Fine Arts and Humanities
Nourish Intuition and Nurture the Human Spirit: Dr Carl Amrhein
Dr Carl Amrhein, Provost and Vice President Academics, University
of Alberta, Canada, was the speaker at AKU's Special Lecture Series
programme in November 2005. He presented an eloquent discourse titled
'Thinking Globally, Developing Locally: General Education in Society
through the Arts, Humanities and Sciences.' Elaborating on the evolution,
concept, characters and purpose of a university, Dr. Amrhein said
he was reminded of the installation address given by his president,
Dr. Indira Samarasekera, who said, “Creativity thrives in
an intellectual climate of breadth. A university should be a place
of great conversations between engineers and philosophers, biologists
and historians, physicians and linguists. They should be presented
with societal challenges and encouraged to seek solutions through
discourse and debate.” The Special Lecture Series is part
of AKU’s multidisciplinary and broad-based approach to education
that aims to enrich students’ understanding of the humanities
and social sciences. The general public also benefits from this
one-to-one interaction with scholars and other personalities of
national and international repute.
During the lecture, Dr Amrhein elaborated on the evolution, concept, characters
and purpose of a university. Citing the examples of the pioneering
institutions such as 'The Academy' of Athens and Al-Azhar University
of Cairo, and scholars John Cardinal Newman and Wilhelm Humboldt,
he advocated that, "A university should teach universal knowledge
as an end in itself and provide students with an all-round humanist
education."
Dr Amrhein interestingly quoted Clark Kerr's concept of 'multiversity',
which supports an outward-expanding institution that touches the
lives of all citizens and is far removed from the cloistered community
of scholars. He also provided a detailed description of collegial
governance at the University of Alberta, explaining the infrastructure
as partnership among administration, teaching faculty, and students
in the institution's governance.
Earlier in his welcome address, Mr Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, President
AKU, commented that Dr Carl Amrhein embodies the qualities required
of an educator in the world's pluralistic environment. "The planned
Faculty of Arts and Sciences of AKU is inspired by, among other
things, pluralistic values and this is exactly what this Faculty
will seek to promote within its student body. Dr Amrhein, who happens
to be the first guest from Canada to speak in the AKU Special Lecture
Series, is very well-positioned to shed light on this, from the
perspective of having hands-on experiences as former Dean Faculty
of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto and from his current
post as Provost and Vice President Academics at the University of
Alberta," Mr Kassim-Lakha observed.
Dr Amrhein has received many honours and awards including the 1998-1999
International Directory of Distinguished Leadership Award, the Joan
E. Foley Quality of Student Experience Award in 2003, and the 2003
Urmila Sarkar Service Award from the University of Toronto Arts
and Science Student Union, and has published several papers and
articles in professional journals. His speech was followed by a
vote of thanks by Dr Nadir Ali Syed, Associate Dean, Postgraduate
Medical Education, AKU, and Convener of Special Lecture Series,
as well as a question-and-answer session that saw active participation
from an enthusiastic audience.
AKU's Special Lecture Series programme, which started six years
ago, has so far organised lectures by prestigious speakers such
as His Royal Highness Prince Hasan of Jordan; the historian Stanley
Wolpert; Zia Mohyeddine; Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan, former foreign minister
of Pakistan and the former Chairman of the AKU Board of Trustees;
and Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Maliha Lodhi.
Dr Carl J Amrhein, and Vice President Academics, University of
Alberta, Canada, was the guest speaker at AKU's Special Lecture
Series programme.
