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WESTMONT in ISTANBUL: Spring Semester 2014
EAST MEETS WESTMONT
You can debate with your roommate whether Islam poses a global threat - or you can go to the heart of the Islamic world and find out. You can wonder whether people in the Middle East want to live in a democracy - or you can ask them. You can pray for peace in Israel and Palestine - or you can find out how to work for peace. You can walk to chapel - or you can walk the Via Dolorosa.
During this semester you will live in Istanbul, aka Constantinople, a city that is of the past and of the future, of grace and grit, of culture and politics, of faith and skepticism. It is Eastern and Western, a modern megalopolis of 15 million people and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is both cultural capital of a developing Asian country and Europe’s “city of culture” in 2010. Istanbul’s skyline is punctuated by medieval mosques and minarets while swish modern cafes and bars dominate its street life.
You will be encouraged to experience another culture from the inside, learning enough Turkish to navigate your way around the city and interact with Turks on a daily basis. You will develop relationships with your neighbors and Turkish university students. You will for a season become an urban person, and learn to be comfortable negotiating a foreign metropolitan landscape.
You will also experience what it means to live in community in a new way. Removed from familiar social, relational and religious support systems, all the while being confronted with some of the most challenging issues facing the world today, you will need to rely on each other.
TRAVEL
You will travel extensively inside and outside Turkey. You will visit the sites of several of the churches from the book of Revelation as well as the remains of thriving Christian civilizations now gone. You will also spend 2 weeks in Israel/Palestine visiting sites of Biblical and early Christianity, while being an eye witness to the current conflict and meeting with politicians, fighters, victims and activists on both sides. Finally, just when you think you are starting to get a handle on East and West, Islam and Christianity, developing and developed, democracy and tyranny, peace and conflict, you will visit Cairo, Egypt and find that we see in a glass dimly and that the diversity and complexity of the world continually conspire to confound all our categories.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY Spring 2012
January 7-8 --Arrival & Orientation
Week 1-2: Istanbul
Week 3-4: Travel to south-west Turkey (Smyrna, Pergamum, Sardis, Ephesus, Priene, Hierapolis, Antalya, Konya, Cappadocia)
Week 5-10: Istanbul
Week 11: Travel to south-east Turkey (Diyarbaki, Mardin, Urfa, Harran, Mount Nemrut)
Week 12: Istanbul
Week 13: Cairo
Week 14: Sinai
Week 15-16: Israel/Palestine
May 1, 2012 -- Program Ends
For more complete details, click here.
ACADEMICS
All classes will be taught or supervised by new Westmont faculty Heather Keaney and Jim Wright, with significant input from Turkish professors and a range of guest speakers.
In the process of learning about Turkey and the Middle East you will learn far more about American society than you could ever do if you had stayed at home. You will study how different societies are struggling to find a balance between rooted cultural authenticity and coherent national identity on the one hand and a rapidly changing and globalizing culture on the other.
You will earn 16 credit hours and meet four GE Requirements.
COURSES
Historical and Cultural roots of Christianity--4 units (Satisfies GE: Thinking Historically, major/minor credit in History and Religious Studies)
You and your fellow students will visit significant sites of Biblical and early Christianity. You will study the evolution of Christianity from an opposition movement to the religion of empire, and thence to protected, subordinate and marginalized minority. Attention will be given to the interaction between theological developments and cultural and political developments. You will also consider Christian texts and history as a part of Middle East culture, past and present. You will learn more about the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Through meeting with different Christians living in the Middle East today you will be challenged to consider afresh what it means to be a part of the global body of Christ.
Faith & State in Modern Turkey--4 units (Satisfies GE: Understanding Society)
You and your fellow students will study the modern history of Turkey: its transition from a multi-ethnic, religious and linguistic empire into a modern nation state that removed or marginalized all religious and ethnic minorities. You will study what it means to be a modern nation, and how a nation may or may not make room for the “other” while forging a coherent unity.
Community, Culture and Conflict in the Modern Middle East--4 units (Satisfies GE: Thinking Globally, major/minor credit Political Science)
You and your fellow students will study several of the diverse cultures within Turkey and the region and how these have interacted both historically and in the modern period. Monolithic or essentialist views of the Middle East or the Islamic world will be brought into question. You will study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of both Israelis and Palestinians. We will ask together where we can find hope for peace, what we can learn about the struggle for influence and resources in the region, and what this may mean for us as Americans and Christians.
Engaging the Muslim World--4 units (Satisfies GE:Communicating Cross Culturally, major/minor credit Religious Studies)
You and your fellow students will study the historical, textual, and cultural foundations of Islam and then compare these with the living reality of Turkish and Palestinian societies. You will spend most of the semester in Turkey, a country that is 99% Muslim. You will also visit Palestine and Egypt, two other majority Muslim countries, the latter being in many eyes the centre of Sunni Islam.
When should I apply?
Soon, while stocks last….In any event by no later than 4 February 2011.
COST
The cost of the program will be standard Westmont tuition, fees, room and board, plus a program fee to cover all transportation costs.
DIRECTORS
PROFESSOR HEATHER KEANEY is an alum of Westmont who has spent the past eleven years living and teaching in Cairo at the American University in Cairo and at the CCCU’s Middle East Studies Program (MESP). As the acting-director of MESP in Fall 2009 she led 30 students through Turkey, Syria and Israel-Palestine. Professor Keaney is enthusiastic about helping students place the events that make headlines in the Middle East within their historical and cultural context in order to reveal their human dimension. She hopes students will come to share some of her love and passion for the place and its people.
JIM WRIGHT was born in Devon, England, which no doubt explains his difficulties with the American language. After reading law at Cambridge University he worked for a multi-national corporate law firm in London and Dubai. He left this to study cross-cultural and Biblical theology in the UK before arrived in Egypt in 1993. He has spent the past 17 years in Egypt, initially studying Arabic and then working as a corporate lawyer. His life in the region has convinced Jim of the strategic importance of the Middle East. His interaction with students from the Middle East Studies Program of the CCCU over the years has convinced him of the strategic importance of American Christian College students for everything from regime change to climate change. Jim has left the law and joined Westmont in order to align these two convictions.