Distributed by the www.ArabAmericanNewsWire.com
new minor in arab studies Debuts at UH
Emran El-Badawi Named
First Director of Program
HOUSTON, May
14, 2012 – The University of Houston (UH) has launched a new minor in Arab Studies
and named Emran El-Badawi as the first director of the Arab Studies Program. Beginning
in fall 2012, UH students may declare the minor, which will be housed in the department
of Modern and Classical Languages (MCL) within the College of Liberal Arts and
Social Sciences (CLASS).
“We are very excited about the
new Arab Studies minor,” said Hildegard Glass, chair of the MCL department and
director of the German program at UH. “The University of Houston has been
offering courses in Arabic language and culture for more than a decade, and now we are adding more advanced courses to our Arabic
curriculum. While this is an area we wanted to expand for quite some time, we
could not do so without the faculty in place to build the program. With the support of the CLASS Dean, John
Roberts, we were able to make a tenure-track appointment in Arabic, the first
in the history of this university. With Dr. Emran El-Badawi joining our
department as its director, we could move forward with developing the Arab Studies
minor.”
The new Arab Studies minor will require 18 credit hours,
nine of which must be in Arabic language courses focusing on Modern Standard
Arabic and another nine in content courses taught in English. The credit hours
taught in English may be selected from a range of courses including
“Introduction to Arabic Culture, Language, and Islam”; “Qur’an as Literature”;
and “Modern Middle East.” Since the
minor is interdisciplinary three of these credit hours may be in courses
offered outside the MCL department. The program is designed to help students
develop functional abilities in the four language skills: listening; speaking;
reading and writing; and to provide the opportunity for interdisciplinary study
of the Arab world and greater Middle East, as well as Islamic civilization.
“UH students want to be part of a meaningful conversation
about the Arab world,” said El-Badawi. “The Arab Studies Program is growing at
a rapid pace, and I get several inquiries every week from students interested
in the minor. Much of the intellectual curiosity is fed by media coverage of
widespread political unrest in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring,’ especially political
developments in post-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt. Students want to know
what role Islamic and secular forces play in reimaging Arab societies today.”
El-Badawi joined the department of Modern and Classical
Language in fall 2011 as assistant professor of Arabic language and literature.
Prior to joining the UH faculty, he earned his Ph.D. with distinction from the
University of Chicago in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
He received his master’s degree in religion from Temple University and a bachelor’s
degree in religion and computer science from Rutgers University.
“Over the last year, Dr. El-Badawi has taken an active
role on campus and in the Houston Arab community to promote the Arab Studies Program,”
said Glass. “He has delivered guest lectures on the Qur’an to the ‘Human
Situation’ course at the Honors College and is working with various cultural
organizations, as well as public and private schools in the Houston area to
promote the study of the Arabic language and public awareness about the Arab world.
The minor in Arab Studies is the first step in building a strong academic
curriculum addressing the rich cultural tradition of the Arab world and the
contemporary Middle East.”
“Since students
are exposed to a great deal of information – and misinformation – concerning
the Arab world and Islam in the media, many students will have questions that
can best be answered through the Arab Studies minor,” El-Badawi said.
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