News

Conference Builds Capacity for Arabic Language Teaching in North Carolina

Arabic greetings of marhaba (hello), sabah al kheir (good morning), and ahlan wa sahlan (welcome) were shared as attendees gathered for the inaugural conference of the emerging North Carolina Arabic Teacher Council (NCATC), November 13-14, 2021. “Come Together: The Future of Arabic Language in North Carolina” was held at … Read more

Online Dialogues Connect Educators in the United States, Middle East, and North Africa

In Fall 2021, dozens of K-12 teachers from across the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) participated in two virtual Educator Dialogues, gaining strategies and resources to support newcomer students and globalize STEM education.  The dialogues, organized … Read more

UNC and Duke Area Studies Centers Support Globalizing Curricula Across Minority-Serving Institutions and Community Colleges

Educators from minority-serving institutions (MSI) and community colleges across the southeast led panels about how they utilize resources from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke area studies centers to advance global scholarship and integrate global curricula … Read more

Seminar for K-12 Teachers Provides Multifaceted View of the Middle East

The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, a partnership between the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center, hosted a five-day, virtual seminar for K-12 teachers across the country from August 3-7. The seminar, “Diversities of the Middle East,” was funded by a Title … Read more

Learning through Languages Symposium Showcases High School Students’ Global Research

Ninety-seven high school students from across North Carolina participated in the fourth annual Learning through Languages High School Research Symposium, sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University on February 1, 2019. The event was organized … Read more

K-12 Teachers Complete Year-Long Fellowship on the Middle East and Africa

In December 2018, a group of thirteen K-12 teachers completed an intensive, year-long fellowship organized by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies (composed of the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center), UNC African … Read more

Five Area Studies Centers at UNC Awarded $8.6 Million and Designated as National Resource Centers

Five area studies centers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been awarded approximately $8.6 million in competitive federal Title VI funding over the next four years. Through two programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education, … Read more

Grant funding expands Durham Tech library collections

The Durham Tech library has been awarded $3,000 in grant funding from the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies to expand its collections of Middle East-related materials; made possible by the Consortium’s Title VI funding. Located on the lower level … Read more

Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Supports Summer Travel to Morocco for K-12 Teachers

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller,” said Ibn Battuta, a prominent Moroccan traveler and scholar who first set out to complete hajj in Mecca in the early fourteenth century. His initial attempt failed, but the experience … Read more

For Scholars, No Easy Answers on World War I and the Transformation of the Middle East

It’s been 100 years since the Sykes–Picot Agreement divided the Middle East into spheres of British and French influence that transformed the Middle East. In the aftermath of World War I, the religiously, linguistically and ethnically diverse Ottoman Empire was … Read more

Connecting the Middle East to the Southeast

Ideally, Emma Harver would have taken her group of K–12 teachers to the Middle East to immerse them in Muslim cultures. But she didn’t have the budget for an overseas trip. So she did the next best thing. She introduced … Read more

Doing Better: UNC, Duke Team Up to Enhance Understanding of Middle East

By Christopher Gergen and Stephen Martin Winter’s coming, and the Duke-UNC rivalry is heating up. The schools’ football teams battled Thursday night in a nationally televised game. Their men’s basketball teams are both ranked in the Top 10, and their … Read more