Call for Participation
Discovering the Egyptian Landscape:
The People, the Land and the Culture
In Summer 2009, the College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno proposes a four-week Study Abroad program in Egypt. The program will be lead by Dr. A. Sameh El Kharbawy (Associate Professor of Art and Design; College of Arts and Humanities) and sponsored by a Fulbright-Hays grant, pending funding approval.
Fifteen members of the California State University, Fresno faculty and/or graduate students will be selected to participate in this Group Study Abroad. Participants will be immersed in Egypt’s history and its visual culture and will have access to people, places and geographies that no tourist could ever hope to encounter. Through carefully designed lectures, conferences with local artists, architects, and musicians, visits to historic and modern sites, museums, and monuments, the remarkable story of ancient and modern Egypt will begin to unfold.
The program participants will discover the unique identity Egypt constructs out of its rich historical heritage, on the one hand, and the cultural pluralism with which it embodies the modern Middle East on the other. Anyone who has ever been to Egypt is immediately struck by its unity and coherence, on the one hand, and the magnificent variety of peoples, languages, architectures, and cultures that make up its modern story, on the other. And with developed institutions and active civic dynamics, Egypt also opens a unique window to the Middle East’s modern culture and society. It is this complex landscape that will be the focus of this program.
The four-week study tour begins and ends in Cairo. With the city as our classroom, the group will visit monuments of ancient and modern art and architecture (mosques, churches, synagogues, shrines, houses, libraries, tea-houses, museums and modern universities.) Beyond Cairo, the group will travel to a number of important historical and cultural sites in Egypt: from Greco-Roman sites in North Egypt to the ancient Egyptian monuments in the South; from Egypt’s authentic countryside, to its desert landscape; from its modern cities (Cairo, Alexandria) to its unique post-modern (and ecologically centered) face on the Eastern coast. Along the way, the group will receive numerous lectures and workshops from leading scholars, craft masters, musicians, artists, calligraphers and local academics.
In addition to improving the participants’ understanding of Egyptian culture and that of the region, this program will provide its participants with experiences and knowledge that they can incorporate into their teaching and scholarship on Egypt and the Middle East.
Applications due Tuesday, Sept 9, 2008.
To apply:
Application Process: Faculty and Graduate students are required to submit written application materials and participate in an interview as follows:
1. Letter of Interest specifying:
a) reason for interest
b) identification of personal and professional strengths that would contribute to the project
c) related research interests
2. Individual Project Proposal. The following topics will be addressed by each applicant:
a) personal impact
b) commitment to curricular change by identifying and explaining how at least one to two courses might undergo pedagogical and/or curricular change
c) plans for dissemination of knowledge via scholarship
d) plans for dissemination of knowledge to the external and internal communities
3. Personal Interviews. Applicants will meet Key Personnel to assess the above items, communication skills, and their likely success of achieving project goals and objectives.
Selection Process: The Key Personnel will review and select 15 faculty participants with two alternates. The selection process will be consistent with the university’s non-discriminatory, equal opportunity policies. The diversity of the selected participants will reflect the diversity of the College and University.
The following criteria will be used:
1. Interest in improving curriculum and the community
2. Knowledge of or desire to learn about Egyptian and Middle Eastern culture and its contributions to contemporary society
3. Quality of submitted Individual Project Proposals
4. Willingness to adhere to all related activities including:
a) pre-departure orientation and preparation, four week study-tour, and post-trip meeting series
b) implementation of curriculum changes in the classroom
c) participation in professional meetings and conferences as well as website development of information to disseminate newly acquired knowledge and skills
5. Representation from a variety of departments and Colleges across campus
