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EDUCATION OUTREACH
Collaborations in Literature and the Arts By Susan Douglass
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his spring CCAS Education Outreach continued to use a virtual format for all of its programming, which included annual events, collaborations with other university centers and partners, and multiple customized workshops for school districts and individual schools. Over the semester, our 11 major outreach events reached more than 500 educators across the country. Following last year’s interruption due to the pandemic, we were pleased to resume our annual event on children’s and youth literature conducted in partnership with Howard University’s Center for African Studies and School of Education. This year’s event, held virtually in April, was themed around “asserting identity in children and youth literature.” The diverse roster of speakers included Dr. Muhammad Fraser Rahim, who discussed his autobiography of enslaved African Omar bin Said; award-winning authors Aya Khalil (The Arabic Quilt) and Patricia Elam Walker (Nana Akua Goes to School); and educator and linguist Dr. Rabiah Khalil Abdullah, who presented on classroom approaches to Masoud Hayoun’s memoir When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History. Also among the spring online events was the third annual webinar for the World Area Book Awards, which showcases authors from five world regions’ book award programs. This year’s event featured author Danny Ramadan, Middle East Outreach Council book award winner for Salma the Syrian Chef. The book, which is intended for readers aged four to seven, beautifully represents Syrian culture through a meal that protagonist Salma prepares, while the diverse cast of characters speaks to the power of cultivating community in challenging circumstances. CCAS also embarked on a renewed partnership with the Arab American National Museum (AANM), jointly hosting three
events: the AANM virtual open house, and two Arab Heritage Month events for Montgomery County, Maryland. An event with Montgomery College featured presentations on Arab-American heritage by Dave Serio and Matthew Stiffler of the Smithsonian Arab American National Museum. Laila Jadallah, MAAS student and curator of the Middle East Institute (MEI) art exhibition “Art in Isolation,” presented on art by Arab artists at MEI in Washington DC. This year was marked by increased collaboration with other Middle East outreach centers, including regular Zoom meetings, sharing speakers, and co-sponsoring one another’s events. This has reaped dividends of increased audiences and cost sharing.
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Dr. Susan Douglass is the CCAS Education Outreach Director.
Summer Teacher Virtual Institute: The Arab Legacy in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America August 2-6, 2021 This year’s Summer Teacher Institute, “The Arab Legacy in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America,” will be co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in collaboration with the American University of Beirut’s Center for American Studies and Research. The content for the week-long institute will be based on a forthcoming multi-author volume on the same topic under publication through AUB. The volume’s authors will speak at the institute. The virtual institute is free and open to the public. Find more information and registration on the CCAS website.
AramcoWorld
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