Middle East Studies is very pleased to announce that Professor Erik Love has joined the Sociology Department and is a regular contributing faculty member of Middle East Studies.  His courses on Middle Eastern Communities in the United States and Islam and the West are enriched by research on civil rights advocacy among Arab, Muslim, Sikh South Asian Americans. Erik recently completed his doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his work won the support of a National Science Foundation grant. Today, Erik is a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (http://ispu.org/people/Erik-Love) and has contributed to Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/erik-love.html) and Jadaliyya, an online journal (http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/contributors/4360). He also has contributed to peer-reviewed publications and has presented his work at academic conferences in the United States and abroad. He is currently at work on a book based on his research on Middle Eastern American civil rights advocacy. His training as a sociologist and concentration on Middle Eastern diasporas add new dimensions to our interdisciplinary program.

The Middle East Studies curriculum continues to evolve as faculty and students gain more experience. After discussion with the College's Academic Program and Standards Committee, the program now includes a new element to the capstone experience: Senior research now includes a workshop consisting of three 75-minute meetings in the first weeks of the semester to help MES seniors reflect on different disciplinary approaches to a contemporary issue.

The pilot workshop will be led by Prof. Ed Webb with the theme of water resources in the Middle East & North Africa.