Middle East

 

Welcome to the Middle East Student Initiative (MESSI)

 

The Middle East Studies Student Initiative is a board of students dedicated towards the development of an inter-disciplinary Middle East Studies Program at the University of California, Irvine. With the support of our faculty, administration, and students we hope to develop a comprehensive curriculum and academic forum in order to engage in dialogue regarding the political, economic and social issues of the region.

 

A Middle East Studies Program at UC Irvine will:

 

  • Foster an environment conducive to the production of constructive dialogue on the Middle East;

 

  • Provide a forum whereby scholars and prominent members of the community collaborate in promoting

    an academic understanding of the Middle East;

 

  • Enhance awareness of and respect for diversity within the community;

 

  • Facilitate broader cultural understanding among students and community members with distinctive

    backgrounds from the Middle East and between those and others without generational connections

    to the region;

 

  • Provide a strong educational foundation for future generations within the community to engage in

    in-depth academic understanding of the region;

 

  • Provide an academic understanding of the dynamic processes in which religion plays in shaping

    politics, society and culture.

 

A Middle East and North Africa Studies Program will:

 

  • Enhance an awareness of and respect for diversity on the UCI campus;

 

  • Foster an environment conducive to the production of constructive dialogue about the Middle East;

 

  • Recognize and implement a serious course of academic study for interested students;

 

  • Help prepare students to meet the rising demand of private and public sector employment

    opportunities which require training in Middle East Studies;

 

  • Facilitate broader cultural understanding among students with distinctive backgrounds from

    the Middle East and between those students and others without generational connections to the region;

 

  • Provide an academic understanding of the dynamic processes which religion plays in shaping politics,

    society, and culture.