The 2023 Commencement speaker Karim- Aly S. Kassam was awarded with Professor Honoris Causa of AUCA

June 26, 2023

On June 3, 2023, AUCA Faculty Senate awarded Commencement speaker Dr Karim-Aly S. Kassam with Professor Honoris Causa of the American University of Central Asia in recognition of his contributions to the culturally grounded community-based research on climate change adaptation in Central Asia and sponsoring and supporting AUCA students.

Professor Kassam is an International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. In 2018, Professor Karim-Aly Kassam initiated The Zeenab Saleh Kassam Scholarship, which is designed to provide the best and brightest female student residents in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan or Xinjiang (China) pursuing an undergraduate degree in Environmental Sustainability and Climate Science program at AUCA. On December 16, 2022, Professor Kassam held a seminar at AUCA titled “A Methodology of Hope for the Climate Crises: The Role of Ecological Calendars” based on his research conducted in partnership with indigenous communities in the Circumpolar Arctic, Boreal Forest, as well as the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang.

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