Fall 2009 - International Institute - University of Michigan

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New Dimensions in Outreach: Teaching about Islam and the Middle East Outreach to the local community, in particular educators in the Ann Arbor area, around the state of Michigan, and across the country, is a central part of CMENAS’ mission, as defined by the federal government’s Title VI program. In the past year we conducted three major programs, two of them with substantial outside funding, which together move our outreach to a new level. The World History Initiative The state of Michigan decided on new standards for its social studies curriculum for middle and high school, introducing a wide range of global topics emphasizing interconnectedness and interaction of cultures through trade and movement. While area studies experts and specialists in history and social studies education are excited about the new curricula, teachers are often overwhelmed by the demand to teach world areas and historical periods without training. Prof. Robert Bain from UM’s School of Education was one of the lead authors of the new standards, and is well aware of the problem. In order to help teachers succeed in their new subjects, Prof. Douglas Northrop (formerly CMENAS associate director, now the director of CREES) and Prof. Bain have started a collaborative initiative that includes all area studies centers at UM: the World History Initiative. WHI will over the next few years conduct a series of workshops with the goal of helping teachers develop original curriculum units that address the new standards directly. They will be piloted by their authors, vetted by the School of Education, and subsequently available for other teachers. WHI will monitor implementation and offer opportunities for revision and improvement throughout the process. WHI thus will function as a model of collaboration that directly and strategically responds to the new requirements at the state level, and provides area expertise both in the application of the standards and to the teachers around the state implementing them. Fulbright GPA in Turkey “We came from the US in order to learn more about this … uh, complicated country” – How many times did I introduce our group of sixteen American educators during our five weeks in Turkey in this way? Arguably, it is this complicated character, multicultural heritage and multiple social and political divisions that make Turkey an ideal destination for those wanting to study foreign culture and history with all its unforeseen complexities. In the summer of 2009 CMENAS won a Fulbright grant to take American K-16 teachers on a study tour to Turkey. It was a mixed group, including an elementary school arts teacher, several history and English teachers at various levels, and instructors in literature and arts in community colleges and universities. With the CMENAS director as travel director, guide, and host, NES doctoral student Frank Castiglione as assistant, Şeyda İşler as local support, and with constant backing from CMENAS at home, we explored all periods of Anatolian history from the Paleolithic site of Çatalhöyük, through Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantium, and the Ottoman Empire, to the modern cities of Istanbul and Ankara. For several days, we enjoyed the hospitality and the vibrant intellectual climate at Sabancı University in Istanbul; the lectures by their faculty helped us to especially understand the culture and society of modern Turkey. Prof. Hülya Adak, our partner at Sabancı, also organized a conversation with participants in Sabancı’s Purple Certificate Program, a UN sponsored program teaching gender equality and human rights for women and children to teachers from different Turkish cities. We also met with community leaders (special thanks to Kevork Bardakjian for facilitating our meeting with the Armenian Patriarchate), NGOs, and representatives of the US and the EU in Turkey. For the participants, however, the end of the trip was not the end of the project, but a beginning: working closely with our outreach expert Amber Blomquist, every participant produced a curriculum unit, which will be tested, and retested, before it will be made available to other teachers via our website, as well as via one of the most comprehensive international and area studies outreach websites available to the pre-collegiate educator, outreachworld.org. 2 Summer 2009 Turkey Fulbright GPA Participants Continued on page 5
From the Director by Gottfried Hagen FALL 2009–2010 University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies Once every four years all National Resource Centers (and other institutions aspiring for the same status) experience a period of hectic activity: time to prepare another round of applications for the Department of Education’s Title VI program, the exclusive source of funding for most of us. CMENAS, too, went through this process in March 2010. DOE announced the competition much later in the academic year than usual, and the unknown results kept us sitting on the fence until late July. In the end, it was worth the wait and the overnight shifts in grant-writing: CMENAS again won funding at near the same level as in the previous cycle, close to the top of the Middle East NRCs, as well as the seven NRCs that were funded at the University of Michigan. Since not all of our very ambitious proposal was funded, we had to adjust the budget. After making adjustments, we are now ready and excited for a new four-year cycle of programming, teaching, and outreach. Thanks to Susan, Amber, and Marya, who helped compile data, write drafts, proofread other drafts, and coordinate with the other centers. Additional thanks to our faculty members, who submitted proposals and suggestions. We were also successful in our application for Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS). Beginning this academic year, FLAS will be available for undergraduate and graduate studies. Please visit our website, and encourage your students to apply for these prestigious and competitive fellowships. The beginning of the new cycle coincides with a number of important changes at CMENAS and the International Institute. Alexander Knysh served as CMENAS Associate Director from fall 2008 through fall 2009; thank you, Sasha, for all the great work! We were very fortunate to entice Karla Mallette to join CMENAS as the new Associate Director. Karla is Associate Professor of Italian and Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Romance Languages; she is a specialist in medieval languages of Sicily, working in Italian, Latin, and Greek, as well as Arabic. The International Institute was generous to accept my bid to continue as director of CME- NAS, and I am looking forward to working with Karla, Marya, Amber, Susan, and our entire faculty for another two years. Simultaneous with the adjustments for the new funding cycle, the II under Ken Kollman’s leadership, supported by Will Glover as Associate Director, has implemented a far-reaching restructuring program. In order to increase efficiency, including shared resources and staffing, several centers have been grouped into clusters. CMENAS is now associated with the African Studies Center and Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies. While all the centers remain distinct and run their programming and other activities independently, the new structure will make it easier to deal with peak work volumes, and to coordinate activities between and across centers. Marya Ayyash, for many years CMENAS’s mainstay, is now the unit manager for the entire cluster: congratulations, Marya! In the same process, CMENAS has been relocated one more time. Please visit us in our new quarters on the third floor of the International Institute. Prior to the reorganization, the Islamic Studies Program had been moved under the administrative roof of CMENAS. Having served as ISP’s CONTENTS New Dimensions in Outreach: Teaching about Islam and the Middle East 2 From the Director 3 Faculty Updates 4 Student Updates 6 Student Awards and Graduates 6 CMENAS Events Fall 2009 7 CMENAS Events Winter 2010 8 CMENAS Events Fall 2010 9 Muslims and Islam in Michigan and Beyond 10 Support CMENAS 11 substitute co-director for two years, I am convinced that the program will benefit from the resources and institutional knowledge at CME- NAS. ISP now has a new director, Nancy Florida, Professor of Indonesian and Javanese Studies, who will at the same time be Associate Director of CMENAS, and we will do everything to support Nancy in her new position. New opportunities and challenges are ahead of us during the new funding cycle. In the end, our measure of success is the service we are able to provide our students, faculty, and community. 3
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Fall 2009 - International Institute - University of Michigan

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