Introducing the
David C Pollock Scholars 2018

 
Zainab Hussaini

Zainab Hussaini is a PhD candidate at the University of Chester. Her doctoral research focuses on the workplace experiences of Hazara women, taking an autoethnographic,transnational feminist approach. She holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Social Communication Science from the University of Tehran in Iran, the country where she was born and raised. Zainab’s parents were both Afghan refugees and fled to Iran in 1984 due to the civil war in Afghanistan. She identifies as an ‘Adult Cross Culture Kid’ (ACCK) due to her immersion in both host (Iran) and home (Afghanistan) cultures. However, she also differentiates her experiences from those of more privileged CCKs, as she grew up in Iran as a refugee. Zainab repatriated to Afghanistan while she was working on her Master’s dissertation about the repatriation experience of educated Hazaras to Afghanistan. Zainab worked in Afghanistan as a researcher and project manager from 2011 to 2016, arriving in the UK in February 2016 to start her PhD. Zainab’s aim is to be a voice for Hazara women and CCKs globally.

Jeniece Lusk

Jeniece Lusk is an assistant professor at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Dr Lusk holds a PhD in applied sociology from Baylor University and has taught sociology for 10 years at institutions in the US and Japan. Her areas of teaching and academic scholarship survey research methodology, global gender studies, environment and consumption, and deviant behavior. In addition to her academic career, she has also conducted client-based qualitative and quantitative research and analysis for corporations in Atlanta and Central Texas.


Uwe Maurer

Uwe Maurer is the director of Taiwan Sunshine, a nonprofit that supports and encourages families that have children with special needs. A German, born and raised in Taiwan, American school educated, and the father of a child with special needs and another adopted child, he understands the pressures that families face in moving and educating their children overseas. Uwe spent ten years teaching and being the principal of several international schools in China. In 2006, he returned to Taiwan as the principal of an American school in Taipei. In 2012 he started a study center in Taipei for children with special needs. Currently, Uwe lives in Taitung, Taiwan where one daughter attends a local special education school, while the others are homeschooled.


Aiko Minematsu

Aiko Minematsu is an adult TCK residing in Tokyo, Japan. Enrolled in seven elementary schools in Japan and the USA because of her father’s job, her childhood was a constant move between different cultures. She holds an MA in TESOL from Teachers College Columbia University and a secondary school teaching license for teaching English in Japan. She has taught English to returnee students in Japan for over ten years, and currently is a university lecturer in Tokyo, teaching English for academic purposes and research methods. Her research interests are identity trajectories of TCKs and adult TCKs, language education and multilingualism, and teacher education. Her life goal is to empower TCKs in Japan through education.J


Jeanne Riether

Jeanne Riether is an American author, humanitarian worker and global nomad who’s spent over 40 years abroad. She’s lived in China for the past two decades where she helped found and direct the Healing Young Hearts Project now based at the Cathay Future Culture and Art Foundation in Tianjin. She loves creating free resources, and training volunteers to use stories, art, music and games to help children navigate stressful life challenges, chronic illness, disaster and trauma. She was nominated for the 2016 Haihe Friendship Award, Tianjin government’s highest honor, for contributions to social development, and received the 2010 Harbin Gandong television award, for disaster assistance. Her books and resources have been used by the International Red Cross and UNICEF’s Child Friendly Spaces in China, as well as by international families and volunteers. Her first global nomad historical novel, “The Soul Sellers” is due to be published in early 2018.