Michael C. Hudson

One of the byproducts of the oil embargo of 1973 was the realization by countless Americans, for the first time, that they knew very little about the Arab world—and that it was important to learn a lot more. This new thirst for knowledge about the Arabs did not go unnoticed by educators at Washington's Georgetown University, who came up with the idea of establishing an academic unit which would specialize in Arab affairs. The idea which eventually became a reality calls itself the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS).

"Many universities had Mideast and Islamic study programs even before the embargo, of course," says Michael Hudson, who has been CCAS's director since shortly after it opened its doors in 1975. "But there is no doubt that the Arab world was under-studied and under-researched."

Large Program Developed

Georgetown not only helped remedy this situation but built up what is probably the largest program of studies dealing with the contemporary Arab world of any university in the U.S. Worked out in collaboration with Dr. Hudson by CCAS's chairman of studies, Dr. John D. Ruedy, the program offers courses in Arabic language and literature, business, economics, fine arts, government, history, international affairs, law, philosophy, sociology and theology. Attendance in the various courses exceeds 400, and at any given time about 50 students from a number of countries are enrolled in a two-year masters degree program.

According to Dr. Hudson, CCAS tries to be more than just a place where college students soak up specialized learning, however. "We're trying to act as an educational resource, in our specialty, for the community as a whole," he says. CCAS puts on lectures, film exhibits, symposiums and other events which are open to people from outside the University. It invites dignitaries who visit the nation's capital to luncheon discussion sessions with a cross-section of Washingtonians. It also reaches out to civic groups: last year, for example, graduate instructors from the Center presented a course in Arab history to the Jewish Community Center of Rockville, Maryland, a Washington suburb. Soon, CCAS expects to help provide programs and materials to civic groups and high school teachers on a regular basis-rather than ad hoc, as at present-but will be doing it on a shoe-string at first.

"We'll need more funding," says Dr. Hudson, sounding a familiar theme of college administrators. CCAS gets its funds from three main sources: Georgetown University itself, which pays salaries, overhead and many other expenses: private corporations, both in the U.S. and abroad; and Arab governments (seven at the last count).

The acceptance of grants from Arab governments has not been without controversy. An endowment by Libya for a chair in Arab studies was returned by the president of Georgetown in 1981 at a time when the U.S. government had branded Libya's leader, Muammar Qadhafi, as a "terrorist." Dr. Hudson says that Libya had neither made nor was accused of making any attempt to influence the Arab studies program. "In fact," he says, 11 we always have made it clear to all that there must be no strings attached" to any grants received, and that "we ourselves do not lobby nor proselytize." No government has objected to these conditions, he says, but adds ruefully: "The Libyan affair certainly did not improve our prospects for funding from the Arab world."

It apparently did not cause any damage to CCAS's academic relationship with the Arab world, however. Items: a Libyan professor attended a CCAS symposium on North Africa last year; four CCAS students are serving as interns in North Yemen this summer; and students and professors are being exchanged with Iraq.

Collective Leadership

Dr. Hudson spends only part of his time administering CCAS, which he says "is really run through collective leadership." He is also Georgetown's Seif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies—a chair endowed by the United Arab Emirates—and as a member of the Government Department of the university he teaches courses in Arab international relations and comparative politics. In addition, he acts as a one-man outreach program. His schedule is dizzying. Since last summer, for example, he has conferred with fellow academicians in Britain (more than once), Rhodes, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, North Yemen, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt. In addition to travelling abroad, he also keeps up a torrid pace on his own side of the Atlantic-popping off to give a lecture at the University of North Carolina or New York University; and addressing forums in such places as Seattle, Toronto and Tallahassee. He writes prolifically for contemporary journals, and still finds time to be interviewed by foreign and domestic newspapers, appear on local, national and overseas television programs, and do spots for the Voice of America.

Dr. Hudson, 44, has a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale in political science, and a certificate from Princeton University for Arabic language study.