Reza Paikar, a recipient of the prestigious Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), has selected Ball State University’s Teachers College as the location for his fellowship.

Reza, who left Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover arrived in Muncie on October 29th to begin his work as the Teachers College 2022/2023 Fellow for Economic Education.

Reza was a lecturer, faculty member, Dean and Chancellor of Samangan State University. He has also worked as an English Language Instructor for the International Geneva Committee (ICRC), Mazar-e-Sharif. Reza has a master’s degree from Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany in economics and management Science. Reza’s research has focused on education, child labor practices, and female participation in the labor force in Afghanistan.

Reza first became involved with Ball State University through the Afghan Junior Faculty Development Program (AJFDP), which was organized and run by Ball State University faculty members. This project was funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Ball State had hosted a group of Afghan junior faculty members for a 10-week professional development program in India in 2019 and 2020. Reza weas instrumental in redesigning the economics curricula for universities in Afghanistan.