Dr. Sudhakar R. Jamkhandi

Dr. Sudhakar R. Jamkhandi, familiarly known as Jammy to most of us, has been in West Virginia since 1986. Jammy immigrated to the USA in 1976 as a doctoral student at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth , Texas . He earned his Ph.D. degree in English, having specialized in the British and Commonwealth Novels. While enrolled as a doctoral candidate at Texas Christian University from 1976 to 1980, he taught writing and British and World Literature at the University of Texas at Arlington . From there, he moved to the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 for a year and also taught at Austin Community College for two years.

In 1981, Jammy founded the semiannual periodical Commonwealth Novel in English, which he tabled in 2002 after having edited and published ten volumes. This journal provided a forum to scholars worldwide to analyze novels in English by such stalwarts as Australia ’s Patrick White, South Africa ’s Nadine Gordimer, Great Britain ’s Salman Rushdie  and V. S. Naipaul, Canada ’s Margaret Atwood, and a host of other indigenous writers from former Commonwealth countries. The journal, which featured scholars from around the world, examined and assessed the writing, rewriting, and the validity of the indigenous writers’ rewriting of the histories of former British colonies.  

In 1988, he established the Center for International Understanding (CIU) to internationalize Bluefield State College’s curriculum through a variety of activities including forums on international affairs, international musical and dance performances, food buffets, and student and faculty exchanges between Bluefield State College and two institutions in the People ’s Republic of China .

From 1994 onward, after funding of CIU activities were discontinued, Jammy encouraged West Virginians and southwest Virginians to engage in “people to people diplomacy” by actively participating in US foreign policy initiatives of peace and trade through participation in training programs on a variety of subjects for professionals, entrepreneurs, and officials from almost 48 countries. These programs manifest our nation’s foreign policy of promoting democracy, rule of law, and market economics in the international visitors’ countries. Thanks to numerous area families who have hosted numerous international visitors in their homes, we now have sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and in some cases, even Moms and Dads in several countries. In 2006, the IRS approved the CIU as a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity.

Recent initiatives of the CIU include the forging of sister city relations between Princeton, West Virginia, and Yoshkar Ola, the capital of the Republic of Mari El in Russia;  sister state relations between West Virginia and the Republic of Komi, Russia; and, sister city relations between Bluefield, West Virginia and Tsalenjikha, Republic of Georgia.

Jammy is also a Professor of English at Bluefield State College and Coordinator of the College’s Office of International Initiatives to internationalize its curriculum through study abroad, international institutional linkages, area and cultural studies, an EFL Program, and the study of foreign languages. Jammy is President of a for-profit business, JC Globalizers, which provides export assistance services to Appalachian businesses and he is an Institute Fellow of the North Carolina-based World Education Group that conducts international audits of US higher education institutions.

As President of the non-profit Center for International Understanding, Inc., Jammy combines his background of academic scholarship with leadership of a growing and innovative international training organization.  Based in the rapidly changing and challenging environment of southern West Virginia , he has demonstrated a unique ability to bring together people from very different cultures to explore the underlying commonality of their problems and expectations, and from this to develop new visions of the possible.  As leader of the Center for International Understanding, Inc., he has hosted many groups from the former Communist countries, enlisting a unique roster of international trainers, and introducing visitors to American life, professions, and government from tiny mining towns to national cabinet level departments, Congress and the judiciary.

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