[MES Forum] Welcome Back!

[McClimans, Melinda]

Middle East Studies Center Update
Update from the Director

Welcome back to campus! We hope to see everyone in our MES Forums this Autumn and to hear your accounts of summer travel, research, and experiences all in and about the Middle East.  We’re looking forward to the upcoming academic year and the plans we have in store. Our forums and events will include the arts, archeology, studies of languages and cultures, and will encompass multiple disciplines, times in history and cultures. Our faculty are offering courses for every interest – please share our course list<https://mesc.osu.edu/courses-info> which we continually update.

The Ohio State University's strength in global perspective and reach is demonstrated by the relationship between Ohio State University and countries in the Middle East region. Government officials from Oman, Jordan, the UAE, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will visit this fall for the Digital Arabia Project and its launch of OCIANA 2.0<https://go.osu.edu/digital-arabia>. We are currently in conversations with leaders from the Ministry of Education in Oman, Doha University, and universities in Kuwait and Turkey to form agreements and foster faculty collaborations.

And to that note, why is the Director for our Middle East Studies Center excavating an ancient fishpond in Hawaii? In summer 2024, I spent a second month with an archaeological team probing the ancient sediments of a Hawaiian fishpond, now in disuse and filled with sticky mud. At the end of the season, we joined a 400-person traditional work group organized to rebuild the fishpond wall for its future productivity—taro plots inland and fish nurseries in brackish water.

Across the Hawaiian Islands, Native Hawaiians are rebuilding and operating traditional fishponds for the benefit of local communities. Their fishpond efforts are conserving and restoring healthy reefs, reclaiming streamflow, managing upland forests against erosion, and strengthening native communities through ties to land, food production, and cultural traditions. What does that have to do with the Middle East, one might ask?

Food Sovereignty is a theme that links my activities in Hawaii, at the Middle East Studies Center, and in my own archaeological research. The Climate Justice Alliance<https://climatejusticealliance.org/workgroup/food-sovereignty/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFood%20sovereignty%20is%20the%20right,own%20food%20and%20agriculture%20systems.> cites Food Sovereignty as “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. “ (Incidentally, AI picked up on my search and gave just about the same definition). You may remember that the Middle East Studies Center held a Food Sovereignty workshop<https://mesc.osu.edu/events/food-sov-workshop> in 2022, organized in collaboration with many campus, community, and external partners. Guest and cultural anthropologist Dr. Daniel Varisco shared a perspective on food sovereignty in Yemen and its erosion under global pressures.

Stay tuned for updates on our projects with partners in the Middle East, with regard to food sovereignty projects, and follow us here to find out about upcoming opportunities to experience Middle Eastern culture and learn about its history.

Dr. Joy McCorriston, Professor
Director, Middle East Studies Center

Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellow

Department of Anthropology
The Ohio State University

Welcome Students!

Welcome to new and returning students! We hope you'll explore the resources and opportunities our Middle East Studies Community offers. Please consider joining our team<https://mesc.osu.edu/mesc-team>. We are now hiring for a paid intern position, and we are still open for Academic Interns to join through the Undergraduate International Studies Program. Please check out "The Middle East at OSU<https://nas.io/mesc-osu/challenges/the-middle-east-at-osu/home>" to explore amazing artifacts, resources, and opportunities at Ohio State University. Don't miss anything that's coming up! Join us here at nas.io<https://nas.io/mesc-osu> to get event reminders and other announcements directly on your phone or to your inbox.

Course Funding

The Middle East Studies Center’s new course development grant.

Are you an Ohio State University faculty member thinking of revising one of your courses or developing a new one? If your course development is focused on learner-centered curricula and pedagogical interventions we highly encourage you to apply for a MESC course development support grant. We will provide between $500 and $1500 depending on the scope of work. It can be a new course or the revision of an existing course. We’re looking for new courses or course revisions that include:

•       collaborative online international learning (COIL)

•       teaching partnerships with faculty in the Middle East

•       engagement with Middle Eastern authors, artists, scholars, or other experts

OSU supports innovative teaching such as collaborative online international learning (COIL). Join the COIL Learning Community at OSU and receive additional funding and other critical support. To apply: go.osu.edu/cg<https://go.osu.edu/cg>

Courses Offered at Ohio State University

The Ohio State University offers a wide variety of classes related to the Middle East area (270, total), across 30 disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, arts, professional schools, and applied sciences. Many of these courses have the ability to fulfill various core requirements for undergraduates (GECs). OSU also offers courses on less commonly taught languages such as Arabic, Persian/Dari, Hebrew, Hindi, Pashto, Turkish, Urdu, and Uzbek, as well as Biblical Hebrew, Qur’anic Arabic, and ancient Semitic languages. The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) offers 80 language courses, and 67 non-language courses. To keep track of the latest course offerings sign up for this newsletter, follow us on social media or go to the course list <https://mesc.osu.edu/courses_info> on our website to see upcoming courses<https://mesc.osu.edu/news/featured-faculty-courses-offered-autumn-24>.

New Courses

TURKISH 3797 Global Intercultural Citizenship in the Middle East (36373): Bringing the Middle East to Students Through Authentic Cultural Experiences

This new 4-credit-hour course offers:

- Experience of Istanbul and Beyond

- Collaborative activities with students at a university in Istanbul

- Demonstrations with local scholars and artists.

- Teaching by award-winning instructor, Dr. Danielle Schoon

- GE theme citizenship for diverse and just world course.

- Hybrid delivery



ARTEDUC 5795 (U & G)

Seminar on Topical Issues in Art Education: Populism and Cultural Policy

Tuesday 2:00 pm-4:45 pm | Dulles Hall 012| 3 credits

In this course, we will focus on arts, culture, and cultural policy to understand the emergence and proliferation of far-right populism across Europe. Through critical analysis, students will explore how far-right governments utilize cultural policy/diplomacy as tools to advance their political agendas and shape their ideological narratives. We will investigate the underlying factors fueling the rise of populism and its repercussions on cultural and social policies, particularly in areas such as immigration, identity, de-democratization, and xenophobia.

In the first section of the course, students will engage with the concept of "populism" and related issues (nationalism, authoritarianism, etc.) at a theoretical level. In the second section, students will actively engage in a research project through the Diplomacy Lab, an initiative hosted by the Mershon Center at OSU. This program offers invaluable opportunities to students to collaborate on real-world research projects in partnership with U.S. embassies and the Department of State, fostering a deeper understanding of global affairs and diplomatic processes. For the Diplomacy Lab, students will write a collaborative research report on the rise of far-right populism in Europe and will get the chance to present their report to the State Department diplomats.

Advanced undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to sign up.

For any questions, please feel free to contact Zülâl Fazlıoğlu Akın at fazliogluakin.1 at osu.edu<mailto:fazliogluakin.1 at osu.edu>



Middle East Studies Forum

One hundred and four faculty, students, staff, and alumni members of the Middle East Studies Forum join together online and in person to exchange research and think about what it means to be a scholar of the Middle East.

Forums of 12-15 people meet 3-4 times per semester.

Diverse topics: from grant writing to fieldwork to conversations about what it means to be scholars committed to studying the Middle East.

Professors share their current research agendas related to Middle East Studies and give us previews of their work.

Mark your calendars - the kick-off forum is going to be held on August 27th at 2:30 in the Research Commons. Please RSVP here<https://nas.io/mesc-osu/events/mes-forum-au24-kick-off>! To become a member of the forum: go.osu.edu/mescforum<https://go.osu.edu/mescforum>



Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Digital Arabia Event

Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA) 2.0 Launch workshop<https://mesc.osu.edu/events/online-corpus-inscriptions-ancient-north-arabia-ociana-2.0-launch-workshop>. Register at go.osu.edu/digital-arabia<https://go.osu.edu/digital-arabia>

Calligraphy Worskhop

Learn about Arabic calligraphy<https://nas.io/mesc-osu/events/calligraphy-workshop> in this hands-on workshop with Dr. Muhammad Habib, on October 25th. Space is limited. Be sure to register!

Reading Day Food!

Join us for the MESC "Read and Feed" on December 5th in Hagerty Hall. We will serve Middle Eastern comfort food to feed your spirit and your brain at that crucial moment of concentration. :-) Details are forthcoming.

Follow on our website<http://mesc.osu.edu/events> or our events feed <https://nas.io/portal/events>  for more events and opportunities as they come.



Faculty Achievements

The Ohio State University faculty tap into global Middle East Studies communities and networks through prestigious international awards, publications, the creation of research databases, and collaborations with partners across the Middle East, from Egypt to Yemen. These linkages facilitate authentic language and culture learning in their courses, spark new research collaborations, and enable more fieldwork. This comprehensive framework at OSU creates a learning environment that accesses the region's rich heritage and contemporary dynamics. Here are some highlights from recent months:

New Position

Dr. Danielle Schoon recently accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Sociology. She will begin the new position this fall, while continuing as the COIL Fellow of the Office of International Affairs and a lecturer in NESA, and then move exclusively into SOC full-time in the 2025-2026 academic year.

Award

The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity honored pioneers in sustainable agriculture this year, including OSU's Professor Rattan Lal, Director of the Lal Carbon Center. Read more<https://carbon.osu.edu/lal-carbon-center-newsletter-summer-2024/rattan-lal-receives-gulbenkian-prize-humanity>.

Project

OSU will launch the 2.0 version of OCIANA, the Onlne Corpus of Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia. This project led by Ahmad al-Jallad<https://nesa.osu.edu/people/al-jallad.1> and James Moore<https://nesa.osu.edu/people/moore.5089> will serve as the main international database for the epigraphy of Arabia, extending from Najrān to the Syrian frontier. The project will support the establishment of this digital resource at OSU of 50,000 records and will add 10,000 additional inscriptions. Join us for the database launch on September 12th and 13th in the Translational Data Analytics Institute. Register at go.osu.edu/digital-arabia<http://go.osu.edu/digital-arabia>

Invited Conference Presentation

Magda El-Sherbini, Professor and Head of the Middle East & Islamic Studies Library<https://guides.osu.edu/middleeaststudies>, The Ohio State University Libraries presented "Organization of Information and AI" for MELCOM<https://melcominternational.eu/> 2024. The talk was about a potential application for the use of AI at OSU Libraries and how AI might be relevant to bibliographic and research data.

Book Review

Johanna Sellman's book, Arabic Exile Literature in Europe<https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-arabic-exile-literature-in-europe.html>, was reviewed<https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1843966&dswid=-7230> in the International Journal of Middle East Studies

Article

Danielle and Eric Schoon's article, Dynamics of Disruption: Ethnographic Practice in Contemporary Turkey<https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/dynamics-of-disruption-ethnographic-practice-in-contemporary-turkey/D8B4F8BD78E66E57D463DF8DF0E7B958?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark>, was published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies

Grant

Johanna Sellman, Associate Professor, Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, was awarded a Global Arts and Humanities Fellowship<https://globalartsandhumanities.osu.edu/sof-faculty> for her project, Narratives of Care across Borders. The project highlights texts written by women authors that probe the political and social fabric that precedes forced migration or are part of its aftermath.

Submit a piece of news: Are you a faculty member who has something to report to our community? Please let us know at mesc.osu.edu/contact<https://mesc.osu.edu/contact>



Outreach and Collaboration

The Middle East Studies Center (MESC) connects the local community to resources at Ohio State by organizing or co-sponsoring events targeting the public. Over the past year 906 people attended programs we organized or we offered in conjunction with other departments. Examples included "Seeking Peace at Home<https://mesc.osu.edu/events/seeking-peace-home-central-ohio-faith-leaders-speak>" a dialogue between faith leaders in Columbus, Ohio, that included 87 local community members, and a session with Adania Shibli, author of "Minor Detail,<https://www.google.com/books/edition/Minor_Detail/qDHZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover>" to discuss Palestine as Literary Compass<https://mesc.osu.edu/events/palestine-literary-compass-talk-adania-shibli> with 86 OSU students. MESC affiliates<https://mesc.osu.edu/faculty/affiliated> collaborated with the Center to bring archeologists, epigraphers, authors, and artists to create learning experiences and one-of-a-kind opportunities to learn. Scholars shared research on ancient Arabian cultures <https://mesc.osu.edu/events/archaeology-desert-arabia-refugia-oases-jeremie-schiettecatte-institute-study-ancient-world> and key issues in archeological research<https://mesc.osu.edu/events/maparabia-digital-humanities-project-lunch-visiting-scholar-jeremie-schiettecatte>. Wouter F.M. Henkelman<https://www.nino-leiden.nl/staffmember/dr-wfm-henkelman> brought ancient Persepolis to life in his talk<https://nesa.osu.edu/events/institutional-landscape-ancient-parsa-trees-babylonians-and-lance-bearers> on Persian culture and languages of ancient Parsa.

MESC and its community at Ohio State University are constantly developing new ways of bringing authentic experiences of the Middle East to students at Ohio State, teachers and their classrooms, and our communities on and off campus. We work with the Columbus Council on World Affairs to reach local high school students through their Global Scholars<https://vimeo.com/943290974> program. As an area studies center in Ohio State University's Office of International Affairs, we collaborate with colleagues to reach hundreds of teachers every year in thematic programs. Student leaders are actively involved in creating a positive impact through organizations and projects centered on Middle Eastern cultural communities and themes. These initiatives include mentoring New Americans in Columbus, organizing fundraising campaigns for newcomers, and hosting cultural events such as Iftar and Taste of OSU to share and celebrate Middle Eastern culture. You can also experience a wide variety of cultural heritage organized by students at Taste of OSU<https://oia.osu.edu/get-involved/signature-events/taste-of-osu/>.



Gaza/Israel/Palestine Resources

The Middle East Studies Center has curated resources learning about and discussing the current situation in Gaza/Israel/Palestine. Most recently, we posted "The War in Gaza and Israel Challenges Universities to Maintain Learning Spaces.<https://mesc.osu.edu/news/war-gaza-and-israel-challenges-universities-maintain-learning-spaces>" Faculty at Ohio State University are working to create opportunities to learn and process what is happening in their courses<https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2023/11/06/college-students-israel-hamas-war> and are organizing forums and events. Most recently, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies hosted a talk<https://youtu.be/PDLJDviUtpY?si=a9qauFTLRIy1Z6aE> by Mark Lynch on “Gaza, Israel and Middle Eastern Regional Order.<https://youtu.be/PDLJDviUtpY?si=bQA9cdv_6U_pNzEr>” Or you might wish to start with this webinar on the "Violence in Israel and Gaza<https://youtu.be/QYwl44bZEAk?si=c_OqLVg_w19Tri-f>" that gives key background information for understanding what's going on. You can hear perspectives from faith communities in Columbus, Ohio, in "Seeking Peace at Home: Central Ohio Faith Leaders Speak<https://youtu.be/KBpVGWH-P9Q?si=MZsNmi8s3CXdBosn>." For an in-depth history of the current war, watch “The United States and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Historical Perspectives.<https://youtu.be/loIn8ZK-JMs?si=DGBsbHe7YsRkc83j>” You can also follow "A Brief Overview of the Current Israel-Hamas Conflict<https://mesc.osu.edu/news/brief-overview-current-israel-hamas-conflict>" which we continue to update. Please check out these resources about how to discuss the topic and difficult topics in general:

  *   “Resources for How to Talk About the Violence in Israel and Gaza<https://mesc.osu.edu/news/resources-how-talk-about-violence-israel-and-gaza>”
  *   Better Conversations: A Deep Dive Guide<https://dohadebates.com/course/better-conversations/>.
  *   Guidelines for Discussing Difficult or High-Stakes Topics<https://crlt.umich.edu/publinks/generalguidelines>
  *   Resources for Educators, Families to Discuss the Events in Israel and Gaza with Students<https://www.sdcoe.net/about-sdcoe/news/post/~board/news/post/resources-for-educators-families-to-discuss-the-events-in-israel-and-gaza-with-students>.

Check out more resources for educators and join our community - we cater to educators at all levels, but especially middle school, high school, and undergraduate levels. Check mesc.osu.edu/educators<https://mesc.osu.edu/educators> for more details and to join our online communities.

Join us!

You can manage your subscription or invite other colleagues to join our list by visiting go.osu.edu/mescforum. Check out what our community<https://mesc.osu.edu/community> offers and keep track of all of the events, courses, resources, and other ways of joining our learning community by following us on Nas.io<https://nas.io/mesc-osu>, Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/mesc.osu>, X/Twitter<https://twitter.com/mesc_osu> or LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-middle-east-studies-center-at-ohio-state-university>. Thank you so much for checking out these resources and we hope to see you at our events<https://nas.io/mesc-osu/events>. Note on communication tools: we will continue as usual on this listserv but we are transitioning our public newsletter from Mailchimp to nas.io – please encourage students and friends in the community to join us on Nas.io<https://nas.io/mesc-osu>

Best wishes,

Melinda

[The Ohio State University]

Melinda McClimans, PhD
Assistant Director

The Ohio State University
Office of International Affairs
Middle East Studies Center
145D Enarson Classroom Building
2009 Millikin Rd, Columbus, OH 43210
614-292-6506 Office / 614-974-4331 Mobile
mcclimans.2 at osu.edu<mailto:mcclimans.2 at osu.edu> / mesc.osu.edu.osu.edu<http://mesc.osu.edu.osu.edu>

Pronouns: she/her








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