Juan Cole Visits Tunisia on CEMAT-hosted Lecture Tour

Professor Juan Coles (center) speaking with CEMAT
scholars following the lecture

During the week of May 6, 2012, CEMAT hosted Professor Juan Cole as part of its popular Political Science Speakers Series. Professor Cole began his speaking tour at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. He spoke, in Arabic, on the timely subject of Iran and the Arab Spring. Professor Cole then joined an audience of over fifty at CEMAT for a talk entitled, “How Likely are the ex-Dictatorships Transition to Democracy?” which he discussed with Tunisian public intellectual Professor Hamadi Redissi.

The audience at CEMAT included Tunisian and American students, embassy staff, Tunisian professors, journalists and the general public.  The talk was also live-streamed on Tunisia-live.net.  For his final talk, Professor Cole addressed students at the Faculty of Letters in Kairouan, Tunisia’s holy city and cultural magnet, housing the oldest mosque in North Africa. Professor Cole spoke about the American interpretation of the Arab Spring. His visit also afforded him the opportunity to meet with local US dignitaries and major Tunisian political leaders.

CAORC Welcomes Newest Member Center

CAORC is pleased to announce our newest Member Center: the American Institute for Indonesian Studies.


The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) was established in January 2012 as a consortium of US universities and colleges interested in furthering the development of Indonesian studies in the United States and fostering scholarly exchange between Indonesian and US scholars. Its mission is to facilitate study and research concerning Indonesia in the fields of the physical sciences, social sciences, agricultural practices and technologies, engineering, and the arts and humanities. A key goal of AIFIS is to create an open and friendly environment that draws in Indonesian and American researchers from diverse backgrounds, and maximizes interactions between American and Indonesian scholars and students.

AIFIS’s US office is situated at Cornell University, where the Echols Collection on Southeast Asia offers the most extensive library holdings on Indonesia in the United States. Its Jakarta office at the Sampoerna School of Education, fully furnished and equipped with computers, desks and office supplies, offers excellent facilities that are freely available to American scholars from the consortium member institutions, as well as to all interested Indonesian scholars and students. The Indonesian reading room contains a diverse collection of books and journals dealing with Indonesia, which were donated by our U.S. consortium member universities. AIFIS staff in our Jakarta office provides personal assistance with research and residency permits for US researchers and networking facilities for visiting US and Indonesian academics. AIFIS has taken an active role in planning and supporting events that foster scholarly exchange between American and Indonesian scholars and is coordinating with a wide variety of other academic institutions and organizations to arrange presentations and other events throughout the 2012 calendar year. It is looking into the possibility of opening a branch facility in Yogyakarta and later in other areas of Indonesia, such as Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan.

U.S. and Indonesian AIFIS organizers, staff, and other presenters at the conclusion of the
inaugural seminar at the AIFIS offices in the Sampoerna School of Education in Jakarta.

WARC Holds Conference on Political Crisis in Guinea Bissau

Excellency Mamadou Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guinea Bissau,
Professor Boubacar  Barry, and His Excellency Ambassador Cabral

The current situation in Guinea Bissau is of critical concern throughout West Africa. On April 12, just before the presidential run-off election scheduled for April 22, the military staged a coup that overthrew the constitutional government. The political situation in Guinea Bissau has been unstable for the past several years, and this most recent event has broad repercussions for the entire region. ECOWAS has instituted sanctions after the refusal by the military junta to allow the interim president to manage the return to civilian rule and has called for the deployment of a regional military force.

WARC organized a panel discussion on this issue on Wednesday, May 2. The guest speakers were His Excellency Mamadou Saliou Diallo Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Guinea Bissau and His Excellency Mario Cabral, Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea Bissau in Dakar. The event was moderated by Professor Boubacar Barry, Université Cheikh Anta Diop.

Press coverage of the panel was featured in major newspapers in Dakar, with several carrying the story on the front page. The panel was an excellent opportunity for the Bissauan community in Dakar to discuss the issues currently prevailing in their country. The exchanges were quite charged; at one point M. Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Guinea Bissau insisted on the need to discuss political issues rather than rather than resort to military action.

In addition to the suggestion that military forces in Guinea Bissau need to be re-structured, the panelists strongly emphasized the need to have a multi-national military force in the country to restore order. The speakers applauded the current efforts of the international community (including ECOWAS and the African Union) to restore the rule of law and democracy in Guinea Bissau.

Hollings Center Event, Thursday, May 10: The U.S.-Turkey Commercial Relationship: A Growing Partnership

Please join the Hollings Center for an insightful discussion as four panels of academic, industry and government experts examine developments in the U.S- Turkey economic relationship. Topics include Turkey in the global economy, Turkey’s foreign trade and changing trade partners, innovation and entrepreneurship, labor and competitiveness, the Arab Spring and Turkey and the politics of Turkey’s economy. This conference is organized in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and the Hollings Center for International Dialogue. The event will take place from 9:00-4:00 at the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.  Registration Required. Please click here for more information.

Three CAORC Member Centers Awarded NEH Grants

April 25, 2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Executive Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers; 202-633-1599; lane.maryellen@caorc.org   

 

Three CAORC Member Centers Awarded NEH Grants

 

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) is pleased to announce that three American Overseas Research Centers received grants in the 2012-2013 competition for Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions (FPIRI) from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

NEH grants for Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions support fellowships at institutions devoted to advanced study and research in the humanities, such as American Overseas Research Centers. These NEH fellowships provide scholars with research time and access to resources that might not be available at their home institutions.

 

• Since 1991, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) NEH Fellowship program has provided fellowships for advanced scholars who wish to carry out long-term research in Turkey in affiliation with an ARIT center in Istanbul and/or Ankara.  Fellowship tenures range from four months to one year.  The fields of study cover all periods of history in the general range of the humanities, and include humanistically oriented aspects of the social sciences, prehistory, history, art, archaeology, literature, and linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary aspects of cultural history.  Funded fellows will make use of the extensive and diverse archival and cultural resources that are accessible to researchers in Turkey.  The ARIT program will support from one to three fellows each year for three years, beginning in 2013.

• Since 1993, the NEH Fellowship program at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens(ASCSA) has given U.S. scholars the opportunity to conduct research in Greece and utilize the many excellent resources available at the ASCSA. As the ASCSA’s most prestigious fellowship earmarked exclusively for post-doctoral scholars to carry out research in the humanities, the NEH fellowships are an important part of the School’s overall fellowship program, providing over 50 fellowships annually to students, teachers, and scholars.  Each fellowship, through its selection criteria, contributes to the diverse academic community at the ASCSA.  For 16 years, the NEH fellowship program has been a major factor in establishing the School’s reputation as the premier overseas research center for the study of the Greek world.  Research by NEH fellows on humanities topics results in publications, lectures, and conferences that reach a broad audience of scholars, students, and the general public in the U.S. and abroad.

• The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) NEH FPIRI Fellowship program will give PARC an opportunity to focus attention on post-doctoral humanities research on Palestine.  Beginning in 2013 PARC will award one to two fellowships each year for three years, with fellows receiving from four to eight months of support.  The NEH grant will assist PARC in expanding the pool of scholars specializing in Palestinian studies and building the body of scholarship on Palestine.  Since 1998, PARC has awarded almost 180 fellowships to American and Palestinian doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in diverse fields ranging from medicine to cultural anthropology.  In addition to a small but rich library of scholarship on Jerusalem, PARC cosponsors conferences and seminars in Palestine and the United States and offers a panel at the Middle East Studies Association each year.  

Other NEH fellowships and research grants supporting international research are also available through the following American overseas centers:

• Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (Jerusalem)
• American Academy in Rome
• American Center of Oriental Research (Amman)
• American Institute of Indian Studies (New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, and Pune)
• American Research Center in Egypt (Cairo)

 

Please go to http://caorc.org/ for further information on these fellowships and grants.

 

"The Last Harvest: The Yemenis of the San Joaquin" premiering on PBS-OC/SoCal, May 1, 2012

The Last Harvest explores the lives and times of Muslim Immigrants from Yemen and their descendants who call California's San Joaquin Valley home. This film was produced with support from the American Institute of Yemeni Studies and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, through a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The film will air on PBS-OC/SoCal, May 1, at 10:30 PM PST.

WARC Exhibit: Images of the African Diaspora in NYC Community Murals

On the afternoon of April 6, 2012, Jane Weismann, curator and member of Artmakers Inc, launched an exhibit at WARC entitled, "Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals."

The exhibit depicts murals found in the Manhattan neighborhoods, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is composed of 35 images mounted on foam core which explore how African and Caribbean art, history, religion and myth have influenced mural themes and content.

The murals attracted a substantial crowd at WARC

Starting with New York's earliest community murals in Harlem (1968 - 1971), the exhibition focuses on the Black nationalism movement, the artistic philosophy of Ghanaian artists, and how the artists drew inspiration from various other sources such as African fertility symbols, Egyptian rituals, and religious icons.  The murals also include references to African American cultural figures, history and politics, the Caribbean slave trade, immigration, and Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts and magic scrolls.

Ms. Weissman gave invitees a very detailed tour explaining the meaning and history of the images. The opening session was attended by a select group of 15 people, including well-known Senegalese artists such as Mr Yelimane Fall, art lovers and representatives of the press. Since the opening, viewers have been flocking in to admire the beauty of the various images, which are on exhibit at WARC until May 4.

CAORC: Celebrating 30 Years of Sponsoring Foreign Language Study

In 2011/12, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of sponsoring foreign language study:

Since 2006, CAORC has received annual grants from the U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to implement overseas institutes to teach critical languages to thousands of U.S. undergraduates and graduate students through ECA’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program for Intensive Summer Institutes. Since the beginning of the CLS Program, CAORC has administered the outreach, recruitment, and selection activities for all of the language institutes and is currently implementing the Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, and Urdu institutes. At different times throughout the CLS Program, CAORC has also implemented the Azerbaijani, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, and Russian institutes.

The CLS Program holds a significant place in our country’s efforts to encourage U.S. students to study and master critical foreign languages to benefit American education, national security, economic prosperity, and the creation and support of an informed public. The CLS Program offers intensive and tailored language instruction to students who have diverse academic and professional career goals and has helped thousands of American students and scholars build language fluency and cultural competence. The CLS institutes have significantly expanded U.S. capacity for teaching critical languages in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Russia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and other countries where the target languages are spoken.

Since the beginning of the CLS Program, CAORC has brought together a range of highly capable member centers and university partners to create an intensive language immersion program that emphasizes language acquisition, while providing effective and creative cultural immersion opportunities. Since 2006, CAORC’s partner organizations have included:

• American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) 
  • Centre d'Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis (AIMS-CEMAT) 
  • Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (AIMS-TALIM)
• American Institute for Yemeni Studies (AIYS) 
• American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) in cooperation with Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)  
• American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) 
• American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) 
• American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR)  
• American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE)  
• Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) 
• SIT Graduate Institute
• Stony Brook University 
• University of Pennsylvania 

In addition to these Department of State/ECA Critical Language Summer Institutes, several CAORC member centers teach critical and less-commonly-taught foreign languages to hundreds of U.S. students each year through their own regular language programs. These programs are vital for support of language learning at American colleges and universities.

American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) 

AIIS operates intensive, immersion-based language programs in India for the summer, semester, and academic year in a wide range of modern and classical South Asian languages, including those that are rarely taught in the United States. For more than four decades, AIIS language programs in India have been crucial to most U.S.-based scholars of South Asian area studies in the humanities and social science disciplines, as well as area experts employed in government, NGOs, and the private sector. More than 3,500 students have completed programs through the Institute.

AIIS conducts its language programs in environments where the languages are commonly spoken, so that formal instruction is supplemented by the experience of using the language in daily life. Students normally stay with host families arranged by the AIIS to enrich their knowledge of the target language and experience the local culture. AIIS maintains well-equipped language-training centers and regularly offers language programs in Bangla/Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Pali, Mughal Persian, Prakrit, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Whenever there is a demand, AIIS also offers language programs in Kannada, Kashmiri, Oriya, and Tibetan.

American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)

As part of its mission to support the development of Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies and to disseminate knowledge about this little-known but important region, ACMS partners with the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to offer an “Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture” course. Taught totally online, with highly interactive weekly assignments, this course facilitates student interaction with fluent Mongolian speakers using a variety of web-based tools, so that students gain practical competence speaking, reading, writing, and listening in Mongolian at the beginner level.

American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS)

AIPS offers language learning resources in Pashto and Urdu.  The Pashto materials include a textbook, with lessons that include all the dialogues in Pashto, translations, transliteration, activities (oral and written) explained through pictures, exercises (drills and practices), grammar explanation, vocabulary lists/glossary, and cultural notes. The Urdu materials offer a course in original handwritten materials with common Urdu phrases and real-world situations re-written in different handwritings. The Urdu materials also include computer-composed versions and translations of the material. To facilitate language learning, AIPS also offers transcripts and glossaries for a variety of classic Pakistani films.

American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS)

AISLS provides funds to support U.S.-based scholars who wish to acquire or improve their language skills in Sinhala, Tamil, Pali, or Arabic while in Sri Lanka. The AISLS Colombo center supplies grantees with advice about language programs and tutors in Sri Lanka.

American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)

ARIT offers fellowships for intensive advanced Turkish language study in Istanbul. Co-sponsored by theAmerican Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages and Princeton University, these fellowships offer the equivalent of one full academic year of study in Turkish at the college level through a summer program in intensive advanced Turkish language and culture at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. 

Center for Khmer Studies (CKS)

The CKS Khmer Language and Culture Study Program offers faculty, post-graduate researchers, and undergraduates from U.S. universities an opportunity to participate in an intensive eight-week study abroad program in Cambodia. This ongoing program is administered in collaboration with the Khmer Language Program of the University of Hawai’i, Manoa.

AISLS Promotes Sri Lankan Research Capability in Development and Environmental Issues

In March 2012, the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies provided 28 Sri Lankan university and research institute libraries with copies of the electronic Social Science Library, which was compiled and donated by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.  This library, in the form of CDs and pin drives, includes 3,500 full text articles and over 10,000 abstracts. AISLS staff are visiting recipient institutions to provide training in the library's use. Since Sri Lankan libraries can afford very few subscriptions to US and international journals, this new resource has enhanced greatly their resources in these important fields.

CEMAT Presents: Language, Symbols and Slogans of the Revolution