2024 Middle East Studies Graduation and Awards Ceremony

The George G. Cameron Award in Near Eastern Studies honors George G. Cameron, the "founding father" of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, predecessor of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. This award recognizes a graduating senior in the Middle East Studies department who has an academic record of excellence within the program. Professor Cameron Cross presented the award to Kristen Bagdasarian. Excelling in critical analysis and driving class discussions with a wealth of knowledge about Armenian history and culture and an interest in the neighboring fields of Ottoman Studies and the broader Middle East, Kristen is decribed as a fundamentally curious person by her professors. In the spirit of George Cameron himself, Kristen is a truly interdisciplinary thinker, and the department could not have picked a more deserving individual for this award.

Our next two awardees are recipients of the Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh Funds in Islamic Studies. Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh was a native of Lahore, Pakistan (b. 1920; d. 1989). Although Mrs. Sheikh was schooled at home in a traditional manner and did not recieve a formal education, she held a strong belief in education and encouraged all eight of her children to pursue college studies. She was the mother of a Southeast Michigan Islamic community member, who endowed these scholarships in her memory. The first award, the Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh Scholarship, recognizes undergraduate students who have written an exceptional esssay from a MES Islamic Studies course in the previous Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall terms. Professor Cameron Cross presented this year's award to Khadidiatou Toure, for her close analysis of a section of the Masnavi Ma'navi by the famous Sufi poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi. In this essay, Khadidiaotu demonstrated how one particular passage of the Masnavi dialogues with the other episodes contained within its pages, and also invites renewed contemplation of signifiant passages from the Islamic cannon.

The Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh Travel and Study Fund recognizes an undergraduate student who will be pursuing either research or study abroad in the area of Islamic Studies. Professor Cross awarded this year's Travel and Study award to Amr Ansari. Amr is scheduled to attend the Arabic Language Program this summer in Rabat, Morocco, which includes intensive training in both Modern Standard and Darija Colloquial Arabic, staying with a local family and excurusions to historical sites all throughout the country. Amr is an outstanding student with a profound knowledge of Islamic canonical texts and a deep appreciation for Islamic art, literature, and intellectual history, who hopes to take advantage of his time abroad to hone his language skills and holistically engage with Islamic Studies.

The department honors these two people and the mentorship bond they formed with the Shukran Kamal and Julia Segall-Derfler Memorial Award, awarded to a student who has shown great diligence in Arabic or Hebrew language with an interest in using their language skills in a career focused on translation. The 2024 recipient was Sandra Perosa, who graduated this Winter term, successfully completing her M.A. in Arabic Studies with a concentration in Arabic for Professional Purposes. Professor Said Hannouchi, who presented the award to Sandra, describes her an a self-driven and highly dedicated student who has achieved a high level of proficiency in Arabic and is continuously seeking oppurtunities to enhance her skills in both Modern Standard and Levantine Arabic. Sandra aspires to work in the fields of translation and social work, where she wants to use her knowledge of Arabic to help others.

The Raji Rammuny Award for Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language is an award that recognizes up to two graduate students who have shown excellence in the field of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. Recipients are students who have preformed above and beyond the norm in both their academic and professional pursuits. Professor Mohammad Alhawary presented this year's Rammuny award to M.A. students Minji Kim and Muhammad Mahfuzo. 

The department has had a longstanding and important relationship with the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies. MCECS promotes the teaching of Christian origins within its early Jewish context at the University of Michigan. Thanks to the members of the board of directors, MCECS has created an award to recognize especially talented undergraduate students at the University in the field of early Christianity.

Dr. Deborah Forger presented the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies Harrold J. Ellens Undergraduate Study Award to Emma Ranger, a graduating senior majoring in Economics. Dr. Forger first met Emma in her course, How Religions are Born: The Origins of Judaism and Christianity. Emma's work in the course was described as truly superlative and unrivaled by her peers. Her commitment to and excellence in the study of Christianity is reflected in her performance on exams, which ranked her work in the top one percent of the class and her discussion posts, which were described as carefully crafted, cogent, and clear, evidencing the style of a thinker, presenter, and writer well beyond her years.