Meet some AUSN Professors

AUSN is blessed to already have over 40 professors from around the world. They are at the forefront of their fields. A few photos I took of their activities at AUSN are here.

Professor Hannah Grace, conducting research at AUSN, preparing for work on gender and family studies (Above)

Professor Leroy Rhein, Professor Nia Smyrniotis, and the SRPMIC Vice-President Martin Harvier, after a discussion of the cooperation opportunities between AUSN and SRPMIC.

Professor Govindan Parallyl and Dr. Darryl Macer outside the SRMIC Council Chambers Professor Govindan Parallyl and myself outside the SRMIC Council Chambers – the two Directors of the AUSN Research Institutes together in Salt River for the first time.   

Bioethics as the Foundation to Enhance Professionalism of Health Care Professionals in the Era of National Health Insurance in Indonesia.

Bioethics as the Foundation to Enhance Professionalism of Health Care Professionals in the Era of National Health Insurance in Indonesia. AUSN was one of the co-organisers of the Launching of the Graduate Certificate Diploma and Postgraduate Program in Bioethics held at the same time as the Annual Scientific Meeting, 68th Anniversary Faculty of Medicine – Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, during 3-5 March 2014. The theme was Bioethics as the Foundation to Enhance Professionalism of Health Care Professionals in the Era of National Health Insurance. Prof. dr. Ali GhufronMukti, the Vice Minister of Health, Indonesia, gave an overview of the new health care system in Indonesia, Indonesia Universal Health Coverage System: Its Consequences to the Practice of Health Care Professionals. I gave several training lectures in the Humanities, Ethics, Laws and Professionalism (HELP) Course for the graduate students.

Bioethics Curriculum Development for the Undergraduate
Purwokerto, Indonesia, 6-7 March 2014

Bioethics Curriculum Development for the Undergraduate This workshop was supported by US funds for Indonesia Research Bioethics Institutional Capacity Building Grant Program, awarded to UNSOED and AUSN. Day 1 focused on Basic Concepts of Bioethics and Curriculum Development. There were a number of working sessions including discusison and group work. Interspersed with these were introductory lectures including:“Basic concepts of bioethics”, Prof. Darryl Macer; “Understanding bioethics: the Indonesian context”, Dr. Amalia Muhaimin; “The importance of bioethics in medicine, health, and life sciences”, Prof. Dick Willems; “A six-step approach to (bioethics) curriculum development”, Dr. Miko Ferine; “Bioethics curriculum development”, Prof. Darryl Macer; “Contributions of Bioethics to Healthy Leadership”, Ms. Ananya Tritipthumrongchok.

Day 2 was on Educational Strategies and Curriculum Evaluation, including “Interactive Learning Methods in Bioethics”, Prof. Darryl Macer; “Assessment in Bioethics Teaching: Concepts and Methods”, Prof. Dick Willems; “Teaching and assessment strategies in boethics: experience from School of Medicine, Unsoed”, Ms. Diyah Woro Dwi Lestari, S.Psi., M.A.; “Teaching and assessment strategies in boethics: experience from Faculty of Biology, Unsoed”; Ardhini R. Maharning, Edi Basuki, Gratiana Eka Wijayanti, Hedro Pramono and Uki Dwiputranto. I made a further trip to UNSOED in May 2014 and some exciting new cooperation will be announced in June 2014 between AUSN and UNSOED. An Intensive Bioethcis Training Course will also be offered 9-11 September in UNSOED.

Professor Ryo Takahashi and Ms. Mikiko Maruko. Professor Ryo Takahashi and I met with the President of Kanto Ainu Association in Japan, Ms. Mikiko Maruko to discuss cooperation with the Ainu Peoples.

Gender Empowerment

I was able to see several of the former UNESCO gender studies network members who were speaking at the National University’s Center for Cultural and Ethnic Studies Colloquium, “Oil Poor, Oil Rich: Problems of Social Transformations in Middle East”, on 15 March 2014 in San Diego. Prof. Lorna Zukas, Sociology and Global Studies, National University, convened the meeting with two excellent keynotes on gender studies from Prof. Valentine Moghadam, Director of the International Affairs Program and Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University. “Feminisms and Democratic Transitions: the Arab Spring in Comparative Perspective” and Prof. Rae Blumberg, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. “Patriarchy, Petroleum, and the Middle East vs. the ‘Islamic Surprise’”. Economic empowerment is clearly a route to political and social empowerment.

On the panels were also several journalists and writers who discussed ongoing social transformations in the Middle East. There were some interesting paradoxes in women’s equality in oil-rich versus oil-poor countries, the role of Islam and oil in engendering development, oil as a factor in social and political corruption, the presence or absence of oil, and the diversity of people-–rich and poor–who live and work in the Middle East. There is more information at http://lornazukas.wordpress.com.

Spring at AUSN

Greetings from AUSN campus, hope to see more visitors here very soon! We are getting ready for our approval to start our 4 Masters and 5 Postgraduate Certificate Courses in early 2014. We cannot wait to start! A few snaphots… Spring at AUSN

Spring at AUSN

Part of the growing library at AUSN.

Part of the growing library at AUSN.

Sunset of another busy day in Scottsdale.

Checking the telephone on the sunset of another busy day in Scottsdale! Some lovely sunsets and sunrises!