Arabic Language Classes Slated to Begin Next Fall

Author: Nicolas Emery

Beginning in the fall semester of 2003, Middlebury College will offer Arabic language classes to undergraduate students as part of a planned expansion of the International Studies Department to include a Middle Eastern Studies track. Previously, Arabic has only been offered at the Middlebury College Summer Language School.
The Arabic classes will commence with a year-long beginning language sequence, supplemented by two advanced classes in Arabic culture, which will be taught in English and offered in the spring.
The College hired Christopher Stone to teach the Arabic language classes. He is fluent in Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian, Levantine and Yemeni dialects. Stone has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and comes to Vermont from Williams College, where he currently holds an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. Stone will also teach the Arabic culture classes offered in the International Studies Department in the spring of 2004.
Associate Dean of Faculty Michael Geisler said, "We are planning on adding a Middle Eastern track to the International Studies major in the foreseeable future, but the feasibility of this depends on the success of several [faculty] searches that are still pending or have not yet begun."
Currently, the College is searching for a Middle Eastern specialist for the Political Science Department and next year another search will begin for a position in the History Department to be filled for the 2004-05 academic year. Geisler added that if these searches are successful, Middlebury College "will have one of the strongest set of offerings in Middle Eastern area studies in our comparison group of nationally leading liberal arts colleges."
Jeffrey Cason, associate professor of Political Science, added that the College has also considered the possibility of creating a new International Studies track incorporating both the Middle East and African regions -- similar to the existing East Asian studies track, which offers students the option of pursuing a Japan track or a China track.
"If things go well," Cason said, "we could have such a track within International Studies within the next year or two."
According to Cason, the planned Middle Eastern Studies track would include classes from various disciplines such as geography, religion, political science, history, literature and culture. Professor of Geography Tamar Mayer offers a course entitled "Geopolitics of the Middle East," which will be included in its current form as one of the geography classes offered in the Middle Eastern Studies track. "I always thought that our students ought to be familiar with the Middle East, especially because of its geographical, political and economic importance to the West," she said.
According to Geisler, Middlebury College began discussing the introduction of Arabic to the academic year curriculum in the spring of 2001. Arabic is the only language taught during the summer that is not offered during the academic year. The College is interested in bolstering its lingual and cultural expertise to include yet another region of the world.
As a result of these discussions, a committee on Middle Eastern Studies was formed last year. This committee made the recommendations to begin searches for new positions in the Political Science and History Departments.
Cason said that while the events of Sept. 11, 2001, provided additional impetus for the push to add Arabic to the curriculum, there has been long-standing informal discussion among faculty concerning the subject.
Said Al-Nashashibi '05, a citizen of Jordan, said that the addition of Arabic and a Middle Eastern studies track "is very appropriate considering recent world events. It allows students to venture into that area of the world, which they were not able to do before."