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| InterSession 2011: The Middle East from Friends Select School on Vimeo.
2011: the Middle East
What is the global impact of the
Middle East, past, present and future?
Friends Select announces InterSession, a groundbreaking international studies immersion
program for students in grades 9 through 12.
For five days between semesters, students and faculty investigate a particular region of
the world—its geography, peoples, governments, culture, religions, economies and poli-
tics. Experts engage directly with student/faculty teams in a variety of formats: large
seminar-style survey lectures, small group meetings, and guided discussions and debates
around topical issues. Students draw directly on the intellectual and cultural capital of the
city to deepen their understanding of the region under study.
By the end of InterSession, students will have completed a personal “field book” of
study which examines their individual understanding of the topics researched in-depth
that week.
InterSession is made possible through a matching grant by the Edward E. Ford Foundation and
is part of the Friends Select School International Studies Program.
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| Roger Allen, Professor of Arabic and Comparative
Literature and Chair of the Department of Near
Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of
Pennsylvania
Allen joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Allen began to concentrate
his research on modern Arabic fiction. He has
translated many works into English, notably fiction
works by Naguib Mahfouz, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra,
Yusuf Idris, `Abd al-rahman Munif, Mayy
Telmissany and others. He consulted with
Cambridge University Press to develop the organizing
principles behind The Cambridge History of
Arabic Literature, a multi-volume series, edited one
volume in that series, The Post-Classical Period,
and wrote what is regarded by some scholars as the
seminal work on the Arabic literary tradition: The
Arabic Literary Heritage.
Topic: Literature of the Middle East, Friday, February 4
Manar Darwish, Faculty, Modern Languages and
Philosophy/Religion Departments, The College of
New Jersey
Darwish teaches Women in Muslim Tradition;
Contemporary Egypt, Its Culture and Its Women;
Islam and Islamic Thought; and beginner’s and
intensive Arabic courses at The College of New
Jersey. She has lectured widely at schools, universities
and religious institutions and at the University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and
Anthropology on topics dealing with the visual and
literary arts of the Arab world, Islam and the Qur’an,
and the status of women in Islam
Topic: Women and Islam, Thursday, February 3
Eric Davis, Professor of Political Science and Past
Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies,
Rutgers University
Davis’ research has included the study of the relationships
between state power and historical memory
in modern Iraq, the political economy of Egyptian
industrialization, the ideology and social bases of
religious radical movements in Egypt and Israel, and
the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in
Arab oil-producing countries.
Davis was appointed a Carnegie Scholar for
2007-2008, holds a fellowship from the American
Academic Research Institute in Iraq and a grant
from the United States Institute of Peace for
2008-2009 to study the relationship between sectarian
identities and civil society.
Topic: Panelist, “Is Democracy Necessary in the Middle East?” Wednesday, February 2
Timothy Dibble, Associate AIA, LEED AP
Dibble is senior court analyst to the Abu Dhabi
Judiciary Department in the United Arab Emirates.
He currently leads the Model Judiciary Initiative,
working with the Judicial Council on a multi-year
project focused on all aspects of judicial performance.
Dibble builds on 23 years in the profession of
architecture and planning and on extensive national
experience with U.S. federal, state and local governments,
courts and the justice community.
Topics: Comparative Politics of the Middle East, Wednesday, February 2
Panelist, “Is Democracy Necessary in the Middle East?” Wednesday, February 2 Jamal J. Elias, Class of 1965 Term Professor of
Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Elias teaches Islamic studies courses at Penn, including
History of Islamic Civilization, Islamic Ethics,
Islam and Modernity, Sufism, Islamic Metaphysics
and others. He speaks Arabic, French, Persian,
Punjabi, Turkish (modern and Ottoman) and Urdu-
Hindi and has overseas research experience in
Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, Turkey, Pakistan
and Uzbekistan. Elias’ research interests include
Islamic mystical thought and metaphysics; religion
and material culture; popular culture in South Asia
and Turkey; Sufi literature and Qur`anic studies.
Topic: Islam: Truth and Stereotypes, Monday, January 31
Deborah Harrold, Lecturer in Political Science and
Coordinator of the Middle Eastern Studies Initiative
Program, Bryn Mawr College
Harrold’s general area of specialization is comparative
politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Her
education at University of Chicago and field work in
Algeria in the early 1990s led her to look at interconnections
between different fields of study. Harrold’s
research and teaching emphasize the importance of
recognizing the interplay of political power, globalization,
and political economy as a precondition to
understanding the region.
Topic: Panelist, “Is Democracy Necessary in the Middle East?” Wednesday, February 2
Alan Luxenberg, Director, Wachman Center and
Vice President, Foreign Policy Research Institute
Luxenberg is founder and director of the Wachman
Center, which seeks to foster civic and international
literacy in the community and in the classroom. He is
author of two volumes designed for middle and upper
school students: The Palestine Mandate and the
Creation of Israel, part of the 10-volume series
Making of the Modern Middle East; and Radical
Islam, part of a 10-volume series on Islam.
Luxenberg’s essays have appeared in the Forward
and in the Jewish Exponent. He has also published in
The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times and
the Chicago Tribune.
Topic: The History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Wednesday, February 2
Jacob Mumm, Lead Civil Field Engineer, Bechtel
Corporation
Mumm has worked for Bechtel Corporation in various
capacities since 2002. From 2008-2009, Mumm
was front end planning manager for the Libya Sirte
Commercial Port and Abu Dhabi Military Production
Zone Master Plan, working closely with the Abu
Dhabi Higher Commission for Economic
Development and the Libyan Ministry of
Transportation Port Authority. From 2005-2008,
Mumm served as area field engineer in Habshan,
United Arab Emirates, where he oversaw the Onshore
Gas Development (OGD) III. He holds degrees from
Harvard, Tulane University School of Engineering,
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies, Saint-Joseph-Center for Research and Arab
Studies, and the Universite´ American University of
Beirut (Middle East Studies and Economics). Fluent
in Modern Standard Arabic, Mumm is a United States
citizen and United Kingdom permanent resident.
Topic: Innovation and Technology in the Middle East, Tuesday, February 1
Yael Rice, Assistant Curator of Indian and
Himalayan Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Rice, a doctoral candidate at University of
Pennsylvania (history of art), holds a master’s degree
with distinction in art history from University of
Massachusetts, Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in
cultural anthropology from University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. Since joining the Philadelphia
Museum of Art in January 2009, Rice has curated or
co-curated eight exhibits focused on the visual arts of
Islam, Bengal and India, including A Glimpse of
Paradise: Gold in Islamic Art and Monumental
Miniatures: Large-scale Paintings from India, both
currently being featured at the museum.
Topic: Middle Eastern Art: From Past to Present, Friday, February 4
Brian Spooner, Professor of Anthropology,
University of Pennsylvania
Spooner’s research interests span cultural and social
anthropology, globalization, the Middle East, South
Asia, and Central Asia; and social organization, Islam
religion, ethnohistory, ecology and non-industrial
economies. Before coming to Penn in 1985, he held
many strategic advisory positions in the Middle East,
serving variously as assistant director for the British
Institute of Persian Studies in Tehran; advisor to the
Iranian government (Department of the Environment,
Office of the Prime Minister); senior advisor to the
Secretary General of the United Nations Conference
on Desertification (Nairobi) and executive positions
with the American Institute of Iranian Studies, the
American Research Institute in Turkey and American
Institute of Pakistan Studies, among others.
Topic: Natural Resources of the Middle East, Tuesday, February 1
Eve M. Troutt Powell, Associate Professor of
History, University of Pennsylvania
Cultural historian Troutt Powell teaches the history of
the modern Middle East through the lens of literature
and film. She is author of A Different Shade of
Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain and the Mastery of
the Sudan and co-editor of The African Diaspora in
the Mediterranean Lands of Islam. She was named a
MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2003. Currently she
is working on a book about the memory of slavery in
the Nile Valley. Both her research and teaching
explore the relationship between Africa and the
Middle East.
Topic: A Historical Overview of the Middle East, Monday, January 31
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Founder and Director, The
Shalom Center
Waskow directs The Shalom Center, which he founded
in 1983. The Shalom Center brings Jewish and
other spiritual thought and practice to bear on seeking
peace, pursuing justice, healing the earth, and celebrating
community. In 1996, the United Nations
named Waskow a “Wisdom Keeper” among 40 religious
and intellectual leaders who met as part of the
Habitat II conference in Istanbul. In 2007 Newsweek
named him one of the 50 most influential rabbis in
America. Waskow is widely published, with more
than 16 books and hundreds of articles to his credit.
He has taught as a visiting professor in the religion
departments of Swarthmore College, Temple
University, Drew University and Vassar College, and
was a faculty member of the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College from 1982 to 1989.
Topic: “The Controversy Over Park51,” Wednesday, February 2
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