Public Events

Outreach Education تعميم التثقيف التربوي Angeles graciously hosted this year’s event, enabling the rich scholarship produced through our partnership with ADF to reach an even larger audience.

Following the university’s move to virtual

Moving Our Events and Community Online By Maddie Fisher

Before this transition, we were fortunate to Qur’an” with Hala Atallah, “The Deaf Comhave had the opportunity to hold a few of our early semester events in person, including a February screening of the Academy Awardnominated documentary For Sama with more !Mabrouk

operations, CCAS hosted online the final three sessions of the brown bag series “DisT his semester brought about unability in the Arab World.” Organized by precedented circumstances that have second-year MAAS student, Jinsuel Jun and drastically altered the way that CCAS 2016 MAAS alum, Tim Loh, the series was operates as a center. Following spring break, CCAS and the rest of Georgetown quickly shifted to a virtual learning environment, In the Headlines العناوين في implemented in partnership with Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program, Global Health Initiative, and Center for Child and moving classes, work, and—where possiHuman Development. The brown bag topics ble—our events online. this spring were “Disabilities Studies and the

Left to Right: Ms. Maddie Fisher, CCAS Events Coordinator; Dr. Graham Auman Pitts, ADF Fellow at CCAS; Mr. Fadi Zuhayri,

Former Chairman of the American Druze مبروك munity in Turkey” with Dr. Kadir Gökgöz, and “Down Syndrome, Disability and Difference in Jordan” with Dr. Christine Sargent. In March, Executive Director of Gulf Interthan 100 guests in attendance (Read more Foundation; Dr. Stacey Fahrenthold, Assisnational Forum (GULIF), Dr. Dania Thafer, in the box below). Also in February, CCAS organized our annual American Druze Foundation (ADF) Lecture, highlighting

tant Professor, UC Davis; Dr. Matthew Jaber Stiffler, Research and Content Manager at the Arab American Museum

rapidly adapted her CCAS Visiting Scholar talk, “Obstacles to Innovation in Rentier Economies,” to be online just days after decontemporary topics in research about the the Druze in America.” Recognizing that it fending her PhD thesis. Her talk addressed Druze diaspora. The 2019-2020 ADF Fellow at CCAS, Dr. Graham Pitts, presented Research Faculty: هيئة التدريس is not possible for many of the Druze community members on the West Coast to make how state-business relations affect the economic reforms needed to foster innovation. أبحاث alongside Dr. Stacey Fahrenthold and Dr. it to Washington D.C. for the lecture, the Our colleagues at GULIF worked with us to Matthew Jaber Stiffler on “Migration and American Druze Foundation’s center in Los adapt our co-sponsored “Aspirations of Youth in the GCC” panel to instead be a video series. A Woman’s Experience of War

In addition to these online public events, the CCAS community has used the video conferencing tool Zoom to virtually gather in In February, CCAS worked with FRONTLINE to screen the Academy Award-nominated documentary For Sama. Waad Al-Kateab co-directed and narrated the film, a variety of unique ways. MAAS Academic Director Fida Adely and Assistant Academwhich provides a first-hand account of her daily life as an activist and filmmaker ic Director Kelli Harris held several online living in Aleppo during the conflict in Syria. The film, which spans a five-year period, town halls with students to collect feedback provides a powerful perspective on and address questions and concerns during how women and children experithe transition to online learning. In addition, ence war. Viewers follow Waad as Ms. Harris has hosted a weekly virtual coffee she gets married and raises her hour, providing a valuable space for informal newborn daughter Sama in a city chats and check-ins with students. CCAS under siege. Much of the film takes also held a MAAS Open Mic Night where place in hospitals where Waad’s students sang, played musical instruments, husband Hamza fights to keep shared videos, and introduced their pets. We people alive. Waad provides an are proud of the innovative ways our comintimate view into not only her own munity has created spaces of togetherness lived experience as a woman and despite the quarantine, and we look forward a mother impacted by war but also to gathering in person again soon. You can the experiences of other women stay up to date with what we are doing online and their children whom she encounters at the hospital. Syrian activist and friend of by following us on social media or signing up the film, Sana Mustafa, joined CCAS at the screening for a discussion following the for our email list on the CCAS website.  film. She also spoke with students in Professor Rochelle Davis’ class “Refugees in the Arab World” about how the film relates to their coursework.