistics, SOAS and Chair, population of one billion was actually drifting (January – March) 2003 900 people visited the SOAS Japanese-style roof every word could mean the difference between life society. Principles from a thousand years of garden on Sunday June 8 when it opened for LACUS Conference Committee) on [email protected] blindly in a mental fog of temple incense. Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in and death. In the early 20th century, China was history are like a prison, in which Chinese London Garden Squares Day and SOAS’s roof the Middle East became the focus of a major plunged into chaos as feudalism came to an end, The legal system people’s love and sex are locked away. The only garden came 2nd, after Tatton Park, Cheshire, in Law Department research initiative, made and in all this bloodshed, the role of saviour was heroes are in novels; the only ardent lovers are in the Journal of Japanese Gardening’s survey of 50 Obituaries In the eyes of most Chinese people, the emperors possible by support from Sir Joseph Hotung; taken over by the warlords. They all understood pictures, and the ones who succeed in love are Japanese-style public gardens in the UK and and Party committees were the legal system, and Professor Edward Said of Columbia University The School regrets to inform you of the death of: that the Chinese could not do without their gods, often acting out a tragedy. Ireland. the jury system just a fiction from Western films. gave the Sir Joseph Hotung International Gordon Innes (Member of Staff, West African as props to their spirits. No matter how different Most modern Chinese only know of the police, Apart from these four issues, from 1920 to 1985, Human Rights Lecture on Memory, Inequality Around World Music in 42 Days Languages, 1953-1984) who died on 5 April 2003. were the theories of democracy, socialism and not of lawyers or judges. the Chinese education system never had a chance and Power: Palestine and the Universality of communism - represented by Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Ot Azoy! - Yiddish language and song; KlezFest - Professor J B Segal, FBA (Professor Emeritus in Human Rights. Kai-shek and Mao Zedong - in the period from klezmer music, song and dance; a Chinese and the Department of the Languages and Cultures “What I have experienced in China, whether in terms of 1920-1980, most ordinary Chinese did not look Mapping the Treasures of Arabia Indian Music Summer School; music from of the Near and Middle East and Honorary on them as political leaders but as new emperors place, the times, the environment or the situation, can only (28 January – 21 March 2003) opened in the Zimbabwe; Indonesia; Thailand; Greece; and Noh Fellow) who died on 24 October 2003. with modern names, and as their gods. This is Brunei Gallery. dance from Japan, were amongst a series of world be representative of a minuscule proportion, like a drop of Dr Katherine Whitaker (LAI Po Kan), Reader in music events in the summer, organised by the why the cult of the individual was able to Classical Chinese (31 March 1912-2 April 2003). water cannot be used to explain the ocean, but only a Department of Music; the Asian Music Circuit continue, and also the reason why the Chinese revolution is not the same as the French spoon of tea or a bowl of soup”.

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 4 5 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

to improve, or to build itself up to international Xinran Xue’s book, The Good Women of China, What was it like to teach, having worked for “Yes, we are very happy here,” said standards, because of about: which was published in 2002 in the UK, and has so long as a broadcaster? SOAS students to Cui Yan, when she since appeared in 27 languages, is about the lives 15 years of military rule by War Lords (1920- In China, I was guest professor for some visited them in Beijing Normal of the ordinary people she encountered during 1935) universities when I worked as a radio presenter University in September 2003. “I was her career as a radio broadcaster and journalist. and magazine columnist. There is a big difference so pleased to see them in my home 8 years of war with Japan and The Second Her second book Sky Burial (Chatto Bodley Head between Chinese classes and those at SOAS: town – Beijing, and I am so happy to World War (1935-1945) & Cape) has recently been translated into English Studying teachers and students come from very different, see that everyone enjoys being here, 4 years of Civil War (1945-1949) and other languages. It is due out in July 2004 world cultures; we tried to exchange points of and especially after the SARS crisis, When Xinran Xue came to the UK, one of her first views about our daily life. I learned a lot from my 3 years of the Korean War (1950-1953) they have finally realised their dreams: jobs was at SOAS. She joined the Language Centre colleagues, students and many of the staff who in 10 years of the Countryside Revolution (1956-1963) in 1997 and taught here for about four years. worked at SOAS. This is why I still have so many studying and living in Beijing and 10 years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). friends there. Some of my students always come experiencing Chinese culture and the How did you first come to teach at SOAS? Beijing local customs. The photo of us was to see me when I am on my book tour in their For this reason, the last two generations of One of my friends knows Dr Lian-Yi Song who countries. I loved it and I still do. taken in front of the new main building Chinese to enter middle age have had was the Chinese course leader in the Language insufficient knowledge or experience in these I got so much positive and warm encouragement; “Yes,we are very happy here” of Beijing Normal University.” Centre, therefore I was introduced to him, and fields. They have lost their way in the struggle and also help from people every single day when I then I was given an interview by three heads of between human nature and the political system. had just moved to this strange country. the Language Centre. However, I find that the new generation is just the opposite. It has come into the world with all their parents’ sexual hunger, and swiftly, ravenously, taken on everything in their society that can fulfil their human needs. They imitate lifestyles from abroad in a search for a real “human” existence, even at the cost of the loss of their families or possessions. Like a starving child, China as she opened up would eat everything she could lay her hands on, indiscriminately. We saw her afterwards with a flushed and smiling face, but she herself did not realise the harm that this would do to her long-starved system. The China the world sees is just a child wearing new clothes, who is no longer crying out with hunger.

But have people considered: • What is the educational background of the SOAS students in Beijing with Cui Yan (centre), Lector in Chinese, Department of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia © Geng Yanfu current batch of policy-makers and managers?

• Are Chinese people getting a rounded on my ‘one year adventure’ at SOAS, where I of the key people in the field of sex education. education from their families, society and Discovering developed the interest for my actual research, The most difficult part of my fieldwork was to be school? sex education which focuses on the development of sex accepted as a participant-observer at sex Personally, I believe that it will take two or three education in contemporary urban China. This is education classes in schools and universities. generations for China to build up a benign cycle in Beijing quite a delicate subject and, at the same time, a Students and educators were quite curious about of education, where more and more Chinese very attractive and challenging one. Information my research but, at the same time, they were by Alessandra Aresu on this theme has not been easily available either young people can grow up in a healthy understandably suspicious about me asking (MA in Chinese inside or outside of China and I would not have educational climate, and only then will they be questions on sex and sexuality. For this reason, Studies, 2000) been able to conduct my research without the able to understand China’s place in the world, while several universities in Beijing gave me Chinese language help of Mr Stuart Thompson while I was a SOAS what is special about it and what is universal. permission to attend their sex education classes Only then will they have the ability to develop and culture is student, and the support of Dr Harriet Evans for several months, it was practically impossible China more reasonably and efficiently; only something that since I started my PhD in 2000 at the University for me to enter into primary and middle school then will China be able to truly understand the has attracted me of Westminster. classrooms. At the end of my fieldwork, in August world, and work together with it. like a magnet in In the last three years this research has absorbed 2002, I managed to come back to the UK with the last ten years. most of my time and energy, especially during my I believe that it is not until people get to know The study of more than ten boxes of books, sex education one year of fieldwork in Beijing, where I collected China more widely and deeply that they can Mandarin, which manuals and pamphlets that, together with the the majority of the data. I was based at the understand why so many Chinese are chasing I began in 1993, information I collected among young people, People’s University, where I was warmly welcomed after money and desire; why so many Chinese stimulated my by Professor Pan Suiming, the director of the parents and educators, are the basic material for youth are losing their way; and why China’s curiosity and my Institute of Gender and Sexuality, and his my thesis. Probably, these few lines are not political and economic reforms are so much desire to learn students. Professor Pan has been a patient and sufficient to express the value of what I have been more difficult than in other countries. about this fascinating culture, something I am generous guide in my research from the beginning exploring while doing this research, but I hope pursuing to this day. It was with this Try to understand China and the Chinese more, of my stay in Beijing. He opened the doors of his they are enough to give the reader a general idea enthusiasm that I left Italy in 1999 to embark please, because China and the Chinese love this house and his library and introduced me to some of this experience. world as you do. Untitled: carte-de-visite type commercial studio photograph, c. 1910. Photograph by kind permission of the Council for World Mission (CWM) Archive. [Ref: CWM/LMS China Photographs, Box 6/31/17] Gelmini © Luca

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 6 7 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

Four books with a The School common link: SOAS

From 1967 to today: a new History of SOAS

SOAS Since the Sixties On 25 July 2003, a new history of SOAS was launched,in which brings the School’s history up to date print from Sir Cyril Philip’s earlier account, published in 1967. Co-edited by Professors David Arnold and Christopher Shackle, and written by senior staff, four of whom have been associated with the School throughout all the decades covered, SOAS Since the Sixties describes the achievements of successive The Zanzibar Chest Directors, the expansion and evolution of academic expertise, the School’s internationally renowned by Aidan Hartley library and archives, the SOAS estate, and finishes with a personal account by alumnus Professor Hugh (MA Area Studies, Africa, 1987-1988) is Baker (BA Chinese 1958-1962; PhD 1967) a long-standing member of academic staff. reviewed by Alex Bigham, who is currently in his 3rd year studying for a BA in Politics. The Zanzibar Chest is not for those who are looking to read a light introduction to the A Review of: politics and history of sub-Saharan Africa. The intertwining of family memoir and historical A Hundred Letters from England by William Radice reportage combines to ensure this is a fine example of the war correspondent’s tale – A Hundred Letters from England puts between of this book is to make it a bedside book to be vivid, harrowing yet creating such pace and covers for posterity, a diverse, erudite but dipped into at random’, writes N S curiosity as to leave one enthralled. accessible series of columns, which Dr William Jagannathan. Whilst Martin Kämpchen, in his Radice wrote, from 1998 to 2002, for the Foreword, states: “The publisher as well as the The book intertwines three stories, those of Statesman in India. Combining the interests author obviously realise that these texts form a Peter Davey, a political officer in Aden in the and intellectual background of a poet, scholar strand of cultural history. No matter how 1940s, the author’s father, who was a colonial and translator, with more lightweight and topical and fleeting this strand may have officer in Africa, and Hartley’s own tale of two transient topics, his columns range far and seemed at the time, it is more than worthy of decades of journalism describing his wide - and swoop from the particular to the preservation in its totality, worthy of a place encounters with varied barbarism in wider picture, analysing and commenting with on one’s bookshelf”. sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. the same level of enthusiasm and application, (A Hundred Letters from England by William The most interesting aspect to the book is whether he is writing about Tagore, or railway Radice (Indialog Publications Pvt Ltd, New Hartley’s own tale. Raised in Kenya, but tickets; his work as a SOAS Head of Delhi, 2003) is available through UBS schooled in England (which he describes as Department, or going to see the pantomime Publishers’ Distributors Pvt Ltd at cold, grey and miserable), Hartley faces a Cinderella; being Chair of Examiners for [email protected] or visit: fascinating crisis of identity as someone who is GCSE Bengali or meeting anti-globalisation www.gobookshopping.com) visibly European but feels most at home in protester Richard Moth (a SOAS alumnus). East Africa. This comes home to him when he For those who were working or studying at travels to the Balkans and is interrogated by SOAS, during the 4 years in which the column his supposed fellow Europeans, Serbian was written, there are numerous references to Book cover: designed by Uzma Mohsin [Visual Vibe] with kind permission of the publishers. militiamen. “Trapped in my skin, I was a people and events at the School. The book has Indialog Publications, New Delhi. stateless colonial, a freebooting hack. Was the the immediacy of a ‘diary’ or chronicle - many Africa I missed my home, or was this Europe of the accounts are written soon after the my home, or at least the only one I deserve?” event - but, unlike the transience of most ‘The range of subjects dealt with is mind-boggling. diaries, will surely hold long-term interest. English and Bengali literature, theatre, cinema, Hartley faces similar difficulties when he Readers in India will have enjoyed the book in discusses Rwanda, which he describes with the form in which it first appeared, as a weekly music…’ (N S Jagannathan in the Literary Review uncompromising honesty. He describes not column. ‘The best way to savour the delights only the failure of the international section of The Hindu (1 June 2003). community, but also the failure of perspective Book cover by kind permission of Publishers. HarperCollins

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 8 9 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

that journalists suffered from. “We were like ants The Zanzibar Chest is an explicit account of an edge of the desert half a century before. I hoped crawling across the hide of an elephant.” Some author who thrives off the thrill and comradeship for an eloquent valediction, so I asked him what of the most harrowing aspects of Hartley’s that comes from the shared experience of horror he remembered. He shrugged. “It was so long journalistic experiences can be found in the and exposure to risk. The enjoyment and in a ago.” It seems that every time Hartley is on the tales of Rwanda and Burundi, such as when he sense ‘peace’ that comes from the intimacy of verge of a revelation and a bit of ‘colour’ for Bobby Sardar describes a mother with an infant strapped to danger is illustrated in the description of Davey’s life he stumbles. Even when he finds the her back attacking another woman, also Hartley’s long-standing relationship with a controversial story of Davey’s wife he fails to find carrying an infant, with a machete. He faces a photographer named Lizzie. The author devotes a many clues to the mystery, and this part of the common dilemma for journalists between the substantial amount of the book to their mutual book seems ultimately unfulfilling. Despite this, a necessity to produce a scoop and the desire to experiences, which vary in quality depending on large part of the book is devoted to Davey – even do something worthwhile, “I watched a person the context and its corresponding level of the title ‘Zanzibar Chest’ comes from his father’s die and however strange I felt about it I hazardousness. “Mogadishu was our Paris: old camphor box in which he discovers Davey’s still had to sit down and tap out a news report gunfire, flares at night, Huey rides, razor wire, diaries. But the diaries prove to only hint at if I wanted to do my job well and beat the heat and deadlines. I’d look into Lizzie’s eyes after interesting events, rather than explicitly describe What competition.” a morning out in the city and see her pupils were the Arabian adventures that the colonial officer © Bobby Sardar dilated.” This romantic excitement is not must have experienced. Perhaps this is the central Even the hopeful story of the book, Lazarus, the Bobby Sardar is in his 2nd year sustained in times of relative peace, though, such drawback – While the LA Times’ suggestion that tale of a child rescued from a pile of corpses in a studying for a BA in Economics. More as when they are in their house in Kenya, “I the book “reflects the journalist’s inability to refugee camp in Goma, seems only to end of his photographs can be seen at: snarled and yelled. Lizzie ran out cackling or in a string more than a couple of paragraphs of happily in the imagination of other www.myperspective.co.uk torrent of tears, gathering up her things to narrative together,” is far too harsh, there is a journalists. It is perhaps not surprising that vanish. I felt starved of intimacy.” sense in which Hartley seems to skip from Hartley describes his experiences in Rwanda as anecdote to anecdote without an overarching like a “tumour leaking poison into the back of theme or purpose. my skull.” SOAS Global One message, however, might be the one of the Hartley’s Father is as fascinating a figure as the journalist as ‘storyteller’,which Hartley excels at. author. An “old testament patriarch”,whom the Image Group He tells the story of the ‘little heroic people’ who author seems to idolise as “the centre of my touched his life. They are a variety of journalist world”,was a journeyman in the literal and Global Image held their Second foot soldiers from the Somalian stringers to metaphorical sense. He spent his whole life Annual Photographic Exhibition in Rwandan aid workers, whose stories would walking across Africa and Arabia, and shifted his otherwise be forgotten. In a sense, the author 2003: ‘Images from around the career from being a colonial administrator, to becomes like the character in the Tennessee working for aid programmes in the 70s (which world captured by students of Williams play, dependent on the kindness of Hartley describes as “white elephants”), to a SOAS’. Photographers of the strangers. He tries to repay this debt by volunteer for Oxfam. Hartley’s life seems to recounting their tales, such as that of Mohamed exhibition supported Enlighten, parallel his father’s journey towards Afrah, a brave Somalian stringer who worked disillusionment with colonialism, which ends that facilitates computer learning tirelessly for Reuters, and later appears at a with the elder saying “we should never have Aidan Hartley © Saskia Spender Listening in Palestinian refugee camps. corporate event. “Afrah spat as he spoke and the © Bobby Sardar come here” whilst on his deathbed. The corners of his mouth became flecked with foam. author’s frustration at journalism becomes The manager clutched his wineglass and stared at increasingly palpable towards the end of the “We were like ants the carpet. I looked up at the famous Reuters book, such as after a tragedy in Somalia, where Alejandra V Millan La Rivera News in Brief correspondents, wondering how Afrah fitted in to several of his colleagues and friends were killed crawling across the all this. No Reuters official history will ever by a mob following an attack on civilians by Summer Ball mention Afrah, his loyalty to the agency, his American forces. hide of an elephant.” news, or who he was. In fact, the instant that the On Friday 13th June, the Students For those keen to see what the author made of Some of the most manager turned away to engage in chitchat in Union held a Summer Ball Masquerade his time at SOAS, there is only passing reference safer, more corporate territory, our Mogadishu at Glasshouse, Mermaid Theatre to the institution, when he describes it as harrowing aspects of stringer was all but forgotten.” Building, Puddle Dock off Upper “formerly a famous training ground for those Thames Street, London EC4. The Zanzibar Chest is a deeply personal and who wanted to make their lives elsewhere, and Hartley’s journalistic psychological account of the second winds of now a hotbed of dissidents from the Third Literary Society change in late 1980s and early 1990s Africa, World.” This is perhaps the space where Hartley experiences can be where you could “almost whiff the tear gas in the The Literary Society held a number of best fits in – the son of a colonial officer who air of Nairobi”.He successfully compares the ‘Open Mike’ nights during the year and makes a career out of observing the new found in the tales of historical role played by white settlers in Africa produced a poetry magazine, Burning generation of revolutionaries. However, he often Rwanda and Burundi and the Middle East with his own peripatetic Bright, edited by Jane Kinninmont with becomes intimately involved with the story, probing as a reporter of the new African a forward by Ghazal Tippu, Literary which makes for stirring reading, such as when revolutions. It is exhilarating and beautifully Society President. he rides in to Addis Ababa with the Ethiopian This lack of purpose is felt whenever Hartley is written in many sections, but occasionally feels [email protected] rebels following the fall of Mengistu’s regime. away from the story – which means the book is more like a therapeutic exercise of the embattled “For two nights we slept together in a heap with Pigments most successful when describing the horrors of war correspondent than a genuine history of a © Alejandra V Millan La Rivera the other rebels at the palace and ate sloppy Rowing club Somalia and Rwanda, and relatively less exciting troubled continent. lentils and injera bread…Yet we both sensed a Alejandra V Millan La Rivera is a Chilean, semi-professional photographer who [email protected] would like to when he is exploring the story of Peter Davey, a barrier had suddenly gone up between us, The Zanzibar Chest is in the bestseller lists in is in her 2nd year of a BA in Development Studies and Economics. She won hear from alumni who are interested in colonial officer in Aden and friend of Hartley’s ending the intimacy we had won in times of USA, Canada and South Africa. Reviews: first prize in the Equities and Diversity Photography Competition, 2003, in joining a rowing club, which meets twice father. This can be seen when he interviews one danger…Apart from Carlos, to me the http://www.groveatlantic.com a week at the University of London of Davey’s contemporaries in Yemen, “Here I was Dagenham. In 2002, she showed her work in Faristol Gallery, and Candil journalists appeared both cynical and vulgar in The author will be giving a talk at SOAS in 2004. boathouse in Chiswick, West London. at the bedside of a man …who had personally Gallery, Catalonia, Spain. [email protected] comparison to Grimay and his bright-eyed witnessed the events of a story played out on the comrades, but the hacks were my own kind.” The School in Print: continues on page 15.

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 10 11

Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

The latest staff photograph was taken in June 2002.

SOAS Staff Photograph ✃✃✃

Photograph courtesy of Ede and Ravenscroft. For copies or further details, please contact: [email protected] Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 12 13 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

parents sent her to London to study. Dorothee By that time, however, her daughter Ruth was Mandu Noa Sen (Yale In a Sea of Knowledge: British Arabists Metlitzki studied Arabic at the School of born, and she was longing to return to her University) contacted us for in the Twentieth Century Oriental Studies and English at University academic work. Her visits abroad acquainted (Ithaca Press, 2002) by Leslie McLoughlin archive information on SOAS College, London. She later combined her two her with the American Studies department at “SOAS figures prominently from the date of The School alumna, Dorothee Metlitzki, interests and her Masters degree focused on the Yale University, and in 1953, after successfully meeting of the two subjects. applying, she enrolled on a PhD program there. its foundation, and indeed from before 1916. (continued from p8) whose life she has been Her dissertation was on Orientalism, in the old I describe the thinking which led to the In 1939 she left for Palestine, and there started researching. ‘She was a sense of the word, in Herman Melville’s work, decision to found SOS, as it was originally.” to work as an English teacher. Her work took in print and was later published as “Melville’s Orienda”. remarkable character’, she her also to Cairo. In 1944 she met and married During the 1960s she taught at Berkeley, Paul Krauss, a fellow Arabist. But that marriage Leslie McLoughlin took Arabic. Ghazi Algosaibi’s novel: An Apartment called writes, ‘and one of the most California, and indeed got tenure there, but was as tragic as it was brief: a few months after his BA as an External Freedom (KPI, 1996). To accompany his book inspiring teachers at Yale. Her returned to Yale with her then husband the Before retirement, Leslie McLoughlin was the their marriage Krauss, burdened by great Student from Beirut, on King Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, in 1999 he Assyriologist Jacob Finkelstein whom she later interpreter in Arabic for HM The Queen and topic was the influence of personal troubles, professional difficulties and wrote and presented an Arabic television divorced. In 1976 she published her most having originally been a perhaps also a sense of isolation as a Jew in British Prime Ministers, and is still called on to Arabic literature on English student of History at documentary on the King’s life. Recently, he has important work, The Matter of Araby in interpret for Ministers. He is now a Fellow of Cairo, committed suicide. Her second marriage published: In a sea of Knowledge - British Medieval literature – she also Medieval England, which explored the meeting Manchester University was to another Orientalist, Bernhard Grdseloff, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in the Arabists in the 20th Century (Ithaca Press, 2002). of the two cultures. with the late Professor spent several years in Israel, but it too ended in tragedy when he died rather University of Exeter where he lives with his wife Charles Beckingham. He is currently preparing an encyclopedia article suddenly of an illness. By then the State of Friends testify that when asked where she was and son and daughter. He broadcasts regularly where I will be for a while, He first learnt Arabic at on the Arabic language and researching modern Israel had been declared, and Metlitzki, a from, Dorothee never knew quite what to in Arabic on the BBC Arabic Service and on Durham (1960-1961) Saudi history. doing research on her life.’ passionate Zionist who befriended future leaders answer. She was a part of many cultures and Arabic satellite TV stations, in addition to and then at MECAS, the Leslie McLoughlin visits the Arab world of the state such as Moshe Sharett and Abba personally touched by very different historical teaching Arabic at the University. Dorothee Metlitzki, a student at the School of regularly for lectures and conferences and is also Eban, started working in various official events. But it was precisely her familiarity with Foreign Office’s Middle East Centre for Arab a Visiting Lecturer on cruises in the Arab world Oriental Studies between the years 1933-1939, capacities. Thus, in between the years 1947- so many worlds that made her the remarkable Studies in Lebanon (1961-62), before teaching He has published Ibn Saud – Founder of a and elsewhere. passed away on April 2001. The many and 1953, she was the secretary for Arab Women’s academic that she was. She was familiar with Arabic (1962-64) to the Army in Aden, where he Kingdom, Macmillan, 1993 and A Nest of Leslie McLoughlin varied people who attended her memorial affairs at the Zionist Labor Federation, using her the philology and history of about eight married. In 1971 he was working as Principal Spies…? (Alhani, 1994), in addition to (BA Arabic, 1971) service are a testament both to her scholarly knowledge of Arabic to try and create bonds languages, and her general knowledge was as Instructor at MECAS. There he succeeded the numerous modern language textbooks and [email protected] achievement and fascinating life. She was born between Arabs and Jews and to decrease what broad as her travel. She was ever an invaluable late David Cowan, formerly SOAS Reader in translations of Arabic literature, including Dr in Konigsberg, once in Germany and today was already a considerable inequality between source of knowledge for students in their Russia, in 1914, to a Jewish family. World War I the two groups. This proved to be an academic pursuits. and the Russian revolution meant years of exceedingly difficult and often frustrating task. Dorothee Metlitzki is survived by the daughter turmoil for her family; finally they settled in At the same time, she worked as a press officer of her second marriage, Ruth Grdseloff, of Memel, Lithuania, where she lived until the age for the Israeli Foreign Office. In this capacity Berkeley, California. of 18 and went to a German school. Wishing to she travelled abroad often, explaining the Israeli © Mandu Noa Sen shield their daughter from the increasingly government position and essentially being a hostile environment in continental Europe, her spokesperson for Zionism. Alumni Paths Crossing SOAS Alumni Dorothea Metlitzki, Freya Stark and Leslie McLoughlin

Mai Ni Ni ProfilesPreservation Project, initially to record setting up committees, cajoling, coaxing, Registry Record Aung (MSc traditions and rituals of the community that inspiring, that she noticed that almost every day In the same year, 1933-1934, that Development were beginning to fall into disuse. The project she was making use of something she had Dorothee Metlitzki was enrolled to Studies, 1998- encompassed the preservation of costumes, learned on her course at SOAS. 1999) returned ornaments and traditional artefacts, selecting Mai Ni Ni’s abilities did not go unnoticed. She study ‘Arabic for Intermediate to Burma (re- items for museum collections, and compiling a Dame Freya was soon drawn into helping with sexual health students’, travel writer named written history of the Chin people. Compiling programmes, with a UNICEF child labour Stark - whose publications include Myanmar) after a history meant that the participants had first project, with translating and interpreting duties, Valley of the Assassins (1934); The her MSc, and to establish consensus on which of the many and - just three years after she had returned to Southern Gates of Arabia (1936); soon found a Chin dialects to use as the lingua franca - the Burma - she was selected for a fully funded post with an groups are located in valleys separated by high Iona: A Quest (1954) and the Lycian scholarship to Notre Dame University in the NGO where she mountain ranges, and their dialects have USA, to attend an MA course in International Shore (1956) - is recorded as having worked in diverged considerably. Peace Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute with projects to help street children and working taken four lessons of Arabic in the As the project progressed it became clear that a small and select group of other students from children, and in rural development schemes. At 1st term. This was the fourth time, the Sone Tu were in urgent need of help with all over the world. the same time she used her skills and her spare over a 12-year period, that she education, development and income-generating By now some of her plans for Chin time to promote the welfare of her own ethnic activities, so the project grew to address these development had begun to bear fruit. As one attended Arabic language classes at group, the Chin people of Burma. needs as well. It was at this time, when Mai Ni way of helping to preserve Chin culture she had the School. She set up the Sone Tu (Chin) Cultural Ni was rushing from meeting to meeting, set up weaving centres, where older women

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 14 15 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

were given the opportunity to recall the and develop this beautiful and historical African Law, with Islamic Law option, and Director of Programs in the US Information Mrs Carol Yu I continued teaching in many secondary traditional back-strap weaving skills they had region. See www.prespa.org.mk and Swahili, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, Service in Paris (1990-1993), Policy Officer in Chiung Leong schools in Nigeria and became a school begun to forget, and to learn marketing skills www.resen.gov.mk For the doctorate, I conducted field research the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs - née Colby - principal in 1980. From 1980 to December that enabled them to sell their colourful fabrics [email protected] among the Digo of the Kenya coast, focusing at USIA in Washington (1993-1994), Public vijja-nand1- 1999 when I retired voluntarily from public in Rangoon and further afield. Younger Professor on how their then ongoing conversion to Affairs Officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (ordained service, I was a school principal in five different women had had no incentive to learn Muhammad Islam, and incorporation of Islamic law, (1995-1997), and Public Affairs Officer in name) government secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo traditional weaving and pattern design, but Amjad Butt affected their social organization and Wellington, New Zealand, before mandatory (Chinese State capital. when they saw that a steady income could be ecological adaptation. While doing this, I also retirement from the diplomatic service at age language, 1954) (BA History, I have been a poultry and fish farmer ever since made from weaving they too came along to be learned how the Digo, horticulturalists, 65 in 1999. Following retirement, Huffman As I’m 70 years 1958-1961) my retirement. taught the technique. The income thus interacted in trade and market systems with served brief tours for the Department of State old, only two of retired as [email protected] my teachers are generated not only helps to raise the standard Chairman of neighbouring Duruma pastoralists and Arab in both Chad and Cambodia. of living of the community, but also and Shirazi fishing and rice growing still alive. I Honorary Fellow, Brother Richard Phelan the Department During his academic career, Huffman authored contributes to the provision of educational agriculturalists, exchanging the products of think my (Occasional student, Indonesian, 1976-1977) of History at nine books and numerous articles on South facilities for the village children. their respective ecological niches. I continued classmates have has published The Traditional Legal System of Government East Asian languages and linguistics. He has these interests in sociocultural change and in scattered to the four corners of the earth – but, Sabah (Yayasan Sabah, Pusat Kajian Borneo – While still maintaining the tough study College, Lahore spent some 10 years in residence and research ecological adaptation in professorial roles in just in case… For the last two years, I’ve been a Centre for Borneo Studies - Malaysia, 2003) schedule demanded by the MA course, Mai Ni in 1990, where in Asia, and has worked and travelled in more the USA, especially the University of Buddhist nun in Burmese Theravadin (Maha-si) Ni contrived to put together a business plan for he served as a than 70 countries. He currently lives in Lilla Russell- Minnesota. I presented the Kenya findings in tradition. At present under Thai Forest marketing the products of the weaving centres. teacher of Washington, DC, where he is working as a Smith print, film and video. From the late l960s Tradition (Ajahn Mun). I travel frequently This she submitted for a competition sponsored History for 37 years. He was also on the Board writer and consultant. (BA Chinese, through the mid-1980s, I led students in between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. I by the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies of Governors. He plans to visit SOAS in the 1989-1992; PhD, studies of social movements, including in the Patrick Knight would be interested in getting in contact with in the USA, and her efforts won her the near future. His last visit was in 1973. Art & USA, and particularly of movements to change (BA Chinese any of my old classmates! “Against All Odds Award”,a new award created Archaeology, Adel A Dajani (LLB 1975-1978) is founder of religion, to promote civil rights, and to change Studies, 1983) [email protected] specifically to recognise her initiative. The 2001) the International Maghreb Merchant Bank, how people interacted with the biophysical After publicity this generated, and her own untiring Blair Lockhart After the the first licensed investment bank covering the environment. From the mid-l980s, with graduation, I efforts to encourage donations from public and (LLM, 1997- completion of markets of Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and students, I examined efforts to manage worked in private sources, have helped to raise the funds 1998) my PhD on Morocco (1996) and a partner in Maghreb ecological risk and environmental change on London for two that the Project still badly needs. I am the “Uygur Venture Partners, a private equity operation years at Foyles regional and global scales. As usual, I President of Patronage in Just this year Mai Ni Ni has been awarded covering the Maghreb and South Book shop; as a presented findings about change and Dunbar Law Dunhuang Art”, another grant. This time it is to conduct Mediterranean. labourer for a management in film as well as print. These Corporation, I was working at research on establishing peace education in her [email protected] construction efforts include changing ecological adaptive providing the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the native land. The research is to be supervised company; and Luther P strategies, organization (social, political, advice to British Museum co-ordinating the Mellon by faculty at Notre Dame and at the Center then at Shell Gerlach economic), and systems of ideas and meaning, natural digitisation project of the Stein Collection. In for International Conflict Resolution at Coal and the (PhD Cultural or cosmology. In short, they involve what I resources stage one, the priceless Dunhuang paintings Columbia University. Sino-British Trade Council. I then had five Anthropology, began learning about from the people of the companies. The (dating between 8th - early 11th centuries and years in Taiwan mainly teaching English and This abridged summary of achievement may 1957-1960) Kenya coast many years ago, prepared by my majority of painted on fragile silk and paper) were improving my Chinese. In 1991, I returned to summon up a picture of a totally committed Professor studies at SOAS. clients are photographed using the new digital technology, England and began doing gardening and odd and unnervingly serious personality. When emeritus, Dr Franklin engaged in mineral exploration for gold, which enables the viewer to zoom-in and study jobs. you meet her, you find that Mai Ni Ni is just University of E Huffman diamonds and precious metals in Canada as small details or script. the opposite. Her capacity for hilarity and her Minnesota, (Occasional Dr Carl Max well as Asia and South America. My LLM These images are available at the Study delightful company make her much in demand Minneapolis, student, South Kortepeter courses (international environmental law, Room of the museum and a selection, with at parties and other social events - which she MN 55449 East Asian (PhD Middle natural resources law, and law and a guided tour I wrote, can be seen on attends with glee. No doubt her forthcoming In 2000, I Studies) East and development, and legal history) have been www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass. At the research will produce valuable results. We wish retired as a received the Ottoman instrumental in both my professional same time, a joint catalogue of the Hungarian- her well as she embarks on the next stage of Professor of Anthropology from the University PhD in History, 1962) development and personal goals. We (my born Sir Aurel Stein’s photographs and her remarkable career. manuscripts kept in the Hungarian Academy of of Minnesota, where I also was active in linguistics, I am currently husband, Tony Fogarassy, LSE 1998) welcome Sciences in Budapest was also completed (I John Okell, Lecturer in Burmese, (retired) graduate programs in Public Affairs, Water anthropology recuperating visitors to Vancouver! catalogued the photographs together with John Resources, and Conservation Biology. As and South East from a bout blockhart @swgold.com Persons wishing to make donations to the Falconer), and a Stein Study Day was held at Professor emeritus, I continue to teach Asian Studies with prostate Joana F project can contact Mai Ni Ni Aung via the British Museum. I stopped work a month introductory social and cultural anthropology from Cornell cancer and also Olusanya - née [email protected] before my younger daughter Isabella was born through distance learning (internet), and I am University in hip replacement Oladeinde - New appointment in October last year. My older daughter Alma preparing a new course on ecological 1967. From 1967-1972, Huffman was Assistant surgery. I (BA African Congratulations to HE Dr François Barras has just started school, so life is busy! As well as anthropology also to teach through distance. Professor of South East Asian languages and continue to History, (PhD Legal Anthropology, 1983) who has been editing a book on Central Asian art I am now Preparation includes filming and production linguistics at Yale University, responsible for write articles and hopefully soon a book on 1963-1966) appointed Consul General in Hong Kong, also beginning to rewrite my PhD dissertation of 14 video cassettes/ DVDs and writing of instruction in the Thai and Cambodian the current Middle East crisis. I returned to having completed his tenure as Ambassador of to be published by Brill next year. text and study guide. I have also just languages. From 1972-1985, he was Associate [email protected] Nigeria in Switzerland in Abu Dhabi completed writing a 50-page essay on Public Professor and then Professor of Linguistics [email protected] Joseph Tse-Hei Lee (MA in African and August 1966 Response to Electricity Transmission Lines: The and South East Asian Studies at Cornell Saira Shah (Arabic and Persian Language, Kevin Berkowitz (formerly Kevin Berk) Asian History, 1994; PhD, 2000) is currently and later headed Significance, Organization, and Arguments of University, teaching Cambodian, Vietnamese 1986) has published: The Storyteller’s (MA Near & Middle East, 1993-1994) Assistant Professor of History at Pace for a Opposition. This will be published as a chapter and South East Asian linguistics. Daughter: Return to a Lost Homeland (Michael I’m now a volunteer with the US Peace Corps University in New York City. He has just postgraduate in a forthcoming (2004) Encyclopedia of Joseph, 2003) in the Republic of Macedonia, working for the In 1985, Dr Huffman joined the diplomatic published The Bible and the Gun: Christianity diploma course Energy, Elsevier/Academic Press. These recent municipality of Resen, in southwest service of the United States and served as in South China, 1860-1900 (New York and in education at activities are rooted in my education at the Macedonia, on the shores of Prespa Lake. Assistant Information Officer in London London: Routledge, 2003). [email protected]. the University of Lagos, Nigeria, graduating in Among various projects, I’ll be working on School of Oriental and African Studies and the (1986-1987), Assistant Public Affairs Officer in June 1967. In 1969, I joined my husband in the “Prespa Park”, a joint effort between University of London. I attended SOAS from Rangoon, Director of the American Cultural USA and taught in some schools in the US Macedonia, Greece and Albania to preserve l957-December 1960, receiving certificates in Center in Marrakech, Morocco (1989-1990), before returning finally to Nigeria in 1976.

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 16 17 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

Frank Knox Scholarship David Stormer (MA History, 1995-1996) intend staying two more years in Japan before Untitled (oil pastel, chalk and lectures part-time in Japan and, extramurally, moving either back to my native New Congratulations pencil, 75 x 175 cm) by Elizabeth is director of Soccerphile.com, a website that Zealand, or Australia. I would love to hear to Joanna he, Philip Beech (MA History, 1995-1996) from any former SOAS friends. Adeola Adekunle (MA in African Skinner who and three others started working on for the [email protected]. has been Studies, 1999-2000) was benefit of visiting soccer fans when Japan co- awarded a 2- For David Stormer’s and other alumni exhibited in a solo exhibition of hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2002. He adds: year full profiles, please visit we are now focusing on the Portugal 2004 her work, in the Alphabet Bar, scholarship http://www.soas.ac.uk/alumni (See under European Football Championships, preparing from the Frank ‘Alumni Initiatives’). Beak Street, central London, coverage of the event and Portugal itself. I Knox Memorial August – September 2003. Trust to study for an MA in The Artist Regional I went off to boarding school in Kent at Studies East a very early age. I took a keen interest Asia, focusing on Chinese. ‘My BA in Chinese degree at in painting and found my first “proper” SOAS was so enjoyable that I have decided to art teacher stimulating and creative. continue my studies and in September I will It was funny because, looking back, I be moving to Boston to attend Harvard always found my mother’s African wood University.’ [email protected] carvings incredibly beautiful. Harold M. Tanner (MA Area Studies, Far East, 1984-1985) In my teens, Benin bronze heads and I am Associate Professor and Chair in the African textile prints were one of the Department of History, University of North most satisfying art forms I’d seen. Texas in the city of Denton, Texas (just north Then while at SOAS, I was given the of Dallas and, mercifully, south of Oklahoma, opportunity to study African art in more for those not familiar with the geography) detail during my Masters. where I have been since 1994. Since graduation from SOAS (and later from There is a rawness about them… Columbia University), I have published a bit A boldness that does not hide and of research on various aspects of criminal is unafraid. justice in 1980s-1990s China, including Strike It is here that I take my inspiration, a Hard! Anti-crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice, 1979-1985 (Cornell East Asia combination of old and new, unafraid Prayer wheels on the Nangkhor Kora Pilgrimage Circuit, The Jokhang, Lhasa, Tibet © Nicole Wright Series, 1999) and an article, The Offense of and bold – Raw and Real. Hooliganism and The Moral Dimension of Untitled China’s Pursuit of Modernity, 1979-1996 (Twentieth Century China, 26:1, pp. 1-40, A Flying trip to Tibet each day as it came, which is what I did. of the world. Just last week, we read a text about an African tribe, which I had studied at November 2000). My current research agenda Studying as a The next four years passed by quickly and after I SOAS and my students were all fascinated to involves the military conflict between Nicole Wright and I made a flying trip to Lhasa had to walk around with a Mr-Man look-alike. graduated I was thankful that I had persevered Communist and Nationalist forces between in mid-August this year. After much hard work Mature Student hear about what I had studied. Thus, although I On the last day of the trip I managed to catch a and now had a degree to show for it. I could 1927 and 1949. An article on this subject, trying to persuade Mainland consular officers in do not teach Religious Studies any more, my nasty flu – which was made worse by the I have always been a rather confused individual. easily have spent four years doing nothing at Guerilla, Mobile, and Base Warfare in Hong Kong that we needed not only China degree still features in my life and has given me altitude. As I lay in bed with only an oxygen When I first went to university, I remember how home, or working, without actually having Communist Military Operations in Manchuria, visas, but also Tibet Special Permits, I finally knowledge and an insight into other cultures, pillow and a high temperature for company, it took forever for me to decide which subject I something to show for it in the end. 1945-1947 has been accepted gave up and paid a travel agent to do the would study. Eventually, I chose to study which I can share with others. Nicole insisted on staying with me, rather than Last year, I accepted a teaching post in Riyadh, for publication in the Journal of Military legwork for us. It cost an arm and a leg. finishing our tour. I proposed with a Psychology. However, after my first year of My working in Saudi Arabia has created in me a History (publication tentatively scheduled for in Saudi Arabia. As part of my contract, my After an uneventful trip to Chengdu in Sichuan thermometer in my mouth. We are going to be study, I knew I was not happy and decided to desire to further my education. I am now in the October 2003). employer provided me with an apartment on Province to collect our Tibet Special Permits we married in 2005. leave my course. process of applying to study on a Masters [email protected] the school complex. I spent the academic year fought tooth and nail through the crowds at the programme back in England, which will help Jonathan Silver (BA Chinese and I returned home, got on with life, and never teaching English and Islamic Studies. This new domestic airport to board our plane to me to progress in my career in Saudi Arabia. I Art/Archaeology of Asia 1991-1995) thought to return to university for the next three experience opened up a whole new world for ALUMNI OBITUARIES often remind myself that a few years ago I Lhasa. The captain managed to get the entire or four years. I just felt, after my first experience, me. Living in a new country, learning about the The School regrets to inform you of the death of: Nicole Wright (BA Chinese 1991–1995) couldn’t imagine spending four years at back section of the aeroplane screaming in fear that university was not for me. way of life, meeting new people has altered my [email protected] university and now I’m hoping to return to Wahidar Anwar (SOAS Library staff, 1973-1982) (me included, although Nicole was rather more own life greatly (for the better). who passed away on 29 August 2003 in Jakarta. Our demure) as he cut a passage through heavy It was not until life dealt some unexpected university in order to gain a Masters condolences to her daughters Dewi Fortuna and Desi turbulence. The views of Everest from the cabin changes that I began to reconsider studying for Teaching was a challenge, and thoroughly qualification. Fatimah who were both students at SOAS. Her my degree. Four years had passed by and I had rewarding. Now, I only teach English but I have were quite spectacular. Without my degree from SOAS, I would not husband, the late Dr Khaidir Anwar, was a Lecturer not done much with myself in that time. I chose found that my degree in the Study of Religions have been able to work in Saudi Arabia and I in Indonesian at the School. Lhasa and its environs are breathtaking in every to study for a BA in Arabic at SOAS (and later still plays a large part in my life. Through it, I sense of the word, at 3,600 metres above sea would not have met the many new people who Professor Dr J G de Casparis (Reader in Early combined it with the Study of Religions) and learned about different cultures and ways of life. level. A visit to the Potala Palace is awe- have come into my life since coming here. My History of South and South East Asia, 1958-1978) actually making the decision to return to Sometimes, my students and I will be reading a who died in June 2002 aged 86 years old. inspiring. I particularly enjoyed shopping in the degree has truly opened many doors for me, university was hard as I was now a mature text from a culture that I had studied at SOAS. Barkhor Square for a felt Fedora, which I both professionally and socially, and has taken Mike Gorrie OBE (see tribute by Kenneth Wilson, student. I remember that, at the time, all I could As a result, I am able to give my students more Singapore Association, page 23) insisted on wearing for the rest of our trip as I me to places and given me experiences that I think about were the four long years of study knowledge about that particular culture. I find thought it made me look very debonair. Nicole would never have otherwise known. Dr Aliya Sousa (MA Area Studies, 1971), Historian, ahead of me and how old I would be when I that I am able to open up a whole new world for who died in the explosion at UN headquarters in did not agree. She bought an enormous finally graduated! I decided that, rather than them, where they are fascinated to learn about Nafeesah Sunghar Baghdad in August 2003. repousse prayer wheel and a melodious brass Nicole and Jonathan, Tibet look at the length of the course, I would just take the beliefs and traditions of those in other parts (BA Arabic and Study of Religions, 2002) prayer bowl, which made up for the fact that she

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 18 19 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

Thus Ray was the very model of a film auteur, Hollywood Academy’s Film Archive launched was not interested in Indian ‘peasants’. Most something which amused him, given the after the award to Ray of an Oscar for lifetime Indians, perhaps now even more than in the studious distance kept from his work by the achievement just before his death in 1992. 1950s, prefer the fantasy world of Bollywood. Nouvelle Vague critics and film-makers like Another reason is that many movie goers have But I think the main reason for Ray’s relatively Truffaut who first promoted the auteur concept been indifferent to India, except for films with low profile in cinema today must be that in the 1950s. Ray liked to work the way he did, western central characters; Truffaut notoriously genius takes time to be fully appreciated. Ray not mainly because it helped to keep his was an artist genuinely, not superficially, at Alumni budgets within manageable limits given his walked out of Ray’s first Apu film because he comparatively small home audience, but home in both East and West. The first time we because then he could truly call his films his Ray’s films seem to talked, in 1982, the breadth of his knowledge own. staggered me; now, as I complete a second encompass an entire edition of my biography, I find it unique. So why, if he was so astonishingly gifted, are Ray’s films not more widely seen outside of culture - that of the Andrew Robinson (MA in Area Studies, South Research Bengal? One reason has been the lack of high- Bengalis: an Asia, 1984-1986), is the literary editor of The quality prints, clear and accurate subtitles and Times Higher Education Supplement. The promotion by their original producers in India; achievement no other second edition of Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye India a situation gradually being rectified, not least film director can match. was published by I B Tauris and OUP India in by the ongoing restoration programme of the January 2004. a character’s head - his or her psychology - more achievement no other film director can Reflections on acutely than Ray. match. Of course, critics differ about which are Satyajit Ray Second, the exceptional range of milieu, period, the major and minor Ray films, but most agree genre and mood in Ray’s work, from the that there are very few duds by Ray, unlike the celebrated Apu Trilogy of the 1950s to his films of even classic names like Renoir (a major Tehmina Ansari In the late 1980s, I was writing a swansong film The Stranger, completed in 1991, Ray influence). biography of Satyajit Ray when I (MSc Finance and Development, 2002-2003) recalls that of Shakespeare. There are films Behind the camera, Ray has a strong claim to be I decided to focus my thesis on recent research on patterns and levels of Foreign Direct Investment received a magnificent letter about about almost all strata of society and walks of the most versatile of all film-makers. He was (FDI) in India and China: how they have evolved over the last two decades and what accounts for the him from another great film director, life: the upper class, the middle class and the personally immersed in every aspect of differences. FDI is an important feature of an increasingly globalized and integrated economic system. Akira Kurosawa. “The quiet but illiterate working class. Films about the village, production. He wrote the scripts of all his films, FDI comes from different sources, into different industries and has various implications for the host about small-town life and the metropolis of deep observation, understanding which were often original or near-original economy, including importantly that of technology transfer. My study attempts to compare potential Calcutta. And films about the distant past, the and love of the human race which screenplays. He designed the effortlessly spillover effects in India and China and gauge their economic impact. Analysis shows that spillover past within living memory and the immediate are characteristic of all his films, convincing sets and costumes down to the effects vary depending on the source of FDI and industry of destination. present. There are also comedies, fantasies (two smallest details. He acted out the roles for the have impressed me greatly. They In the manufacturing game, China has beaten India hollow. However, India has beaten China in the musicals with songs by Ray), a ghost story, and actors and actresses with, by their own can be described as flowing services game, especially IT. Both countries are progressing towards becoming market economies, and detective stories, mainly but not only for admission, consummate nuance. After 1963, he composedly, like a big river. Mr Ray despite serious problems, the long-term prospect remains optimistic. The long march towards children, set in Calcutta, Rajasthan and Benares. operated the camera throughout the shooting. attracting FDI into India and China is of strategic importance for their development and economic is a wonderful and respectful man. I And this is not to mention Ray’s five He edited each frame of the films. He even prosperity. Both countries can learn from each other’s experiences, though for India, replicating feel that he is a ‘giant’ of the movie documentary films, one of them on his composed the music after scoring it in a China’s success will be a tough battle to win. industry.” legendary artistic mentor Rabindranath Tagore. mixture of western and Indian notation, for all Taken together, Ray’s films seem to encompass but his earliest films. My study concludes that policy is the most potent determinant shaping FDI inflows in both countries, “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means an entire culture - that of the Bengalis: an although other factors like infrastructure, literacy, legal and regulatory framework also have a bearing. existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon,” Kurosawa also once said. And it is true: Ray’s films, as warm and sensuous as Dr Julia Leslie, Senior sunshine and as beautiful and mysterious as Dr Simanti Sayantani moonlight, really do illuminate our ordinary Lecturer in the Department existence and make us feel more alive. As was of the Study of Religions proved by the palpable buzz of excitement at the Dutta Jafa first-ever complete Ray retrospective held in has published: Authority (PhD History South Asia, 1990) (MSc Development Studies, 1998-1999) 2002 at the National Film Theatre in London. and Meaning in Indian Uncertain Identities: Craftwork, Women and In 1963, Time magazine’s survey of world The book launch for Patriarchy in a village of Eastern Uttar Pradesh Religions: Hinduism and the cinema had asked: “Will Ray redeem Dr Dutta’s Imperial (Progressive Publishers, Calcutta [Kolkata], his prodigious promise and become the Mappings – In Savage Case of Valmiki (Ashgate, India, 2003) Shakespeare of the screen?” Some film Spaces: Baluchistan 2003) “An interesting and lovers, and I include myself, would say that such and British India (B R Exploring the theme of home-based work in a comparison is not far-fetched, when one looks Publishing conservative rural societies this book focuses on important book… It breaks at the whole span of Ray’s thirty-plus feature Corporation, New Muslim women in the troubled Faizabad- significant new ground in a films. Delhi, 2003) was given Ayodhya region of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. rigorous and illuminating (Further details: http://www.soas.ac.uk/alumni First, there is the depth and subtlety of his by Professor Robb - Authors) manner, accessible to all. probing of human relationships. For the Nobel (SOAS) and took place laureate V S Naipaul, Ray’s period film about the on 26 March 2003 at The book is available from: Progressive I warmly recommend it.” the Nehru Centre, 8 British Raj, The Chess Players, is “like a Publishers, 37A College Street, Calcutta John Brockington, Shakespeare scene. Only three hundred words South Audley Street, in the company of Mr [Kolkata] 73, India. Price: UK £10 (hardback), are spoken but goodness! - terrific things Girish Karnad, Director of the Nehru Centre £7 (paperback). University of Edinburgh. happen”.In my view, there is no director in and Minister for Culture (UK) for the Govt. of [email protected] Rainbow, photographed from the corner of Tavistock Square, April 2003. India. (Further details: cinema who can express what is going on inside A statue of Mahatma Gandhi is in the centre of the Peace Garden in Tavistock Square. © Glenn Ratcliffe www.soas.ac.uk/alumni - Authors)

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 20 21 Edition 26 • Winter 2003 Edition 26 • Winter 2003

Worldwide alumni groups India – Chandigarh British and Japanese policy-making processes We were able to enjoy the sunshine whilst eating Singapore Syria and some useful suggestions regarding Japanese our lunch in the beautiful gardens and then Several groups have been busy this year, with Anil Malhotra (LLM 1985) and Ranjit Malhotra SOAS Alumni have so far enjoyed two events in Abdul-Salam Haykal (MA in International structural reform. explored the grounds before a final Q&A session. successful events in Belgium, India, Japan, (LLM 1993) are founder members of the 2003. The first was held in June courtesy of the Studies and Diplomacy, 2002) Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Chandigarh Chapter of the Association of The annual party was held at an Italian For more information about BBC Monitoring Deputy High Commissioner, Paul Madden, who [email protected] The Hong Kong Association was re-launched British Scholars. The Association has 12 restaurant, “Pendio Rosso” in Akasaka, where 31 and its services, visit their website studied Japanese at SOAS in 1986-1987. Twenty- USA, Washington and activity in France has increased. A 2003 Chapters over India, a combined membership of people gathered including Mr Fujimori, Mr www.monitor.bbc.co.uk five alumni attended at the residence of Paul, his c. 2000 individuals who have the common Michael Coxall, a SOAS faculty member who wife Sarah and three children, whose hospitality Welcome to new contact, Niall Shanbhag (MSc Masters graduate has launched an Egyptian The LSAA is a group of SOAS Alumni living or experience of having studied in the UK. was on one of his regular visits to Tokyo, and ensured that we were well looked after, fed and Finance and Development, 2003) SOAS Alumni Association in order to increase working in and around London who organise [email protected] Professor Paul Snowden from Waseda wined. Paul provided a brief talk about his new [email protected] and thanks to awareness of SOAS in his country. For more events, dinners and lectures. For more details about these and other groups, see the University. book - Raffles: Lessons in Business Leadership, Chris Boucek who has now stepped down. Italy information or to join the group, please see the website www.soas.ac.uk/alumni or contact which examines the life of Singapore’s founder In addition to these events, there are also regular website www.soas.ac.uk/alumni or contact the and the British East India Company through the Vietnam Rosalind Griffin on [email protected] Olga Mattera is our main Informal Contact. drop-in parties and year-end party. Information alumni office on [email protected] Welcome, also, to our new contact: prism of present day commercial management, Please tell alumni and soon-to-be alumni that is available on the SAIJ mailing list. Anyone and includes analysis of Sir Stamford’s strengths we offer work experience placements in Informal Contacts: Update Nepal Alessio Loreti (MA in Near related to SOAS is welcome to join the SAIJ and and weaknesses as a leader and the relevance of Vietnam. Canada: Toronto and Middle Eastern Studies, membership is now free - but donations are For the last six years, I was his experiences to modern business practice. always welcome. with a European Adam McCarty Elana Yellen 2002) Commission funded multi- In July, a team of six SOAS graduates entered into Chief Economist, Mekong Economics (MA Social Anthropology of Development, I am currently working on a For registration: disciplinary project in rural the British alumni inter-varsity general knowledge http://www.mekongeconomics.com 1995-1996) research project - sponsored www.egroups.co.jp/group/SOAS-Alumni-in- western districts of Nepal as quiz organised by the British Council and held at [email protected] by the Italian National Japan Yemen an Environmental Manager. the High Commission. A very pleasant evening Academy “De’ Lincei” of Yoko Nag ao I was responsible for was enjoyed by all in the informal atmosphere of Thank you to Dr Isam Ghanem, our Informal Rome - about European President carrying out environmental the Crown & Anchor pub where the fish and chips Contact in the Republic of Yemen, for settlements in North Africa at the turn of 20th SOAS Alumni Association in Japan protection, conservation and awareness and Boddingtons went down a treat. The SOAS generously donating: Finance for Exporters to programmes at grass roots level with active team came 8th out of a field of 16 and it was Yemen (Obadi Studies and Publishing Centre, community participation. Since last August particularly pleasing to beat the only other London Sana’a, 2003) to the School Library. In 2003, Dr (2003), I have been with a USAID funded project University team present, Imperial College. Ghanem was awarded the International Bar’s Association and Informal Contacts: Professional Postgraduate Diploma in namely Infrastructure for Rural Income A concerted effort was made to update the International Mergers and Acquisitions. (INFRIN) as a Social Mobilization Specialist. My membership list this year and while this task is responsibility in the project includes organising still ongoing we now have details of some 90 and enabling the socially and economically graduates, former researchers and staff. We deprived rural people to help themselves to build believe that our networking efforts may Prize Draw Winner their potential to improve their quality of life, eventually yield the names of as many as 150 Thank you to all alumni who completed social and economic well-being. people in Singapore who have had an affiliation and returned Alumni Questionnaires. Your with SOAS. Khagendra S Jabegu profiles, photographs and classnotes will (MA South Asian Studies, 1993-1994) With plans for another reunion do in November, feature in future issues of the Alumni [email protected] 2003 promises to be a particularly active year and Newsletter or on the Website. something we aim to repeat in 2004. The winner of the prize draw is: Mr Kyle K Unfortunately, I have to conclude this dispatch Yee (MSc Financial Economics, 2001) who Update with the sad news that our oldest alumnus, Mike will receive £100, generously donated by India – Kolkata century. In the academic year 2003-2004 I will Ros Griffin and Gorrie OBE, who studied Malay at SOAS during Falconbury. Nayantara Palchoudhuri (MA Area Studies SA, be a part-time student at Birkbeck College Youssef Taha the 1940s passed away on 14th September at the 1984-1985) is our main Informal Contact (London) for a PhD in History of Colonialism. I age of 79. Mike and his wife, Joan, had attended On 20 September, [email protected] would be pleased to meet and keep in contact the June reunion during which he described to more than 80 SOAS Annual Fund with other former students of SOAS. My me his impressively long and varied career in the Welcome, also, to our new contact: members of the Retirement interests are: news and creative writing, You should have received a letter from Far East which began in 1949 when he joined the London SOAS Sayantani Jafa literature and cinema from Africa, the Maghreb Professor Bundy in the autumn, asking you Malayan Civil Service and served as the Private Fiamma Shani (International Recruitment Alumni Association to make a donation to the Scholarship fund. (MSc Development Studies, and the Middle East, history of emigration Secretary to the Governor of Singapore, Franklin Co-ordinator in the Student Recruitment (LSAA) visited Those of you in the UK may also have Office) has retired, after 14 years of 1998-1999) through the Mediterranean. Also, I would be Grimson, till 1951. In 1960, he left the Civil Caversham Park, received a phone call from a current service. On behalf of all the alumni Sayantani Jafa is a civil happy to meet and provide any help to people Service and pursued interests in the business Reading, home of student telling you more about this worldwide who know her, we wish her all servant with the coming to Italy! world with the Straits Steamship Company and BBC Monitoring. important project. happiness for her retirement. [email protected] was Chairman of the British Association of Government of India and LSAA member Due to changes in funding for higher Singapore and Founder Member of the Singapore has worked in numerous Youssef Taha who is Editor in the Middle-East Japan education in the UK, it has become Institute of Personnel Management, National capacities including a stint Department at BBC Monitoring kindly agreed Yoko Nag ao became increasingly important both to support our Productivity Association. Mike remained an active with the United Nations Interim Administration to organise a tour of his fascinating workplace. President in 2003. Our students as much as possible to prevent member of the local community in his later years, Mission in Kosovo. She is also a freelance writer BBC Monitoring is part of the BBC World thanks to Tatsuo Ihara who them from having to leave their courses being President of the British Club, twice and critic and has contributed to leading Service and it provides a service of international stepped down in 2002. because of financial hardship and to turn to Chieftain of the St. Andrew’s Society and Provost newspapers, periodicals and academic journals news and comment gathered from the mass on gender and developmental issues. Her first alternative sources of funding such as the of the T E D Huaxia Management Studies School. Alumni The SOAS Alumni media around the world. alumni community. book Uncertain Identities: Craftwork, Women Association in Japan (SAIJ) Kenneth Wilson Please continue to send us Several of Youssef’s colleagues gave their time and Patriarchy in a village of Eastern Uttar held a seminar and a party Thank you for your generosity, at the time of (BA Geography, 1980-1983) generously to answer our questions and tell us details of your publications; Pradesh was published in August (see page 21) in June, which proved to be going to print, you have donated £12,000 [email protected] about their work monitoring the world’s media [email protected] a great success. Fifteen people attended the towards the Scholarship Fund. business initiatives; for their clients, which include journalists, UK Paul Madden (Japanese, Occasional Student, seminar with Mr Katsuhiko Fujimori, who lived and other governments and private companies. To find out more, visit the website or 1986-1987) has published Raffles: Lessons in memories of studying at and worked in London 1996-2000. His lecture contact Ros at [email protected] Business Leadership (ISBN 981-4062-00-6) included an interesting comparison between SOAS and your profiles.

Alumninewsletter Alumninewsletter 22 23 House of the Chief of Djenne, Mali © James Morris