Arab World in Transition

The second phase of the Centre for Advanced Studies of the Arab World (CASAW) seeks to build and broaden capacity in Arabic language-based research and training by taking the training and research-network accomplishments of its first phase to new levels, expanding the scope and reach of each component judiciously through the expertise and experience of key CASAW academic staff and CASAW-trained students.
UK capacity in minority languages will be enhanced with the development of a new language training track and further research in Arabic teacher training and curriculum delivery which aim to enhance best practices in language training in educational organizations in the Arab world and the UK. Students, trainee teachers, and experienced teachers will all benefit from CASAW's development of an intensive advanced language training course and teacher training programmes.
Achievements and challenges of political change throughout the Arab world will be at the forefront of a focused yet wide-ranging multi-disciplinary research agenda, carried out through the activities of six research networks comprising academics in the UK and the Middle East. Disseminated research will demonstrate the necessity of language based area studies to public understanding of, and governmental and private sector interactions within a key strategic world area that is reshaping policy concerns everywhere. Research on Asianisation and the concept of the umma (the worldwide community of Muslims), as well as a planned conference on 1989 in Eastern Europe and 2011 in the Middle East will draw on and foster collaboration with other area studies regions and centres with whom we are already collaborating on advanced training provision. New research-based and training-oriented placements will build on existing contacts in the UK and the Middle East, networks and collaborative visions to enhance emerging researchers' skills while furthering research and highlighting cultural translation, knowledge exchange and vigorous productive synergies in humanities-focused commercial and governmental enterprise.

CASAW Phase II comprises a comprehensive programme of research networks, internships and language training networks, all developed with non-academic users as core beneficiaries. For the language training programme, beneficiaries will include UK, EU and international students and their future employers who need graduates with advanced Arabic language skills and culture-sensitive presentational skills as well as in-depth knowledge of the Middle East/North Africa, its history, culture and present (and shifting) socio-political configurations. The training network's research focus on new methods of teaching Arabic, including teacher training and application of EIL methodologies tested through research to Arabic teaching, will benefit Arabic teachers and students world wide through the dissemination of text books and eLearning material as well as the annual Arabic teaching summer school in Edinburgh.
The internships will all be developed in close collaboration with the host organisations in the public or private sector in the UK and the Middle East and will feed directly into each organisation's business objectives and dissemination plans. For example, the internship with the Scottish Government is linked to their policy focus on Scotland's place in the World; it will benefit users in government, business and arts organizations seeking to expand their collaborations in the Middle East. Internships with Arabia Books/Swallow Editions and (potentially) Bloomsbury-Qatar will benefit the publishers' capacity for translation and dissemination of Arabic imaginative writing. Whilst benefiting the individual organisations and their stakeholders/audiences, the internships will also develop interns' experiences and skills, for their own benefit and that of future employers.
The research networks are all centred around topical and urgent themes which will engage policy makers, journalists and other professionals working in the region to improve understandings of the Arab region amongst key stakeholders as well as the wider public. Topics vary from analysing political situations (e.g., our planned conference reflecting on the transformational developments in the Arab world in 2010-11 and central and Eastern Europe in 1989); to the relationship between of knowledge production, policy-making and practice in understanding the political situation in the Arab world; to networks focusing on gaining a deeper understanding of social and cultural phenomena in the Arab world such as young people's expression through linguistic and literary forms including social media and other new artistic and literary formats, and the medieval but still highly alive tent making tradition in Cairo. Bringing the oral histories and craft to life will illuminate important aspects of social transformations in an Arab urban setting. Finally the network on understandings of the umma (worldwide community of Muslims) will improve understandings of how Arab intellectuals and social movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Hizbullah in Lebanon understand relations with other faiths and sectarian divisions within the Islamic community.