Washington College Magazine
The Culture Of The "Others"
Lebanese-Americans like Renee Farrah's family followed the war closely.
Professor Ibrahim's students visited a mosque in Washington, DC.
The history and culture of Arab-speaking peoples, though still removed from the American mainstream, is finding increased visibility and understanding at Washington College through an expanded program in Near Eastern studies.
"New courses in Arabic and studies respond to the sense throughout our country that we are not well informed about this vital part of the world," says Provost and Dean of the College Christopher Ames. "Liberal arts education has always sought to overcome parochialism and broaden our understanding of different cultures, religions, languages and historical eras. The program in studies combines courses on campus at College with intensive study abroad to give students a genuinely global perspective."
Contributing to the College's efforts to educate students about the region is Ibtisam Ibrahim, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who is new to the faculty this fall. professor of Middle East and Arabic studies, is teaching an international studies course on the Middle politics and society, an language course and a course on Islamic religion.
Ibrahim expresses gratitude for the opportunity to offer a broader perspective to Washington College students and to encourage them to balance differing perspectives about the Middle East. "It's important for students to know the words and the culture of the 'others,' and to develop a familiarity with the Arab-speaking world through someone like me, rather than through the media," she explains.
A graduate of University of Haifa in Israel, Ibrahim pursued postgraduate studies in the U.S., earning a master's degree at Clark University and a Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has written about the status of Arab women in and is co-author of a comparative study examining conflict resolution in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, published in the Journal of Peace Research (March 2006).
To help students learn about Arabic customs, Ibrahim invited them to participate in breaking the fast of the Ramadan observance and arranged a field trip to the Islamic Center of Washington, DC. To contribute to their understanding of the ongoing conflict between Israel and its neighbors, she shares her personal knowledge of families in the occupied Palestinian territories trying to live without electricity or running water.
She is direct about the negative impact of the Palestinian impasse. "There is no peace and no resolution of the conflict as long as the Palestinian people [about 4 million] live under the Israeli occupation," she says. "The occupation is a dreadful experience; there is no nation on earth that would like to be occupied and prevented from its own national freedom. situation is even worse now than it was some years ago, and it was so hard for me to live through another war such as the Israeli bombing of Lebanon during summer 2006."
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