Visiting Scholars
2017
Hengyu Zhang
Hengyu Zhang is this year’s Teaching Assistant in Chinese for the East Asian Studies Program. Hengyu hails from Chuzhou in Anhui Province, a city with a rich culture and a long history in the eastern part of China. She felt right at home in Oberlin because it is quiet and filled with trees and birds; Tappan Square reminds her of the parks in Chuzhou.
She is currently in the MA graduate program for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at Beijing Normal University, and was a teaching assistant at the university. Last summer Hengyu was an instructor in the Princeton in Asia summer school in Beijing. According to Hengyu, “I love to teach Chinese, and my Oberlin students are very diligent.”
One of the many things she enjoyed so far in Oberlin was her visit to The Feve. She had heard that everyone knows about this place, and she found the atmosphere very lively and the food delicious. Living in comfortable Shansi House with its large kitchen at her disposal, she’s thinking of learning how to cook Chinese food and hopes to invite her students and colleagues over for a meal one day soon.
Nesren Mohamed abd el Mohsen Hefnawy
Nesren Mohamed abd el Mohsen Hefnawy, Fulbright Arabic Language Teaching Assistant, is teaching all three levels of Arabic: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. She’s originally from Cairo and graduated from Cairo University in 2011 with a degree in Egyptology from the Department of Archeology.
Although she is deeply interested in archeology, she found herself drawn to teaching English after graduation. With this passion as her guide, she worked at several companies as an English Instructor, New Horizons in Alexandria being her final stop before applying for a Fulbright.
In addition to her passion for teaching English, she loves running, swimming, yoga, and Zumba. She ran a half marathon with the Cairo Runners organization. Traveling, dogs, and spending leisure time in gardens and parks are other activities she relishes.
Her impression of Oberlin is that it has a lovely “vintage” feel, unlike other universities with which she is familiar. She finds Oberlin people friendly and supportive, and appreciates that she has the freedom to be herself and the respect from the community as a minority veiled woman.
Faradilla “Fara” Fadlia
Fara arrives with an interest in gender issues, environment, and international politics. She is from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Syiah Kuala University, and she has also worked with the local government in nearby Sabang, and with the Red Cross in Aceh. She has been doing research on gender roles in Aceh, including how this affects women in terms of access to transportation and other public resources, and how they face violence and discrimination in coffee shops in Aceh (coffee shops are a hub of social life in Aceh, but are generally male-dominated). Fara is a member of the university’s research group tasked with establishing performance measurement systems, and she is very interested in how students undertake community volunteer projects. If possible, she hopes to introduce a volunteerism program at her university. She has a Master's Degree in Global Political Economy from the University of Kassel in Germany, and an undergraduate degree from Prof. Dr. Moestopo University in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Dinaroe
Dinaroe is a member of the Syiah Kuala University Faculty of Business and Economics. His core teaching areas are Accounting and Business, and his main research area is Islamic finance. In addition to working as a lecturer at Syiah Kuala University, Dinaroe has worked on the technical assistance staff of the Aceh provincial government and for various NGOs. He interested in seeing how Oberlin’s various entrepreneurship initiatives work, and would like to introduce some of these ideas at Syiah Kuala University. He is eager to work on his English and his research skills at Oberlin, and is enthusiastic about studying German as well. Dinaroe also serves as deputy director of the Office of International Affairs at Syiah Kuala University, so he also plans to look at how Oberlin handles international student intake and support while he's here. He received an MBA from the University of Leipzig in Germany after completing a Bachelor of Economics degree at Syiah Kuala University.