Middle East Studies and North Africa Studies

Students and members of the Middlebury community are welcome to join this meditation circle with world renowned Mevlevi Sufi Shaikh Kabir Helminski.

Moriel Rothman-Zecher, ‘11, returns to Middlebury to read from his first novel, Sadness Is a White Bird, a coming-of-age novel of which the Jerusalem Post has said that it “conveys the complexities of Israeli and Palestinian life with passion, nuance and tenderness…” Rothman-Zecher “has shown a fearlessness and vulnerability on these pages that speak to his ability to explore difficult terrain without feeling the need to draw any neat or concise conclusions. It shuns certainty and is open, nuanced, inconclusive and often contradictory. Just like Israeli reality.”

Barbara Finamore, Senior Strategic Director for Asia, for the Natural Resources Defense Council, will be discussing China and its efforts to lead a global clean energy revolution. Leading environmental expert, Barbara Finamore, explains that the economic and political challenges that China faces in addressing its domestic environmental crisis threaten to derail its low-carbon energy transition. Yet there is reason for hope as China’s leaders focus on clean energy.

“Ways to School” is an interactive VR series documenting the struggles of children around the world whose daily journeys to school are long and arduous. Inspired by the well known transmedia project, Sur les chemins de l’ecole, produced by Winds Films, Ways to School-VR offers the viewer to accompany the children through the lens of their fertile imagination. Follow a 12 year old boy living in the occupied West Bank and explore his world through his daily journey and the fear and beauty of walking for a long distance in order to get to school.

In 1970 the filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin were commissioned by Fatah (with funding from the Arab League) to create a film about the Palestinian Revolution. The footage they shot eventually became the well known essay film Ici et Ailleurs. In 1971 Masao Adachi and Koji Wakamatsu visited the region to shoot footage for their film Japanese Red Army/PFLP Declaration of World War. These works have received considerable critical attention since they first appeared.

Samar Haddad King and Zoe Rabinowitz
“Reclaiming and Redefining Space in Conflict Zones” addresses issues relevant to students and professionals working in the fields of: dance, theater, music, education and art education, global policy, human rights, international conflict and relations, Middle East studies, non-profit administration and management, political science, and others.

Jordanians mount hundreds of protests every year, most of which are small and non-contentious. In most instances, protesters adhere to regime “redlines” about where they can protest and what claims they make. What political roles to non-contentious protests play, for the regime as well as for protesters? Drawing on extensive field research in Jordan, this talk will explore routine protests and their implication for the future of political expression in Jordan.

Ishmael Khaldi, author of “A Shepard’s Journey: the story of Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat” will present “Bedouins and Other Minorities in Israel.” A 45 minute lecture followed by Q&A.