"Touch that jar," said Dr. Lynn Tatum, pointing to a table in his office.
"That jar dates pre-Abraham," Tatum tells a student. "And your jaw just dropped."
Tatum, senior lecturer in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and associate director of Middle Eastern studies, believes this ability to engage students is what makes international experience so vital to teaching.
The BIC is known for its desire to make connections between disciplines, but less publicized is its desire to make connections between different cultures.
There are many international professors teaching in the BIC and many of the BIC professors have lived in and traveled to other countries.
Dr. Robert Baird, professor of philosophy, master teacher and University Ombudsperson, was the chair of the task force that designed the BIC curriculum and worked to get the BIC approved by Baylor faculty. Baird said having multicultural professors is beneficial to the BIC.
"I certainly do think having faculty members who are themselves from different cultures contributes to this process in many ways," Baird said. "By 'this process' I mean the process of which we become aware that we all, to such a significant extent, are a product of our environment."
Dr. David Ngong, from Babungo, Cameroon, is a temporary lecturer in religion, African studies and BIC.
"My work is very intercultural so it fits well with what BIC does and with what I do," Ngong said. "It is not just interdisciplinary, it is intercultural. Most programs try to be interdisciplinary, but being intercultural is another matter. On that I think BIC has the head start."
Tatum said it is important for professors to have international experience.
Tatum has traveled extensively. He lived in Jerusalem while conducting archeological work.
With the BIC, he has traveled to Germany and Switzerland to study the reformation, to Spain to study the nexus between Islamic and Western civilizations and to China to study Chinese literature, culture and history.
When asked how having international experience has enhanced his teaching ability, Tatum said, "It's like saying, 'How has learning to read enhanced your education?'" Tatum said BIC administrators see that central link.
"The BIC has very consciously supported foreign travel for its faculty," Tatum said."When BIC was founded, there was a significant insight that teaching about foreign cultures required familiarity with foreign cultures. From the beginning, BIC faculty has been encouraged to travel abroad and it greatly changes the classroom experience."
Dr. Thomas Hanks is a professor in the English department and in the BIC. Hanks has been involved in the Baylor in Great Britain program and the Oxford Program. With BIC, Hanks has traveled to Greece and Teotihuacan, Mexico.
Hanks believes that the international experience professors have engages students. When Hanks traveled to Greece with the BIC faculty, he was able to take a boat trip on the Mediterranean Sea to different islands.
"When we went to Greece, those things we talked about in 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' were made real," Hanks said. "Odysseus is always going down to the sea, but I never realized how important the sea was before I went. I learned what it was like to see the expanse of the ocean and realize what an island existence Odysseus led."
Hanks even made a short film for his BIC class while on the boat talking about Odysseus' adventures.
Dr. Xin Wang teaches Chinese languages classes, Asian studies, and is an associate professor of Chinese Studies in the BIC. Wang lived in Xi'an, China, for 25 years.
Wang believes that his living experiences in China help his research and teaching skills about contemporary China and Chinese culture. "It helps by not just looking at the fa�ade or the superficiality of an issue, but looking at the depth and the context of the critical issue."
These professors benefit the program with the insight they provide about different cultures and misconceptions that students may have about other cultures.
"If students think about other cultures, they think about them in stereotypes because that is all they have," Hanks said.
Tatum said the step-by-step way of getting rid of stereotypes is to first point them out. Students cannot change their point of view if they do not recognize they hold a stereotype. The second thing he does is provide them with examples to counter the stereotype, and finally he tries to have a discussion with students about where the stereotype came from, if it is accurate and how they can come to a better understanding of that culture.
In addition to the insights of the professors, the BIC's curriculum also helps rebut these stereotypes in many ways.
"Rather than reading what other people say about a culture, we have them read what the culture said about itself, like in the Koran or Arabian Nights," Tatum said.
"We take students, or even force students, to meet Muslims, to eat their food, listen to their music and to have a conversation with them. And it is virtually impossible having met with these people, not to see them as simply fellow human beings."
Hanks said the best way to counter stereotypes is for students to be immersed into the culture. However, when it is not possible for students to travel to other cultures, the BIC does its best to bring other cultures to students.
"I think the intercultural dimension of BIC is very important because it is important for all of us to be aware of people whose views are rooted in different environments," Baird said. "It is important for all of us to understand we are a product of the environment from which we come. Being familiar with people from different cultures helps us be tolerant."
One of the ways they do this is by having a very diverse group of students in the BIC. Hanks said the BIC typically has a large contingent of Christians, several Muslims, several Buddhists, and they typically have Jews and Hindus. He believes this diversity helps students see people of different cultures as apart of themselves as opposed to others.
Many students believe they can benefit from the BIC's effort to be interdisciplinary and intercultural.
"You have this opportunity to have a mosaic education," Houston senior Farah Najmuddin said. "My best friends are all in different fields, but I can still sit down at dinner with people from eight different majors. You would be surprised at how much you can learn from these people."