Center for Middle Eastern Studies

NEWSLETTER

This is the first issue of thisNewsletter. We hope to bring itout each semester and will try toprovide news and information ofinterest to the several groupsserved by the Center for MiddleEastern Studies (CMES) at theUniversity of Texas at Austin­students and faculty 0/ the Mid­dle East and/rom the Middle East,both in Austin and throughoutthe region; users of our Out­reach Program; members of thecommunity at large; and MiddleEastern Studies programs else­where in the country. Particu­larly during these early days,suggestions and criticisms will begladly accepted; news items andcontributions are fervently so­licited. The editor is DanielGoodwin and the productioneditor is Diane Watts.

CMES PUBLICATIONS

This summer the University ofTexas Press will issue twovolumes sponsored by the CMESpublications program. Modern/slamu Politual Thought by HamidEnayat of Oxford University isan attempt to interpret andilluminate major Islamic politicalideas mainly from Iran andEgypt, but also from Lebanon,Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and India.Enayat explores the effect of thetraditional philosophical heri-

The University of Texas at Austin

tage on the development ofmod­ern ideas and the evolvingMuslim response to modern,Western ideologies. He paysdetailed attention to the conver­gences and divergences betweenSunni and Shi'i politicalthinking.

The second volume is EricHooglund's Land and Revolutionin/ran 1960-1980, the first majorstudy of the effects of the widelypublicized land reform carriedout by the Pahlavi governmentbetween 1962 and 1971. In thiscase study Hooglund shows that,beneath an apparent statisticalsuccess, the program ultimatelyfailed to bring about effectivestructural reform of the condi­tions in the countryside.

Both these volumes will beavailable from the University ofTexas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Aus­tin, Texas 78712. The Enayatvolume is released in cloth($20.00) and paper ($8.95) andthe Hooglund volume is beingreleased in cloth ($19.95).

INTERNATIONALSTUDIESBetween 1960 and 1976 directU.S. investment abroad in­creased by 123% and direct for-

. eign investment in the U.S. in­creased by 77%, while importsand exports of goods and ser­vices increased by 246% and202% respectively. The numberof foreign students in U.S. col-

Spring 1982

leges increased by 343% and thatof American Students studyingabroad by 460%. At the institu­tionallevel this growth of inter­national concern and involve­ment has been matched by a 53%decline in the number of Ameri­can college students enrolled inforeign language courses, a 95%decline in Ford Foundation sup­port for International Educa­tion, a 25% drop in the numberof NDEA centers, and a 65%drop in the number of NDEAfellowships.

For those involved in Interna­tional Studies, these are worri­some statistics. And they haveoccasioned a small industry ofstudies, commissions, and re­ports trying to explain and inter­pret the situation.

Most of the reports expressconcern over the fact that inan increasingly interdependentworld, it has become a nationalliability for this country to be soimpoverished linguistically andso parochial in its understandingof the rest of the world. Thereis little disagreement about thescope or severity of the problem.However, as Richard Lambertpoints out, the production ofthese reports is often directlylinked to the search for funding.This "grantotropic" tendency hasbeen accompanied by a failure toaddress seriously a number ofissues central to the future healthand effectiveness of internation­al education programs through­out the country. What is the best

balance between a concern forthe production of specialists andefforts to foster internationalperspectives in general educa­tion programs? When are areastudies centers necessary, andwhen are they superfluous orredundant? What are the appro­priate relationships among inter­national studies programs, cor­porations, and governments?

Future issues of the CMESNewsletter will summarize re­sponses of different reports andsurveys to these issues. For thepresent, we would like to offer alist of the more important ofrecent reports, and to urge thatscholars and others seriouslyconcerned with these issues fa­miliarize themselves with theirgeneral findings, orientations,and recommendations. Theywill, no doubt, form the agendafor the discussion of these issuesfor some time to come. Essentialto an understanding of the prob­lem are the following documents(all are available for perusal inthe CMES Resource Center):

1. "Strength Through Wis­dom: A Critique of U.S.Capability," Report of thePresidential Commission onForeign Language and In­ternational Studies (Wash­ington, D.C.: GovernmentPrinting Office, 1979).

2. "Foreign Language andArea Studies Specialists:The Marketplace and Na­tional Policy" (Santa Mon­ica: The Rand Corporation,1979).

3. "What College StudentsKnow About Their World"(New Rochelle: ChangeMagazine Press, 1981).

4. "New Directions in Interna-

tional Education," Annals ofthe American Academy ofPolitical and Social Sciences,Vol. 449. Richard Lambert,ed., 1980.

COMPUTER-ASSISTEDINSTRUCTION

Dr. Victorine Abboud (CMES)began work this year on a three­year grant from the NationalEndowment for the Humanities,with additional support fromthe Center for Middle EasternStudies, to devise a Computer­Assisted Instruction (CAl) pro­gram to teach intermediate levelModern Standard Arabic. Thisproject builds on the unique andsuccessful program in Arabiclanguage instruction of Dr.Abboud and her staff at the CAllaboratory, now housed in theDepartment of Oriental and Af­rican Languages and Litera­tures.

Dr. Abboud first introduced aCAl program, for the Arabicwriting and sound systems, in1971. Since then this programhas become an integral part ofArabic instruction at the Univer­sity of Texas. In 1979-1980 theCAl lab introduced a programfor the entire elementary se­quence of Arabic. This part ofthe program is aimed to providethe student with a working vo­cabulary of around 1000 wordsand a command ofbasic syntacticstructures. Preliminary resultsindicate that this CAl level, com­bined with ongoing classroominstruction, can increase vocabu­lary retention and reduce fromthree semesters to two theamount of time required for the

completion of the elementarysequence.

The program is keyed to thepresentation of grammar andvocabulary in the widely usedtext Elementary Modern StandardArabic. Each of 44 units requiresapproximately one hour at thecomputer terminal and consistsofa basic text, new words, vocab­ulary and grammar exercises,and a test. The program alsocontains an electronic dictionaryand flexibility in recall so that thestudent can easilyreview anypartof the course.

The CAl program for theintermediate level of instructionis being designed by Dr. Abboudand by programmer StephenFlora and is expected to be com­pleted by 1984. It should extendstudent's vocabulary control toapproximately 2500 words. Anever-expanding dictionary com­ponent, increased student­computer interaction, and avariety of exercises will recycleand review vocabulary and areexpected to enable the student toachieve substantial progress inreading speed and compre­hension.

The CAl lab hasjust released adescriptive brochure explainingthe programs already developedand those now planned. Furtherinformation is available from:

Dr. Victorine AbboudCAl LabCenter for Middle EasternStudies2601 University AvenueAustin, Texas 78756

MIDDLE EASTFILM FESTIVAL

First showings of a number ofnew films about the Middle Eastwere featured in the Fifth An­nual Middle East Film Festival atthe University of Texas, spon­sored in April by the Center forMiddle Eastern Studies. The fes­tival's theme and title was "NewViews/New Voices". The center­piece of the festival was thepremier of a documentary filmtrilogy produced by ElizabethFernea titled Arab Women: Re­formers and Revolutionaries. Thesefilms deal with aspects of social,political, and religious upheavalin the Middle East, from a wom­en's perspective. The films wereshot on location in Egypt andLebanon during May and Juneof 1981 and were edited in Lon­don and Austin. "A Veiled Revo­lution" treats the resurgence ofIslamic belief and practiceamong women in Egypt; "WomenUnder Siege" depicts the lives ofwomen in Rashidiyah, a Pales­tinian refugee camp (since de­stroyed) six miles north of theIsrael-Lebanon border; "ThePrice of Change" examines someof the difficult and contradictorychoices for men and women alikebrought on by the recent andsignificant increase in women'sparticipation in the Egyptianwork force.

An additional highlight of thefestival was the showing of anumber of experimental worksof Syrian filmmaker NabilMaleh, who was a Fulbright visit­ing lecturer at the University ofTexas during the Spring semes­ter. Maleh studied at the Praguefilm school and has been hon-

ored throughout Europe, wherehe now works, for his films'approaches to issues of conflict,class, and modernization in theMiddle East.

The festival also presented anumber of feature length films,including the Southwest premierofTunisian director Ridha Behi's"Sun ofthe Hyenas". This film is adramatization of the unfoldingeffects of the building of a Euro­pean resort in a Maghrebianfishing village. Other films in thefestival included an Israeli film,"The Dreamer" and an Egyptian­Syrian co-production, "TheCheated."

TEXAS NETWORK OFMIDDLE EASTSCHOLARS

Since the Spring of 1981 theCenter for Middle EasternStudies has tried to identify Mid­dle East Scholars throughoutTexas in the hopes that contactscan be established among themand that they would collaborateon various projects of mutualinterest and benefit. During theMiddle East Week, held in Austinin October, 1981, a number ofthese scholars held a preliminarymeeting and decided to organizeunder the name ofTexas Associ­ation of Middle East Studies(TAMES) and to hold annualmeetings (to be held in Austin forthe first year or two).

The Center, therefore, is nowsoliciting papers from interestedscholars. The meeting will takeplace in Austin on Friday, Octo­ber 9 and Saturday, October 10,as part of Middle East Week(October 4-10). Abstracts for

papers should be submitted toDr. M. A. Jazayery, Director,Center for Middle EasternStudies, University of Texas,Austin, Texas 78712, by August15. In order that those attendingthe conference may sample therange of work being done byMiddle East Scholars in theregion, papers on recent orplanned research would be mostwelcome.

The Center has limited fundsto provide partial assistance forthose who would like to attendthe gathering. These funds areprimarily intended to supple­ment personal or institutionalfunds. Since this is a new venture,the Center would be glad to writeto the proper administrativeauthorities on any campus if itwould be helpful in securingfunds. Because of the smallamount of money available, as­sistance can only be offered tothose living more than two hun­dred miles from Austin, andhaving to spend the night here.

MIDDLE EAST WEEK

The second annual Middle EastWeek will be held from October 4through October 9, 1982. Againthis year seminars and lectureswill be scheduled each day dur­ing the lunch hour, and in mostcases, in the evenings. In addi­tion, a photographic display, arare book exhibit, and othercultural events will be held. Eachday will have a particular extra­curricular focus with invitationsto teachers, media representa­tives, Middle Eastern studentgroups and scholars fromthroughout the state to partici­pate.

MIDDLE EASTCOLLECTION

In January the General Library'sMiddle East Collection issued aguide to its vernacular holdings.The seventy-nine page hand­book, The Middle East Collection: AGuide for Faculty and Students,describes the collection, its devel­opmentand acquisitions policies,available bibliographic aids,transliteration schemes em­ployed, classification and shelfarrangements, instructional ac­tivities, and relationship to otherlibrary collections. A selectedannotated list of reference mate­rials and a list of periodicalsreceived by the collection areappended to the handbook.

The Collection also issues anoccasional newsletter, "The ZNote," which reports Collectionnews and provides an annotatedlist of significant acquisitions inArabic and Persian as well asWestern language reference ma­terials (Hebrew language mate­rials are contained in the GeneralLibrary Collection).

Either of these publicationsmay be picked up at the MiddleEast Collection, or may be ob­tained by writing: Middle EastLibrarian, Abazar Sepheri clo:The Center for Middle EasternStudies.

SLIDES FOR THECLASSROOM

Over the past year the Center hasprepared three slide packagesfor classroom use. Each of thepackages contains 20-40 slides,with individual commentaries oneach slide and extra reading and

supplementary materials. Thepackages are available for pur­chase from the Center and coverthe following topics:

Architecture for Living­(high schoollevel) . . . . . . . . . . .. $35.00

Islam: Faith and Practice­(all levels). . . . . . .. $40.00

Papyrus: Gift of the Nile­(middle schooVhigh school). . . . .. $25.00

MEDIA INFORMATIONSERVICE

Over the past year the Center hasoffered a continuing informa­tion service to local and regionaljournalists, providing infor~a­

tion and consultation on a vanetyof Middie East issues. Specialistsfrom the Center faculty or staffwho chose to participate in thisprogram are listed on a masterlist containing their names, ad­dresses and areas of expertisewhich is then provided to jour­nalists who request it. Both theCenter and the public at large arewell-served by specialists whomake themselves available. Allthose with particular expertisethat we may not have contactedare invited to volunteer theirskills to this service, and may doso by contacting Ann Grabhorn,CMES Resource Co-ordinator.

VISITING SCHOLARSDuring the spring semester, theCenter sponsored or co-spon­sored a number ofoutside lectur­ers and scholars. Among themwere the following.

Robert Biggs, Professor of As­syriology at the Oriental Insti­tute, University of Chicago.·Writing and Literacy in AncientMesopotamia."

W. E. Lindenmuth, RetiredGeneral Manager of the MiddleEast Department for Mobil OilCompany. ·The Interplay ofMiddle East Politics and the Sup­ply of Oil."

Jordanian Judicial Delega­tion: visitto Center by Minister ofJustice, the Honorable AhmadAbdel Karim Tarawnah.

Yehudah Amichai, recipient ofthe 1981 Israel prize for poetry."The Impact of the Holocaust onIsraeli Literature."

Nazif Shahrani, Visiting Pro­fessor of Anthropology, UCLA."The Crisis in Afghanistan: Rus­sian Policies and the AfghanResistance. "

Ambassador James Akins,Former U.S. Ambassador toSaudi Arabia. "Politics, Petro­leum Prices and the Middle East1982."

Annual Meetingofthe Ameri­can Research Center in Egypt.

Annual Meetingofthe Ameri­can Oriental Society.

A. Jihad Racy, Associate Pro­fessor of Ethnomusicology atUCLA.•An Evening of ArabicMusic."

FACULTY NEWS

Peter Abboud (Arabic) has beenselected to organize and directthe School of Arabic at Middle­bury College, Middlebury, Vt.,where he will be spending thenext three summers. ThoughMiddlebury has long been re­nowned for the excellence of itslanguage programs, it has notoffered Arabic before.

Aaron Bar-Adon has spent partof the 1981-82 academic year inIsrael under Rockefeller grantfor research on the revival ofHebrew.

James Bill (Government) isspending the summer teachingat the University of Alaska, inaddition to giving seminars tobusiness and academic groups inJapan.

Paul English, Center Directorfrom 1973-79, has been ap­pointed Chairman ofthe Depart­ment of Geography, effectiveSteptember 1982. He is also pre­paring a second edition of histextbook in Cultural Geography,A Question of Place.

After spending the 1980-81academic year in Cairo, Robertand Elizabeth Fernea are writing abook for Doubleday on their 25years of Middle East experienceand research. Its tentative title isShapes ofChange in the Arab World.One of Elizabeth Fernea's recentfilms, •A Veiled Revolution" hasbeen selected for presentation atthe 1982 Margaret Mead FilmFestival in New York in Sep­tember.

Michael Hillmann (Persian) hasspent the spring in England on agrant from the Social ScienceResearch Council for researchon Iranian poet Forough Farrok-

zhod. Hillmann has, as well,completed a book length manu­script on Persian Carpets.

For the last five years, theCenter has co-sponsored anarcheological excavation/fieldschool conducted at Tel Yin'amIsrael, under the direction ofHarold Liebowitz (Hebrew). Workon this first phase of the projectwas completed last year.Liebowitz is presently engaged ina detailed analysis of the artifactsand preparation ofa monographon Phase One of the project.

Irving Mandelbaum (Hebrew)will have his first book publishedthis summer. As part of theBrown Judaic Studies SeriesScholar's Press will publish AHistory of the Mishnaic Law ofAgriculture: Kilayim.

Former Acting Director, IanManners (Geography) has justhad a book published throughthe University of Texas Press.North Sea Oil and EnvironmentalPlanning examines the UnitedKingdom's recent experiences inhandling the social and environ­mental consequences of deepwater oil exploration and pro­duction.

This summer Westview Presswill publish a book by CMESResearch Associate RobertStookey. The book is part of alarger series of country profilesbeing released by Westview and isentitled South ~men: A MarxistRepublic in Arabia.

Under the auspices of theUnited Nations DevelopmentOrganization, Tagi Sagafi-nejad(International Business) is con­ducting a major studyof technol­ogy transfer from Egypt to othercountries in the Middle East.

John Williams (Art History),

who has been at the AmericanUniversity in Cairo during thelast academic year, will extend hisvisit for another year.

FUNDING

The Center for Middle EasternStudies, as indicated elsewhere inthis newsletter, hopes to encour­age and support faculty col­leagues from other Texas institu­tions in their research on theMiddle East. As a step in thisdirection the Center will con­sider requests for small amountsof money to assist colleagues invisiting UT-Austin in order touse the library collections, meetwith other scholars, or attendsymposia, as for example, themeeting of TAMES being heldnext fall. In order that our lim­ited funds can be put to their bestadvantage, we request that eachinterested colleague apply first tohis/her own institution for travelor research funds, and then ap­ply to the Center for additionalsupport, if necessary. Requestsshould be addressed to the Direc­tor of the Center.

'I

STUDENT AWARDS

The Center wishes to congratu­late the three winners of under­graduate awards for scholasticexcellence in Middle EastStudies. For overall excellence inMiddle Eastern Studies, MichaelFriedman; for excellence in Ara­bic, Courtney Poland, and forexcellence in Persian, ChristineGish.

Congratulations also to the fol­lowing Graduate Student hold­ers of National Resource Fellow­ships for the 1981-82 academicyear, Clifford Gladstein (MiddleEastern Studies); Rebecca Gutman(Linguistics);]osephHobbs (Geog­raphy); Jacquelin Matejka (Gov­ernment); David McMurray (An­thropology); Terence Odlin (For-

The University of Texas at AustinCenter for Middle Eastern StudiesAustin, Texas 78712

eign Language Education); TedSwedenburg, (Anthropology).

PUBLICATION GRANT

Hafez Farmayan (History), pres­ident of the Iran-America Foun­dation, has announced that theremaining assets of the founda­tion have been assigned to theUniversity of Texas Press. Thefoundation, started in 1976 withfunds from individuals and cor­porations in Iran, was organizedfor the purpose of furtheringIranian-American understand­ing. Afterthe Iranian Revolutionthe foundation was dissolved,

with its remaining funds desig­nated to support publication,through the University Press, ofscholarly works in the field ofIranian Studies.