Spring 2019 About the Center
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NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019 ABOUT THE CENTER he study of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region began at the CMENAS AT T University of Michigan (U-M) in 1889. Since the inception of the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies (CMENAS) in 1961, U-M has been committed to area studies and language training. In 1993, the center became a member of the university’s International Institute, which seeks to stimulate research and teaching on critical areas of the world and foster cooperation among the university’s departments, schools, and colleges. Samer M. Ali CMENAS Director and Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature Jessica Hill Riggs Academic Program Specialist Mekarem Eljamal Newsletter Editor Rima Hassouneh Community Outreach Coordinator Nataša Gruden-Alajbegovi´c Global Projects Cluster, Manager Kathy Covert Global South Cluster, Office Coordinator Raquel Buckley II Communications, Editor CMENAS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Samer M. Ali (Ex Officio) Director, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies; Associate Professor, Middle East Studies Gottfried Hagen (Ex Officio) Chair, Department of Middle East Studies; Professor, Middle East Studies Evyn Kropf (Ex Officio) Librarian, Middle East Studies and Religious Studies; Curator, Islamic Manuscripts Collection On the cover: Above: Karla Mallette (Elected) Noravank, a 13th century Armenian monastery, CMENAS’s Academic Program Director, Global Islamic Studies Center; Amaghu River Valley, Specialist, Jessica Riggs, took a quick Professor, Romance Languages & Literatures near the town of and Middle East Studies Yeghegnadzor, Armenia. break from the panels to visit the Cameron Cross (Elected) famous Alamo. Assistant Professor, Middle East Studies Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies SPRING 2019 2 CMENAS had a wonderful four days of invigorating MESA conversations and intellectual exchanges with others Just a short walk from the conference venue is committed to the field of La Villita, a historic neighborhood now a hub for community events and artistry. MENA studies and K-14 outreach during the 2018 meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Photos courtesy of Jessica Riggs Above: Director Samer Ali emceed the MESA Awards Ceremony and had the opportunity to give Professor Joel Beinin, an alum of U-M, the MESA Mentoring Award. Left: The CMENAS staff happily traded in Ann Arbor’s grayness for San Antonio’s sunshine during this year’s MESA meeting in November 2018. Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies SPRING 2019 3 DESTINATION MOROCCO By Leah Squires probably shouldn’t We were traveling as part of the Ford had made it as far as the Rabat train confess publicly School’s International Economic station. We were well on our way, so that at the first Development Program (IEDP), which I took a moment for myself to visit a opportunity, I is a student-led experiential learning and beloved juice bar around the corner. ignored the signature international policy program composed rule of school- of a seven-week course and one-week I had my last avocado-banana juice on sponsored travel: no field component during the Winter 2019 the morning I left Morocco in July 2015. venturing off alone. semester. The country of study changes As a Peace Corps Youth Development Our group of 20 each year based on a student nomination Volunteer for the past three years, I lived masters’ students and election process. As a prospective in a small town outside of Beni Mellal and two faculty student, I already had a scheme to near the Middle Atlas. I spent my days advisors from the nominate and lead IEDP Morocco. teaching at the youth center, supporting Gerald R. Ford efforts to open a library, learning School of Public Policy had touched Rarely do our best intentions come to Moroccan Darija, cooking zalouk and down in Morocco only hours ago, and fruition, yet almost two years later, I tagine. I had the opportunity to invest we had a layover in Rabat since we were was lucky enough to find myself back in in a new community and culture; Peace waiting to catch the Marrakech Express. Morocco as the IEDP President. And Corps wasn’t just the toughest job I ever (In Morocco, they just call it the train.) after a year of planning with a team of loved—it was my life. student leaders, I was relieved that we Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies SPRING 2019 4 Never did I imagine that my first visit various stakeholder meetings with people Taking a cab back to our hotel, though, back would be as part of an academic actively involved in the policymaking and striking up a conversation with the program; however, my experience with process. As a member of the water group, driver, I was once again khuti or mellalia. IEDP surpassed my expectations and I sat across the table from delegates Language was still the key—a way to opened a new window onto Morocco. from the Secretariat of Sustainable unlock and complicate my outsider status. Applying an academic lens to a favored Development, the Water Department, I was reminded that the most valuable and familiar place put my Peace Corps and the National Office for Water and lesson for me is always one of cultural experience—and the lived experience of Electricity. exchange, and in the context of our class my Moroccan host family and friends—in a critical lesson: the majority of students a new perspective. Youth unemployment Oftentimes, professionalism and did not have Arabic (or French), had in Morocco has climbed to 27 percent, academia instill some level of expertise, limited exposure to North Africa, and up from 18 percent in 2012 (the year yet my return to Morocco was another had never visited the region. At the end I began my service). Many of my close exercise in cultural humility. As a student, of the day, the most rewarding aspect of co-workers—who volunteered alongside I went to learn about Morocco’s plans IEDP was sharing these everyday cultural me—are still unemployed, have returned for a water-secure future—and left with elements of Morocco with my peers— to school, or have emigrated elsewhere. more questions than when I arrived. The whether it was bargaining in the medina, chance to unite my interests in policy visiting the hammam, or sharing an IEDP is structured around targeted making and area studies in a real-world avocado-banana juice, bla skaar. (Pro-tip: policy projects, and our class reviewed context threw into sharp relief the order it without sugar as the banana is a policies on unemployment, water challenges of working as an outsider. natural sweetener.) and sustainability, gender equity, and statistical capacity. In country, we set up Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies SPRING 2019 5 because the things I am addressing were directly taught to me” in the classes in Middle East and North African Studies WHERE ARE THEY (MENAS). Since finishing her BA in 2017, life has taken Tina Alkhersan all over the world. “First, I moved to Pittsburgh in order Last semester, CMENAS caught up with “Everything I do to take part in the Coro Fellowship for two of its alumni who took the academic [now] is helped by Public Affairs,” Alkhersan explained. route after leaving the center. This “Then I went to Lesvos, Greece, to semester, we talked to Devin Bathish and what I learned in volunteer in the Kara Tepe refugee camp Tina Alkhersan, who chose to work for my degree. Being with Movement on the Ground.” the nonprofit sector after graduation. able to tailor my Above and beyond the area-studies After completing his CMENAS major knowledge that Alkhersan gained in 2017, Devin Bathish returned to his degree was massively throughout her hometown of Flint, Michigan, to serve as helpful. It allowed me undergraduate executive director of the Arab American to improve my Arabic, studies and later Heritage Council. which I use on a daily served her career, The value CMENAS places on its acquisition of the community has influenced how he runs basis… I am able to Arabic language the Arab American Heritage Council. educate non-Arabs was the most important and about Arab culture valuable skill. “I “I loved the CMENAS community, Tina Alkhersan especially the ability to connect and learn and heritage with really think that from others who are so interested in their confidence.” my focus on the Arabic language, which own Arab/MENA identities,” Bathish I took for eight semesters, has opened said. A central goal of the council is to doors...for me,” Alkhersan said. “In “unite the Arab American community of Lesvos, I was one of the only volunteers Flint and increase its civic engagement.” who spoke Arabic, which was honestly By being an active member of the so shocking.” “Language,” she added, “is CMENAS and MENA communities essential to being able to understand an on campus, Bathish gained and honed individual.” his interpersonal skills that enabled him to successfully carry out the council’s Alkhersan also shared the personal Devin Bathish mission. relevance of her MENAS degree: “It has allowed me to connect to my culture in a Bathish expressed his gratitude for the way that I couldn’t before. For example, training and support he received from when I recently traveled to Oman to visit CMENAS faculty, staff, and other my family, I could communicate much students during his undergraduate better with the [members] and enhance studies. “Everything I do [now] is helped relationships we had already established. by what I learned in my degree,” Bathish This is perhaps one of the most beneficial continued. “Being able to tailor my things I’ve gained from the degree!” degree was massively helpful.