Terrier Volume 77, Number 1 - Spring 2013 | Page 16

Faculty Spotlight

From South Africa to Brooklyn Heights
By Meghan Lewit

At a recent lecture at the College, St. Francis’ first Fulbright
Scholar-in-Residence Vaneshran Arumugam described growing
up in South Africa under the yoke of apartheid.

A

rumugam, 37, an accomplished actor,
writer, and social activist, spent the
semester sharing his work and experiences with students and faculty. In addition
to teaching a drama course incorporating
South African texts, he has participated in
lectures and cultural exchanges with other
institutions in NYC. He was also the featured
actor in “The Gathering,” a concert performance that explored diverse relationships in
unusual circumstances.
Despite the struggles, Arumugam said his
upbringing in segregated South Africa was in
some ways a privilege that exposed him to
diverse languages and cultures. As one of the
first ethnic actors of Indian origin to appear on
South African television, Arumugam made his
name playing against type. He gained celebrity
from television roles and has appeared in
numerous international theatre productions

prison term. Arumugam trained the prison’s
inmates and acted alongside them in
StringCaesar, a film that chronicles Julius
Caesar’s rise to power (with the modern prison
filling in for ancient Rome). The film — which
won Best Low-Budget Feature award at the
prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February
— also gave rise to the Turning Point
Foundation, a non-profit organization that
works with Cape Town’s underprivileged
and incarcerated to develop performance
and production skills.
Gregory Tague, Professor of English, met
Arumugam at a 2011 conference in England
and immediately recognized that his work
in the arts and social justice would support
St. Francis’ mission of hospitality and
engagement with the community. With the
assistance of Virginia Franklin, Associate
Professor of English and Fulbright Program

A performance of The Gathering with Vaneshran and Antonevia Ocho-Coultes ’04.
Arumugam performing his original composition, The Maskhande Waltz.
L E F T:

including the title role of Hamlet with the
Royal Shakespeare Company under the
direction of South African actress and
director Dame Janet Suzman.
“The arts for me became a mode of
expression and a way to interact with the
world,” he told members of the St. Francis
community.
Arumugam saw the potential in performance to drive social change. He brought his
skills to the Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town,
South Africa — the same prison where the
nation’s first black president, Nelson Mandela,
was incarcerated for a portion of his 27-year

R I G H T:

Vaneshran

Representative and Advisor, the College
was awarded the prestigious grant to bring
Arumugam to Brooklyn Heights.
“We’re the small college of big dreams and
this is an opportunity to say to our students,
‘Get out into the world,’ ” Tague said.
“Vaneshran brings a very different cultural
perspective. He will certainly let the students
see what they are capable of.”
The award will also support the College’s
efforts to grow its study abroad program.
This is St. Francis’ third Fulbright award.
The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program
assists higher education institutions to expand

14  |  ST. FR ANCIS COLLEGE TERRIER  |  SPRING 2013

Provost Timothy J. Houlihan with Professors
Vaneshran Arumugam, Virginia Franklin, and
Gregory Tague.

their academic exchange programs and
to diversify the educational experiences
of their students, scholars, and the
surrounding community.
“One of the myths of the Fulbright is that it
is just for academics,” said Professor Franklin,
who was a Fulbright Scholar in 2001. “But the
program promotes on-the-ground cultural
exchange for people from all walks of life.”
At St. Francis, Arumugam has tackled a
ne w challenge: teaching. Although he has
degrees in drama and social anthropology,
and previously received a Ford Foundation
International Fellowship Program award to
study at Columbia University, Arumugam
said he views himself primarily as a performer,
not an academic.
“Teaching is performing in a different way,”
he said. “It has the same significance as a
performance, the emphasis is on sharing and
creating awareness.”
As part of his role in enriching the larger
community, Arumugam has also guest-lectured
at the Borough of Manhattan Community
College and TCI Technical Career Institute,
and assisted in developing a drama club at The
Hungerford School, an award-winning special
education school based in Staten Island.
“I want the students I teach to share in the
experience of trusting yourself as an artist
and trusting yourself as a storyteller,” he said.
Although Arumugam has embraced the
diversity and opportunity of NYC, his home
country is never far from his mind. In the
future, he hopes to democratize the arts by
bringing theater to public spaces in South
Africa, in the vein of New York’s famous
Shakespeare in the Park.
“That’s where the revolution needs to
happen, in the arts,” he said. “It can liberate
you, but it can also liberate the audience.” ●