The Oberlin Review
<< Front page Commentary March 17, 2006

Support MENA

As it stands, there will be no professors on campus next semester to teach Middle Eastern studies.

Following Politics Professor and Middle Eastern politics specialist Khalid Medani’s departure to Stanford University last year, the area of Middle Eastern Studies suffers the threat of three additional losses. French Professor Ali Yedes, teaching the only form of Arabic language study on campus to a group of 11 students, will leave next fall for a one-year sabbatical. Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Frances Hasso, a scholar of gender and sexuality in the Middle East, will not return to campus at this semester’s conclusion. Visiting Art History Professor Yasser Tabbaa, considered a major authority on Middle Eastern art and architecture in the United States, now waits while the College debates whether his position will be renewed.

With the loss of these three professors, Middle East North Africa studies at Oberlin will be effectively dissolved.

In light of this information, the College’s efforts to heighten Middle Eastern awareness by means of supporting this week’s student-organized Middle Eastern dinner at Stevenson and President Nancy Dye’s trip to Iran yesterday morning, for example, become only empty gestures. While Dye’s efforts to reopen dialogue with formerly closed Iranian academics was groundbreaking and the special Stevenson meal promoted an ideal of cultural diversity on a campus so conscious of its public image, the fact that Oberlin has only two Arab students and a gasping MENA program render any celebration of these events premature and misleading as gratuitous acts of PR.

The commodification of foreign food in America often leads to approximation of cultural awareness through cuisine rather than through experience. Sharing another culture’s traditional food can be intimate and broadening; however, in the absence of another person from that culture, exoticism inevitably replaces awareness. If the students who tabled at the meal and their demands for an institutionalized curriculum are ignored, however, it is questionable whether the meal can become anything more than another “global exhibition.”

In the current political climate, where Middle Eastern issues carry great implications in this country and the world, we cannot afford to under-represent Middle Eastern students, professors and studies in general. Dye’s precedent-setting trips to Iran seek to create connections; however, these connections are not possible if they are one-sided. If we want to raise awareness and increase diversity on campus, there must be more students and professors who can make MENA studies a reality.

Rampant anti-Arab racism in this country and abroad should indicate the necessity for an increased attempt to diversify Oberlin’s predominantly white campus. Following Sept. 11, the obstacles facing Arabs, including obtaining a strong liberal arts education, should be evident. We acknowledge the difficulties inherent in such an effort; however, Oberlin should make even greater strides to fight against this prejudice as it has historically fought against others.

The College can begin by not just preserving, but by increasing its MENA offerings. The current opportunities to learn Arabic, the foundation of a MENA program, are laughable in comparison to those of our peer institutions. Williams, Swarthmore, Amherst and Brown, for example, not only offer Arabic, but offer an Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies major and department as well. Instead of working toward this goal, Oberlin conflates Islamic religion classes with MENA studies, overstating its progress in creating a program and exposing its ignorance to the field.

If Oberlin chooses not to renew Tabbaa’s contract for another year, it will be the first institution among its peers without a Middle Eastern Art History concentration as well. Given Tabbaa’s passion for Oberlin — he travels more than two hours just to get here — and for his field, it is imperative that Tabbaa continue to give life to the dwindling but necessary MENA presence that is slowly fading. We urge the College to consider its choices.
 
 

   

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