TOP: Lambright and Aziz meet with the people of Bangladesh while doing field work there in 2014. talk, “What can mathematical models tell us about losing and gaining weight?” by Montclair State’s Diana Thomas. War and peace finished out the four-year cycle this past year. Kelly Denton-Borhaug, chair of the religion department, and Daniel Jasper, associate professor of sociology, arranged for the college to host the LVAIC War and Peacebuilding Conference on campus. An art show at Payne Gallery showcased works of respected artists and photography by student veterans, and the Lehigh Valley Veterans Symposium and Education Fair brought local veterans to campus. All the events, and the many more not listed, continued the learning of these topics out of the classroom, providing multiple lenses for investigation and reflection. “We’re doing some of the best liberal arts work with this program, and each year it has gone deeper and deeper,” says Weil. That same year that InFocus started, Aziz crafted an affiliation agreement with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), an international health research institution that addresses critical health concerns in Bangladesh. Aziz used InFocus as the vehicle to cement an opportunity that would allow students to do research there. “When InFocus came around, it was the perfect research palette to try and learn something new,” she says. “An opportunity to translate research into action.” That was also the start of Emily Lambright’s ’15 freshman year at Moravian College. She was randomly assigned to Aziz for academic advisement and quickly learned she had a passion for microeconomics (like her adviser). Lambright became a teaching assistant for Aziz and they began spending a lot of time together. “When we first met, neither of us knew that we would be having conversations around the valuation of water quality in Bangladesh,” says Aziz, sitting across from Lambright on a sunny afternoon in May. Lambright would graduate just days later with a 4.0 GPA and her bags packs for a fullyfunded fellowship at Duke University where she’ll earn her Ph.D. in public policy and economics. “I didn’t realize she was going to focus so deeply on an area that I particularly specialize in.” Lambright’s interests took her to Bangladesh for five weeks during the summer of 2014, under Aziz’s guidance as well as with support
SUMMER 2015
from SOAR and the environmental studies program. She was interning on a large scale project on household willingness to pay for water quality in urban slums funded at ICDDR,B by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Aziz accompanied Emily to Bangladesh where she spends most summers doing research on water quality. The two had weekly meetings, field trips and many long car and rickshaw rides discussing everything from research methodology to adjusting to the culture. When Lambright discovered a methodological flaw in the research, Aziz coached her on gaining her point while adhering to complex hierarchical research structures and protocols. For Lambright, this showcased the inherent challenges in, and care needed to do good work under the aegis of Poverty and Inequality. “I always thought I wanted to do work in development economics, and this reinforced that for me,” says Lambright. “It was completely different than anything I had ever experienced. It makes you think about the context in which you live as well.” Due in part to this experience, Lambright chose a graduate school that will allow her to continue field work in developing countries. “The InFocus themes aligned with what I wanted to study, and it made working in those areas more of a priority for the professors here and the work I was already doing.” Aziz beams as Emily describes her work. While their journey as faculty and student ends here, Aziz is confident their journey as colleagues will continue—as well as Lambright’s extremely bright future. “Am I proud of her? I’m over the moon about it,” she says. “This is what I dream about for our students, to be able to take a significant body of work that you reflect on at Moravian and get a chance to operationalize it in the field. For all arms of InFocus. Not just to consume knowledge, but to produce it.” As for the future of InFocus, Weil is confident it will continue to grow. His dream: the program would provide $10,000 to a student or group of students that came up with the best way to address an InFocus center of investigation, and publish their research. All it needs, he says, is the funding. InFocus is one of Weil’s proudest projects—for the College, and the future of the liberal arts. “Every generation has idealistic, smart people that can make a difference. Let’s provide them an opportunity to realize their true global impact.”
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