MEMEAC to Expand Middle Eastern Studies at GC

The Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) will begin a two-year project to expand Middle Eastern studies at CUNY, having secured federal grant support. The project, "Expanding the Study of the Middle East and Its Diaspora at the City University of New York," will be funded by a $192,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education under the Title VI A program; it is one of only two grants awarded nationally for Middle Eastern studies at the undergraduate level.

MEMEAC will use the grant to facilitate changes in program and curriculum development on CUNY's undergraduate campuses, including a major program in Middle East Studies at Queens College and a Middle East area of concentration in the system-wide CUNY Baccalaureate Program (which is administered by The Graduate Center), as well as minors and concentrations at Lehman and Hunter College. Twelve new courses on the Middle East and the Middle Eastern diaspora experience will be developed across the curriculum, and MEMEAC will also expand and strengthen the teaching of Arabic; convene faculty workshops on topics pertaining to the Middle East and its diaspora; and initiate training institutes for K-12 teachers.

The Center is co-directed by sociologist Mehdi Bozorgmehr and historian Beth Baron, both Graduate Center faculty members, and administered by Associate Director Dr. Anny Bakalian, who also specializes in the diaspora.

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