Azra Meadows - Cultural Initiatives

Cultural Initiatives

Amongst the projects in which Professor Peter Meadows and Dr Azra Meadows have played a significant role is the Connecting Futures:Student Dialogues programme.

Conceived by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the British Council, the aim of the initiative was to foster an understanding between the cultural backgrounds of students from the UK and those of Muslim countries, as part of which a delegation of sixteen students from the UK - four from The University of Glasgow, four from the University of Edinburgh, four from the University of Warwick and four from Cardiff University - visited Pakistan in 2005.

The Meadows, as well as facilitating the preparations for the delegation of Glasgow students - Anna Chiumento, Gary Sergeant, Zoe Nisbet and Tommy Ga-Ken Wan - have ensured that the value, purpose and success of the initiative is not forgotten. This has been done by arranging and assisting the students from Glasgow University to deliver, on several occasions, a lecture entitled Bridging the Divide: Myths and Realities, describing their experiences in Pakistan and their impact. At the invitation of Dr Maliha Lodhi, the High Commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, the lecture was delivered in September 2005 to an audience at the High Commission of Pakistan in London.