The Spring 2012 Student Research Conference sponsored by Teaching International, the Honors Program, and Greener Allegheny, was held on April 12, 2012. Thirty posters were displayed and entered into the competition.

The winners are listed below.

Honors Category

Ramon Rivera, Alkylation of Sulfides in the Human Body, CHEM 212H, Dr. Bittner

Middle East Category

Erika Vasques & Karin Botti, Exposing Harmful Middle-Eastern Stereotypes Using an Advice-Taking Measure, PSYCH 301W, Dr. Signorella

Millenium Development Goals Category

Jindi Chen, Tongzhe Cheng, & Yu Wang, Assessing the State of Education in Yemen, MGMT 301, Dr. Hough

Sustainability Category

Vallerie Frazier, Bacterial Flora of Renziehausen Park's Sulfur Springs, MICRO 107H, Mrs. Mitchell

The theatre production classes at Penn State Greater Allegheny (Theatre 208 and Theatre 282) are preparing for their spring production, "How King Solomon Met the Queen of Sheba," at 7:30 p.m. April 26-28, in the Fitness and Cultural Center theatre space, as part of the campus Teaching International program.  

Given the sparse details about the circa 950 B.C. encounter between these two leaders provided in the Torah, Bible and Koran, the working script for the production (developed through class research, discussion, and improvisations) relies largely on Jewish and Arabic folk lore and period history to create what we hope is a plausible, sometimes humorous, lead up to their climactic meeting. 

The production also features a chorus of time-travelling Djinn (Genies), who provide a frame for the story, offering frequent commentary and transitions between scenes. The period costumes being constructed in the class will be enhanced by traditional attire graciously loaned by parents of some of the students.

This production is free and open to the public.

Over the weekend of 24 March 2012, 42 students and 2 faculty embarked on a marathon voyage by bus to New York City as part of a Teaching International and Honors Program trip to see the Islamic Art exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in mid-town Manhattan.

The exhibit included pieces of Islamic art from Africa, the Middle East, India, and elsewhere. The display, called "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," will be at the New York City museum through July 8, 2012.

Afterwards, students spent the day exploring the sites of the city.

The faculty members who accompanied the students were Douglas Charles, assistant professor of history, and David Seitz, assistant professor of communications, both members of the Teaching International committee.

As part of the Teaching International initiative, Penn State Greater Allegheny has adopted each year a country or region of the world, and a theme, as a common focus to inspire teaching and scholarship.  The region for the 2011-2012 academic year is the Middle East and the theme is the Millenium Development Goals. Teaching International works closely with the campus sustainability project, Greener Allegheny, and the Honors Program to sponsor events that raise awareness of global issues.

Teaching International 2011-12 presents Dr. Audrey Maretzki as the next speaker in a series of events focusing on The Middle East and the Millenium Development Goals.

Dr. Maretzki is Professor Emeritus of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Food Services at Penn State University. Her discussion is entitled,Building on Indigenous Knowledge to Reduce Poverty and Increase Food Security.

This event and free and open to the public and will be held on Tuesday, March 20 at 12:15 p.m. in the Ostermayer Room in the Student Community Center.

International Women's Day agenda:

• Dr. Douglas Charles, “International Women's Day in Historical Perspective”
• Dr. David Seitz, “Are You A Feminist?”
• Dr. Mildred Mickle, readings of: “Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)” by Nikki Giovanni (1943-).  “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou (1928-).
• Reading by poet Angele Ellis
• Reading by poet Kelli Stevens Kane (www.kellistevenskane.com)
• Penn State Greater Allegheny Drama Club presents: “A Gender Bending Scene from Shakespeare ‘As You Like It’.” Actors: Courtney Handlovitch, Tim Tolbert and Briana Toth. Dr. Jay Breckenridge, Drama Club adviser.
• Dr. James Jaap, Amy Guthrie, and Dr. Verónica Montecinos, “Marie Antoinette, Queen and Icon of Feminist Struggles.”

The program will begin at 12:15 - 1:30 p.m. in the Crawford Building, room 102  

The event, which was held on February 16, 2012 from 12:15-1:15 p.m., was developed by Hussain and Dr. Mildred Mickle, associate professor of English and a member of the Teaching International program committee.

Hussain introduced participants to the Arabic alphabet. He began by writing the Arabic letters and numbers that were projected onto a screen for the audience. As he wrote the letters, he taught the audience how to pronounce the sounds. Then he asked the audience for specific words that he wrote on the screen. Participants felt free to ask Hussain questions about Arabic culture and holidays and requested he sing the Arabic version of "Happy Birthday." Hussain complied graciously and then gave participants time to practice writing words in Arabic.

As there was considerable interest in the workshop, the organizers will present a second session on April 24, 2012 from 12:15-1:30 p.m. in the Ostermayer Room, Student Community Center.

As part of the Teaching International initiative, Penn State Greater Allegheny has adopted each year a country or region of the world, and a theme, as a common focus to inspire teaching and scholarship.  The region for the 2011-2012 academic year is the Middle East and the theme is the Millenium Development Goals. Teaching International works closely with the campus sustainability project, Greener Allegheny, and the Honors Program to sponsor events that raise awareness of these global issues.

For more information, contact Nancy Conway (412-675-9143 or nle10@psu.edu).

One of the profiled artists, Sherin Neshat, is the director of our first screening of the semester, Women Without Men.

There will also be a panel discussion after the screening with additional guests to explore issues raised by the film.

The screening is free and open to the public.

Dr. Leigh-Ann Bedal, assistant professor in anthropology at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, will present "Constructed Paradise: Conspicuous Consumption and the Petra Garden and Pool Complex" at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.  Bedal received her degrees from California State University, University of California, Berkley (master's degree) and the University of Pennsylvania (doctoral degree), and specializes in Near Eastern archaeology, urbanization and garden archaeology.  She has excavated in Iraq, Syria, Israel, Italy and Jordan, and is the project director of the Petra Garden and Pool-Complex Excavation in Jordan.

Bedal’s appearance is a part of the Teaching the Middle East 2011-12 speaker series sponsored by Penn State Greater Allegheny’s Teaching International, Greener Allegheny, and honors programs.

The Fall 2011 Student Research Conference sponsored by Teaching International, the Honors Program, and Greener Allegheny, was held on November 17, 2011. Sixty posters were displayed and entered into the competition.

The winners are listed below.

Honors category

First Place

“Globalization” by Vallerie Frazier, Cody Scagline, Anthony Tyke, & Yu Wang; Bernie Cerasaro, ECON 104H.

Second Place

Three-way tie:
“A Tale of Love and Darkness: An autobiographical memoir written by Amos Oz” by Erika Vasques. Dr. Kathleen Brown, CAS 100H.
“UV-VIS Spectroscopy” by Ramon Rivera. Bittner, CHEM 210H.
“Health Care” by Samantha Clark, Myan Haviv, Megan Pastore, Mingkang Zhang; Bernie Cerasaro, ECON 104H.

Teaching the Middle East category

First place

“Violence in Yemen” by John Alligood, Dillon O'Hanlon, Cassandra Smith; Dr. Kathleen Brown, CAS 100A.

Second place

Millennium Development Goals category

First place

“Gender Equality in Turkey” by Andrew Pollman, Lauren Hawkins, Becky Perhach; Dr. Kathleen Brown, CAS 100A.

Second place

“Gender Inequality in Turkey” by Phillip Keib; Dr. Veronica Montecinos, SOC 110.

Sustainability category

First place

“Energy Sources of the Middle East” by Nicole Bacvinskas, Courtney Bailey, Si Zhao; Dr. Eric Lipsky, EGEE 101.

Second place

Two-way tie:

“A Dedicated Biodiesel Building” by Mark Render, Madeline Hamilton; Dr. Eric Lipsky, EDSGN 100.
“Energy: The United States vs. The Middle East” by Courtney Handlovitch, Shelbie McCurdy; Dr. Eric Lipsky, EGEE 101.

The stories in this production have been chosen from a number of Middle Eastern folk tale narratives and then adapted and dramatized for performance as part of the campus Teaching International Program.

The Cave of Three Wishes is about a poor shepherd who uses a pretend magic cave to find out what the womenfolk in his household wish for--with unsettling results.  Prince Naas is about a clever, hard-working girl who deceives a queen who is looking for her missing son, Prince Naas, and hears the girl telling "naas" (which meant "sleepiness" in her language) to stay away from her.  The girl agrees to let "Naas" court her when the queen, hoping this will bring back her son, promises to provide food and clothing for the girl and her sisters.  Complications ensue.  The Farmer who Followed his Dream is about a farmer who has a recurrent dream about going to Jerusalem and standing by Damascus gate.  His wife suggests that he travel to Damascus Gate to find the meaning of the dream--with surprising results.   The Hunchback of Dhafar is about a crippled young man who achieves a happy life (and improved posture), thanks to his good deeds and the prayers of his family and friends.

The lecture will be on November 29 at 12:15 p.m. in Crawford 104.

Professor Orbach’s teaching focused on the experience of modern Jewry in the 19th and 20th century in both European and Near Eastern settings.

He has published on Russian Jewry, Zionism and Israel and antisemitism. Currently, he studying aspects of Jewish politics in Tsarist Russia in the 1905-1914 period and the broader issue of dual loyalty as it has challenged modern Jewry in the post-Emancipation era.

As part of the Teaching International initiative, Penn State Greater Allegheny has adopted each year a country or region of the world, and a theme, as a common focus to inspire teaching and scholarship.  The region for the 2011-2012 academic year is the Middle East and the theme is the Millenium Development Goals. Teaching International works closely with the campus sustainability project, Greener Allegheny, and the Honors Program to sponsor events that raise awareness of these global issues.

Orbach's talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Nancy Conway (412-675-9143 or nle10@psu.edu).

Catori Carter-Hutching interviewed Chancellor Curtiss Porter.

"The Mortal Cry of a Gazelle," is the title of Angele Ellis's talk on the Ghazal in modern literature. Ellis will be appearing on Thursday November 10 at 12:15 p.m. in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.

Her work has appeared on a theater marquee - after winning Pittsburgh Filmmakers' G-20 Haiku Contest in 2009 - and in journals, periodicals and anthologies. The author of two books of poetry, Spared (Main Street Rag, 2011) and Arab on Radar (Six Gallery Press, 2007), she was a 2008 recipient of an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and a prizewinner in the 2007 RAWI Competition for Creative Prose.

In 1997 she co-authored the diversity workbook Dealing With Differences (Corwin Press).

An honors graduate in English from the University of Pittsburgh, Angele Ellis makes her home in Pittsburgh's Friendship neighborhood.

As part of the Teaching International initiative, Penn State Greater Allegheny has adopted each year a country or region of the world, and a theme, as a common focus to inspire teaching and scholarship.  The region for the 2011-2012 academic year is the Middle East and the theme is the Millenium Development Goals. Teaching International works closely with the campus sustainability project, Greener Allegheny, and the Honors Program to sponsor events that raise awareness of these global issues.

The Ellis presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Nancy Conway (412-675-9143 or nle10@psu.edu).

The revolutions shaking the Arab world are not yet complete and it is unclear what shape emergent new governments will take. Along with questions about domestic developments for each Arab country in political tumult arises another question: what are the implications for Arab-Israeli peace?

Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg will address these issues at the next Teaching International lecture on October 18 at 12:15 p.m. in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.

Eisenberg is Teaching Professor in the History Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where she specializes in Middle East history. She holds a Ph.D. in modern Middle East history from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1990). Her areas of research and publication include the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace process. She has published numerous articles and is the author of My Enemy's Enemy: Lebanon in the early Zionist Imagination, 1900-1948 (Wayne State, 1994) and, with Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (Indiana University Press, 2010).

An unusual project for which Eisenberg served as consultant was the development of “PeaceMaker,” a video game simulating Palestinian-Israeli interactions (www.peacemakergame.com). Ongoing research projects concern the legacy of Jordan's King Hussein and the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

As part of the Teaching International initiative, Penn State Greater Allegheny has adopted each year a country or region of the world, and a theme, as a common focus to inspire teaching and scholarship.  The region for the 2011-2012 academic year is the Middle East and the theme is the Millenium Development Goals. Teaching International works closely with the campus sustainability project, Greener Allegheny, and the Honors Program to sponsor events that raise awareness of these global issues.

Eisenberg's talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Nancy Conway (412-675-9143 or nle10@psu.edu).

Mohammed A. Bamyeh, professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, will open this year's Teaching International Speaker Series on the Middle East. His talk, "Dynamics of Revolt in the Arab Spring," will take place on September 14 at 11 a.m. in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.

Bamyeh, who received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990, is the incoming editor of the International Sociology Review of Books (ISRB).

His most recent book, Islam and Society: Social Movements, Global Structures, Social Critique, is expected to appear in 2012. His other books include Anarchy as Order: The History and future of Civic Humanity (Rowan & Littlefield 2009); Of Death and Dominion: The Existential Foundations of Governance (Northwestern UP 2007); The Ends of Globalization (Minnesota UP 2000); The Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse (Minnesota UP 1999, winner of the Albert Hourani Honorable Mention from the Middle East Studies Association). He just finished editing the forthcoming volume Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East (I. B. Tauris 2011). 

Teaching International began in 2004 to promote greater awareness of global trends and civic engagement and to broaden students' understanding of intercultural and international issues. This event is free and open to the public. For information, call 412-675-9143.

For the 2011-2012 academic year, the campus will study the Middle East, with a theme of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The regions and themes are chosen by a vote of faculty and staff. After a region is chosen, participating faculty and staff discuss the definition of the region. In some cases, there is consensus on what constitutes a particular region, whereas in other cases, such as with the Middle East, there  is much less agreement.

For information on the countries to be studied, the Millennium Development Goals, and resources and events, consult the Teaching The Middle East web page.