Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant

The Office of International Programs collaborated with the Department of Foreign Languages, the College of Arts & Letters and the Greater Middle East Studies minor to write a grant proposal and support a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at JMU for the 2006-07 academic year. The Fulbright program offers substantial support for teachers of 'Less Commonly Taught Languages.' In support of the Middle East Studies minor, JMU requested a teacher of Pashto, the language of the Pakhtoon peoples of parts of Afghanistan and the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Mr. M. Taimur Salam Khan arrived on the JMU campus from Peshawar in NW Pakistan in mid-August. He taught one class during fall semester and two classes during spring semester. As part of the agreement with Fulbright, FLTAs must take two classes each semester, and Khan happily immersed himself in his passion, American literature. He also spoke to several classes on topics ranging from his home culture to the religion of Islam.

Khan returned home in May 2007 to his position teaching English literature in Edwards College in Peshawar.