Books
Arab-American Book Awards
The Arab-American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan hosts these Book Awards, “is a literary program created to honor books written by and about Arab Americans.” Books are awarded annually in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Children/Young Adult.
Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Stories
This website offers “resources for exploring new and diverse perspectives on the people, places, histories, beliefs, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world,” along with a list of 25 books, 3 films and other resources. This website is a joint product of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in cooperation with the American Library Association, and includes an conversation toolkit for encouraging discussion about these Muslim Stories.
Global Reads Webinar Series: Reading Across Cultures: Diverse Social Justice Books for the 7 – 12 grade Classroom
Hosted by the World Area Book Awards, this annual webinar series features a “60 minute webinar on a book recognized by one of the awards” and facilitates “ a discussion with the author on how to incorporate the book into the classroom.” Participating in four webinar sessions results in a certificate of completion, and sessions are free and open to the public. Books are awarded for the regions of Latin America, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC): Middle East Book Award
Since 1999, MEOC has awarded picture books, youth literature, and youth non-fiction books for “authenticity of their portrayal of a Middle Eastern subject, as well as on their characterization, plot, and appeal for the intended audience.” The Middle East Book Award recipients are excellent choices for use in the classroom at all ages. Past Award recipients are available in PDF form on the MEOC website.
Films
Alexander Street
This database is owned by Proquest, and offers thousands of videos, books, documents, and songs. The massive collection is free to browse and view, and is organized by academic discipline. For educators teaching on MENA subjects, the Anthropology discipline is a good starting point to find video clips and historical documents for use in the classroom.
Brown University Film Guide
The Brown University Library offers this film guide as a companion to its Middle East Studies resources. Click through for helpful links and encyclopaedia entries on Middle Eastern cinema.
Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Film Database
This database contains a list of films on the Middle East and North Africa recommended by Duke-UNC faculty for use in the classroom, with over 100 titles listed.
Language Resource Center: Online Catalog
The LRC at the University of Michigan provides materials and learning resources for language study to University of Michigan students. This online catalog lists all media in 30+ available languages, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish and others. Email cmenas@umich.edu for more information on borrowing privileges.
Middle Eastern Film Posters Digitization Initiative
This database contains Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi and Lebanese movie posters from 1935 to 2007, with over 2,000 posters and lobby cards in the collection. This database is managed by Princeton University.
Archival Resources
Archnet
Developed by the Agha Khan Trust for Culture and the Agha Khan Documentation Center at MIT, Libraries, Archnet is an “open-access library on the built environment of Muslim societies.” Their pedagogy page contains teaching collections resources for K-12 primary and secondary education.
Electronic Middle East Sourcebook
This resource is “is a peer-reviewed electronic publication that seeks to bridge the gap between research and pedagogy in Middle East Studies.” Here, you will find sources on topics including State and Society, Gender and Society, Press, Media and Society, Religion and Society, Views of the World, Redefining Tradition, and Economic Change.
Internet Jewish History Sourcebook and Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
These two websites hosted by Fordham University are part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, “a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use… primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses.” These websites offer a wealth of historical information and links to primary sources of Jewish and Islamic History.
Knowledge Production Project: Archiving the Middle East
This fascinating website allows users to search for source material produced in the Middle East, and to track trends over time. It is described as a “a dynamic, open-access archive, search tool, and data visualization platform. It collects, catalogues, and makes available for analysis knowledge produced on the Middle East since 1979 in the English language in eight databases.”
Middle East Studies
Librarian for Middle East Studies and Religious Studies and Curator of the Islamic Manuscripts Collection at the University of Michigan Evyn Kropf compiled this guide for “resources relevant for the study of the Middle East and North Africa from the ancient to the modern period.” Within, you’ll find links to material hosted by UM and important literature databases on external websites.
The Afternoon Map
This blog aims to showcase “a range of original, visually appealing and intellectually engaging maps harvested from archives and libraries around the world,” focusing on “Ottoman/Turkish/Middle Eastern/Balkan cartography.”
The Gulf/2000 Project: Atlas of the Islamic World and Vicinity
This website contains maps and infographics on the Islamic World, on subjects including “Economy, Natural Resources and the Environment, History, Military,” and more.
