Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2000, pages 69-70

Education

For First Time Since Lebanese Civil War, AAUG to Hold Annual Conference in Beirut

By Betsy Barlow

The Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) will present its 33rd annual convention on “The Arabs and America In the Coming Millennium,” June 26-28, this year in Beirut, Lebanon. All interested persons are cordially invited to attend this event, which AAUG president Kemal Khalaf al-Tawil believes will enable Arabs in North America to form closer links with Arabs in Lebanon and elsewhere, and to work on joint projects. Topics for the panels will be the Arab-Israeli conflict; Arab-Americans in the American political arena; Islam and America; Iraq; the Maghreb; and globalization, oil and technology.

The AAUG has issued a call to scholars for abstracts of papers. For younger scholars under 35, there is an added incentive: the AAUG will pay for the top four young scholars to fly to Beirut for the convention to present their papers. AAUG executive director Randa Kayyali stresses that it is important “to encourage intergenerational discourse and dialogue, and to give the next generation the chance to participate and become better known.”

In addition to the conference itself, a pre-conference excursion and several post-conference tours are offered as options. On Sunday, June 25 participants are offered the option of a northern trip to Byblos, Tripoli and the Cedars, with lunch in Ehden or Bishri. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 26-28, panels will be offered during the day, with an evening musical recital at the UNESCO hall on Tuesday night and a banquet in the evening with a keynote speaker and an oud player.

On Thursday, June 29, participants may take a southeastern trip to Deir al Qamar, Assar Moussa, Beiteddin, Ain Zhalta/Arz al Baruk reservation, with lunch at Mier Ameen. On Friday, June 30, an eastern trip is planned to Baalbek, with lunch at Ras el-Ain Anjar. On Saturday participants may elect a southern trip to Saida, Eshmoon Temple at Nahr-al Awali, with lunch at a seafood restaurant in Saida.

The conference discussions will be held in both Arabic and English, with simultaneous translations into the other language. The conference itself and the planned excursions will allow Arabs resident in America to discuss important issues with Arabs in Lebanon and elsewhere and to view the country as it continues to rebuild despite attempts to undermine its infrastructure.

The conference hotel is the Carlton, right off al-Hamra Street. The AAUG-negotiated rate is $50 per night per room, including breakfast. A negotiated roundtrip rate of about $l,000 per person from JFK Airport in New York to Beirut via Royal Jordanian airlines has also been arranged. Registration fees for the convention are $125 for nonmembers, $100 for members, and $50 for students. The day trips to various places in Lebanon are available at reasonable rates. To take advantage of these special prices, call the AAUG office as soon as possible at (202) 237-8312 or email them at < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >. The AAUG has also just published a special issue of its newsletter, Monitor, on Iraq.

Marc Ellis to Head Baylor University Jewish Studies Center

Baylor University has established a Center for American and Jewish Studies, with Marc H. Ellis as its director. Dr. Ellis is the author of Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation and Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time. His latest book is O Jerusalem: The Contested Future of the Jewish Covenant.

One of the purposes for the establishment of this center is to “provide a forum for exploring justice and reconciliation for Jews and Palestinians in their homeland and diasporas.” Next Nov. 1-3, the center will host an inaugural conference on “The Next Fifty Years: Beginning a Millennium of Hope and Possibility.” A future conference with no date yet given will address “Jerusalem: Visions of the Holy City and the Holy Land.” Congratulations are due to Baylor University and to Marc Ellis for establishing this much-needed center.

Conferences and Language Programs

A Conference on Inner/Central Asia will be held on Saturday, May 13 at Denny Hall, University of Washington, under the auspices of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. The organizers have issued a call for papers. Please submit abstracts (250-word maximum) by April 30, 2000 to Talgat Imangalieve, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Denny Hall, Box 353120, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, phone (206) 685-2405. The University of Washington will also be offering an intensive elementary course in Uzbek June 19 through Aug. 18 in Seattle. The languages program will be augmented by an extensive cultural program of lectures on Uzbek history and culture, and Uzbek films and documentaries. Some fellowships are expected to be available. For more information, or to enroll, contact Ilse D. Cirtautas, Director of the Central Asian Turkic Program, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, 229 Denny Hall, DH-20, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; phone (206) 543-9963.

The University of Utah in Salt Lake City will host the Western Consortium’s summer language institute, offering intensive eight-week language courses in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish to undergraduate and graduate students, and high school graduates or students who have been accepted into the High School University Program. These courses provide the equivalent of two regular semesters of instruction. In addition to language courses, three other three-unit courses will be offered. Peter Sluglett will teach a course on Lebanon, Philippos Savvides will teach Comparative Politics of the Middle East, and Laurence Loeb will offer a class on Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East.

Student Fellowships

The newly established Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announced fellowships to support doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers. Fellowships, available in a wide range of disciplines, will cover stipends, food and lodging, and other research expenses. Amounts typically range from $4,500 to $6,000, with up to $l,000 for travel also a possibility. The application deadline is April 15. Contact PARC through its director, Michael Fischbach, Randolph-Macon College, P.O. Box 5005, Ashland, VA 23005; phone (804) 752-3790. The fellowship program was made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Institute of Turkish Studies (ITS) announces its 2000-2001 grant programs. One grant category is pre-dissertation graduate followships and dissertation writing grants. Another is post-doctoral grants for summer travel-research in Turkey. In addition to the fellowships, ITS also invites applications for subventions for publications in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies and for the development of instructional materials in the field of Turkish studies. Up to $l00,000 will be awarded under this grant program. ITS, founded in 1982, is currently located at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University. For further information, contact ITS, Intercultural Center, Box 571033, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1033, or download the application forms from the Web site at <www.turkishstudies.org>.

Center Programs

The Second Annual World History Symposium, “Ethics and Justice in World History,” will take place at Northeastern University in Boston on Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6. The Teaching Resource Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University will present three workshops related to the Middle East: “Biography Makes History: Richard the Lionhearted, Saladin and the Crusades” for grades 4 and 5; “The Arabs: Image and Reality” for grades 4 through 8; and “The Hard Road to Justice: the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict for High School.”

New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies has analyzed the NY State Department of Education Global Studies curriculum, and identified opportunities for introducing subjects on the Middle East. The center has established the sensible procedure of presenting a summer institute and a follow-up workshop on a topic, with a Web-based curricular unit that teachers can use in the classroom. Next summer the topic will be Art in Iran.

The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, in cooperation with the Middle East Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce the second annual Okumus/TAFSUS (Turkish American Friendship Society of the United States) Fellowships for teachers in the Greater Philadelphia area for the summer of 2000. Made possible through the Mehmet Dogan Okumus Charitable Trust, these fellowships will enable five teachers or administrators at the pre-collegiate level to participate in a 14-day study tour of Turkey this summer from July 14-29. The deadline for applications is March 24.

Last year three teachers received these fellowships. They will report on their trip and discuss strategies for the classroom at a special afternoon workshop for teachers to be held at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia on March 28. For more information about the March 28 program or the upcoming trip this summer, contact the Education Department of the World Affairs Council fo Philadelphia, (215) 731-1100, ext. 207 or 208. The e-mail address is < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

The University of Utah Middle East Center will offer a workshop June 13-14 at the Yarrow Hotel, Park City, Utah on “The Maghreb: Countries of North Africa—Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia.” Topics will include history, religion, politics, countries and cultures, music and dance, art projects, literature of the Maghreb, and teaching strategies for comparative politics. Registration is $25. In-service and recertification credit is available. This will be followed by a June 15-26 study tour to Morocco, which includes the royal cities of Rabat, Meknes, Fez and Marrakesh, as well as the Kasbah Train in the Atlas Mountains. When last we heard, the study trip was very close to capacity, but we understand that places still are available in the workshop. The deadline for the workshop application is May 15. Contact Linda Adams at the University of Utah Middle East Center Outreach Program, 260 South Central Campus Drive, Room 153, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-9157; phone (801) 581-5003.

Audrey Shabbas of AWAIR is bringing her excellent one-day teacher workshop program (under the sponsorship of the Middle East Policy Council) to the following places in the next few weeks: March 11, Washington DC; March 18, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; March 21, Wilkes-Barre, NC; March 24, New Orleans; March 31, Pleasant Hill, CA; April 1, Cal State University, Hayward; April 4, Casper, WY; April 15, Salem, OR.

Programs on Arab Americans

The Middle East Institute at Columbia University organized a two-day workshop on Arab Americans in New York City. Held Feb. 5 and 6, the workshop was supported by the New York Council for the Humanities, the Near East Folundation, the Arab American Institute Foundation, and several individuals. Presenters included Stanley Rashid, Rashid Sales Company; Peter J. Awn, dean of the School of General Studies and professor of Islamic Religion and Comparative Religion at Columbia University; Philip Kayal, chair of the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Seton Hall University; Gregory Orfalea, poet and author; Alixa Naff, author of Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience, 1880-1950; Mary Ann Haick DiNapoli, founder of the Arab-American Heritage Association; Michael W. Suleiman, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Kansas State University; and Jonathan Friedlander, director of outreach for international studies at UCLA. Second-day speakers included Inea Bushnaq, a free-lance writer; Jack G. Shaheen, professor emeritus, Southern Illinois University and acclaimed media critic; Evelyn Shakir, author of Bint Arab; Abdeen Jabara, attorney and activist; and Yvonne Haddad, professor of Christian-Muslim relations, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University.

The Balch Institute in Philadelphia will host from Feb. 12 through Aug. 12 a photo exhibit on Arab Americans in the Detroit area which originated with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, MI and Michigan State University. The provisions of the grant require each community that displays the photo exhibit to add a local component. The Balch Institute has mounted a display of photos and artifacts called “Ahlan wa Sahlan! Welcome to Our Home! Philadelphia’s Arab Americans.” It can be viewed until Aug. 30 in another gallery of the Balch Institute.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC will host an exhibit called “Treasures from the Topkapi,” Istanbul from March 1 through June 23 of more than 2,000 precious objects from the Ottoman Empire including illuminated manuscripts, statuettes made of pearls, inlaid desks, and bejeweled ceremonial objects, all of which once graced the sultan’s palace. To get viewers in the mood for the exhibit, the Gallery showed the movie “Topkapi” on Feb. 20. For ticket information call (202) 639-1700.

Resources for Teaching about Turkish Culture

Some short books suitable for travelers or students of Turkey have been translated and published. Aziz Nesin, a witty author whose short stories describe the absurdities often found in government bureaucracy, has written Dog Tails. Ilyas Halil has three books that have recently been translated. The Drunken Grass reflect Halil’s own life and travels and nostalgia for his youth in Mersin, Turkey. Shoeshine Ramadan covers a day in southern Turkey where an American skyscraper suddenly appears. White Coffee Shop Journal is a collection of short stories from such varied locales as torrid Abu Dhabi to frozen Winnipeg, Canada. To purchase these books, or for more information about them, contact Joseph S. Jacobson, Southmoor Studios, 1801 East Southmoor Drive, Holladay, UT 84117; phone (801) 272-1024.

Betsy Barlow is the program coordinator for the University of Michigan’s Center for Middle East and North African Studies in Ann Arbor.

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