Workshop on Spanish Speaking Communities
Aligarh: Mr. David Puig, His Excellency Ambassador of Dominican Republic to India spoke at length about the case study of Dominican Republic and its roles and responsibilities in relation to outward and inward immigration taking place in the country.
He was speaking in the inaugural session of the 9-days online Workshop on “Examining Spanish speaking communities in the USA and abroad from an interdisciplinary, global perspective”, organised by the Department of Foreign Languages of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in collaboration with GIAN (Global Initiative of Academic Networks), Ministry of Education, Government of India.
Mr. Puig delineated the trajectory of historical and socio-economic development of the Dominican Republic post dictatorship period.
Inaugurating the programme, Prof. Muhammad Azhar, Acting Dean and Chairperson, Department of West Asian and North African Studies, AMU spoke on the need of more academic interaction with the Latin American countries.
He also outlined the students’ achievements of the Department since its inception.
Prof. M. J. Warsi, local coordinator of GIAN Projects in AMU, delivered the opening remarks.
“There are many factors which force migration. In the migration of South Americans to the USA, both pushing and pulling factors play equal roles”, pointed out Dr. Murad Ahamad Khan, Assistant Professor (Spanish), AMU, Course Coordinator and one of the resource persons of the workshop.
He added the workshop will enlighten the participants on the positive and negative aspects of the migration in the light of the different case studies, which will conclude on June 28.
Eminent professors and renowned academicians, including Emilia Alonso Sameño (Foreign Expert), Professor of Spanish & Director, Institute for the Empirical Study of Language, Ohio University; Professor Rajiv Saxena, Former Chairperson of the Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin American Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Mr. Federico Salas Lotfe, H. E. Ambassador of Mexico in India; Prof. Sonya Surabhi Gupta, Professor, Spanish, Director, Centre for European and Latin American Studies, JMI, New Delhi; Prof. Ash Narain Roy, Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi; Dr. Noorin Khan, Assistant Professor, Spanish Language and Latin American Studies, Centre for European and Latin American Studies, JMI, New Delhi, Dr. Mayuresh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Spanish, Dept. of Foreign Languages, AMU, are the resource persons of the workshop.
Dr. Murad Ahamad Khan, Dr. Mayuresh Kumar, Mr. Suhail Akhtar and Dr. Subair PM, Assistant Professors, AMU are workshop moderators.
Prof. Jawaid Iqbal, Dean, and Chairperson, Faculty of International Studies, AMU will deliver the valedictory address.