Anthropologist Dr. Pamela Hunte to lecture on Afghanistan Monday, Oct. 27

Oct. 20, 2008 -- Arkansas State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences will sponsor a special lecture by anthropologist Dr. Pamela Hunte on Monday, Oct. 27, 7 p.m., in ASU’s Student Union Auditorium, 101 North Caraway Road, Jonesboro. The lecture is free, and the public is welcome.

Dr. Hunte’s lecture, “Afghanistan Today,” draws on her many years of experience living in Afghanistan. Dr. Hunte first lived in Afghanistan as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1969 to 1971. Later, her research on family structure, fertility, and childbirth in the Central Asian nation informed her master’s thesis at Northern Illinois University and her doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also interested in issues of child labor, immigration, and education throughout Central and South Asia. She has contributed to the research design for the study of second-generation Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran, and family dynamics and education in Afghanistan.

Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Dr. Hunte taught for several years at the University of Connecticut. She has also worked for the World Bank and UNICEF, and she has served as a consultant for USAID and Save the Children. In recent years, her work for the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) has taken her to that country several times a year. Dr. Hunte most recently visited Kabul, Afghanistan, this past spring.

Dr. Hunte’s presentation concerns the part of the world that is the home of the Taliban and has hosted Al Qaeda. The United States is currently fighting in Afghanistan, and both presidential candidates believe that there is a need to increase military operations there. Dr. Hunte brings a long-term familiarity with the region to these issues.

For more information, contact the Dean’s Office, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, at (870)-972-3973.            

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