ORCNotes

Juan Cole Visits Tunisia on CEMAT-hosted Lecture Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Professor Juan Coles (center) speaking with CEMAT
scholars following the lecture

During the week of May 6, 2012, CEMAT hosted Professor Juan Cole as part of its popular Political Science Speakers Series. Professor Cole began his speaking tour at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. He spoke, in Arabic, on the timely subject of Iran and the Arab Spring. Professor Cole then joined an audience of over fifty at CEMAT for a talk entitled, “How Likely are the ex-Dictatorships Transition to Democracy?” which he discussed with Tunisian public intellectual Professor Hamadi Redissi.

The audience at CEMAT included Tunisian and American students, embassy staff, Tunisian professors, journalists and the general public. The talk was also live-streamed on Tunisia-live.net. For his final talk, Professor Cole addressed students at the Faculty of Letters in Kairouan, Tunisia’s holy city and cultural magnet, housing the oldest mosque in North Africa. Professor Cole spoke about the American interpretation of the Arab Spring. His visit also afforded him the opportunity to meet with local US dignitaries and major Tunisian political leaders.

CAORC Welcomes Newest Member Center

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:23:00 +0000

CAORC is pleased to announce our newest Member Center: the American Institute for Indonesian Studies.

The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) was established in January 2012 as a consortium of US universities and colleges interested in furthering the development of Indonesian studies in the United States and fostering scholarly exchange between Indonesian and US scholars. Its mission is to facilitate study and research concerning Indonesia in the fields of the physical sciences, social sciences, agricultural practices and technologies, engineering, and the arts and humanities. A key goal of AIFIS is to create an open and friendly environment that draws in Indonesian and American researchers from diverse backgrounds, and maximizes interactions between American and Indonesian scholars and students.

AIFIS’s US office is situated at Cornell University, where the Echols Collection on Southeast Asia offers the most extensive library holdings on Indonesia in the United States. Its Jakarta office at the Sampoerna School of Education, fully furnished and equipped with computers, desks and office supplies, offers excellent facilities that are freely available to American scholars from the consortium member institutions, as well as to all interested Indonesian scholars and students. The Indonesian reading room contains a diverse collection of books and journals dealing with Indonesia, which were donated by our U.S. consortium member universities. AIFIS staff in our Jakarta office provides personal assistance with research and residency permits for US researchers and networking facilities for visiting US and Indonesian academics. AIFIS has taken an active role in planning and supporting events that foster scholarly exchange between American and Indonesian scholars and is coordinating with a wide variety of other academic institutions and organizations to arrange presentations and other events throughout the 2012 calendar year. It is looking into the possibility of opening a branch facility in Yogyakarta and later in other areas of Indonesia, such as Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan.

U.S. and Indonesian AIFIS organizers, staff, and other presenters at the conclusion of the
inaugural seminar at the AIFIS offices in the Sampoerna School of Education in Jakarta.

WARC Holds Conference on Political Crisis in Guinea Bissau

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:44:00 +0000

Excellency Mamadou Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guinea Bissau,
Professor Boubacar Barry, and His Excellency Ambassador Cabral

The current situation in Guinea Bissau is of critical concern throughout West Africa. On April 12, just before the presidential run-off election scheduled for April 22, the military staged a coup that overthrew the constitutional government. The political situation in Guinea Bissau has been unstable for the past several years, and this most recent event has broad repercussions for the entire region. ECOWAS has instituted sanctions after the refusal by the military junta to allow the interim president to manage the return to civilian rule and has called for the deployment of a regional military force.

WARC organized a panel discussion on this issue on Wednesday, May 2. The guest speakers were His Excellency Mamadou Saliou Diallo Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Guinea Bissau and His Excellency Mario Cabral, Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea Bissau in Dakar. The event was moderated by Professor Boubacar Barry, Université Cheikh Anta Diop.

Press coverage of the panel was featured in major newspapers in Dakar, with several carrying the story on the front page. The panel was an excellent opportunity for the Bissauan community in Dakar to discuss the issues currently prevailing in their country. The exchanges were quite charged; at one point M. Pires, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Guinea Bissau insisted on the need to discuss political issues rather than rather than resort to military action.

In addition to the suggestion that military forces in Guinea Bissau need to be re-structured, the panelists strongly emphasized the need to have a multi-national military force in the country to restore order. The speakers applauded the current efforts of the international community (including ECOWAS and the African Union) to restore the rule of law and democracy in Guinea Bissau.

Hollings Center Event, Thursday, May 10: The U.S.-Turkey Commercial Relationship: A Growing Partnership

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Please join the Hollings Center for an insightful discussion as four panels of academic, industry and government experts examine developments in the U.S- Turkey economic relationship. Topics include Turkey in the global economy, Turkey’s foreign trade and changing trade partners, innovation and entrepreneurship, labor and competitiveness, the Arab Spring and Turkey and the politics of Turkey’s economy. This conference is organized in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and the Hollings Center for International Dialogue. The event will take place from 9:00-4:00 at the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Registration Required. Please click here for more information.

Three CAORC Member Centers Awarded NEH Grants

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:15:00 +0000

April 25, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Executive Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers; 202-633-1599; lane.maryellen@caorc.org

Three CAORC Member Centers Awarded NEH Grants

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) is pleased to announce that three American Overseas Research Centers received grants in the 2012-2013 competition for Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions (FPIRI) from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

NEH grants for Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions support fellowships at institutions devoted to advanced study and research in the humanities, such as American Overseas Research Centers. These NEH fellowships provide scholars with research time and access to resources that might not be available at their home institutions.

Since 1991, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) NEH Fellowship program has provided fellowships for advanced scholars who wish to carry out long-term research in Turkey in affiliation with an ARIT center in Istanbul and/or Ankara. Fellowship tenures range from four months to one year. The fields of study cover all periods of history in the general range of the humanities, and include humanistically oriented aspects of the social sciences, prehistory, history, art, archaeology, literature, and linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary aspects of cultural history. Funded fellows will make use of the extensive and diverse archival and cultural resources that are accessible to researchers in Turkey. The ARIT program will support from one to three fellows each year for three years, beginning in 2013.

Since 1993, the NEH Fellowship program at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens(ASCSA) has given U.S. scholars the opportunity to conduct research in Greece and utilize the many excellent resources available at the ASCSA. As the ASCSA’s most prestigious fellowship earmarked exclusively for post-doctoral scholars to carry out research in the humanities, the NEH fellowships are an important part of the School’s overall fellowship program, providing over 50 fellowships annually to students, teachers, and scholars. Each fellowship, through its selection criteria, contributes to the diverse academic community at the ASCSA. For 16 years, the NEH fellowship program has been a major factor in establishing the School’s reputation as the premier overseas research center for the study of the Greek world. Research by NEH fellows on humanities topics results in publications, lectures, and conferences that reach a broad audience of scholars, students, and the general public in the U.S. and abroad.

The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) NEH FPIRI Fellowship program will give PARC an opportunity to focus attention on post-doctoral humanities research on Palestine. Beginning in 2013 PARC will award one to two fellowships each year for three years, with fellows receiving from four to eight months of support. The NEH grant will assist PARC in expanding the pool of scholars specializing in Palestinian studies and building the body of scholarship on Palestine. Since 1998, PARC has awarded almost 180 fellowships to American and Palestinian doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in diverse fields ranging from medicine to cultural anthropology. In addition to a small but rich library of scholarship on Jerusalem, PARC cosponsors conferences and seminars in Palestine and the United States and offers a panel at the Middle East Studies Association each year.

Other NEH fellowships and research grants supporting international research are also available through the following American overseas centers:

Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (Jerusalem)
American Academy in Rome
American Center of Oriental Research (Amman)
American Institute of Indian Studies (New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, and Pune)
American Research Center in Egypt (Cairo)

Please go to http://caorc.org/ for further information on these fellowships and grants.

CAORC and American Overseas Research Centers

Founded in 1981 and located in the Smithsonian Institution, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) advances higher learning and international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, by U.S. scholars and academic institutions by promoting communication and cooperation among U.S. overseas research centers; providing general and continuing publicity about the centers’ importance and contributions; providing the centers with programmatic, administrative, financial, legal, and policy guidance; exchanging scholarly and research information among the centers; facilitating the creation of new centers; and encouraging, sponsoring, and coordinating multi-center, multinational, and regional research and collaborative projects.

CAORC is a not-for-profit federation of 22 independent American overseas research centers that promote advanced scholarly research, particularly in the Humanities and Social Sciences, with focus on the conservation and recording of cultural heritage and the understanding and interpretation of modern societies. The centers are a key part of the circulatory system of U.S. higher education for communication with the regions and for independent, top-caliber scholarly research and highest level exchange that pushes the frontiers of knowledge.

Since the decades following World War II – and in some cases since the late 1800s – American overseas research centers have been the main face of U.S. academia in many countries. The centers are the primary vehicle through which American scholars and students carry out research vital to our understanding of and interaction with other cultures. The centers foster international education andscholarly exchange overseas by facilitating the work of individual U.S. scholars and students who are conducting research; sponsoring fellowship programs for pre-doctoral and senior scholars; providing intensive foreign language study for individuals and groups; implementing cultural preservation initiatives that often serve as training venues for young American and host-country scholars; convening conferences and seminars; and collaborating on research, publication, library, and outreach projects. One of the most important functions CAORC and the centers provide is an institutional network to connect U.S. academics to local scholars and resources in regions of the world where facilitation and access to research resources are difficult to obtain.

Each year CAORC and the centers grant hundreds of fellowships for overseas research to students and faculty at American institutions. Additionally, each year the centers host and facilitate research for thousands of students, teachers, and scholars supported by the Fulbright programs, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, as well as hundreds of independent U.S. scholars and study groups.

"The Last Harvest: The Yemenis of the San Joaquin" premiering on PBS-OC/SoCal, May 1, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

The Last Harvest explores the lives and times of Muslim Immigrants from Yemen and their descendants who call California's San Joaquin Valley home. This film was produced with support from the American Institute of Yemeni Studies and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, through a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The film will air on PBS-OC/SoCal, May 1, at 10:30 PM PST.

WARC Exhibit: Images of the African Diaspora in NYC Community Murals

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:22:00 +0000

On the afternoon of April 6, 2012, Jane Weismann, curator and member of Artmakers Inc, launched an exhibit at WARC entitled, "Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals."

The exhibit depicts murals found in the Manhattan neighborhoods, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is composed of 35 images mounted on foam core which explore how African and Caribbean art, history, religion and myth have influenced mural themes and content.

The murals attracted a substantial crowd at WARC

Starting with New York's earliest community murals in Harlem (1968 - 1971), the exhibition focuses on the Black nationalism movement, the artistic philosophy of Ghanaian artists, and how the artists drew inspiration from various other sources such as African fertility symbols, Egyptian rituals, and religious icons. The murals also include references to African American cultural figures, history and politics, the Caribbean slave trade, immigration, and Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts and magic scrolls.

Ms. Weissman gave invitees a very detailed tour explaining the meaning and history of the images. The opening session was attended by a select group of 15 people, including well-known Senegalese artists such as Mr Yelimane Fall, art lovers and representatives of the press. Since the opening, viewers have been flocking in to admire the beauty of the various images, which are on exhibit at WARC until May 4.

CAORC: Celebrating 30 Years of Sponsoring Foreign Language Study

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:06:00 +0000

In 2011/12, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of sponsoring foreign language study:

Since 2006, CAORC has received annual grants from the U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to implement overseas institutes to teach critical languages to thousands of U.S. undergraduates and graduate students through ECA’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program for Intensive Summer Institutes. Since the beginning of the CLS Program, CAORC has administered the outreach, recruitment, and selection activities for all of the language institutes and is currently implementing the Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, and Urdu institutes. At different times throughout the CLS Program, CAORC has also implemented the Azerbaijani, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, and Russian institutes.

The CLS Program holds a significant place in our country’s efforts to encourage U.S. students to study and master critical foreign languages to benefit American education, national security, economic prosperity, and the creation and support of an informed public. The CLS Program offers intensive and tailored language instruction to students who have diverse academic and professional career goals and has helped thousands of American students and scholars build language fluency and cultural competence. The CLS institutes have significantly expanded U.S. capacity for teaching critical languages in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Russia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and other countries where the target languages are spoken.

Since the beginning of the CLS Program, CAORC has brought together a range of highly capable member centers and university partners to create an intensive language immersion program that emphasizes language acquisition, while providing effective and creative cultural immersion opportunities. Since 2006, CAORC’s partner organizations have included:

In addition to these Department of State/ECA Critical Language Summer Institutes, several CAORC member centers teach critical and less-commonly-taught foreign languages to hundreds of U.S. students each year through their own regular language programs. These programs are vital for support of language learning at American colleges and universities.

American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS)

AIIS operates intensive, immersion-based language programs in India for the summer, semester, and academic year in a wide range of modern and classical South Asian languages, including those that are rarely taught in the United States. For more than four decades, AIIS language programs in India have been crucial to most U.S.-based scholars of South Asian area studies in the humanities and social science disciplines, as well as area experts employed in government, NGOs, and the private sector. More than 3,500 students have completed programs through the Institute.

AIIS conducts its language programs in environments where the languages are commonly spoken, so that formal instruction is supplemented by the experience of using the language in daily life. Students normally stay with host families arranged by the AIIS to enrich their knowledge of the target language and experience the local culture. AIIS maintains well-equipped language-training centers and regularly offers language programs in Bangla/Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Pali, Mughal Persian, Prakrit, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Whenever there is a demand, AIIS also offers language programs in Kannada, Kashmiri, Oriya, and Tibetan.

American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)

As part of its mission to support the development of Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies and to disseminate knowledge about this little-known but important region, ACMS partners with the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to offer an “Introduction to Mongolian Language and Culture” course. Taught totally online, with highly interactive weekly assignments, this course facilitates student interaction with fluent Mongolian speakers using a variety of web-based tools, so that students gain practical competence speaking, reading, writing, and listening in Mongolian at the beginner level.

American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS)

AIPS offers language learning resources in Pashto and Urdu. The Pashto materials include a textbook, with lessons that include all the dialogues in Pashto, translations, transliteration, activities (oral and written) explained through pictures, exercises (drills and practices), grammar explanation, vocabulary lists/glossary, and cultural notes. The Urdu materials offer a course in original handwritten materials with common Urdu phrases and real-world situations re-written in different handwritings. The Urdu materials also include computer-composed versions and translations of the material. To facilitate language learning, AIPS also offers transcripts and glossaries for a variety of classic Pakistani films.

American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS)

AISLS provides funds to support U.S.-based scholars who wish to acquire or improve their language skills in Sinhala, Tamil, Pali, or Arabic while in Sri Lanka. The AISLS Colombo center supplies grantees with advice about language programs and tutors in Sri Lanka.

American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)

ARIT offers fellowships for intensive advanced Turkish language study in Istanbul. Co-sponsored by theAmerican Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages and Princeton University, these fellowships offer the equivalent of one full academic year of study in Turkish at the college level through a summer program in intensive advanced Turkish language and culture at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul.

Center for Khmer Studies (CKS)

The CKS Khmer Language and Culture Study Program offers faculty, post-graduate researchers, and undergraduates from U.S. universities an opportunity to participate in an intensive eight-week study abroad program in Cambodia. This ongoing program is administered in collaboration with the Khmer Language Program of the University of Hawai’i, Manoa.

AISLS Promotes Sri Lankan Research Capability in Development and Environmental Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:28:00 +0000

In March 2012, the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies provided 28 Sri Lankan university and research institute libraries with copies of the electronic Social Science Library, which was compiled and donated by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. This library, in the form of CDs and pin drives, includes 3,500 full text articles and over 10,000 abstracts. AISLS staff are visiting recipient institutions to provide training in the library's use. Since Sri Lankan libraries can afford very few subscriptions to US and international journals, this new resource has enhanced greatly their resources in these important fields.

CEMAT Presents: Language, Symbols and Slogans of the Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:18:00 +0000

AIYS Announces the Retirement of Executive Director, Maria deJ. Ellis

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:39:00 +0000

Dear Friends of CAORC:

After 18 years of unmatched service, Maria ‘Ria’ deJ. Ellis is retiring as Executive Director of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies (AIYS).

Ria has served in her capacity as Executive Director since 1994, when a grant from the Department of Education allowed for the creation of an administrative structure for AIYS. As Executive Director, she oversaw the opening of the Center’s new location in Sana’a, a major reconstruction project at the medieval Amiriya madrasa in Rada’, supported numerous fellowships for US and Yemeni scholars and students and intensive Arabic language study programs in Yemen, and facilitated archaeological, anthropological and media projects inside and outside Yemen’s borders. She also oversaw the State-Department-sponsored Critical Language Scholarship Program in Yemen.

In addition to her critical support of the research center in Yemen, Ria played an integral role in the management of CAORC’s Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access grant from the Department of Education (TICFIA). Under the auspices of this program, CAORC and AIYS launched the Digital Library of International Research (DLIR) to catalog and digitize photographic, ethnographic, archaeological, cartographic, and other scholarly research support materials from a variety of international locations. Under Ria’s leadership, DLIR has expanded to offer more than 265,000 catalogued materials from 13 AORC libraries.

We will forever be grateful for Ria’s years of dedicated service to AIYS and the larger CAORC network, and we wish her every happiness in retirement.

Thank you,

Dr. Mary Ellen Lane

CAORC Executive Director

Celebrating 30 Years of Expanding Access to Little-known or Hidden International Scholarly Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:25:00 +0000

”Libraries contain the heritage of humanity: the record of its triumphs andfailures, its intellectual, scientific and artistic achievementsand its collective memory.” -Vartan Gregorian

Nowhere is this more true than in the libraries of the member centers of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. But because these libraries, with their wealth of information in more than 200 languages and dialects, are located overseas, they are not easily accessible by

U.S.

students, teachers, and scholars. Thus, a vast part of our international cultural heritage is unknown, unused, and unappreciated – and in some cases, its preservation for future generations may be in danger.

That is why in 1999 CAORC initiated the Digital Library for International Research (DLIR), a consolidated, web-based digital library that includes unique research resources from our member centers’ and their local partners’ libraries. Through the DLIR, core parts of these collections are now accessible online.

CAORC initiated the DLIR to provide leadership and technical expertise to member centers and their local partners in managing their library and information resources. By centralizing project coordination and facilitation through the DLIR, and by collaborating with organizations sharing similar goals, we are achieving economies of scale while maximizing public and scholarly access to the centers’ resources for teaching, research, and information.

And by identifying, prioritizing, cataloging, preserving, and disseminating this content, the DLIR is making important primary and selected secondary source research materials electronically accessible for

U.S.

and international scholars. Because of the success of this project, the local libraries and archives with which our overseas centers interact regularly are eager to bring their own resources to the attention of international scholars by joining forces with the DLIR and providing bibliographic, digitized, and full-text content via the DLIR infrastructure.

To date we have successfully entered into this consolidated online catalog more than 265,000 records of ancient maps, musical recordings, photographs, archival descriptions, bibliographic records, selected full-text materials, article-level indices, databases, and other research resources held in CAORC member centers’ libraries and increasingly also in other collaborating institutions and private collections throughout the world. Through the DLIR, not only

U.S.

scholars but people worldwide are beginning to gain access to the core parts of these collections. And thanks to the DLIR, scholars in countries where our centers are located are connecting to scholarship, resources, and colleagues beyond their own borders that were previously unavailable to them.

Examples of how the DLIR is helping scholars worldwide include:

The DLIR’s Middle East Research Journals Project, for example, inventoried and provided selected preservation microfilming and article-level indexing for more than 2,000 journals at nine American overseas research centers’ libraries in the Middle East, resulting in preserving and providing full access to scholars for seven rare scholarly journals over the Internet. This work has brought vital yet inaccessible material to U.S. scholars and a public that is increasingly aware of the tremendous gaps in its knowledge and understanding of the Middle East and Islamic world.
Working with our centers in Rome, Athens, Cyprus, Morocco, and Turkey, we inventoried thousands of maps that were virtually unknown to scholars, through our MappingMediterranean Lands (MEDMAPS) project. We made this material available for scholars online, and worked with teachers to devise online teaching materials and a historical cartographic exhibition for K-12 students.
Through the DLIR, and with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, CAORC arranged to make JSTOR, the major web-based archive of international scholarly research journals, available to scholars and the public at selected American overseas research centers. As American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) Associate Director Dr. Chris Tuttle noted, “JSTOR access at ACOR has been invaluable to our researchers…. The service has been used extensively by resident pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers from all around the world. Access to this database has been especially important for many of our researchers from Jordanian and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as for those from eastern European countries.... In many instances, the JSTOR access provided at ACOR represents the first opportunity for these scholars to utilize this essential database.”
Through the DLIR, we work closely with the Digital South Asia Library (part of CRL’s Global Resources Network) in library survey projects in Pakistan and India, in digitizing and putting on the web the photo archives of the American Institute of Indian Studies, and in organizing international library survey planning meetings in Sri Lanka and India.
We utilized the DLIR catalog, in-house digital library expertise, and server infrastructures – as well as UNESCO funding – to work with the West African Research Association and a small core of U.S. universities interested in digital access to publications, to produce the African Language Materials Archive (ALMA) online.
The DLIR was able to deploy the local linkages and expertise of its North African centers in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, and to offer efficient centralized support to the collaborative efforts of the governments of that region to plan the Digital Library of the Maghreb.
With a grant from the Getty Foundation, CAORC brought 15 librarians from American overseas research centers to the U.S. for training in using electronic digital library resources. This training improved the librarians’ ability and skills to manage their resource material and to assist visiting and host-country scholars with online reference tools and targeted training.

In addition to these novel approaches to deploying its international network of centers for library collaborations all over the world, the DLIR may also be unique in the sheer variety and number of countries and centers where the targeted scholarly resources are located, in the variety and number of fonts (including many different types of non-Latin scripts) and languages of these resources, and in the diversity of media and formats the resources are presented in.

The DLIR’s success in managing, cataloging, and preparing this wide range of material for scholarly use is a model in how to implement a wide variety of material in a way that provides a coherent digital library that is accessible and useable by scholars and others, and that unifies the presentation of the digitized content the DLIR’s catalog records represent.

CAORC Receives Contribution from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

January 27, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Executive Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers;

202-633-1599; lane.maryellen@caorc.org

Ms. Robin Presta Boone, Program Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers;

202-633-1599; boone.robin@caorc.org

CAORC Receives Contribution from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) has been awarded a one-time contribution of $100,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support CAORC’s and several American overseas research centers’ most urgent operating needs.

During the past year, federal funding for international higher education, for

U.S.

scholars who need to conduct humanities research overseas, and for American overseas research centers’ core operating support has been drastically reduced. These cutbacks will have long-term deleterious consequences for American higher education at all levels. The Mellon Foundation’s contribution will enable CAORC to continue to promote and support higher learning and international scholarly research in the humanities and allied social sciences by

U.S.

scholars and academic institutions at several CAORC member centers in 2012.

CAORC and the centers are working conscientiously to diversify and increase their funding sources. However, in the short term, the abrupt and dramatic reduction of federal funding means that CAORC and many centers are facing cancellation or reduction of programs and services that are important to

U.S.

and host-countries area studies scholars. Mellon Foundation funding for focused operational needs will make a substantial difference to CAORC and these cost-efficient centers as they maintain vital services for scholars in the face of drastic cuts.

The Mellon Foundation contribution will be crucial in helping CAORC and the most vulnerable centers survive and continue critical operations and programs in 2012, as they work to broaden their funding base. For CAORC and many of its member centers, 2012 will be a year of transition in which they will not only search for alternate and more diverse funding sources, but also develop plans aimed at putting them in a position of sustainability for 2013 and beyond.

About CAORC: CAORC’s mission is to promote international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, by

U.S.

scholars and academic institutions. Since 1981, CAORC has advanced higher learning and international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and allied social sciences, by

U.S.

scholars and academic institutions through our network of American overseas research centers. The centers are strategic venues by which consortia of

U.S.

higher education institutions maintain a presence in the regions; they are also key means of fostering independent, top-caliber scholarly research and highest level exchange that pushes the frontiers of knowledge.

As a consortium of consortia, CAORC fulfills a unique role in international studies: more than 470 universities, colleges, libraries, and museums worldwide hold almost 1,200 memberships in the 22 American overseas research centers in 24 countries throughout the Near and Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Central America, West Africa, and South, Southeast, and Inner Asia – a geographic breadth that is not represented by any other U.S. educational organization.

CAORC provides this network of Overseas Research Centers with administrative, financial, legal, and policy guidance and support, promotes communication and cooperation among the centers, coordinates multi-center and multinational activities, sponsors regional research projects, and facilitates the creation of new centers. One of the most important functions CAORC and the centers provide is an institutional network to connect U.S. academics to local scholars and resources in areas of the world where research access is difficult to obtain.

Event: Tutankhamen in San Antonio

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:07:00 +0000

American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Director Gerry Scott will give a talk about the legendary boy king at Trinity University's Chapman Auditorium January 26th at 7:30 p.m. This free event is hosted by the San Antonio chapter of the Archaeological Society of American (AIA) and is open to the public.

Dr. Scott will place Tutankhamen and his extraordinary "treasure" within a historical, archaeological, and cultural context. Topics will include a short account of Egypt's ancient history, Tutankhamen's family, and the role of ancient Egyptian royalty, burial practices, and religious beliefs. Highlighted will be selected objects from the Tut exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and what scholars believe happened during Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb and recovery of the objects.

For much of his professional career, Dr. Scott has been involved in museum work, serving in both curatorial and administrative capacities. Just prior to joining ARCE, he worked at the San Antonio Museum of Art for 15 years.

Celebrating 30 Years of Helping Preserve International Cultural Heritage

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:38:00 +0000

In 2011/12, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of helping preserve international cultural heritage:

CAORC and its member centers have a strong interest, institutional commitment, and successful track record in working with host-country scholars and institutions to study, protect, and preserve host-countries’ cultural heritage.

Over the last 30 years, CAORC and the centers have worked with host-country scholars and institutions to initiate several important cultural heritage projects, including:

American Institute of Indian Studies Islamic Heritage Project

With support from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), CAORC worked with the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) to implement the AIIS Islamic Heritage Project, which surveyed, mapped, and documented rapidly disappearing monuments in predominantly Muslim regions of India. This project, a priority for both the government of India and the Department of State, filled a gap in AIIS documentation of predominantly Hindu monuments throughout India.

American Research Center in Egypt Programs

For more than a century, Americans have been active and productive partners with

Egypt

in the recovery and preservation of

Egypt

's cultural heritage. For the past half century, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) has filled a critical leadership function within the community of Egyptian and foreign scholars in

Egypt

who are active in the excavation, exploration, scholarship, and conservation of the country's cultural heritage.

ARCE is a key contributor to Egyptian governmental efforts for the sustainable management of historic sites and monuments through its training and conservation programs. ARCE’s collaboration with

Egypt

’s Supreme Council of Antiquities assists the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to preserve the country’s cultural heritage from human and environmental damage. ARCE’s archaeological field schools in documentation, site management, and conservation and salvage archaeology and its registrar training program at the Egyptian Museum have begun the formation of a cadre of Egyptian professionals capable of preserving the country’s cultural heritage for generations to come.

Cultural Heritage Institute/Iraq

In 2004, CAORC partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution to implement the Cultural Heritage Institute/Iraq program. This brought 22 young Iraqi museum professionals to the

U.S.

for an intensive five-week program of training and collaboration with their American counterparts. The program’s goals were to help prepare the next generation of Iraqi cultural heritage stewards and to forge ongoing partnerships between Iraqi and American institutions and colleagues. Several Iraqi program participants took part in subsequent training programs in Amman, Jordan, on various topics, including a course sponsored by the Getty Conservation Institute/World Monuments Fund Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative in collaboration with the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR). The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) played an important role in developing and implementing the

Iraq

program and is continuing to build on and expand the linkages established.

Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia

In 2007, CAORC partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the University of Wisconsin to implement the Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia program for museum and cultural heritage specialists from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia program met its goals of exposing ten South Asian museum professionals and cultural heritage specialists to U.S practices and standards of cultural heritage institutions; it also developed and enhanced national and regional communications among the South Asian participants and developed and enhanced professional networks between South Asian and U.S. museum and cultural heritage specialists. The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS), and the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS) played an important role in developing and implementing the program and are continuing to build on and expand the linkages established. AIPS was able to host an additional Cultural Heritage Workshop for Pakistani museum specialists with support from the U.S. Embassy.

Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program

With support from the Getty Foundation, CAORC is helping to build cooperative networks among practitioners and scholars from

Afghanistan

Algeria

Cyprus

Egypt

Greece

Italy

Iraq

Israel

Jordan

Morocco

, Palestine,

Tunisia

Turkey

, and

Yemen

through the Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program. From 2007 to 2010, the program focused on scholars, museum curators, and others whose research and professional interests focused on studying or preserving cultural heritage.

For example, in 2009, the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) sent Dr. Hamdan Taha to the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman. While there, Dr. Taha conducted research and made contacts that enabled him to participate in several prestigious international activities, publish chapters in several major archaeological books, and led to his current position as Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Palestine. In his new position Dr. Taha is co-directing a project for reassessment, management, and site development at Tell Balata in Ramallah, a collaboration between the Palestinian Department of Antiquities, the University of Leiden, and UNESCO.

In 2011, CAORC revised the Getty Fellowship Program structure as a combined fellowship and seminar program to deepen and strengthen the networks established through this program. CAORC also refocused the program more specifically on the field of art history, to target more faculty and scholars in universities and research centers in addition to practitioners from government departments and official projects, thus creating greater and deeper scholarly connections, both in quantity and quality. In 2012 the Getty Fellowship Program will be open to art history scholars from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen who wish to undertake a specific research project in Algeria or Turkey related to the seminar theme: Art and Archaeology of the Sacred (Algeria) or Vision and Visual Culture in Byzantium (Turkey).

The Getty Fellowship Program has had expected benefits (increased cross-cultural research, scholarly networking, publishing, and promotions for promising cultural heritage specialists) and unexpected benefits (e.g., University of Pennsylvania Professor of Archaeology Brian Rose’s appointment by the U.S. Department of State to be a special consultant on preservation and reconstruction of Ur, mentioned in an earlier post).

Media and Conflict: A Conference of West African Journalists and Researchers

noreply@blogger.com (CAORC) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

The final conference of The West African Peace Initiative (WAPI), a major project of the West African Research Association, brought together researchers and journalists from 14 West African countries. This exchange between journalists and researchers led to rich discussions and a commitment to continuing collaboration across national and professional boundaries in the interest of building and maintaining sustainable peace in the region.

Present at the opening ceremony were the Honorable Pedro Pires, former president of Cape Verde; the Honorable Jorge Borges, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Her Excellency Adrienne O’Neal, US Ambassador to Cape Verde. The conference was opened by President Pires, who gave a keynote address on the challenges of peacebuilding in the region, with particular emphasis on the key role played by Cape Verde in brokering peace in recent conflicts.

Conference participants enjoy a stroll through Cidade Velha

The first day of the conference was devoted to reports by WAPI Fellows on the research they conducted on conflict resolution in the region.The second day of the conference, organized by Cape Verdean scholars and policy makers, provided a view of the Cape Verdean experience. Presentations focused on the democratic process in Cape Verde, the accomplishments and the challenges of creating and maintaining an open and participatory society. The first session was chaired by the Honorable Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiros, former president of Cape Verde, and the second by Colonel Antero Matos of the Cape Verdean Ministry of Defense. The final day of the conference was devoted to the work of 11 of the journalists who participated in the Dakar Journalism Institute, an integral part of the WAPI project. Each journalist conducted a research project, exploring the role of media in peace and conflict.

The closing address for the conference was presented by the Honorable Jorge Carlos Fonseca, President of Cape Verde, who underscored the importance of this conference and of continuing efforts to build cultures of peace.

The WAPI conference was the result of close collaboration with WARA’s Cape Verdean colleagues. It was also a milestone in bringing together two groups who rarely have the opportunity for in-depth interaction, and whose role in peacekeeping is critical: journalists and researchers.

WAPI is funded through a generous grant from the US State Department

AIIrS Sponsors Iranian-American Artists’ Day Workshop at The Metropolitan Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:30:00 +0000

As part of its funding of special public programs at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, in conjunction with the opening of the new galleries if Islamic Art, AIIrS sponsored an Iranian-American Artists’ Day Workshop at the Museum on December 5, 2011. Twenty-five artists working in New York and environs attended the workshop. The artists had sole run of the new galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, as well as the galleries of Ancient Near Eastern Art, accompanied by the curators of these two departments. Following a catered lunch on the Great Hall Balcony, the curators along with specialists from the Education department moderated a round-table discussion about the artists’ reactions to the galleries, what sorts of museum programs would benefit practicing artists and Iranian-Americans, and potential new public programs that might integrate the perspectives of artists with the Islamic and Iranian works in the exhibit to reach out to a new audience of museum-goers who combine art historical and contemporary arts interests. This was the first workshop of its sort held by the Museum and proved enlightening for all involved. The curators and educators raised the possibility of holding similar workshops with other artists’ communities also represented by the collections, including Arab-American, Turkish-American and South Asian-American.

CAORC: 30 Years of Promoting Advanced Scholarly Research

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:37:00 +0000

In 2011, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of promoting advanced scholarly research:

CAORC and its member centers administer a wide variety of fellowship programs that allow students and faculty from American institutions to pursue independent scholarly research overseas. Together, CAORC and the centers directly fund approximately 500 pre-and post doctoral fellowships each year, as well as field expeditions, small travel grants, and scholarly conferences and seminars.

Additionally, each year the centers host and facilitate overseas research for thousands of students, teachers, and scholars supported by the Fulbright programs, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, as well as hundreds of independent U.S. scholars and study groups. For 30 years, CAORC and the centers have partnered with numerous foundations and agencies to design, develop, and execute cultural and scholarly fellowship and exchange programs, including:

Multi-Country Regional Research Fellowship Program

Since 1993, with funding from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), CAORC has enabled more than 170 American pre- and post-doctoral scholars in the humanities, social sciences, allied natural sciences, historical and current research fields, and international and area studies, the rare opportunity to carry out regional and trans-regional research in several countries and to surmount the boundaries imposed by current national politics. It also allows scholars who focus on particular countries that may be considered marginal within their region to broaden their research achievements with the logistical and intellectual support of ORCs.

The Multi-Country Program has enabled the participating American overseas research centers to expand their research agendas and broaden their practical and theoretical scope. Participating centers are able to improve their regional program cooperation with each other, expand their audiences, represent a wider range of disciplines and concentrations, and serve their constituencies more effectively as international exchange resources. The Multi-Country Program also promotes programmatic coherence among centers and helps diversify area studies as well as broader humanities and social science inquiry to encompass underserved institutions, populations, professions, and research topics. The program supports U.S. institutions of higher education as they continue to regionalize research, by making American overseas research centers a primary vehicle in this endeavor.

The Multi-Country Program is directly responsible for the ground-breaking collaboration between the American Institute of Maghrib Studies and the West African Research Association in the new bi-annual Saharan Crossroads conference series, which was launched by two Multi-Country fellows, Prof. Ghislaine Lydon (UCLA) and Prof. Cynthia Becker (Boston University). This conference series explores and reinforces the cultural, artistic, and historical connections between populations living in and on both sides of the Sahara. The first conference, “Views from the North,” was held in at the Tangier American Legation Museum Institute for Moroccan Studies in Morocco, in June 2009; anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, historians, musicians, visual artists, and other scholars from the U.S., Algeria, France, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia made presentations. The second conference, “Views from the South,” was held in Niger, in July 2011.

Borderlands Interdisciplinary Project

In 2004, the CAORC Executive Committee, led by Profs. I. William Zartman (Johns Hopkins-SAIS) and Kenneth Sams (UNC-Chapel Hill) initiated the first Interdisciplinary Project, the Borderlands Interdisciplinary Project (BLIP), which brought together scholars from many disciplines of historical and contemporary research to draw out conceptual characteristics of the human condition in borderlands across enormous variations in time, development, and history. BLIP brought together scholars from the Multi-Country Regional Research Fellowship Program, the centers, and the CAORC Mellon Program (see below) to examine dynamic social processes in borderlands across time, disciplinary approach, and history. Recently, CAORC- and center-supported scholars brought together multiple strands of scholarship covering four millennia and four continents in Understanding Life in the Borderlands, a book edited by Prof. Zartman and published by the University of Georgia Press.

Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program

Since 2007, the Getty Foundation has awarded CAORC a grant to help build cooperative networks among practitioners and scholars from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen whose research and professional interests focus on cultural heritage or art history. As an example of the success of this program, in 2008 the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) sent Dr. Abdulamir Hamadani as a Getty Fellow to the American Academy in Rome (AAR), where he established working relationships with academic institutions in Italy. As a result of his fellowship and contacts he made while in Rome, Dr. Hamadani facilitated the University of Rome’s successful submission of a proposal to the Iraqi Board of Antiquities for an excavation project at the archaeological site of Ur. Because of his Getty Fellowship, Dr. Hamadani was able to collaborate with the Italian Ministry of Culture to reach a joint agreement to implement a conservation project at Ur to be funded by the U.S. Army in Nasiriya. As an unexpected benefit, while at AAR Dr. Hamadani met University of Pennsylvania Professor of Archaeology Brian Rose, whom he invited to visit archaeological sites in Iraq. Thanks to this serendipitous meeting, Professor Rose was subsequently appointed by the U.S. Department of State to be a special consultant on preservation and reconstruction of Ur.

The Coulson/Cross Aegean Exchange Fellow Program

Since 1990 the Coulson-Cross Aegean Exchange has brought Turkish scholars to Greece and Greek scholars to Turkey, using as a base for their research the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) and the Ankara or Istanbul branch of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT). The fellowships promote scholarly exchanges between Turkey and Greece by supporting the research of nationals of Greece or the Republic of Turkey in any field of the humanities and social sciences from pre-historic to modern times who need to conduct their study in the other country.

Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Fellowship Program

In 2010 the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center asked CAORC to initiate a fellowship program for American pre- and post-doctoral scholars to carry out research in Oman in the humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences. This program represents a remarkable opportunity to promote advanced research in the Sultanate of Oman. CAORC and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center hope to expand the fellowship program in the future based on the results of the pilot fellowship.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation East-Central European Research Fellows Program

In the early 1990s, after the demise of communist regimes in East and Central Europe, one of the academic community’s most urgent priorities was to reconnect scholars in these countries with their counterparts in the West. This was especially important in the humanities disciplines, since scholars in these areas had been essentially cut off from contact with the West during the communist era. To address this, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded CAORC more than $10,000,000 to establish and coordinate a program of fellowship residencies for East and Central European humanities scholars at institutes of advanced study in Western Europe. From 1993 until this year, CAORC enabled more than 600 Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovak scholars in the humanities and related social sciences to carry out research at one of 17 designated institutes in Austria, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, and Yemen (seven of which are CAORC member centers). This program successfully created a significant cadre of younger East and Central European scholars (Ph.D.s under 40 years old) in the humanities and social sciences who were able to carry out individual research projects and to engage in interdisciplinary research projects with other international scholars.

Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:26:00 +0000

The 2012 fellowship program is open to scholars in participating countries* who have already obtained a Ph.D. or have professional experience in the field of art history and who wish to undertake a specific research project in Algeria or Turkey related to the seminar theme: Art and Archaeology of the Sacred (Algeria) or Vision and Visual Culture in Byzantium (Turkey).

Funded by the Getty Foundation, the fellowship includes a travel and living expense stipend of $7,500. The fellowship tenure will be June 9 to July 16, 2012, including an opening and closing seminar. Fellows will be required to conduct their research during this time period.

Scholars must apply through the American Overseas Research Center in their home country. Final award selection will be conducted by CAORC. Notification of fellowship status will be made available to each applicant via email by April 16, 2012.

* Participating countries include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen. Please note: Algerian scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Turkey and Turkish scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Algeria.

For more information and application details, click here.

CAORC Celebrates its 30th Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:03:00 +0000

In 1981, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) was founded as a locus for cooperation among the then existing American overseas research centers. In 1986 CAORC launched full-time operations with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon, Rockefeller, and Exxon foundations, and the J.P. Getty Trust. CAORC now has 22 member centers in 24 countries, supporting American scholarship around the world.

Over the last 30 years, CAORC’s mission and activities have broadened, and CAORC has been in the forefront of advancing higher learning and international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, by U.S. scholars and academic institutions.

In 2011, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of:

Serving American Scholars and Helping Them Carry Out Their Research Overseas
Promoting Advanced Scholarly Research
Helping Preserve International Cultural Heritage
Expanding Access to Little-Known or Hidden International Scholarly Resources
Sponsoring Language Study in Critical and Less-Commonly Taught Foreign Languages
Facilitating Collaborative International Research Projects
Initiating, Sponsoring, and Coordinating Multi-Center, Multi-National, and Regional Research and Collaborative Projects
Reaching Out to New Audiences in the U.S. and Overseas
Building Enduring Relationships between U.S. and Foreign Scholars and Institutions
Advocating for the Importance of Increased Support for International Scholarly Programs

The Results – we are:

Furthering Higher Learning and International Scholarly Research, Especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences;
Strengthening Research and International Connections That Are Vital to Continued U.S. Global Competence;
Advancing Cordial Relations between the United States and the Host Countries;
Increasing Americans’ Knowledge of and Ability to Interact Successfully with the Rest of the World; and
Helping to Meet the National Need for American Experts in and Citizens Knowledgeable about World Regions, Foreign Languages, and International Affairs.

Connect with CAORC!

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:41:00 +0000

Here are a few ways you can stay connected with CAORC:

Like us on Facebook

Dear Colleague Letter from Amy Newhall, MESA Executive Director

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:02:00 +0000

November 1, 2011

Dear Colleagues:

The cards are on the table for the 2012 Federal budget and the hand of area studies does not look promising. Fulbright Hays may be eliminated entirely (and how did YOU fund your dissertation research? The Mellon Foundation stepped in this year and saved some of the grantees, Hurray Mellon! But this was a one-time rescue), CAORC funds could be cut completely again (have you spent time at ARCE, ARIT or AIMS centers lately, it might turn out to be for the last time), Title VI funds for the National Resource Centers may stay at 2011 levels (decreased 50% from 2010) or be cut entirely, and that staple of graduate education, FLAS grants (some of us knew them as NDFL), face an uncertain future. Not since 1973 has the danger been so acute.

Many of the former champions of these programs in the Senate and in the House have retired. Speak up and use any avenue to well-connected people from any circle and get them to chime in. Talk to your representatives (or their staff) and to your university’s Federal Relations officers. They can’t read your minds.

See the National Humanities Alliance website on this important issue.

The Facts: National Humanities Alliance "Issue Brief" on Title VI

The Issue: National Humanities Alliance Action Alert [read and click: “Take Action”, or go directly through the next link]

The Need for Action: Contact your Congressional Representatives

[Fill in form; Click: “Review Message” PERSONALIZE by adding to the prepared text how these programs helped you in your career and what outcomes have resulted like public service, economic competitiveness, numbers of students and teachers, etc.; Click “Send Messages”]

------------------------

Amy Newhall, MESA Executive Director

Event: West African Muslims and Their Contributions to U.S. Culture. Tuesday, October 11, 2:30pm-4:30pm, Howard University

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:06:00 +0000

ACOR Receives Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation Grant

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:07:00 +0000

Aerial view of the Temple of the Winged Lions.
Photo by Christopher A. Tuttle.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan awarded an Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant of $600,000 to the American Center of Oriental Research, in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities. The grant will support a project to stabilize, repair and increase accessibility to the Temple of the Winged Lions in Petra. The project will also train conservation specialists and educate the local community about the site. The grant was only one of three given worldwide in 2011.

Read the full press release and view photos on the Embassy website: http://jordan.usembassy.gov/pr_afcppu_092511.html

Interior panorama of the Temple of the Winged Lions showing some proposed reconstructions.
Photo by Chrysanthos Kanellopoulos.

Symposium on Sufism as a Mediating Force in South Asia, New London, CT, Connecticut College, 13-14 October 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Presta Boone) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:08:00 +0000

The American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, in conjunction with Connecticut College, is sponsoring a symposium on "Sufism as a Mediating Force in South Asia," which will be held at Connecticut College in New London, CT. Intellectually, the symposium follows from an earlier AISLS workshop held in Colombo in November, 2010, where one of the themes was how Sufism mediates among other forms of Islam in Sri Lanka. This symposium will broaden the inquiry to cover all of South Asia to see what sorts of comparative insights will emerge. The event, which is being convened by Frank Korom (Boston University) and Sufia Uddin (Connecticut College) is open to the public.

The program is given below. More information is available from Professor Sufia Uddin at suddin [at] conncoll [dot] edu

All events will take place at Connecticut College's Ernst Common Room in Blaustein Hall.
Funding for this symposium is provided by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) through a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

CAORC is a not-for-profit consortium of twenty-two independent overseas research centers that promote advanced research in the humanities and social sciences. CAORC member centers foster international scholarly exchange through the sponsorship of fellowship programs, foreign language study and collaborative research projects. CAORC was awarded a three-year grant from the Islam Initiative at the Carnegie Corporation of New York to help increase public knowledge about the diversity of thought, cultures, and history of Islam and Muslim communities and to develop a more complex understanding among Americans about Muslim communities throughout the world.

Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to do "real and permanent good in this world."

Sufism as a Mediating Force in South Asia

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Plenary Lecture (7:00PM)
Opening remarks: Charles Hallisey (Harvard University)
Plenary speaker: Vasudha Narayanan (University of Florida, Gainesville) "Love that Heals, Traditions that Cleave: Encounters of Devotion between Hindus and Muslims"

Friday, October 14, 2011

Morning Session (9:00-12:00)

Historical Perspectives: Chair & Discussant: Sufia Uddin (Connecticut College)

Speakers:
Andre Wink (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Saints of the Indus: Sufis, Shrines and Politicsin South Asia’s Borderlands
Lindsey Harlan (Connecticut College) Hindu Heroes with Muslim Fast Friends: Tri Mukhi Pir Baba, Kapur Shah Baba, and other Honored Guests at Udaipur's Rajput Hero Celebrations
Thibaut d'Hubert (University of Chicago) Bengali Sufi Literature 16th--19th century AD: Doctrinal Contents and tariqua Affiliations

Lunch (1:00-2:00)

Afternoon Session (2:00-5:00)

Contemporary Perspectives: Chair & Discussant: Frank Korom (Boston University)

Speakers:
Dennis McGilvray (University of Colorado at Boulder) Popular Sufism in Sri Lanka: Connections and Conflicts
Susan Schomburg, (Bates College) Diverse Modes of Religious Mediation at Seven Tamil Sufi Shrine Sites
Carla Bellamy, (Baruch College) An Other’s World: Hindus and Healing at an Indian Muslim Saint Shrine