Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1998, pages 87-88

Education

AMIDEAST Releases New Video for K-12 Classes

By Betsy Barlow

AMIDEAST has produced a truly excellent video about young people in the Arab world. In just 30 minutes we meet five teenagers, Muhammed from Jordan, Tamara from Lebanon, Hazem from Egypt, Sa’ud from Kuwait, and Khadija from Morocco. As each talks about his or her life and times, viewers learn about the teachings and practice of Islam, the roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle East, the study of archeology, rural-urban migration, the origins of agriculture, typical foods, the importance of proverbs, the visual beauty of Arabic writing, the variety of livelihoods and tasks for teenagers, the family as a source of stability and security, the roles of women, education in the Arab world, colonization and independence, and the experience shared by all five youngsters of growing up in a world vastly different from the times of their parents and grandparents.

An accompanying study guide will assist teachers in building on the themes contained in the video.

Director Leslie Nucho and all others involved should be congratulated for packing so much information into just 30 minutes.

Casey Kasem provides narration. This truly outstanding production has already won an Honorable Mention at the 1998 Columbus (OH) International Film and Video Festival. It is suitable for grades 5-10, and many older groups. If you are looking for a gift for a teacher, or if you wish to improve the teaching of the Arab world in your area, you should buy this video for your school system, or at least tell social studies teachers in your area of its existence. The video, which is available now, is priced at $35. The accompanying study guide is expected in January. To order, contact AMIDEAST, 1730 M St. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036-4505; phone (202) 776-9600; fax (202) 776-7000; e-mail: <inquiries@amideast.org>. AMIDEAST also is the distributor for the Hoopoe Books from Egypt, which include folktales in translation as well as a book on the caliphs and a series on ancient Egypt, and for the Hood books from the U.K., whose publications include biographies of some notable Muslims in history as well as books on some of the prophets recognized by Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The Middle East at the NCSS Conference in California

This is the season for major educational conferences. For K-12 teachers, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) is holding its annual conference Nov. 19-22 in Anaheim, California, where the Middle East will be well represented. The Council on Islamic Education will present three workshops at the conference on “Muslim Women Through the Centuries” (Nov. 21 at 8:25 a.m.); “About Islam and Muslims: Your Students’ Questions Answered” (Nov. 21 at 2:30 p.m.); and “The Crusades from European and Muslim Perspectives” (Nov. 22 at ll:55 a.m.).

Audrey Shabbas will be presenting five workshops. (1) On Thursday, Nov. 19, on the pre-conference program she will give a four-hour session based on the new Arab World Studies Notebook (see September 1998 issue), entitled “Fifty Lesson Plans for Teaching About the Arab World and Islam.” Pre-registration is required for this session. (2) On Nov. 21, teachers who have used the Shabbas curriculum “A Medieval Banquet at the Alhambra Palace’ will share their results, as will users of Sylvia Godlas’s Doorways to Islamic Art. (3) Again on Nov. 21, a unit on the hajj, soon to be published by AWAIR, will present historical travelers from five different regions as they make their hajj. (4) “Creating Your Own Student Tour Exchanges,” a program highlighting student travel, will be offered on Nov. 22. (5) Also on the 22nd is “Muslim Women Answer Your Students’ Questions About Muslim Women.

Arab World and Islamic Resources (AWAIR), Audrey’s group, will also sponsor workshops around the nation on the theme “Content and Strategies for Teaching about the Arab World and Islam” under the sponsorship of the Middle East Policy Council. The schedule includes Dec. 10 at Michigan State University in East Lansing; Feb. 14 in San Antonio, Texas; Feb. 25-27, four workshops at the California Council for the Social Studies in Santa Clara, CA; March 7 at the annual meeting of the Michigan Council for the Social Studies; March 8 at the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development in San Francisco; and March 19 at the Greater Islamic Center of Cincinnati.

If you wish to enroll in one of these workshops, or if you wish to schedule a workshop in your area, contact Audrey Shabbas at AWAIR, (510) 704-0517.

MESA

The Middle East Studies Association will hold its annual conference in Chicago Dec. 3-6. The visiting scholar this year is Lilia Labidi, professor of anthropology and clinical psychology at the University of Tunis, who will speak on “the Construction of Public Morality in the Arab World and Africa.” The plenary session on Saturday night, Dec. 5, will address “Edward W. Said’s Orientalism: 20 Years After.” Speakers will include Rashid I. Khalidi, University of Chicago; Lila Abu-Lughod, New York University; Gabriel Piyterbert, Ben-Gurion University; and Homni Bhabha, University of Chicago. Philip S. Khoury, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will chair the session, and Edward Said (and the audience) will respond.

The 15th annual Filmfest, organized by Ellen-Fairbanks Bodman, University of North Carolina, will run throughout the conference, featuring newly released films from around the Middle East and some unique old-timers.

For information or to register, contact the Middle East Studies Association, 1643 East Helen Street, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721-0410; phone: (520) 621-5850; fax (520) 626-9095; e-mail: mesana@u.arizona.edu; Web site: http://www.mesa. arizona.edu

Other Conferences

A conference on “The Mamluk Sultanate: Cities, Societies, Economies” will take place on Dec. 3 in Chicago. For information contact Warren Schultz, Department of History, DePaul University, 2320 N. Kenmore, Chicago IL 607614; phone (773) 325-1561; e-mail: wschultz@wppost.depaul.edu.

The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Education Division, in conjunction with New York University, will present a program on Dec. 12 entitled “Re-presenting the Qajars: New Research in the Study of 19th Century Persian Visual Culture.” For information, contact the museum at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238; phone (718) 638-5000, ext. 230.

The Atlanta History Center and Georgia Tech are co-sponsoring a symposium on “Human Rights: Changes and Challenges,” April 29-May 1, 1999. Those who are interested in presenting a talk are asked to respond by Dec. 15, 1998 by e-mail to: alice.bullard@hts.gatech.edu. One-page proposals and short c.v. should be directed to Professors Alice Bullard and Gregory Nobles, Symposium co-chairs, School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0345.

Turkey at 75

To mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the Philadelphia World Affairs Council is sponsoring a workshop on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Council’s headquarters, 1314 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Speakers are Serif Mardin, chair, Islamic Studies Department, American University, and Renata Holod, History of Art Department, University of Pennsylvania. The program is co-sponsored by the Middle East Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Research Institute in Turkey, and supported by the Turkish-American Friendship Society of the U.S.

More Resources and Events

Harvard University has just published Unit 2 of its short pieces of Middle Eastern literature for high school students called Are You Listening? Voices from the Middle East. Unit 1 focused on Growing Up in the Middle East. Unit 2 is entitled Different Voices: Different Lives. The 17 literary extracts are divided into five sections: “Family Matters,” “Women’s Voices,” “Outsiders,” “Twists and Turns,” and “Varieties of Love.” This volume will be useful for high school, community college and undergraduate courses. For information or to order the volume, contact Carol Shedd, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; phone 617 495-4078.

New York University presented a program in October with photographer Susan Meisalis discussing her new Web site on the Kurds, which can be found at www.akakurdistan.com. A film festival and symposium comparing Hindi and Egyptian musical films will take place Jan. 28-30 at NYU. Filmmakers invited to discuss their most recent films and Middle Eastern cinema are Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran), Amos Gitai (Israel), Dariush Mehrjui (Iran), Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Kim Longinotto (Iran/U.K.), and Yasmina Benguigui (Algeria/France). For information, contact Shiva Balaghi at (212) 998-8872.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona presented a special performance of the Whirling Dervishes in connection with a special series on Sufism from Oct. 13 to 30. On Nov. 13, the Center will join with the Arizona Oriental Rug and Textile Association and the Tucson Museum of Art to open an exhibit of Oriental rugs. The exhibit of rugs, utilitarian weavings, felts, jewelry and photographs and black tent and weaving demonstrations will give an introduction to Oriental rugs and their sources.

On Feb. 26, 1999 the Center will host a workshop for teachers entitled “Peacekeeping and Peacemaking in the Middle Eastern Periphery.” The Center is also applying for a Fulbright Group Trip Abroad to study arid lands and water resource issues and urban development/preservation in Syria in the summer of 1999. Teachers in Arizona who are interested in this opportunity or who need further information about any of the programs at the University of Arizona should contact Karen Galindo, (520) 621-8079.

Manouchehr Khosrowshahi tells us that as a result of the Fulbright project in Turkey during the summer of 1998 sponsored by Tyler Junior College (Texas) a new Web site has been set up to disseminate information about Turkey. It can be found at http://www.tyler.cc.tx.us/international-programs/turkey/index.htm. Tyler Junior College is applying again for a Fulbright study tour in Turkey in the summer of 1999. Interested persons should contact Manouchehr Khosrowshahi at mkho@tjc.tyler.cc.tx.us.

“Community Between Two Worlds”

The photo exhibition “A Community Between Two Worlds: Arab Americans in Greater Detroit,” currently being shown at the Detroit Historical Museum, has added some new venues to its schedule, which now includes: Michigan State University December 1998 through June 1999; Castellani Art Museum in Niagara Falls, NY from fall 1999 through early January 2000; Balch Institute, Philadelphia, from Feb. 1 through May 2000; and the Museum of the City of New York in the Fall of 2000. This exhibit celebrates the uniqueness and historical complexity of Michigan’s Arab-American community. It examines how life in Arab Detroit has changed since immigration to Michigan began; the creation of an Arab-American culture; the role traditional artists play in preserving Arab identity; and the links which tie Detroit to the Arab world. It was developed and curated by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and the Michigan State University Museum, and includes photographs from an earlier photographic exhibit presented by ACCESS and the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. For information about this exhibit, contact the Cultural Arts Department at ACCESS, (313) 842-7010.

A call for papers for a special issue entitled “Gendering Middle East Politics” of the publication Social Politics has been issued, with a Nov. 30 deadline for submissions. Inquiries should be directed to either of the guest editors, Valentine Moghadem, Women’s Studies and Sociology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4260; e-mail: ummogha@rs6000.comp.ilstu.edu or Nitza Berkovitch, Behavioral Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel; email: nberko@bgu.ac.il.