Associate Professor Dina Birman Is Visiting Kazan University

Dr. Birman (University of Miami) was invited to give lectures and meet with the University's executives.

Teacher 21, a strategic academic unit established at KFU this year, continues making contacts with professionals around the world. This time it's Dina Birman; she was born and lived in the USSR but immigrated to the USA before the collapse of the former and went on to become an expert in acculturation and adjustment of immigrants and refugees.

Rector Ilshat Gafurov during his meeting with the guest said, “We are very interested in the issues that you study, especially adjustment of immigrants – in our case this includes people from the former USSR. Many of them have forgotten Russian language and traditions, the young people of these countries have become more West-oriented. The situation has shifted in the last two years. 60,000 people arrive to Tatarstan each year. The number of foreign students at our University has risen from 700 to 4,000 in the last five years”

Dr. Birman has studied acculturation and adjustment of refugees of all ages, including those from the former Soviet Union, Central America, Somalia, and Vietnam. Based on her research in Maryland, Chicago, and New Jersey, she has published papers on psychological adaptation of adolescent refugees at school, difference in acculturation between adult immigrants and their parents.

In her response Dina Birman noted, “Our faculty pays much attention to educating teachers specifically planning to work with immigrants. I like what I have seen here at your University. There are differences, and that's what attracts attention. It will be useful and interesting for us to work together. The main thing that I can help you with is how to start a conversation. Many questions need to be discussed, but sometimes people seem to speak different languages”.

Director of the Institute of Psychology and Education Aydar Kalimullin added, “Dr. Birman's visit to KFU is her first one and is basically just for reference. We want her to have a positive impression of us. We are working on a concept, and her help can come in handy”.

Among her other duties, Dina Birman serves as the editor of a Scopus-listed International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

After today's meeting she plans to give a series of lectures at Kazan University.