Bhattacharyya Closes BVU Book, Opens Another
Professor known for cultural humility, expanded horizons for hundreds of BVU students by connecting and establishing relationships during experiential learning opportunities throughout the world.
As Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, approaches her retirement after 18 years at Buena Vista University, she reflects on her first visit. She laughs and talks about consulting a map to find out where Storm Lake, Iowa might be located.
“When I applied, I only had two chapters of my dissertation done and a teaching assistantship at the University of Southern California, so I did not need a job,” Bhattacharyya recalls. “My advisor encouraged me to apply for jobs because it was good practice interviewing and learning how to package my experience, so I sent out applications with no regard to geographical locations. When I was invited to an on-campus interview at BVU, I was going to decline. I knew there was no way I was going to move to Iowa, so it would be unethical to have the University fly me out and have the interview, knowing I wasn’t going to take the job. My advisor encouraged me to accept the invitation, saying ‘You never know.’”
In one of the Q&A sessions during the day long interview, Dr. Bob Ferguson, then Professor of Psychology at BVU, noted how many different places Bhattacharyya had lived, and inquired, “Can you be happy here?”
Bhattacharyya acknowledged that BVU and Storm Lake, Iowa were unlike anywhere she had lived. However, she noted that “ultimately we determine our own happiness. I’ve been happy all those other places, I suspect I could be happy here as well.”
“Swasti taught me about tolerance and respect... You learn to be appreciative and non-judgmental because you never know what someone is going through. It made me a better clinician.”
U.S. Army Maj. Dr. Jessica Warneke '09
As Bhattacharyya retires at the close of the academic year, she looks back on nearly two decades at BVU and says, “Ultimately, among the ups and downs and challenges, I have been happy. I learned much, gave much, and became the educator I am today. About 12 years into my career at BVU, I realized my good fortune: my job was my passion.”
Students from the rural Midwest, Bhattacharyya noticed early on, might come to college having never encountered anyone else who is Muslim or Hindu, or from another religious tradition. She created classroom environments where students faced such world views for the first time.
“Without fail, almost every semester, a student would walk into class and proclaim, ‘mind blown!’ or ‘my head hurts!’” she recalls. “I had the privilege of being in the room when students encountered worldviews and beliefs they never, ever encountered, even in the fringes of their imagination!”
Her aim was to have students leave her classes with a better sense of who they are, who they want to be, and how they want to live in the world. Additionally, she emphasized the importance of understanding one another, and that learning, and understanding, what other people believe is not the same as agreeing with them.
“If you haven’t taken the time to listen and understand someone else, how can you disagree or dismiss them?” she asks.
“Travel is such an amazing educator,” she says, describing how she encouraged students to leave their bubbles of comfort and open themselves to experience the world. Most recently, the 2012 winner of the George Wythe Award, BVU’s highest honor for teaching excellence, accompanied a group of students, all McCorkle Fellows, on a January excursion through Madagascar.
“When I took students places, my goal was to go deep,” says Bhattacharyya, who mined her numerous connections in, Madagascar, India, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Turkey, Hawai’i, and more for the benefit of BVU students. In Tahiti, the whole group stayed in the homes of friends and family of the professor. This provided the students with opportunities to form relationships and learn about Polynesian culture on a deeper level. During the travel course to India, the group visited the ashram where Bhattacharyya has family and deep connections.
It was precisely this kind of trip organized by Bhattacharyya that remains an epiphany for 2009 BVU graduate U.S. Army Maj. Dr. Jessica Warneke, a flight surgeon. While a student at BVU, Warneke says working at an orphanage in Jamaica on a service trip and traveling to India with Bhattacharyya shaped her thinking. As did taking Bhattacharyya’s classes.
“Swasti taught me about tolerance and respect,” Warneke says of Bhattacharyya, noting how her teaching led Warneke to being more open-minded, compassionate, and understanding. “I remember seeing abject poverty and how poor health care can be. You learn to be appreciative and non-judgmental because you never know what someone is going through. It made me a better clinician.”
Bhattacharyya also orchestrated a week-long BVU residency by the Tibetan monks from Gaden Shartse Norling Monastery, an experience that drew attendees from across campus as well as from area communities, people who relished a chance to broaden their understanding by meeting with and communicating with the monks.
“We need to understand each other,” says Bhattacharyya. “At the core of all my work, both in my own research and in the classroom, is the idea of Cultural Humility. While many learn simply to acquire knowledge to get a job, Cultural Humility provides us with a different paradigm for learning. The reason for learning in this paradigm is to increase our capacities to understand. So, we leave not only with knowledge, but also with the skills to understand one another: something which is sorely lacking in our world right now.”
During her time at BVU, she designed and taught more than 20 courses, actively engaged students in and out of the classroom, co-designed assignments and courses with faculty throughout the institution, directed the Gender and Woman Studies & the Study Abroad programs, brought a number of outside voices to campus (Ramsey Clark, the Tibetan Buddhist Monks, and Emma’s Revolution being highlights), and as mentioned above, participated in planning travel opportunities that took students and faculty around the world. Bhattacharyya, who spent 10 years as a Registered Nurse prior to her time as a professor, is also an author, serves on the board for the Peace & Justice Studies Association, and on the American Academy of Religion’s Committee for Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession.
Though Bhattacharyya does not know exactly what is next in her future, she has a major project she must complete. From 2006 to 2011, she interviewed the sisters of the Brahma Vidya Mandir in central India. These are women who follow the teachings of M. K. Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave (disciple, friend, confidant, and spiritual successor to Gandhi). The sisters introduced her to others who literally walked with Gandhi or Vinoba. Ultimately, Bhattacharyya has interviews of three generations of people in India who are committed to living for the uplifting of all segments of society and the earth.
“I spoke with women of the Brahma Vidya Mandi, who knew me as a child,” she says. “They are feminists, peace activists, and environmentalists. The ultimate goal of these women is to live for the betterment of humanity. They live simply and in solidarity to the poor. They want their lives to be a demonstration that people can live a full life without the trappings of material items. Their stories have inspired me to consider how I live, and I hope to share their lives with others who might likewise be inspired.”
Before diving into this book project, she has a chapter she’s contributing to a book about Gandhi’s global legacy for the 21st century. Her current working title: “Lessons from the Walking Saint: From Vinoba’s Bhoodan to COVID-19.” So, as one “book” of her life closes on BVU, another opens. The chapter on Vinoba, after all, is due in August.