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Peter Sluglett, a long time member of BRISMES, is President-elect of MESA, the Middle East Studies Association of North America. He taught Middle Eastern history at Durham University between 1974 and 1993 and at the University of Utah since 1994; he is currently Visiting Research Professor at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore. This year he is President-elect; he will be President in 2012-13. He served as a member of the BRISMES Council between 1986 and 1989, and was Review Editor of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies between 1990 and 1994.

“Thinking Out of the Box: Devising New European Policies to Face the Arab Spring” (NEPAS) – Website: http://nepas-project.net/
University of Minho, Braga – 21-22 February 2013

CBRL Academic Arabic Programme

2-20 September in Beirut, Lebanon

The Council for British Research in the Levant has launched a new programme to offer advanced language training to established academic researchers who work on the Arab world. The programme caters to the specific needs of lecturers, professors, and post-doctoral researchers who have already reached a high level of proficiency and use Arabic sources for their research, but who would benefit from the opportunity to refresh their language skills during a period of intensive immersion.

To meet the needs of these established academics, the CBRL is organising two short, intensive courses in autumn 2013 and Easter 2014. Conducted entirely in Arabic, each three-week course will offer a combination of content-based discussion on various topics in Arab history, culture and society, and sessions designed to hone general language proficiency (listening, reading, writing and speaking). The programme will provide 12 hours per week of small group sessions (6-8 participants), in addition to 4 hours per week of individual tuition to focus on topics and skills of relevance to their research interests (e.g. specific literary or historical texts, interview skills, colloquial Arabic, etc). The programme aims to replicate the intellectual environment of a university seminar held in Arabic, rather than traditional pedagogical instruction.

In September 2013, the course will be provided by the Institut Français du Proche Orient (IFPO) Beirut.

For further details about the CBRL Academic Arabic Programme, visit www.cbrl.org.uk/news.html

Thanks to generous funding from the British Academy, the CBRL can offer bursaries to cover tuition, travel, and accommodation. Deadline for applications is 31 May 2013. Further information is available at www.cbrl.org.uk/support.html

Queries should be directed to Daniel Neep, CBRL Research Director at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


SOAS to start new summer school courses on the Middle East

The London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS is to introduce a combination of two short courses from this summer: the Government and Politics of the Middle East and Modern Arabic. The intensive five-week summer school programme will take place from 24 June to 26 July 2013.

Summer school students can take two courses: an Arabic language course (either introductory or intermediate) and another on 'Government and Politics of the Middle East'.

Government and Politics of the Middle East serves as an introduction to the politics of North Africa (Maghreb), the Arab East (Mashriq) including the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, Turkey and Iran. It offers an overview of the major political issues and developments in the region since the end of the First World War and addresses key themes in the study of contemporary Middle East politics, including: the role of the military, social and economic development, political Islam, and the recent uprisings (the 'Arab Spring').

Arabic 100 is a course in Modern Standard Arabic for complete beginners. It teaches students the Arabic script and provides basic grounding in Arabic grammar and syntax. On completing the course, students should be able to read, write, listen to, and understand simple Arabic sentences and passages.

Arabic 200 is an intermediate course, which focuses on reading, writing, grammar and provides training in listening. The course will also introduce modern media Arabic to prepare students to read newspapers, magazines and internet news sources published in the Arab world today. On completing the course, students should be able to read and understand texts of an intermediate level, compose short texts in Arabic on a variety of topics and be able to follow oral communication in Arabic. Students will also be trained in the basic skills necessary to read and understand Arabic news media with the aid of a dictionary.

Hassan Hakimian, Director of the LMEI, said: "We are pleased to extend opportunities for learning about the Middle East region at SOAS in the summer period. Our courses aim to develop the students' language skills as well as their understanding of the major trends in Middle East politics and current affairs through critical reading, lectures, presentations and informed discussions."

Registration is now open and there are still places available. Please note that early bird discounts of 10% are available until 15 May.

For more information, see: http://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/summerschool/ or contact Louise Hosking: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Royal Charter Granted to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies