The Middle East Outreach Council’s 2013 Middle East Book Awards recipients celebrate citizen activism, heroism, inventive genius, and cultural heritage. Winners were announced at the Middle East Studies Association conference held in New Orleans, LA, in October.
Established in 1999, the Middle East Book Award recognizes quality books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to an understanding of the Middle East and its component societies and cultures.
Books are judged on the authenticity of their portrayal of a Middle Eastern subject, as well as on characterization, plot, and appeal for the intended audience. For this award, the Middle East is defined as the Arab World, Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Afghanistan. (more…)
Tracing Islamicate Culture in America: History, Architecture, and Public Life
This October, the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and the Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) held its proceedings in one of the U.S.’s cultural capitals–New Orleans! It gave MEOC leadership the opportunity to think creatively about connections between the Middle East and our local communities and inspired a fascinating teacher workshop hosted with the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University. With New Orleans as our starting place, we explored the diverse Middle Eastern, North African, European, Latin American, and Caribbean origins of cultural traits that permeate everyday life in Louisiana and the southern United States. The articles that follow represent just a few of the issues we discussed–but we hope these glimpses will prove useful in thinking about cultural connections in the classroom.
Download the pdf version of the Fall 2013 issue of Perspectives:
Perspectives Fall 2013
Teaching K-12 Arabic: Success Stories, Communities, Resources
The Arabic language today is native to more than 400 million people, and is an influential scriptural language for the more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. It is also the fifth most commonly spoken language in the world. These facts alone should underscore the importance of teaching Arabic to our young people. Although a negative event (the 9/11 attacks) has inspired a rapid growth in Arabic language programs across the United States, teachers and students have discovered that learning Arabic introduces rich opportunities that extend well beyond national security interests. (more…)
Free photo resource!
MEOC is proud to make available a growing archive of member contributed photographs taken in the Middle East. These copyright-friendly photographs are licensed for use in the classroom or for non-commercial projects. Browse the galleries and help yourself!-
From the MEOC photo archive:
