My Favorite Class in My Entire Academic Life: Haider Munir Khan, HSE, Russia

Haider (on the left) in front of Kanto at the AIU Festival.

An almost three-hour-long class on a tiring Friday evening doesn’t sound like something students would most likely look forward to. However, my class on “Human Security” taught by Kaoru Ishikawa-Sensei is a class that goes against that notion. Each week I look forward to Friday not because the weekend follows but because of this class. The reason why I love this class so much is undoubted because of the Sensei and his approach to this course.

Haider in Professor Ishikawa’s class “Human Security”.

Having attained education in four different countries by now. My gripe with the method of teaching was always that, Professors and Lecturers always focused too much on theoretical aspects of such topics, at the same time, they did not possess significant hands-on experiences in the subject matters they were teaching. Kaoru Ishikawa-Sensei being a former Japanese Diplomat and having served in various countries around the world has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and life experiences in the subject matter he teaches and that just makes this class all the more interesting.

In our introductory class, he explained to us that he will not teach us by any book or through any boring theory but through a mixture of everything supported by his actual life experiences and by making the students think through thought-provoking topics and questions. Now, If I have to weigh all of my classes at AIU on one side and my class of Human Security on the other, it would feel that I have learned so much more in this class than to all of the others combined.

Therefore, to me, this is my favorite class in AIU and most probably in my entire academic life and as a result of this class, I have been inspired by Sensei’s stories to take up the upcoming Diplomatic Exams in my home country and to pursue a career path similar to his.