Directing Arabic and Islamic Studies at IU Indianapolis

I am excited to begin my leadership of the Arabic Studies program and the Arabic and Islamic studies minor this summer at IU Indianapolis. I feel grateful to Dr. Amira Mashhour, who built the program over the past two decades, and to all the community advisers who have pledged their support as I attempt to lead the program.

It’s my hope to lead Arabic studies as a community-engaged program that connects students to the cultures of Arab Americans in the greater Indianapolis area and the approximately 400 million people who speak Arabic on a daily basis in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The program will include attention not only to Arab Muslims and Christians, but also to MENA communities such as Imazighen (Berbers), Armenians, Chaldeans, Copts, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, Kurds, Persians/Iranians, Somalis, Turks, and Yazidis. It will also emphasize the meaning and significance of a language that is sacred to 1.8 billion Muslims around the world, including in Indianapolis.

Among the new courses that I have developed for the program are a three-credit course on Arab Spain and Latin America as well as one-credit “appetizer” courses about the Qur’an, Islamophobia, and Syrian-Lebanese food and cooking. The program will also continue to offer courses such as Intro to Arab American Studies, First-Year Arabic, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, Modern Middle East History, Intro to Islam, Islam and Modernity, and Islam in America.

Tabbouli is on the menu in my new one-credit “appetizer” course that traces Syrian-Lebanese food from the Eastern Mediterranean to tables across Indianapolis. (Yes, I did make this.)

In addition to offering classes, the Arabic and Islamic studies minor will coordinate high-profile public events; student internships and other experiential learning; and externally-funded research and teaching about Arab, Muslim, and MENA communities in greater Indianapolis.

My community advisers, all of whom have made pledges to support new scholarships for students minoring in the program, include Dr. Tarick Abdo, Podiatrist; Dr. Majdi Abu-Salih, Medical Director, Community Health Pediatric Gastroenterology; Ms. Hiba Alalami, inaugural director, Indiana Muslim Advocacy Network; Prof. Mohammad Alhaddad, director, IUSM Gastroenterology Division; Dr. Sohel Anwar, Professor of Motorsports & Mechanical Engineering, Purdue; Dr. Shadia Jalal, Assoc. Prof. at IUSM & Program Leader, Thoracic Oncology; Indiana Senator Fady Qaddoura (Ph.D., IUPUI); and Salma Qaddourah, J.D., partner, McNeely Law, LLP.

If you would like to support the program, please make a donation here.