National Endowment for the Humanities
Summer Institute for College and University Teachers
Oregon State University
June 25—July 20, 2007
Berber North Africa: The Hidden Mediterranean Culture
Letter from the Co-Directors
Nabil Boudraa
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Joseph Krause
Professor of French and Chair
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
Oregon State University
________________________________________________
Dear Colleague:
Many thanks for your interest in the 2007 NEH Summer Institute Berber North Africa: The Hidden Mediterranean Culture that we will direct next summer. The Institute will run for four weeks, from June 25 to July 20, 2007 on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, located eighty miles south of Portland and some fifty miles from the Pacific Ocean. Because Berber North Africa has rarely been the object of rigorous academic attention in the United-States, we are very excited at the prospect of bringing together some of the foremost scholars of Berber culture and twenty-four college and university teachers wishing to integrate the Berber world into their coursework and research.
The purpose of this letter is to answer in a synoptic way some of the questions you may have about the goals and salient features of the institute. On the other links that we have assembled for this web site you will find more developed information about the institute’s major components, housing, the Corvallis area and procedures to follow if you wish to apply. Should you have additional questions about the institute, please be assured that we will attempt to answer them promptly.
Genesis and Scope of the Institute
The idea of this institute was born out of an international conference that we organized with the support of the Oregon Council for the Humanities and the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University in May 2005. The conference, a first in North America, was devoted to North African minorities, specifically Berber, Coptic and Jewish populations. How had these minorities negotiated their blossoming and their survival in North Africa? How had they interacted with Arab-Islamic civilization? What is their significance in the post-colonial, post-cold-war world? These were the three questions principally entertained at a conference marked by a sense of urgency among the forty scholars who attended and by the conviviality created among the hundreds from the northwest who came. Some preliminary answers to these questions will appear in a book that we edited and that is now in press. But within American education the particularisms of North African minorities are still mostly unknown and deserve greater attention. An NEH institute focused specifically on the largest minority—the Berbers—was the logical next step.
So, with larger academic and intercultural motivations, the institute was conceived to attract colleagues like you, college and university faculty, wishing to discuss and better untangle over four weeks the basic questions addressed at the conference. And to do so in the same spirit of novelty, significance and intellectual camaraderie. We have planned an institute around some of the leading world scholars of Berber culture, a gathering that has rarely taken place outside of Africa heretofore. An institute that should allow you to enrich coursework in North African studies, with a particular emphasis on Berber (Amazigh) civilization. It will survey the history, theories, aesthetics and criticism of Berber culture from ancient times to the present. It will also examine the various possibilities of improving the presence of Berber studies in U.S. institutions of higher education.
Institute Faculty
The institute faculty have been drawn from a pool of scholars well known for their innovative work to foster a better comprehension of the Berber world. Ahmed Boukous is one of the world’s leading experts in Berber studies and current Director of the Royal Institute for the Amazigh/Berber Culture (IRCAM). Tassadit Yacine is Professor of Anthropology and North African Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris, France. She has published numerous books on the Berber culture and she is the editor-in-chief of the international review of Berber studies, Awal. Fatima Agnaou, who is the other scholar-in-residence at IRCAM, is a specialist of linguistics and education. Kamal Salhi is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Leeds, England. David Crawford is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Helene Hagan is a North African anthropologist and the Executive Director of the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, in California. The co-directors have complimentary expertise in the fields of Francophone studies and North African literature.
Outline of the Institute’s Program
The institute will be principally organized around short thematic lectures, structured discussions and a plentiful number of informal sessions. For interested participants, there will be optional classes in the Berber language, and film screenings of Berber cinema. The schedule allocates plenty of time to allow participants to consult individually with the institute faculty, think out curriculum projects and engage in research at the OSU Valley library. A number of other cultural events relating to Berber North African music and plastic arts will occur in parallel to the institute, sponsored by Oregon State University.
In order to favor the intersection of different fields of study, the institute will be structured along three axes. It will begin with a unit lasting two weeks entitled, The Berber World in Time and Space led by Ahmed Boukous and Fatima Agnaou. The second unit, Modern Scholarly Approaches to Berber Studies, will last one week and be coordinated by Tassadit Yacine and David Crawford. The final unit, Expressions of Berber Culture, will join our scholarship and creative endeavors to those of Kamal Salhi and Helene Hagan.
We will meet four days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, with the exception of the first day of the institute when the morning will be devoted to introductions and general discussion about the academic components of the institute. Most afternoons and Wednesdays will be devoted to individual and group projects, which will be presented on the last two days of the institute. Evenings will be left free for study and additional meetings with guest scholars to discuss curriculum development, research projects, assignments and institute-related matters. On some evenings (usually Monday) guest scholars will give short keynote addresses on aspects of the Berber world. On two evenings during the institute there will be screenings, with English subtitles, of acclaimed films on Berber culture.
Participants will be sent several of the assigned readings prior to their arrival in order to prepare for the institute. General cultural background information and specific articles will also be made available through the institute’s web site. During the course of the institute, participants in groups of two or three will prepare a project that can be realistically accomplished in four weeks. Above all, the projects should reflect how participants progressed academically during the institute and how will they intend to integrate Berber studies into future teaching and/or research activities.
Oregon State University
OSU is one of only two American universities to hold the Land Grant, Sea Grant, Sun Grant, and Space Grant designation and is a Carnegie Doctoral/Research-Extensive university. OSU is located in Corvallis, a community of 53,000 people situated in the Willamette Valley between Portland and Eugene. Ocean beaches, lakes, rivers, forests, high desert, the rugged Cascade and Coast Ranges, and the urban amenities of the Portland metropolitan area are all within a 100-mile drive of Corvallis. Approximately 15,700 undergraduate and 3,400 graduate students are enrolled at OSU during the regular academic year. Typically there are about 4,000 students enrolled during the summer session. The Valley library will provide carrels and study space for the participants as well as access to our special collection on Berber culture, which includes unpublished materials and difficult-to-find books. Computer facilities will also available both at the library and in other buildings.
Housing in Brief
A block of rooms has been reserved for institute participants at Halsell Residence Hall on the OSU campus. Built in 2003, Haslsell Hall offers suite rooms, with four single or two double bedrooms sharing a common area with kitchenette and one-and-a-half bathrooms. Rooms will be provided with linen, and laundry facilities will be available on each floor. Halsell is a wheel-chair accessible facility with elevators. The residence hall does not have air-conditioning but summers in Corvallis tend to be warm and dry during the day and cool at night. A meal package will be available to institute participants should they wish to take their meals in the cafeteria of West International House which is close to Halsell. There are a good number of eateries on campus and on its perimeter. Downtown Corvallis is about a fifteen-minute walk from central campus. A full description of housing amenities and dining services can be found on this site, including room and meals plan costs, along with a virtual tour of Halsell Hall. Additional options for accommodations (hotels and bed and breakfasts) can also be found using the OSU/Corvallis link on the website.
Stipends
Participants will receive a stipend of $3,000 to help cover their expenses during the four weeks of the institute. Please be aware that housing, meals and travel costs are likely to consume most of the stipend. The first installment of the stipend ($1,500) will be paid upon arrival, and a second installment will be paid during the third week of the institute.
How to Apply
Specific information on the institute’s eligibility guidelines and application procedures can be downloaded from this site. Simply click the link “Application Instructions”. If you would prefer that we mail you a copy of the application materials, please contact us by e-mail or phone. The deadline for submitting the completed application is March 23, 2007. We will notify participants by April 2, 2007. Twenty-four applicants will be selected, with consideration given to balance academic disciplines, geographical regions and types of home institution. The application must include three copies each of the completed NEH cover sheet, an application essay and a vita (not to exceed five pages), along with two letters of recommendation. The most important part of the application is the essay. In four double spaced pages or less it should contain relevant academic and personal information; reasons for applying to the Berber North Africa Institute; professional and intellectual interest in the topic; qualifications to do the work of the institute and contribute to it; teaching and research expectations resulting from the institute; and the relation of the study to teaching.
The completed application should be postmarked March 23, 2007 and be addressed to:
Joseph Krause and Nabil Boudraa, Co-Directors
NEH 2007 Summer Institute—Berber North Africa
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
Tel. (541)737-3935
e-mail: jkrause@oregonstate.edu
Thank you again for your interest in the Berber North Africa institute. We look forward to receiving your application.
Sincerely,
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
Copyright © 2006 Oregon State University
