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Nanette Shaw
The Graduate Center of The City University of New York has announced the formation of the Middle East and Middle Eastern-American Center (MEMEAC), the only such center in the country that incorporates the Middle Eastern-American experience in Middle/Near East Studies. Four years in development, MEMEAC will be devoted to stimulating the study of Middle Eastern peoples, cultures, and countries as well as Middle Eastern immigrants and people of Middle Eastern descent in the United States, particularly New York. Reflecting the extraordinary scholarship in Middle Eastern studies throughout the CUNY system, the Center will bring together more than 50 faculty members working in related areas across many disciplines on most CUNY campuses. Drawing also on the vast Middle Eastern-related resources in New York City, MEMEAC will conduct research and sponsor workshops, special events, conferences, and lectures. The Center will be located at The Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan; its website address is http://web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac. MEMEAC will be co-directed by Professors Beth Baron and Mehdi Bozorgmehr. Baron is a specialist in Middle Eastern history with a focus on gender issues. She recently completed a manuscript on nationalism in Egypt and will be launching a study on social politics in the Middle East. She is on the faculty of The Graduate Centerıs Ph.D. Program in History and also serves on the faculty at CUNYıs City College. Bozorgmehr is a sociologist specializing in the adaptation of Middle Easterners in the U.S. He is completing a book on Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles --- home to the largest Middle Eastern population in the country --- and also is launching a new research project on second-generation Iranians in the U.S. He has just received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the backlash against Middle Easterners after the attacks of September 11. Scholars from The Graduate Center and across the CUNY campuses represent expertise spanning such areas as Middle Eastern politics, anthropology, religion, cultural psychology, Ottoman art, New York mosques, North African literature, Egyptian theater, Muslim migration, Iranian music, Sephardic studies, Yemenite Jews, the medieval Arab world, Algerian women, water issues, law, linguistics, Hebrew, and Sufism, plus, of course, countries such as Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and many other regional, cultural, political, and social issues and topics. "This Center was proposed and brought forth because of its timeliness before the tragic events of September 11," said Graduate Center President Frances Degen Horowitz. "Sadly, the need for CUNY to create a center that brings together the expertise of its significant cadre of scholars in these fields is now all the more compelling." MEMEAC was established with the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation. The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City. Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of about 3,500 students in 31 doctoral programs and six master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 29 research centers and institutes and administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program. According to a recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast. |