The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies is pleased to report its renewed involvement in Georgetown's National Resource Center on the Middle East (NRC-ME). Georgetown University will receive more than $6 million for the next four years through the U.S. Department of Education National Resource Centers (NRC), Language Resource Centers (LRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) programs to conduct teaching, research and outreach focused on specific regions of the world. The competitive Title VI grants are awarded to higher education institutions to establish, strengthen, and operate language and international centers that provide teaching in foreign languages, research and training in international studies, and instruction in world affairs.

Since 1997, the National Resource Center on the Middle East (NRC-ME) at Georgetown has linked more than 60 full-time faculty, visiting scholars and professionals with undergraduate and graduate students at the University. The renewed Title VI funds will be used to create a new teaching position in Persian Language and Culture. In addition, the grant will support development of an Arabic choral music publication for distribution to elementary and secondary school students. A course for high school teachers on U.S.-Middle East relations will also be established and offered through Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies. The NRC-ME currently offers 10 academic year and six summer FLAS fellowships for study of Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian. The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, in collaboration with the Program for Jewish Civilization, the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, received additional funding through the Title VI grant to strengthen all components of the NRC-ME, particularly teacher training, curriculum and materials development, K-12 outreach, and cooperative initiatives.