Professor Nirmala Rao, a good friend, is passionate about advancing the higher education of Indian students. She has just been announced as the Vice Chancellor of Krea University. Passionate about educating women, she previously served as the Vice Chancellor of the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh. A British political scientist, a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, and awarded the Order of the British Empire, she is a distinguished scholar on urban government. I first knew of her through her admirable global scholarship and cosmopolitan sensibility when I was researching and preparing the syllabus for the EPIIC year on Global Cities.
Her book that intrigued me, Cities in Transition: Growth, Change and Governance in Six Metropolitan Areas, was a comparative topical treatment of how major cities in Europe, North America and Asia - London, Tokyo, Toronto, Berlin, Hyderabad and Atlanta - were contending with the dynamics of intensifying globalization. It is appropriately lauded as a “major and original addition to the comparative literature on urban governance.”
While these cities had all experienced population expansion, the disparity was not only the traditional tension between cities and suburbs, but the increasing challenging migration of often diverse ethnicities, races and cultures. I was particularly interested in her sensitive emphasis on citizen involvement, and the efforts she explored to foster local responsiveness and popular participation.
I then had the pleasure to meet her in person for the first time when I traveled to England in 2016 to visit the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, at the invitation of then SOAS President, Paul Webley. I had been invited to interview for a position as the director of their Middle East and North Africa division. I had been recommended by a valued member in our EPIIC year on the Future of the Middle East and North Africa, Professor Robert Springborg. A distinguished scholar, he had held the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies at SOAS, where he also served as Director of the London Middle East Institute. Professor Springborg had attended and participated in all five days of our program. He wrote Paul that SOAS needed the pedagogical and heuristic nature of EPIIC’s immersive and non-polemical approach to learning.
Professor Rao was SOAS Pro-Rector, and their Academic Director of Research and Teaching. During her tenure at SOAS, she had lead responsibilities for academic developments, learning and teaching strategy, strategic reviews of centers and departments and international collaborations. It was good timing, as she was also engaged in major reforms of the School curriculum and portfolio review of undergraduate courses and postgraduate programs.
As part of the SOAS plan to create more global partnerships, and knowing of my directorship of the Institute’s China-centric TILIP program, Paul asked me to travel to China together with Professor Rao. There, we had interesting discussions on the potential to create joint programs between SOAS and the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
I was asked to consider an adjunct position to create an Honors College at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, by their President, Hao Ping, then China’s Minister of Education, and to teach leadership and communications course. The themes I suggested - historical memory and politics, corruption - and even the environment - were enthusiastically embraced by students and young faculty I met, many with the PhD’s from major U.S. universities, but it became clear they were too sensitive for the BFSU Administration. Ultimately, my wife Iris was adamant that I not be in Beijing’s political, nor environmental, environment.
And while there were extended conversations and visits, the SOAS option did not materialize when Paul sadly died passed away. Professor Rao did not succeed him, and left to become the Academic Director of the Asian University for Women.
AUW is a fascinating young international university with a liberal arts curriculum in topics ranging from public health to politics to environmental studies. I knew of this university for we had worked with its officers and its founder, Kamal Ahmad, and had placed our several IGL students there as mentors.
Prior to joining SOAS, Professor Rao served as Professor of Politics and Pro-Warden at Goldsmiths College of the University of London. Professor Rao has extensive experience of public service and served as an advisor to a range of bodies including the UK Audit Commission and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Professor Rao was also a lay member of the General Council of the Bar, an appointed member of the UK Architects Registration Board, Council Member of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs and of the Institute of Education, University of London.
Professor Rao is passionate about the advancement of women, especially in the majority world, and about providing students with a distinctive, transformative experiences. Iris and I now have the opportunity to further a wonderful relationship with her, and now also with her one of her sons, who is a cardiology and sports medicine Fellow in Boston.