Prof Sadeka Halim elected first female dean of Dhaka University social sciences faculty

Professor Sadeka Halim has been elected Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Dhaka University, two and a half months after the sociology teacher began serving as acting dean of the faculty.

Dhaka University Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 Dec 2017, 09:04 PM
Updated : 13 Dec 2017, 09:04 PM

The Awami League-backed Blue Panel candidate defeated her rival pro-BNP White Panel candidate Prof Nurul Amin Bepari of the political science department in the voting held at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building on Wednesday.

Prof Halim is the first female dean of the faculty that was founded in 1970 and only the second female academic to hold the office of a dean in the university.

Her father Prof Fazlul Halim Chowdhury was vice chancellor of Dhaka University from 1976 to 1983.

The university said in a media statement that she would be the dean of the faculty for the rest of the 2017-18 session. 

According to the release, Sadeka Halim bagged 124 of the 222 votes cast in the election. There were 238 members of the faculty. 

Election Commissioner Pro-Vice Chancellor Nasreen Ahmad announced the results.

On Jan 18, economics professor Farid Uddin Ahmed was elected dean of the faculty uncontested.

The government made him the vice-chancellor at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Dhaka University appointed Prof Abu Jafar Md Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan of TV, film and photography department as acting dean of social sciences faculty on July 2.

After the end of Prof Bhuiyan’s tenure, Prof Halim took charge as the faculty’s acting dean on Sept 30.

She passed the SSC examinations from Dhaka’s Udayan High School and obtained HSC from Holy Cross School and College.

She graduated from Dhaka University’s sociology department and received the post-graduate degree from the same department.

The university appointed her teacher of the department in 1988. She later received another post-graduate degree and completed PhD from Canada’s McGill University with Commonwealth Scholarship.

Prof Sadeka Halim completed a post-doctoral programme from Bath University in the UK. 

She also worked in the Information Commission as Bangladesh’s first female information commissioner on deputation from July 2009 to June 2014.

She was a member of Dhaka University Syndicate between 2004 and 2009. She has been elected a member of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association and the university’s Senate thrice.

Prof Halim worked as a member of the National Education Policy Committee 2009 of 18 distinguished educationists.

She had also worked as a guest teacher at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences at Vienna in Austria.

Around 50 of her research articles have been published in national and international journals. The areas of her research include gender, forest and land, development, indigenous issue, human rights and right to information.

She was a visiting fellow at Dhaka University’s women studies department and Higher Education Link Programme of Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland.