Department News

Dr. Kari Jensen reports on a busy summer doing research in Bangladesh and Norway

I had an exciting and extraordinarily busy spring semester 2011. When the semester started, I had just returned from a research trip to Bangladesh where I explored ways to curb the migration of children from villages into the cities for work. While in Dhaka, I also got a chance to give a guest lecture for both Bangladeshi and American students at the Independent University of Bangladesh, one of the best universities in the country. In addition to teaching three classes in my spring semester at Hofstra, I supervised one honors essay, two internships (one local and one international), and two individual reading courses. It was also a pleasure to be the faculty contact person for the Get Global student club, as we finally succeeded in getting the club registered with the SGA and carried out several interesting meetings and activities, such as selling Fair Trade chocolates. At the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers, this time organized in Seattle, I presented preliminary findings from my ongoing research project on multicultural young people and identity formation, where I am still in the process of conducting in-depth interviews with young women and men who have been raised by one or two parents from South Asia. During the spring semester I interviewed people living here in New York, and during the summer I interviewed people in Oslo, Norway. Sadly, while I was there the bombing and mass killings happened. Since the man who carried out the crime was a right-wing Christian fundamentalist opposing immigration to Norway, it was a weird time of trying to understand the issues and challenges faced by multicultural people and societies.