US opens 'American Corner' in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow, April 24 (IANS) With an aim to promote American studies in India and strengthen India-US relations, an American Corner and American Studies Curriculum were inaugurated at a college here.

The facility, which was launched at the Isabella Thoburn College Monday, seeks to promote Indo-US relations and help students to have a better understanding of the "unique flavour of American culture," US officials said here.

Michael Pellietier, minister-counsellor for public affairs and public diplomacy at the US embassy at New Delhi, said that the American Corner was the first one in Uttar Pradesh, and the main idea behind establishing it was to "make resources available to cities where we have embassies".

The American Corner currently operates at Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Patna, Chandigarh and Bangalore. The American embassy plans to open similar centres in Aligarh, Kanpur and Varanasi, he said.

This one-stop resource centre for information and cultural exchange will, for now, be for IT College students during college hours but the US officials were also open to the idea of opening it for the common people during the college's non-working hours.

The American Studies Curriculum includes two courses - foundation course on American studies including popular culture, social sciences, literature, gender issues and foreign policy and international relations and understanding issues of peace and conflict resolution.

The other is the advanced course on American studies that would be dealing with transgender issues, popular culture, social sciences, literature, emerging gender foreign policy and international relations, understanding violence/non-violence and strategies for conflict resolution and peace building and education, health, science and environment.