grafitti of grenade and peace sign

Among the biggest challenges secondary teachers face is staying informed about current global affairs and accessing scholarship that helps them contextualize these events for students within their appropriate social and historical frameworks. The CCAS Education Outreach program creates teaching materials and hosts interdisciplinary workshops and professional development opportunities to address this need and equip teachers with tools to lead thoughtful classroom discussions on contemporary issues related to the region. Our program attendees teach a variety of courses at the secondary level, including geography and world history surveys, modern world history, U.S. history, and courses that address region-specific and global problems and perspectives. We are able to do this work through the support of the Department of Education Title VI grant, which designates Georgetown University as a National Resource Center on the Middle East and North Africa.

Islam and Politics

A Curriculum Resource

This curriculum resource presents critical moments and influential religious leaders in the pre-colonial and colonial periods when Muslim societies around the world were undergoing rapid social and political change and rethinking the relationship between Islam, jurisprudence, and the state. It explores a variety of Islamist movements with roots dating to that period, including Ennahda in Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The unit is designed to support high school teachers in meeting state teaching standards on Islam and politics and to help students learn about how internal dynamics, interactions with the state, and international politics all shaped the formation and actions of Islamist political movements.
Click here for the Islam and Politics resource. 

China, the Middle East and Africa

Video Series & Resources List

The Summer Teacher Institute 2018 focused on China’s contemporary and historic relations with the Middle East and Africa. In order to understand these crucial developments and incorporate them into teaching, 45 participants in STI 2018 learned from experts on the region and gained access to a wide range of resources for background reading and classroom engagement.
Click here for a list of all sessions from STI 2018 with descriptions and links to recorded lectures. Click here to go directly to the YouTube playlist. Click here for a compilation of additional resources for educators that were shared during STI 2018. 

An Energy Revolution? Political Ecologies of Shale Oil in the Middle East, US, and China

Study Guide and Video Series

This three-day conference held in February 2015 at CCAS explored the different economic, social, political, and ecological challenges related to energy production and the Middle East. In conjunction with the conference, CCAS produced a study guide titled “Implications of Exploiting Shale Oil Resources in the Middle East,” which is available, along with other resources, in this folder. Videos of the conference lectures can be found in this playlist.

Teaching the Middle East in Primary and Secondary Education

Video

This panel workshop—held at the Middle East Studies Association 2022 Annual Meeting, and sponsored by the Committee for Undergraduate Middle East Studies—explored best practices for incorporating specialized Middle East area studies knowledge into current K-12 curriculum and in a manner that promotes both regional knowledge and global cultural competence. Educators Kristin Tassin, Nora Lester Murad, Virginia Cady, Matthew MacLean and CCAS Education Outreach Director Susan Douglass shared their expertise on these topics and addressed ways in which area specialization, K-12 pedagogy, and university outreach programs can come together to support teachers in public and private schools trying to improve the level of scholarship on this crucially underserved area. Click here to watch a video of the panel.