One of the great opportunities available to U of A students is the TEXT: India Program, or “Tibetans in Exile Today,” an oral-history project designed to record the stories of Tibetans currently living in refugee settlements in India.
The program focuses on Tibetans who left their country in 1959, but still have vivid memories of traditional Tibetan culture. The TEXT: India Program allows students to spend three weeks in the summer living in the Tibetan settlements in India as they gather these vital stories of the elderly Tibetans.
Two faculty members in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences train students in Tibetan culture and oral history before their residency in the settlements. Under the co-direction of Geshe Thupten Dorjee, a Tibetan Buddhist scholar-monk and instructor of humanities, and Sidney Burris, professor of English, director of the Fulbright College Honors Program, as well as co-director of The TEXT Program, students design and conduct the interviews, process the footage, create the transcripts and upload the resulting materials to an online archive.
The TEXT Program, then, allows our students to participate in a unique act of cultural preservation, and as a result, to make a lasting contribution to one of the world’s vital and imperiled cultures—even before they graduate from the University of Arkansas.
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Don't miss out on your chance to study abroad!
Find out more about the U of A Faculty-Led: Tibetans in Exile Today (TEXT) India program at https://studyabroad.uark.edu/textindia
Search for additional study abroad opportunities in over 50 countries at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
