“Lab” class in Jordan helps students put theory into practice.
STUDENTS WITH PROF. ADELY IN AL-BAYDHA BEFORE THE START OF A 17 KM HIKE INTO PETRA
By Samar Saeed
This April, CCAS Professors Fida Adely and Rochelle Davis led a group of fourteen undergraduate students to Jordan for eight days to explore local and community-based approaches to development in the Middle East. The trip was a component of the semester-long class titled “Development and Displacement in the Arab World” that Adely and Davis designed and co-taught as part of the School of Foreign Service’s Centennial Labs—experiential classes built around an issue, idea, or challenge in a community.
The first few weeks of class laid the theoretical foundation for understanding displacement and development. The “lab” component in Jordan enabled students to examine these theories within a practical context and explore the impact and consequences of developmental programs on both refugees and host communities. While in Jordan, students visited organizations representing community-based and state-led development initiatives from the agricultural, economic, educational, and civic-engagement sectors. These included the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature; the One Love campaign based in Gaza Camp; 7iber, an independent online news platform; and Ruwwad, a community development project that works with disenfranchised groups through education and grassroots organizing.
According to Adely, the value of the Jordanian lab component was made clear in the student projects and discussions that followed the trip, when students had a chance to contextual their experience in relation to the theoretical frameworks they had been studying. “The opportunity to go to the region and hear firsthand from local actors about the ways in which they were trying to meet the needs of their communities was invaluable and complemented the learning in our semester-long class.” She added that the “site visits enabled students to see and hear first-hand about the challenges of aid dependency and of protracted displacement for stateless Palestinians expelled from Gaza in 1967, and the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, as well as displaced Somalis and Sudanese.”
Layla Najjar, a senior in the SFS, found that seeing the ways in which displacement and development are being addressed in the Arab world gave her a new perspective on these issues. She hopes that all SFS students could have similar opportunities because “student interactions with the Arab world cannot occur solely through the medium of Arabic courses and government internships,” said Najjar. “Only by examining the interplay of culture, society, and community-based development in a non-academic setting can sweeping changes in policy—whether in the Arab world or the U.S.—be made.”
This idea was echoed by Lauren Stricker, also a senior at the SFS. She found that concepts from class began to “click” during the trip. “Listening to an Iraqi refugee discuss her reasons for keeping her children out of school caused me to reevaluate the assumptions I had about the relationship between displacement and education. I used to believe that poor schooling was undeniably better than no schooling. Refugees deserve to make choices about their lives and livelihoods as much as any other human beings, but too often expectations and structure constrain these choices.”
Stricker added that the trip also encouraged her to think about the impact of studying and pursuing careers in the region: “Reflecting on the best ways to use our skills and knowledge without taking the place or voice of someone better suited is crucial to finding the most meaningful and impactful ways to work in the Arab world.”
Both the students and professors viewed the trip as a great success, despite the wind storm in Washington D.C. that delayed their arrival to Amman. “The people we met with were frank—discussing organizational and political challenges openly—and very welcoming,” said Adely. “We had a fantastic tour guide who (unaccustomed to such tour groups) sat and learned with us on these site visits. He was a wealth of knowledge about the history and archeology of the country.”
She added that “the students were fabulous—flexible, respectful and engaged. They were also a lot of fun!”
CCAS welcomes such experiential classes as part of its core mission for students to understand the language, as well as the socio-economic, cultural, and political situation in the Arab world. Trips such as this offer a way for them to gain new kinds of knowledge—not only through meeting with officials and international organizations, but also by engaging in conversations directly with the people most impacted by international and national policies, and listening to their stories. This communication is key to preparing students—our future leaders—to make sound judgements and informed decisions.
Samar Saeed is a second-year student in the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program at Georgetown. She accompanied Professors Davis and Adely and their students on the trip to Jordan.
