Dr. Annie Dandavati of the Hope College faculty has been appointed director of The Philadelphia Center, Hope College’s East Coast site offering unique courses and high quality internships to students from Hope and other colleges and universities.
The Philadelphia Center provides experiential education programs for undergraduate students that put the liberal arts into practice by integrating multidisciplinary seminars, comprehensive advising and substantial internship opportunities in an urban environment. Nearly 7,000 students from almost 90 campuses and 50 countries have participated in the program since it was founded in 1967. More information about the center is available at tpc.edu.
Check out more information about the Philadelphia Center Dandavati, who will be relocating to Philadelphia to begin her new role on July 1, is a professor of political science and chairperson of the department at Hope, where she has also been director of international studies since 2010. A member of the college’s faculty since 1992, she was also director of women’s studies from 2007 to 2011. She has served on a variety of Hope boards and committees, and is a past faculty representative to the college’s Board of Trustees. She is also a member of Holland’s International Relations Commission.
She has led or co-led study-abroad programs to nations including Mexico, Chile and Rwanda, and has held multiple international visiting professorships, including in Egypt in 2012 and as the college’s exchange professor to Meiji Gakuin University in Japan in the fall of 2009. Her areas of interest in both research and teaching include comparative politics, Latin American politics, gender and development, and human rights.
Her publications include the books “The Women’s Movement and the Transition to Democracy in Chile” (1996) and “Engendering Democracy in Chile” (2004). She is also author of the chapter “Women and the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy,” included in the book “Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights Challenges and Contradictions” (1998). She has also written many articles and papers for presentation at professional conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
In 1997, the college’s graduating class presented Dandavati with the Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award. Hope presented her with the Multicultural Life Award and Outstanding Hope Woman Award in 2004, a Ruth and John Reed Faculty Achievement Award in January 2011 and the Motoichiro Oghimi Global Courage Award in January 2014. She presented the college’s Commencement address in 1997, and Hope’s chapter of the Mortar Board honorary society selected her to speak through its Last Lecture Series in April 2011.
Born in India, she holds her bachelor’s degree from Jesus and Mary College, her master’s from Jawahar Lal Nehru University, and her doctorate from the University of Denver.