Director's Letter

Welcome to the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.  We have never been busier or more active. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the International and Foreign Language Education Programs of HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays. The shock of the launch of Sputnik by the USSR in 1958 had the beneficent effect of stimulating far-sighted figures such as Senator William Fulbright to look for immediate ways of encouraging American understanding of the rest of the world. These programs have played a crucial part in bringing an understanding of the wider international scene to America through the Title VI Centers and the fellowships for research abroad and the intensive study of languages. Our students win the prestigious FLAS summer and whole year grants which make an incalculable difference to their knowledge of the Middle East.

At the conference in Washington on March 18th, ‘Engaging the world: U.S. Global Competence for the 21st Century’ , held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, leading political and intellectual figures stressed their commitment to our programs. Secretary of State Clinton sent a long letter of support; Senator Lugar spoke movingly of his attachment to Fulbright’s internationalism; Senator Dodd sent his endorsement; Lee Hamilton, a former long-serving member of the House of Representatives and now President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, chaired the entire meeting. National Resource Center directors, faculty and administrators then held a two and a half day conference discussing the pressing issue of how to develop yet further the resources and initiatives that we have in place in the light of the exceptional demands of the time.

Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski gave a wide-ranging, somber address. He deplored the culture of self-gratification and a ‘defensive regionalism’ at a moment when different crises, economic and politicial, threaten to spin out of control. In the light of what he called ‘stunning ignorance’, what is the role of public education? And how can we sustain foreign policy in our democracy? These questions seem to me to be crucial. They sharpen our sense of the mission of a Center like ours. They force us to attend to the stakes for which we play in educating students in the complexities of the Middle East and in a critical understanding of our own culture and politics in relation to our objects of study.

Title VI stresses language: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hindi and Urdu in our case. Nothing is more important to us and we are fortunate in being able to offer language courses with  truly exceptional faculty.  On that foundation, our MA students can build their research and studies on original sources and documents. They can acquire the means to follow the regional press, film and television. The great strengths of the faculty in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies offer unrivalled teaching in history, literature and the social sciences.  Since MA students share their classes with Ph.D students, the level is high, the demands are great. That is why the degree is so valuable. It is a real training that encourages intellectual depth and critical thinking.
We broaden our education with our regular workshops focusing on the new research of leading scholars; our seminars on new books; our conferences, this year’s being an extraordinarily intense two-day meeting on Prison Literature and Politics with Arab, Iranian and Turkish writers who had themselves written of their own prison experiences; our panels on oil, or policy in the region; and our many events in collaboration with institutions in the city that allow students to attend films and exhibitions of art, often with the artists or directors present.

In the coming year we have to apply for the next competition for the following four years of Title VI funding. That is a spur to push our program into new fields, to develop new initiatives that will enrich our students’ experience as well as linking with schools and other institutions in the city as we are mandated to do.  I hope you will join us.

- Michael Gilsenan