Contact: Maridith Geuder
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Led by a strong desire to further her education and broaden her professional horizons, 32-year-old Saodat Mukimova left her family, her children and her comfort zone to spend a year at Mississippi State.
More than 7,000 miles from her home in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, she has spent almost every waking hour since last August soaking up all the knowledge the university's College of Architecture, Art and Design can provide.
"In my culture, women depend more on men," the quiet, soft-voiced brunette observed. "Here, I have to depend on myself. It's been a good experience."
Approximately the size of Wisconsin, Tajikistan is bordered on the east by China, on the south by Afghanistan and Pakistan, and on the west by Uzbekistan.
An architecture instructor at Tajik Technical University in the capital city of Dushanbe, Mukimova is visiting MSU through the U.S. State Department-sponsored Junior Faculty Development Program. Though her native language is Russian, she also speaks Tajik (the state language), Uzbek, and English.
Administered by the American Council for International Education, JFDP sponsors international fellows from a variety of university disciplines. For the 2004-05 year, however, only three applied for architecture fellowships, said associate college dean Jane Greenwood.
"It's a very competitive program," said Greenwood, Mukimova's faculty adviser. Phil Bonfanti, director of MSU's International Services Office and her institutional host, agreed, adding, "The program's overall goals are to increase access to educational resources and to new educational perspectives."
Mukimova admitted that she initially lacked confidence in her English-language proficiencies. To improve her skills, she continues to observe and participate in MSU classes as she develops a host of ideas for new courses to teach after returning home.
Among the ideas are a future class on global cultural pluralism and art as a language of intercultural communication. That interest actually led to a research report that Mukimova presented last fall at the International Conference on the Arts and Humanities in Hawaii.
"It was my first-ever presentation in English, but I was not nervous," she said with a laugh. Her report, co-authored with Greenwood, dealt with the conflict between architectural tradition and innovation, especially in the construction of mosques in the U.S. and in Tajikistan.
"While international fellows are encouraged to research and to present papers, this was quite an accomplishment," Greenwood observed.
Before Mukimova returns to Tajikistan in July, she also will participate in a two-month working internship with an architectural firm, possibly in Washington, D.C.
"The interchange with Saodat is providing a wonderful opportunity for Mississippi State students and faculty to develop new cultural perspectives," Greenwood said. "We're learning, and she's learning."
For Mukimova, perhaps the most difficult part of the undertaking has been the temporary isolation from her husband and two children, ages 7 and 2. She is consoled, however, by the confidence that they are being well cared for by her mother.
She also is confident that she will return to Tajikistan with a new understanding of herself and her vocation.
"The most important goal in my country is survival," she says. "Because I have to have two and three jobs to earn money, I couldn't be immersed in architecture this way."
The fellowship program has "deepened my sense of what I'd like to do," she said. The experience here has given her "totally new views of architecture and I've started to look differently at space and how it impacts people," she added.
Both Mukimova and her MSU hosts expressed hope that the friendship won't end with her return home.
"The Tajik embassy has grant programs for alumni of the Junior Faculty Program," Greenwood said. "We hope to develop opportunities for further exchange."
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, telephone Mukimova at (662) 325-8671; Greenwood, at 325-2202; or Bonfanti, at 325-8929.