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MEIS is the result of a far-reaching university initiative, launched in 2002, to make SFSU a center of excellence in the fields of Middle East and Islamic Studies, comprising those regions of the world where Islam is one of the main forms of religious practice from the 7th century until the present. SFSU President Corrigan initiated a drive to enlarge SFSU’s faculty expertise in MEIS, so that we currently have fifteen participating tenure-track faculty members in thirteen departments in three colleges (Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Creative Arts). Initially loosely organized as “MEIS Faculty Group,” we launched a cluster of courses titled Islamic Societies and Cultures as part of SFSU’s required interdisciplinary general education program in 2003. Islamic Societies and Cultures offers an introduction into the history, politics, and culture of the region. Our group slowly gained visibility beyond our classes by sponsoring lectures, brown bag lunch series, and annual topical seminars on campus. Many of our faculty members presented lectures to audiences in local community centers and high schools.

MEIS is the result of a far-reaching university initiative, launched in 2002, to make SFSU a center of excellence in the fields of Middle East and Islamic Studies, comprising those regions of the world where Islam is one of the main forms of religious practice from the 7th century until the present. SFSU President Corrigan initiated a drive to enlarge SFSU’s faculty expertise in MEIS, so that we currently have fifteen participating tenure-track faculty members in thirteen departments in three colleges (Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Creative Arts).
Initially loosely organized as “MEIS Faculty Group,” we launched a cluster of courses titled Islamic Societies and Cultures as part of SFSU’s required interdisciplinary general education program in 2003. Islamic Societies and Cultures offers an introduction into the history, politics, and culture of the region. Our group slowly gained visibility beyond our classes by sponsoring lectures, brown bag lunch series, and annual topical seminars on campus. Many of our faculty members presented lectures to audiences in local community centers and high schools.

In December of 2007, the SFSU Academic Senate passed our proposal to institute a MEIS minor on campus. It was launched in the fall of 2007. In April 2008, the U.S. Department of Education awarded us an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) Grant, so that we could enhance our MEIS minor and work towards a major. Our current goals are to expand our MEIS curriculum with two new classes (Foundations in MEIS and Foundations in Islam), to enhance our

language offerings, to work with faculty members at the School of Education to introduce teaching materials that can be used in California K-8 classrooms, and to establish a collaborative network for the pooling of MEIS intellectual and material resources throughout the California State University system.

In October 2009, we were delighted to host 50 national and international scholars on a variety of topics to participate in workshops with agreed upon themes, including "The Other (Non-Muslim) Middle East," "Iran:Thirty Years after the Revolution," "Teaching the Middle East through the Humanities: Representing the Region through

Literature, Art, and Film," "Human Rights in the Middle East and Muslim World," and "State-Society Relations in the Middle East and North Africa."

The goal of this workshop-conference was to build networks of expertise, to design new research projects, and plan for joint publications. The distinguished keynote speaker of the conference was Professor Resat Kasaba from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, who presented his own observations and strategies about teaching the ME. Moreover, the public was invited to a Special Plenary on the topic of Iran where six panelists discussed everything from the most recent elections and protests to the economic development, human rights, and gender relations in Iran.

As a university, SFSU has shown singular leadership in recruiting a highly qualified and dynamic Middle East and Islamic Studies faculty for several years. We look forward to building this program in the coming years, with the support of students and members of the community.

Middle East and Islamic Studies {College of Behavioral & Social Sciences and College of Humanities}

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