TCNJ News
For Immediate Release
June 6, 2008
$170,000 grant from U.S. Dept. of Education will expand TCNJ's Middle Eastern and Central Eurasian studies programs
EWING, NJ … The College of New Jersey received a grant of more than $170,000 from the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to fund the project, Iran and Beyond: Strengthening the International Studies and Foreign Language Curriculum in Middle Eastern and Central Eurasian Studies. The two-year project, which begins in the fall of 2008, strengthens three interrelated components of international studies – foreign language, curriculum development, and study abroad—through a series of interdisciplinary initiatives. These initiatives focus on two critical world regions in the International Studies Program: Middle Eastern Studies and Central Eurasian Studies, and on two critical languages: Arabic and Persian.
As part of the project, TCNJ will expand the modern language program in Arabic to include additional instruction at the advanced level. The College will also implement a two-year language program in Persian through an innovative arrangement with Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies that makes use of Internet2technology.
The grant also will expand the curriculum in Middle Eastern and Central Eurasian Studies. A series of faculty development workshops led by scholars in the fields of Iranian and Central Eurasian Studies will be held over the two years. Select faculty in the School of Culture and Society, the School of the Arts and Communication, and the School of Business, will attend these workshops, and out of those experiences, they will develop 18 new courses. These courses will create interdisciplinary links, provide opportunities to expand student awareness, and encourage study abroad experiences.
Two new study abroad/exchange programs will be developed in conjunction with the program: one in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and one in Istanbul, Turkey. Additionally, a special seminar on Central Asia will be offered in spring 2010, and the seminar will be linked to a student-faculty study tour in May 2010 to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Finally, the project will involve a special campus-wide cultural event held each year to broaden awareness and appreciation of the arts and literature of these regions
The project was designed and will be overseen by two faculty members, Jo-Ann Gross, professor of history and chair of the History Department, and Deborah Hutton, associate professor of art history.
Co-directors Gross and Hutton expressed that the grant was very competitive, and that it is an honor to receive it. “We are particularly excited about our students having an opportunity to study Persian and the very special opportunity for the student-faculty study tour to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,” said Hutton. “This region of the world is one that is in the news a lot of late, but for the most part our knowledge of it remains fragmentary. This grant gives us the opportunity to develop resources that will in turn give our students the opportunity to develop a deep and nuanced knowledge of this important region of the world.”
About The College of New Jersey
TCNJ currently is ranked as one of the 75 "Most Competitive" schools in the nation by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, is rated the No. 1 public institution in the northern region of the country by U.S. News & World Report, and is one of Kiplinger's Personal Finance's top educational values in the country. In 2006, the College joined an elite group of institutions when it was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation's colleges and universities share this honor.
