Letter from the Di rector It was the best of times , it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness , it was the spring of hope , it was the winter of despair, we hadev erything befor e us, we hadnothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven , we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was sofarlike the present period, that some ofits noisiest authorities insisted onits being received, forgoodorforevil, in the superlative degree of comparison only Charles Dickens, ATale of Two C ities Sound familiar? While Mr. Dickens wasn't referring to the state of many uni- vers ities in the current fin ancial climate, his description does strike a chord. We worry about budget cuts and their effect on university programs. We are told we may be at the edge ofa precipice in2 years time, when the state e conomy will not yet have recovered and stimulus funds are spent. If there is a financial equ ivalent of parasailing ,I hope that 2 years hence the Center for Middle Eastern Stud ies (CMES) will be able to leap off that cliff and soar, buoyed up by one wind or another. I won't dwell on the all-too-apparent dif- ficulties. I would like to draw attention to Middle East studies at the University of Arizona (UA), which is experiencing some very high highs in the midst of budgetary lows. We del ight in the presence of exci ting new courses and splend id new col- leagues . I marvel at the great strides being made in Middle East stud ies programs. The Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES), with record numbers of new MA students (20) and PhD students (8), now offers 3 dual degree programs : dual MA degrees with the Schoolof Information Resources and Library Science and with the School of Journalism, and a dual PhD degree with the School of Anthropology. Entering students have ever h igher levels of language facility, necessitating the creation of new classes, such as 4th-year Arabic and 2nd-year Ottoman Turkish. We are pleased to welcome 2 new faculty members : in Turkish studies Dr. Asli I gsiz (Comparative Literature PhD, University of Mi chigan) and inh istory of the modern M iddle East, and Iran in particular , Dr. Farzin Vejdani (History PhD, Yale University). These happy developments come as we at CMES prepare the center's grant proposal for 2010-2013 US Department of Education support asa National Resource Center in Middle East St udies . While work on the proposal is tax- ing , it is also heartening as we achieve a renewed appreciation of the scope and qual ityof UA Middle East stud ies programs . In next fall's newsletter , I'll let you know how CMES fared in the T itle VI competition . If CMES succeeds , that will constitute a decided updraft to keep the center aloft in trying times .•:. Anne H. Betteridge C ity of Tucson Premiere! A new documentary film from Unity P roductions Foundation , explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world's fi rst major opinion poll , We dnesday, Ja nua ry 27, 2 010 conducted by Gallup. University of Arizona Focused on the issues of Gender , Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy - the film presents Gall agher Theater rema rkable data,d eftly showing how it chall enges the popular notion t hat Muslims and the West are on a coll ision course. Like the resea rch, t he film highlights a shared re lationship 7-8.30pm thatis based on facts - not fear. Keynote Speakers : Dr. Maha Nassar and Imam Sidney R. Shar if This event is free and open to the public. Event sponsored bythe City of Tucson , the UA Center for Middle Eastern Studi es, and the Islamic Inmates Corrections Association of America For m ore information visit our w ebsite. www.cmes.arizona.edu
Transcript
Letter from the Director
It was the best oftimes, it was the worst oftimes, it was the age ofwisdom, it was the age offoolishness, it was the epoch ofbelief, it was the epoch ofincredulity, it was the season ofLight, it was the season ofDarkness, it was the spring ofhope, it was the winter ofdespair, we hadeverything before us, we hadnothing before us, we were allgoing direct toheaven, we were allgoing direct the other way - in short, the periodwas sofarlike the presentperiod, that some ofitsnoisiest authorities
insisted onitsbeing received, forgoodorforevil, in the superlative degree of comparison only Charles Dickens, ATale ofTwo Cities
Sound familiar? While Mr. Dickens wasn't referring to the state ofmany universities inthe current financial climate, his description does strike a chord. We worry about budget cuts and their effect on university programs. We are told we may be atthe edge ofa precipice in2 years time, when the state economy will not yet have recovered and stimulus funds are spent. If there is a financialequivalent ofparasailing, I hope that 2 years hence the Center forMiddle Eastern Studies (CMES) will be able toleap offthat cliff and soar, buoyed up by one wind oranother. I won't dwell on the all-too-apparent difficulties. I would like todraw attention toMiddle East studies atthe University ofArizona (UA), which isexperiencing some very high highs inthe midst of budgetary lows.
We delight in the presence ofexciting new courses and splendidnew colleagues.
I marvel atthe great strides being made in Middle East studies programs. The Department ofNear Eastern Studies (NES), with record numbers ofnew MA students (20) and PhD students (8), now offers 3 dual degree programs: dual MA degrees with the Schoolof Information Resources and Library Science and with the School ofJournalism, and a dual PhD degree with the School ofAnthropology. Entering students have ever higher levels of language facility, necessitating the creation ofnew classes, such as4th-year Arabic and 2nd-year Ottoman Turkish.
We are pleased to welcome 2 new faculty members: inTurkish studies Dr. Asli Igsiz (Comparative Literature PhD, University ofMichigan) and inhistory ofthe modern Middle East, and Iran inparticular, Dr. FarzinVejdani (History PhD, Yale University).
These happy developments come aswe atCMES prepare the center's grant proposal for 2010-2013 US Department ofEducation support asa National Resource Center inMiddle East Studies. While work on the proposal istaxing , it isalso heartening aswe achieve a renewed appreciation of the scope and qual ityofUA Middle East studies programs. In next fall's newsletter, I'll let you know how CMES fared inthe Title VI competition . IfCMES succeeds, that will constitute a decided updraft tokeep the center aloft intrying times.•:.
Anne H. Betteridge
City ofTucson Premiere! Anew documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions ofMuslims around the globe asrevealed in the world's first major opinion poll,Wednesday, January 27, 2010 conducted by Gallup.
University of Arizona Focusedon the issues ofGender, Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy - the film presents
Gallagher Theater remarkable data,deftly showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship
7-8.30pm thatis based on facts - not fear.
Keynote Speakers: Dr. Maha Nassar and Imam Sidney R. Shar if
This event is free and open tothe public.
Event sponsored bythe City of Tucson , the UA Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Islamic Inmates Corrections Association of America
For more information visit our website. www.cmes.arizona.edu
More than twenty students and faculty from the University ofArizona attended the Middle East Studies Association's most recent meeting in Boston from November21-24. CMES supports conference attendance through student and faculty travel grants.
Ben Adams (PhD student, Anthro/NES) presented a paper entitled "Guide Stars: The Celestial Clock as an Interpreter ofClassical Arabic Poetry." Hikmet Kocamaner (PhD student, NES) presented a paper as part ofa panel on "Turkish Media and the Question of Identity." His paper was "National Characteristics ofTurkish Television: Homogeneity vs. Hybridity." Serpil Atamaz-Hazar and Ziad Abi Chakra (both PhD students inHistory) organized a panel, "Unheard Ottoman Voices: Minorities, Subalterns, and the National Narrative," that had five presenters. Serpil's paper was "Aziz Haydar: An Ottoman Woman Refusing to Be Silenced." Ziad presented "The Life of Badi'a Masabni inWorld War I Lebanon."
Anne Betteridge (Director, CMES) chaired apanel (Harnessing Online Media) that included two UA presenters. Antonella Cassia (PhD student, Transcultural German Studies) presented a paper entitled "German Converts to Islam: ASocio-Constructive Analysis ofthe Role ofPost-Conversion Narratives and the Blogosphere." NES Assistant Professor, Aomar Boum, gave a paper called "Cyber Noise: YouTube, Political Activism, and the Festivalization ofDissent inMorocco."
Scott Brown (MA student, NES) presented on a panel that looked atUS and British Policies inthe Middle East. His paper, "AMirage ofModernization? The EVOlution ofAmerican Diplomatic Discourse Related to Modern Tunisia," was one offive papers on the panel. Jason Hushour (MA student, NES) presented a paper entitled "Nth Generation Warfare: Israel, Gaza, and the Media War" on a "Press Battles" panel.
Jason Hushour, Hikmet Kocamaner, and Shireen Keyl (PhD student, Language, Reading, and Culture) took part ina Roundtable, organized and chaired by Christian Sinclair (Assistant Director, CMES) . The Roundtable, "New Media, the Middle East, and President Obama," grew out ofaCMES media conference held inJanuary 2009.•:.
Teach Ottoman Empire: CMESI Fulbright-Hays 2009 Summer Program for Teachers
CMES, through a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad grant, organized a curriculum-building travel seminar for educators that studied the lasting
impact ofthe Ottoman Empire on the cultures ofmodern Turkey and the Balkans.
The project began with three teachers' workshops in Arizona that focused on the history of the Ottoman Empire, itscultures and languages.
The twelve participants, all K-12 teachers, then spent four weeks engaged inaseries of lectures and activities inthe region, purchased classroom resources and created curriculum units toshare with wider K-12 communities back in their home states.
The group was led by UA History Professor Dr. Linda Darling and CMES Outreach Coordinator Dr. Lisa AdelL They first went to Istanbul and Western Anatolia inTurkey, then tothe Balkan countries ofSerbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Albania. There they studied the Ottoman influence on the area (architecture, culture, historical altitudes, the existence ofEuropean Muslims) and ways inwhich the Ottomans had preserved specific local traditions
Back inthe US, participants incorporated the experience into their teaching and developed lesson plans/curriculum units. More information about this trip can be found on the outreach pages of the CMES web site.•:.
Teach Ottoman Empire participants in front of old city fortification in Istanbul. June 2009 .:.
New Outreach Scholarship Program
CMES has just established an Outreach Scholarship Program forMiddle Eastern students at the UA, which aims toestablish communication between Middle Eastern students inthe US with members of the wider southern Arizona community, such as community groups, service organizations, religious groups, local government organizations, and schools. This program ismade possible by the generosity of LaDona and Gerald Geise.Outreach scholars forSpring 2010 are:
.:.Hacene Chaouch, from Algeria, MA student in Optical Sciences
·:·Ahmed al-Aqel, from Yemen, senior inEngineering Management
Language The University ofArizona has along tradition of teaching Middle Eastem languages and now has some ofthe finest academic programs in the country for learning those languages. With the Department ofNear Eastem Studies (NES), the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies (JUS), and the UA Critical Languages Program (CLP), the UA offers Arabic, Hebrew, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish. New courses and extra sections are being offered to keep up with increasing enrollments and demand. This year NES started 4th year Arabic and 2nd year Ottoman Turkish. CLP began its Kurmanji Kurdish program in the fall of2008 and 18 students registered for the course. They now offer two sections ofthe Kurdish 101 course each semester.
One ofthe fastest growing Middle East language programs at UA isTurkish. Turkish enrollments were at51 last semester for first, second, and third year Turkish, as well as first and second year Ottoman Turkish. To head up the thriving Turkish studies program, NES welcomed Dr. Asli Igsiz, who started in August 2009. In addition to her work with world literature, apply for summer intensive language study in the transnational ism and globalization, Dr. Igsiz has agood deal ofexperience in teaching Turkish.
Within Arabic studies, in addition to the four years of Modem Standard Arabic, other courses offered in the Spring 2010 semester include: Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Language ofArabic Media, and Teaching ofArabic as aForeign Language. ..
Persian language ISoffered t.hrough ~he advanced. level. Also, Dr. Mansour Rastegar ISteaching classes this year on the Shahnameh, or Book ofKings, and on the poetry ofHafez. Both courses are taught in Persian.
Judaic Studies boasts one ofthe largest Hebrew programs in the nation with 134 students enrolled in Modern Hebrew in Fall 2009. They also had 12in Biblical Hebrew. JUS recently hosted anational Hebrew language conference here at UA. Organized by Anat Maimon in JUS, the conference attracted 40 Hebrew instructors from all over the country.
Student Research Many graduate students have language-focused research interests. Keri Miller, aPhD student in anthropology, isresearching language contact between Arabic, Turkish and Persian, particularly as itmanifests in the dialects ofArab speech communities inCentral Asia. She aims to do dissertation research collecting speech data from Arab communities in Uzbekistan, primarilywomen, where only 700 Arabicspeakers remain.
Jibreel Delgado isafirst-year MA student in Near
Susan MacDougall, far left, with her Arabic instructor and three classmates from AI-Qasid Institute in Amman, Jordan. Summer 2009. •:.
Eastem Studies specializing in linguistics ofMiddle Eastern languages. His research focuses on the evolution ofSemitic languages and the development of neo-Arabic.
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships Beginning with the Summer 201 0award period, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies will be offering undergraduate FLAS awards. UA undergrads can
US orabroad, orfor afull-year oflanguage and area studies here atthe University ofArizona. The center isvery excited to be able to enhance its support to academically-deserving undergraduates who are pursuing Middle Eastem language studies.
CMES already offers undergraduate language scholarships, which are supported through community donations. For the 2009-2010 year five undergraduates received awards ranging from $500 to $750. The
.. ..
recipients are Tylor Reak and Esa Rayyan for Arabic, Ghazal Ghazi for Persian, Matthew Chomiak who's studying both Arabic and Persian, and Elana Weil who isstudying Hebrew in Haifa, Israel.
Last summer CMES awarded eight FLAS fellowships and all eight fellows went overseas.
Angela Storey's summer FLAS took her to Jerusalem for an intensive second year Arabic course atHebrew l:Jniversity.The course emphasized reading comprehension, and included analysis ofmedia, academic, literary, and classical texts.
Danielle van Dobben studied Ottoman Turkish for six weeks at the Harvard-K09 Summer School in Cunda, Turkey. Danielle opted for classes in Late Ottoman printed texts, Persian and Arabic grammar for Ottoman support, and Advanced Modern Turkish.
Other FLAS fellows from Summer 2009 include: Scott Brown (Tunisia), Julie Ellison (Tajikistan), Susan MacDougall (Jordan), Ashley Toenjes (Jordan), Brian Powell (Syria), and Toni Richardson (Morocco).
In the spring semester, CMES will support aMiddle East language lecture series. We plan eight lectures over the course ofthe semester: two in each ofthe four major languages taught here. Lectures by faculty orcommunity members are open to the public and designed to offer students achance to hear the target language spoken by anative speaker.•:.
Western Consortium Language Workshop April 16-18, 2010
University ofArizona Tucson, AZ
Language Beyond the Classroom: Developing and Maintaining Advanced Proficiency
A Middle East language educators workshop exploring "bridging activities" that link formal classroom learning to non-formal, student
centered learning. These activities could include use of fi lms or broadcast media, technology, games, or study abroad.
cmes.arizona.edu/language/workshop2010
CMES 2.0 CMES will be delivering itsnews differently beginning in2010 aswe begin to integrate Web 2.0 tools into our website and day-to-day operations. Twitter, RSS feeds, del.icio.us, facebook, podcasts, and Flickr will be used regularly. We'll also be moving toonline applications for our fellowships and conference registrations.
This newsletter, asyou have bynow noticed, ismuch reduced in length. CMES will now publish two print issues of itsnewsletter per year, with four pages per edition. Each issue will have a thematic page (see page 3), notices for upcoming events such asthe film series, and information about CMES activities.
The events and news pages on the center'swebsite are now divided up as follows: CMES News, Announcements, Public Events, and UA Community Events. This iswhere you'll find up-to-date news and information, lengthier articles, and interviews with faculty and guests. Please take some time toexplore these new features ofour website.
These changes are due mostly to the fact that we now have a part-time Web Manager. We are very pleased tohave Heather Moreno, a UA undergraduate, on our team to take on this project. She has been atthe center since November.•:.
www.cmes.arizona.ed u
m THE UNIVERSllY ~. OF ARIZONA.
Center/or Middle Eastern Studies 845 N. Park Avenue Marshall Building, Room 470 Tucson, Arizona 85721 (520)621-5450 mi deast@email .arizona.edu www.cmes.arizona .edu
Spring 2010 Film Series HReligions and Traditions"
Takva: A Man's Fear of God Nrarcb 3 2006, T/II'kfy (rllrkisb) Presented by Ufuk Coskun
Under the Moonlight May 5 200 I, l ran (Persian)
.. Presented by Zohra Yaqub
Forget Baghdad Febmary )
2003, SIPilzcrland (A rabic, 1 fcbrel1111nglish)
P resented by Noel Rivera
David and Layla April ?
2005, [ SA (Ellg/isl.~
Presented by Shyla Dogan
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID TUCSONAZ PERMIT NO.190
