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11. Preserving a Genre under Duress

Author:
Brittni Foster
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
How a class assignment led to MAAS alum Dan Walsh’s lifelong passion for preserving Palestine’s visual heritage. When Dan Walsh (MAAS ’11) was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Marrakesh in the early 1970s, his language tutor encouraged him to practice his budding Arabic and Moroccan Darija skills by translating the posters that papered the buildings around town. Walsh, now the curator of the world’s largest collection of posters on Palestine, remembers how grateful he was for the break from verb conjugations but says he never could have imagined how that assignment would change the course of his career. He credits his hours spent walking the streets of Marrakech and Rabat reading posters—Arabic dictionary in hand—with not only improving his language skills, but also igniting what has become one of his life’s passions.
Topic:
Culture, Media, Peace Corps, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, North America, and United States of America

12. Q&A with Journalist Ada Mullol (MAAS ’18)

Author:
Ada Mullol and Vicki Valosik
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Ada Mullol was well on her way to a career in journalism when she decided to pursue her Masters in Arab Studies at Georgetown. She first honed her reporting skills as an undergraduate at Autonomous University in Barcelona, where she studied journalism, wrote for the university magazine, and received an investigative reporting award for her work on the Syrian regime’s suppression and surveillance of Syrians in Spain. Mullol went on to pursue training at the London School of Journalism and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Barcelona Institute of International Studies, and to publish articles in national and international magazines. She had long been interested in the Arab world, though, and knew that developing regional expertise and improving her Arabic skills would enable her to better tell the stories she cared about. In 2016, she joined MAAS, where she is writing her thesis on the intersection of media, public opinion, and foreign policy. This March, Mullol participated in a competitive journalism fellowship program called “The World in 2030,” which was sponsored by the International Center for Journalists and the United Nations Foundation and included three days of intensive career training.
Topic:
Media, Research, Journalism, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Middle East, Spain, Syria, and United States of America

13. The Crisis of Higher Education for Syrian Refugees: Between Relief Work and Strategic Planning

Author:
Mohammad AlAhmad
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Meeting the educational needs of refugees and displaced people, particularly the need for higher education, is considered one of the greatest humanitarian challenges facing the international community in its response to the Syrian crisis. UNHCR estimates that globally, only 1% of refugee youth are able to access higher education.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, Refugees, Displacement, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

14. Transforming Futures in Palestine

Author:
Steven Keller
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
As a MAAS student in the mid-90s reading Sara Roy’s important book, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development, little could I have imagined that I would one day have the opportunity to spend more than a decade (and counting) leading the Palestine portfolio of the respected education organization AMIDEAST. Nor could I have imagined that the grim picture of Gaza painted by Roy’s comprehensive research would seem so much better in so many ways than the Gaza that I encountered at the start of my tenure here in 2006—or how much worse it has become since then.
Topic:
Education, Children, Youth, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Middle East, Palestine, and Gaza

15. Partnering for Solutions

Author:
Vicki Valosik
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
CCAS, in partnership with the University of Kurdistan, brought together 40+ researchers this spring to discuss durable solutions to forced displacement in Iraq. Iraq has suffered from massive internal displacement for several decades, but with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) the numbers of those displaced have grown drastically. More than three million Iraqis—or ten percent of the country’s population—currently live as internally displaced persons (IDPs). In an effort to address this crisis, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) and the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown recently joined efforts with the University of Kurdistan, Hawler (UKH) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to host the conference “Migration and Displacement in Iraq: Working Towards Durable Solutions.”
Topic:
Migration, Islamic State, Displacement, Kurds, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, North America, and Kurdistan

16. Rapid Response

Author:
Azza Altiraifi
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Following the Trump Administration’s “Muslim Ban,” CCAS hosted rapid response town hall meetings to discuss the impact of the Executive Order.
Topic:
Immigration, Refugees, Trump, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Syria, North America, and United States of America

17. The Politics of Reading: CCAS's Qatar Postdoctoral Fellow reflects on the uses of literature as a tool for cultural understanding

Author:
Elizabeth Kelley
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Oh, I just loved The Kite Runner,” people in North America sometimes tell me when I explain what my research is about: the translation and circulation of Arabic novels in English. In these cases, the individuals, who are not usually scholars or students of Arabic or the Arab world, go on to explain how much they enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s novel, how they felt it helped them to learn about life in Afghanistan and what it was like to grow up there. In some ways, The Kite Runner is quite far from my research topic, given that the novel was written in English, was not translated from any language, and that the author had been living in the United States for decades prior to writing it. Not to mention that Arabic is not the language of Afghanistan, and although it is part of the Muslim world, Afghanistan is not generally considered part of the Arab world. Thus, linking Afghani literature with literature of the Arab world may rely on collapsing regional, linguistic, and cultural differences under the undifferentiated sign of Islam.
Topic:
Research, Literature, Higher Education, and Translation
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, and Arab Countries

18. The Extraordinary Story and Discovery of Yarrow Mamout: From African Slave to Georgetown Property Owner

Author:
Susan Douglass
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Unlike the few great figures depicted in legends and memorialized in statuary, most inhabitants of this earth have lived their lives—and passed away—invisible to history. Occasionally, the stories of ordinary people do emerge from the shadows of history, but the evidence left behind rarely tells us much about their personalities or characters, as such humble individuals likely drew little public notice during their lifetimes. Yarrow Mamout, a citizen of Georgetown who died in 1823, is one very notable exception.
Topic:
History, Slavery, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
West Africa, North America, United States of America, Washington, and D.C.

19. Syrian Scholar Finds Safe Haven at CCAS: A Conversation with Visiting Lecturer Mohammad AlAhmad

Author:
Will Todman, Mohammad AlAhmad, and Dana Dairani
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
On April 22, 2015, CCAS Visiting Lecturer Dr. Mohammad AlAmad and his family left their home and lives in Syria behind. “Human smugglers drove us to the Turkish border,” says AlAhmad, “and then my wife and I carried our two young children, walking through barbed wire and muddy water into Turkey. We were full of trepidation, fear, and the pain of being displaced.” Though AlAhmad left Syria because he had been accepted to participate in the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, which provides support for threatened scholars and places them with visiting appointments at partner academic institutions, he did not yet know his family’s ultimate destination. Once in Turkey, AlAhmad learned that his appointment would be at Georgetown, starting in August.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Refugees, Islamic State, Arab Spring, Syrian War, Literature, Revolution, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, Syria, North America, United States of America, and Raqqa

20. Looking Back, Giving Forward

Author:
Vicki Valosik
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
After three generations of Hoyas, CCAS Board Member Peter Tanous is investing in future students through new MAAS scholarship. When Peter Tanous walked across the stage to accept his diploma from Georgetown University almost thirty years after his father had done the same in 1932, he was establishing a family tradition—becoming the second of three generations of Tanouses to graduate from Georgetown, including two of his own children who would later attend. Now Tanous, a member of the CCAS Board of Advisors, is making it possible for others to gain a Georgetown education. The new Tanous Family Endowed Scholarship Fund, which Tanous established at CCAS earlier this year, will support students of the Master of Arts in Arab Studies (MAAS) program.
Topic:
History, Higher Education, and Profile
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America