Middle East experts

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Spring 2002 by Lootens, Abigail E

Future connections

As old and strong as some of the connections between the United States and the Middle East and Islamic world are, their future is uncertain. Foreign student exchange between the Middle East and New England has already begun to decline. "The number of students coming from the region has been increasing over the years but I will bet that next year's numbers will be much lower," says Fizazi-Hawkins.

Americans are now more interested in study of the Middle East and Islamic world. Consider that Middlebury added its German School in 1915 during World War I, its Russian School in 1945 at the onset of the Cold War and the Japanese School in 1970 when Japan was emerging as an economic competitor. Arabic, ironically, was not added in response to a perceived threat but because of the realization of the size of the Arabic-speaking world.

Middlebury has already seen a 60 percent increase in inquiries about the Arabic School, according to Katz. "Increased study of a country or region is the typical American pattern of reacting to a military or economic threat," he says.

"We don't have statistics yet," says Nancy Dishaw of MESA, "but the number of programs and classes in Middle Eastern studies is definitely up and they're growing much more popular."

"After the end of the Cold War, we focused on our country and didn't worry about our relationship with the rest of the world, especially the countries of that region because they were considered inaccessible and essentially not important," says Schoeberlein, "Now there's a need to know."

Abigail E. Lootens was a fall 2001 NEBHE/CONNECTION intern. She is a senior at Boston College.