We're delighted to welcome you back to a brand new year! We're particularly thrilled to welcome new students, staff, and faculty to campus!

CMENAS had a busy summer with grant writing and we're grateful to report that CMENAS received Title VI funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant provides $2.3 million over four years and represents a 25% increase over the previous cycle. For our intellectual community, that means $336,000 per year to fund FLAS fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students studying the six languages we administer: Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Uzbek. In addition, the grant supports high-quality public education about the MENA region. This cycle, CMENAS will leverage Title VI funding to:

  • Livestream MENAS-related events to minority-serving institutions, like Eastern Michigan University and Henry Ford College, and conduct companion events with those campuses for U-M recruitment
  • Offer K-14 teacher training programs in MENA and international studies education, helping Michigan teachers develop curriculum that ignites the interests of their students in the Middle East
  • Host outreach programs for teachers and journalists that confront the epidemic of anti-Muslim bias in America, and scapegoating more broadly
  • Support the U-M library and positions in Armenian and Turkish languages

With LSA and Title VI support, we are now in a strong position to meet our mission over the next four years: to teach the languages of the MENA region with the most innovative methods, to advance scholarship and new discoveries about MENA cultures and histories, and to share that knowledge with society at large.

If you would like to support these initiatives, get involved. We welcome the talents of faculty, students, and staff in order to make these initiatives a success: cmenas@umich.edu

Samer M. Ali
CMENAS Director
Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature 
Department of Middle East Studies