Russell E. Lucas is a Professor of International Relations in James Madison College and Global Studies in the College of Arts & Letters. He previously served as Director of the Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program and is a core faculty member of the Muslim Studies Program. This year marks his first time helping to organize the MSU…
Camelia Suleiman, Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages, is currently staying in Nazareth, Israel, while co-teaching a course at Hebrew University of Jerusalem through Zoom. Many of her students, both Jewish and Palestinian, are participating despite the clashes that have taken place outside their homes in the Old City of Jerusalem. She…
The Citizen Scholars program launched in fall 2016 preparing the next generation of diverse, high-achieving, and engaged citizen leaders. The first three graduates of the program graduated last spring. This spring and summer, there are 11 more students who are graduating from the program while earning their undergraduate degrees. “I hope when they look back at their years here at MSU they…
Camelia Suleiman, Associate Professor of Arabic Studies in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages, has been appointed Interim Director of the College of Arts & Letters Citizen Scholars program, effective January 20, 2020. Suleiman has taught several Citizen Scholars classes since the program first began in fall 2016. The program is designed to prepare the next generation…
For 70 years, Arabic was an official language of Israel. That changed last year with the passing of the Nation-State Bill, which became law on July 19, 2018, designating Hebrew as Israel’s only official language. How and why this decision came to be is the focus of a current study by Camelia Suleiman, Associate Professor of Arabic Studies, who was…
Crossing both cultural and language barriers, two MSU Arabic classes are gaining true conversational experience through the creation of an Arabic language conversation program that pairs students with Arabic-speaking refugees from Syria. Each student in the ARB 201 and 401 classes taught by Assistant Professors of Arabic Camelia Suleiman and Cheng-Wei Lin was set up with a Skype account to communicate with…
The public is invited to "Blurring Boundaries: Arabic Identities Across the Mediterranean and Beyond," a global perspectives symposium at Michigan State University scheduled for November 1-3. This is the first time the conference is being held. This free event will delve into the forces of globalization, securitization, and minoritization through the lens of the Arabic language, a language which has…
In a time when Arab and Islamic communities often face hostility and discrimination and are simply misunderstood, one Citizen Scholars class seeks to create greater awareness and better cultural understanding of Islam and the Arab world, with a specific focus on the Middle East. Taught by Assistant Professor of Arabic Camelia Suleiman, the class – Democratic Discourse and Critique: The Middle East Voices…
Seven Arabic students from Michigan State University have won Flagship Scholarships, which will allow them to spend a year in Morocco at the Arabic Flagship site to advance their Arabic learning. While in Morocco, the students will have the opportunity to take courses at Moulay Ismail University and to do an internship, in addition to the intensive classes in Arabic.…