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Professor Sarah Shields Dr. Sarah Shields, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the 2021 winner of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Undergraduate Education Award. Established in 2012, the MESA Undergraduate Education Award recognizes outstanding scholarship on teaching or other material [...]

In Fall 2021, dozens of K-12 teachers from across the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) participated in two virtual Educator Dialogues, gaining strategies and resources to support newcomer students and globalize STEM education.  The dialogues, organized by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and the University of Arizona’s [...]

UNC-Chapel Hill archaeologists are working with a diverse coalition to develop an accessible trail network, uncover the region’s history and spur equitable economic growth in the small western North Carolina town of Old Fort. The project is supported by the Southern Futures initiative. UNC archaeologist Jennifer Gates-Foster (pictured in [...]

  Created in 1856 and addressed by Said to his enslaver, the manuscript contains an Islamic blessing and two biblical texts: the 51st psalm and the Lord’s Prayer. A stylized detail of the newly acquired manuscript, an 1856 document addressed by Said to his enslaver, James Owen. The document [...]

The UNC research team includes Dr. Waleed Ziad (left) and Rustin Zarkar (right). Dr. Waleed Ziad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Dr. Ali Jarrahi Fellow in Persian Studies, and Rustin Zarkar, UNC Middle East and Islamic Studies Librarian, have been awarded a Modern Endangered [...]

Flodin-Ali demonstrates ideas for using Omar ibn Said's manuscripts with high school students. On September 29, 2021, the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies hosted a webinar for educators, “Muslim American History Modules for the Social Studies Curriculum.” The program featured curricular materials for high school [...]

Members of the LGBTQ+ community play key roles in international business, diplomacy, advocacy, and scholarship, but they can also face unique challenges in global careers because of their sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression (on top of all the other challenges of global careers).  On October 5, this [...]

Six doctoral students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were awarded grants under the 2021 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellows Program (DDRA). Carolina consistently ranks among the top producers of Fulbright-Hays DDRA fellows.  UNC-Chapel Hill was awarded $210,398 in funding for the program by the U.S. Department of Education. These [...]

From left to right: Mega Puspita, Samia Touati, and Cecilia Polanco The UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University area studies centers connected with North Carolina educators in kitchens across the state in three virtual Cultural Kitchen sessions that explored dishes from Latin America, Southeast Asia and North Africa. The [...]

  Banu Gökarıksel Banu Gökarıksel, professor of geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been appointed to a four-year term as chair of the Curriculum in Global Studies.    Gökarıksel holds an impressive record of leadership and scholarship at Carolina. A faculty member since 2005, she recently completed a three-year term as [...]

Animal teeth excavated from Bronze Age cities may answer fundamental questions about how early urban centers operated. From left, graduate student Christine Mikeska and Associate Professor Benjamin Arbuckle from the College of Arts & Sciences’ department of anthropology. (Photo by Jeyhoun Allebaugh) From around the 14th century B.C., the steady [...]

  Educators from minority-serving institutions (MSI) and community colleges across the southeast led panels about how they utilize resources from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke area studies centers to advance global scholarship and integrate global curricula in their classrooms. The “Connecting Your Classroom to the [...]