Students Receive Middle East Study Grants [Saudi-funded grants at Arkansas State]

Several people from ASU will travel to the Middle East this summer upon receiving a grant from the Middle East Studies Committee. Each year the committee awards grants to ASU students, faculty and staff for study and/or research in the Middle East.

This year’s recipients of the grants are from various colleges and departments and have different purposes and goals for studying abroad. Nicole Jones, a sophomore journalism major, was awarded $4,812 to travel with a group from the University of Arizona to Cairo, Egypt for eight weeks. She will study reporting from the Middle East and will take a course in conversational Arabic.

“The Study Cairo program will help me embark on a journey that will begin a future filled with high expectations. I am eager and curious about this new experience,” Nicole said.

Kristin Walker, a psychology major and music minor, received a grant worth $5,000 enabling her to accompany Arizona State University students/faculty members as they journey on the Summer Study Abroad Program to Jordan. In Jordan she will be taking two courses: Arabic culture and Islam, and she will also take part in an Independent Study. Kristin, who plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Psychology or Music Therapy, stated “Music therapists are currently working in the West Bank in refugee camps as volunteers seek to enhance the refugees’ quality of life. I believe that identifying and understanding the culture of the individuals in the Middle East is essential in the effort to aid their population sufficiently.”

Fatme Myuhtar-May, a PhD Heritage Studies student, was also awarded a grant in the amount of $4,910 to travel to Bulgaria and Turkey to study and research the cultural identity of Pomaks (Bulgarian-speaking Muslims). Myuhtar-May plans to visit different communities, interview people, record songs and stories, attend social events, and visit local museum and heritage sites. The goal is to draw a comparative parallel between the life of the Pomaks in Bulgaria and Turkey. “This comparison has not been done before, and it is worth exploring for me,” Myuhtar-May said.

Lastly, Professor of Journalism Gil Fowler was granted his request to take a faculty/student group from the ASU College of Communications to study media in the Middle East, primarily in Kuwait. The group will also provide/produce media products that can be used in the students’ portfolios and as promotion materials for the MESC/International Studies programs. The grant will fund three or four students and an instructor to travel to Kuwait during the fall semester 2007 to visit media outlets, Kuwait University, Gulf University for Science and Technology and to visit with ASU alumni. The media team will be made up of a student print journalist, a student photojournalist, and one or two student videographers.

The Middle East Studies grants are given each year to encourage an awareness and understanding of issues and peoples of the Middle East. The funding comes from an endowment given to ASU by the Saudi government to ASU students, faculty and staff for study and/or research in the Middle East. The Committee welcomes grant applicants from all disciplines and from all of ASU’s colleges.

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