South African Vaneshran Arumugam to Teach Drama & Literature

St. Francis College will be home to Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Vaneshran Arumugam from Cape Town, South Africa for the Spring 2013 semester as he brings his artistic, social and scholarly skills to the St. Francis Community.

An accomplished actor, playwright, teacher, director, and social activist, Arumugam will teach a drama course and a new course on South African Literature. He will also offer guest lectures for classes in Communication Arts, Sociology, and Political Science and give performances and talks open to the entire community.

Outside of St. Francis, he will guest lecture at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and TCI Technical Career Institute. In addition, Arumugam will assist teachers in developing a drama club at The Hungerford School, an award winning special education school.

Arumugam has performed Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company and acted with Sir Derek Jacobi and the eminent South African actors Alice Krige and John Kani in StringCaesar. StringCaeser is a film project created with prisoners at Pollsmoor Prison, where Nelson Mandela served part of his life sentence. He is a founding member and trustee of The Turning Point Foundation, which emerged from the Pollsmoor Prison project and helps Cape Town’s underprivileged develop talent and skills in performance and theatre and film production. Turning Point aims to use the performing arts to create social justice. Arumugam is also involved in a number of South African organizations that address the issue of violence against women and children.

St. Francis College is one of approximately 50 institutions selected for the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) award which enables U.S. colleges and universities to host scholars from other countries to assist them in “internationalizing” their campuses, curriculum, and communities. Unlike other Fulbright programs, SIR is primarily focused on improving the institution while also benefitting the surrounding community.

This is St. Francis College’s third Fulbright award. Alissar Maaliki ‘04, a pre-med biology major, won a 2004-2005 U.S. Student Fulbright award to Morocco to work with a research scientist on herbal medicines. In 2001, Dr. Virginia Franklin of the English Department won a Fulbright Senior Scholar award to teach and conduct research at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City’s five boroughs and beyond.

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St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
www.sfc.edu