Professor helps students reshape perspectives

Uli Schamiloglu seeks to teach his students to think critically as they learn about Central Asia. (Photo: Michael Forster Rothbart)

On April 13, readers of the Badger Herald selected Uli Schamiloglu as their favorite professor. He teaches about the languages and cultures of Asia, and is chair of the Central Asian Studies Program.

Naturally, we wondered what he was doing that students found so right.

This semester Schamiloglu has been teaching a new introductory course on languages and cultures of Asia. Students have commented favorably on his use of images and music from Asia in this course.

Each spring he also teaches an introductory course on Central Asia, intriguingly subtitled The Silk Route to Afghanistan.

Particularly in this second course, Schamiloglu aims to butt misconception and myth out of the arena. His subject area is rife with them, largely due to oversimplification, skewed point of view or unvarnished ignorance of that part of the world, he says. He addresses these problems primarily by linking the past — sometimes the distant past — to the present.

“Most Westerners have no point of reference about this area of the world,” he says.

And that would include the American diplomatic corps. Schamiloglu has worked many times with American diplomats in Central Asia and was a member of former Secretary of State James Baker’s delegation to the signing of the Protocol to the START Treaty. One of Schamiloglu’s peeves, for example, is the erroneous notion that the nation of Afghanistan has ever had a single leader whom the West can influence easily.

“The ruler of Afghanistan has never been much more than the mayor of Kabul,” says Schamiloglu. “Historically, nobody ever has controlled this region. Why should the United States think it can?”

Because of his Kazan Tatar ethnic background he brings a firsthand knowledge of closely related languages and cultures into the classroom. The study of how these cultures changed under the Russian empire and later under the Soviet Union figures prominently in his courses.

“My own parents were refugees from the Soviet state. Of course that colors my perspective on things,” he says.

That American students generally know so little about Central Asia makes it more challenging for them to learn about the region. Although Schamiloglu’s teaching usually focuses on the languages, cultures and history of the five republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, his Silk Route class this day discusses how the past, present and perhaps even future converge in the 2,000-year legacy of conflict in Afghanistan.

“When I assign certain readings, I tell students that when they’ve finished the book, I’m going to ruin it for them,” Schamiloglu says. By that he means that he will pick the book apart in class, revealing the author’s bias, or at the very least, point of view.

In one class, Schamiloglu directs his critical eye to Peter Hopkirk’s book, “The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia” (Kodansha International, 1994).

“The students like books like this. They’re written by journalists for a popular audience. The trouble with Hopkirk is, he characterizes the English agents in Afghanistan in the 19th century as heroes,” Schamiloglu says.

Typically, students don’t pick up on that when they read the book on their own, he says. “It helps to have someone direct your attention to what you’re looking for.”

Schamiloglu argues that Hopkirk’s work, now widely read in government circles, offers a biased or even racist portrayal of the peoples of Central Asia and Afghanistan as being backward. This is consistent with views that 19th century imperialists held.

Freshman Joe Szpack, a kinesiology major who plans on teaching physical education when he graduates, says that the class is opening his eyes to the various ways the same event or issue can be interpreted.

“I went into this class with no background about Central Asia,” he says. “It’s been fascinating to read about the conditions under the Soviets, and the mindset that brought the Taliban to power.”

Thanks to this class, Szpack says that he will be aware of individual takes his own students will bring to class, whether that diversity springs from their heritage, background and experiences, or simply their own philosophical bent.

“What I want to do is teach my students to think critically,” says Schamiloglu, who recently started a publishing company to bring more works about Central Asia to public attention. “Following the events of 9/11, I have been teaching a special edition of my Introduction to Central Asia. Now that there are U.S. soldiers and bases in this part of the world about which I study and teach, I want students to have a better understanding of this part of the world so that they can be better citizens.”