In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, universities across the country are scrambling to fill their students’ demands for more classes in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies.
Here at The University of Memphis, however, a lack of interest from the students and lack of resources on the part of the University has kept any additional classes in Middle Eastern studies from being offered.
Currently, there’s only one class on campus — history of modern Middle East — that focuses solely on the Middle East. And, although enrollment in that class has nearly doubled from previous years, it’s still not full.
“We’re just not in the position to offer more,” said Dr. Jack Hurley, chair of the history department. “Anyone on this campus will tell you that resources are scarce.”
The political science department is in the same boat. Dr. David Mason, chair of U of M’s political science department, said his department just can’t offer classes beyond what they already have due to lack of funding for staff qualified to teach Middle Eastern affairs.
But even if the department did offer more classes in Middle Eastern studies, there’s no guarantee students would show interest. After all, the two classes the department currently offers that touch on Middle Eastern affairs are far from full.
“It’s been sort of surprising. I don’t see any sign of change in enrollment due to Sept. 11,” said Mason. “Maybe that’s because we didn’t offer anything different. It’s hard to tell.”
Sept. 11 has affected at least one department on campus. Ralph Albanese, chair of the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures, said in light of the attacks the Arabic language is all the more important, and demand for the classes has increased.
“If you don’t know the language of the enemy, you can’t do intelligence. And after the attacks, it became woefully apparent how undereducated the U.S. is in foreign language. It’s been a real eye opener for the administration.”
Yet The U of M will only pay Nabil Bayaklay, the professor who has taught Arabic for the past six years, on a part-time basis. This spring, Bayaklay’s visa expires, and he will need a full-time job to renew it. In order to promote him to a full-time position The U of M applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Education this past November.
“We need a full-time professor to help build the program up,” said Albanese. “That way we could offer roundtables and opportunities in travel abroad, which makes a more complete program.”
The department will find out if it received the grant in March.
Unlike The U of M, some other schools can’t fill the need for Middle Eastern classes fast enough. Schools like the University of California at Berkeley, Binghampton University in New York and University of Chicago have been competitively scouring the academic world for faculty conversant in Middle Eastern affairs.
“We had 17 people pre-registered for Arabic before Sept. 11, and 53 afterwards,” said John Woods, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. “And we’ve had a tremendous demand for speakers to provide information and to make appearances. We’re going crazy trying to fill those demands.”
At The U of M, Dr. Nancy Simco, chair of the philosophy department, said many professors have made more of a concerted effort to include Middle Eastern affairs into already established courses.
“A lot of people have included Islam in the general education in part to give their students more information on that area,” Simco said. “That’s as specialized as we get.”
