MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES NEWSLETTER MARCH 2015
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Hello! I am delighted to share with you some of the exciting developments in our MES department here at the University of Manchester. With its multicultural population and Middle Eastern communities, Manchester offers the ideal setting for Middle Eastern Studies. Our courses attract students from a wide variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, cultivating a lively and stimulating working environment. We offer our students cutting -edge expertise in our subject areas and our students benefit from a fully immersive programme. Whether you study Arabic from scratch or are already proficient, a degree including Arabic or Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester will allow you to realise your potential, and will very likely represent the most fruitful and constructive three or four years you will ever spend. In our globalised world, the ability to speak languages is central to leading richer, more inter-connected lives, and students here develop the communication and critical skills that not only enable them to understand others better, but also to grow into socially responsible and culturally attentive citizens. With flexibility of course options, native-speaker staff, superb facilities, round-the-year cultural events and numerous employment opportunities, we are confident that we deliver one of the best learning experiences for modern languages in the UK. Take a look through this magazine for highlights of our courses — I really hope to see you next year! Dr Ronald Buckley Senior Lecturer in Arabic Studies
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1 CONTENTS Our Undergraduate Courses
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Our Joint Honours programmes
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Residence Abroad
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Career Options
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News and Events
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Contact us
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OUR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES Arabic Studies (4 Years) Starting as absolute beginners, students move through to an advanced level over the four years, spending Year 3 in an academic institution in an Arab country. This is the ideal way to improve fluency in the language while gaining a fascinating first hand experience of the Arab world. Native speakers of Arabic will be involved in your language teaching at all levels and an understanding of the culture forms an inherent part of the language learning. Personal tutors based in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies will help you in planning your progress and reflecting on it, to ensure that you are constantly building up transferable and academic skills, concluding in the optional final-year dissertation. This gives you the opportunity apply and demonstrate the transferable skills you have acquired in research, analysis and high-level writing, which is attractive to future employers. Two recent publications by members of the department include Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt (I.B.Tauris, 2015) by Dr Hatsuki Aishima, and a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research on ‘Women, Culture, and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution’, edited by Dr Dalia Mostafa. Aspects of their research are woven into the undergraduate programme.
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Middle Eastern Studies (3 Years) Language skills are useful in achieving an advanced understanding of the history, literatures, cultures, and religions of the Middle East but they are not the only route. This degree programme allows the study of language up to level 2, but does not make language study compulsory. Students will take on board academic developments in fields such as globalisation, cultural identity, diaspora and migration studies, gender studies, and post-colonial studies all of which are based on techniques in the analysis of evidence across several Middle eastern languages, and uses original sources in English translation as well as secondary sources in English. This equips students with the ability to acquire a thorough understanding of key contemporary methods in the study of culture, religion, literature and history of the Middle East. As you progress through the years, this programme offers you the opportunity to tailor-make your own curriculum according to your special interests within the broad area of Middle Eastern Studies incorporating ancient, mediaeval and modern history, literature and Cultural Studies, religious studies (especially Islamic Studies) and linguistics. Through choosing your free choice course units carefully, you can either strive to gain a certain specialisation or mix and match widely to gain a broad overview.
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OUR JOINT HONOURS PROGRAMMES At Manchester you can study Arabic alongside the following subjects: Linguistics; Business and Management; History; English Language; Modern European Language. Crucially, you can combine your two subjects flexibly— whereas Year 1 requires you to split your subject evenly (50%50%), in Years 2 and 4 you may focus on one subject more than on the other (40%-60% split) as to suit your desired focus. Most combinations also allow you to take a free-choice option, selected from a huge range of modules in the Faculty of Humanities including an additional language. Linguistics and Arabic (4 Years) Manchester is an international centre for linguistics and we are unrivalled in our exceptional breadth of subject areas and theoretical approaches. In addition to our wide range of courses covering the history to the present-day state of the English language, your Arabic modules are all taught by native speakers who will help you further develop your understanding of the culture as you learn the language. 6
Business and Management (4 Years) With as many as 28 different second-year and 24 final-year modules to choose from, across business, management and economics, the Business & Management programme at Manchester is unique in its breadth, and only delivered by experts. The Manchester Leadership Programme, an optional course unit in Year 2, offers hands-on training in Management, with leaders from all sections of society, including academia, business, charities and the public sector, giving master classes to students. On the language side, we offer dedicated business language classes, a huge number of opportunities for termtime work placements, internships abroad and contacts with business once you graduate.
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History and Arabic (4 Years) Over 30 members of staff from the History department are engaged in research making our courses some of the most diverse in the UK. This range allows students to choose from a wide range of courses, such as Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Economic and Social History, as well as the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Language courses, taught by native speakers, involve comprehension, translation, grammar, and oral work. Emphasis is placed on Arab cultural analysis through history, film, and literature.
English Language and Arabic (4 Years) Students on this course will have access to the full range of English language studies (theoretical, descriptive, and applied) and will develop the skills required for analytical language study and how to apply those skills to historical and present-day English. You will also look widely at culture and literature in the Middle East, and, guided by native speakers, gain competence in reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension, while developing knowledge and understanding of the Arab World.
Arabic and a Modern European Language (4 Years) As well as having native speakers involved in your language teaching at all levels, multi-cultural Manchester provides excellent general opportunities for contact with speakers of other languages and the pursuit of European and Arabic cultural interests. The language course units progress from absolute beginner to advanced level in Arabic and from ab initio to post-A-level in the European language.
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RESIDENCE ABROAD All students on a 4 year course must spend Year 3 abroad. If you are studying more than one language, you will be able to spend time across at least two destinations. As part of the degrees including Arabic you will spend the year abroad at one or two institutions (currently in Fes and/or Amman) attending classes in that language. If you include Arabic with a modern European language then for the latter you will have the choice in where you go and what you do while abroad. You can study, teach English or do an internship, and usually mix and match these possibilities. If you choose to work, our superb Careers Service provides a database of reliable foreign companies where our students have already had very positive experiences. If you are interested in studying abroad, see the full list of our current university partners.
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Check out one of our student’s blog post about her time abroad at the Jordan Language Academy over at Third Year Abroad.
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8 Career Options There is an increasing demand for MES graduates due to the Middle East’s increasing political and economical importance. Some recent graduates have been welcomed by a broad spectrum of employers including:
The Civil Service
The British Council
Non-governmental organisations
International organisations (for example the UN and the EU)
Business and commerce
Banking
Law
Print and broadcast journalism
Tourism management
Teaching
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Some recent graduates are academics and researchers in various fields, after going on to do postgraduate studies in areas such as Development Studies, International Relations, Linguistics, European Studies and History. BA (Hons) Arabic Studies is also an excellent foundation for postgraduate study in the areas of Arabic or Islamic studies, as well as for living and working in Arab countries.
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10 NEWS AND EVENTS
A tour of BBC Arabic has been arranged for June 2015, and there are plans to organise two Arabic calligraphy workshops later in the year.
The Jordan Language Academy has arranged for some of our year abroad Arabic students to undertake part-time voluntary work for a number of organisations. At the moment, students are working with “Syria Bright Future” and “Dar al-Yasmin” both of which help Syrian refugees, at Rainbow Cinema, The Jordan Times newspaper and Synergy, a youth-led NGO in Amman.
In February, our “Middle Eastern Studies Research Seminars” series kicked off with a talk from Dr Elian Weizman (SOAS, London) on “Resistance to Zionism as an Educative Practice”. We have also had Dr Nacim Pak (Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh) talking on “Trends in the Constructions of Masculinities in Pre-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema” and Dr Shuruq Naguib (Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University) “Bint al-Shati', Tradition, Modernity and Gender”. Still to come are Dr Dalia Mostafa, (Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester) “Cultural and Spatial Implications of the Popular Cairene Coffeehouse”, Professor Ian Richard Netton (University of Exeter) “The Hajj as a Mirror: Past, Present and Future” and Dr Hatsuki Aichima (Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester) “Between Power and Beauty: Preliminary Reflections on Egyptian Karate Communities”. 12
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Languages in Manchester – it’s not just for the Degree!
Being the large urban centre that it is, Manchester is particularly multicultural and student-friendly, and the ideal place to learn languages given its long-established partnerships with cultural institutes.
Manchester is itself a popular destination for foreign students, and the University’s links with European and world-wide institutions means that the campus is always abuzz with visitors. It couldn’t be easier meeting up with foreigners whose native language you’re hoping to learn!
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CONTACT US ug-languages@manchester.ac.uk Undergraduate Admissions Office School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Room A19, Samuel Alexander Building The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3265
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