American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA) aims to facilitate communication and cooperation between teachers of Arabic and to promote study, criticism, research and instruction in the field of Arabic language pedagogy, Arabic linguistics and Arabic literature. The information available here is a sampling of the materials available to AATA members. For information on joining, please see the “Membership” link on the right.
From AATA's Editor
Dear AATA Members,
The view from my window is bleak and wintery, but the February issue of the AATA Newsletter makes it clear that our profession is flourishing. This issue is packed with opportunities of all kinds: employment, professional development for teachers in colleges and universities as well as K – 12, and summer study for our students. Please make sure to check the final segment of the Newsletter, which lists a variety of resources and other announcements.
This is the time for AATA membership renewal. Please remember that AATA membership follows the calendar year (01 January – 31 December) rather than the academic year. Membership application forms will be available shortly on the AATA website: http://aataweb.org/Default.aspx?pageID=11. You will also receive renewal information in the mail next month with the ballots for the Executive Board.
AATA relies on its membership to spread the word. Please encourage your colleagues to join the only professional organization for teachers of Arabic. Feel free to share your copy of the AATA Newsletter with them. Or print out the attached membership application and place it in their departmental mailboxes.
We are delighted to welcome the following as AATA Institutional Members in 2009:
Miami University of Ohio (Sustaining Institutional Member)
Cornell University (Sustaining Institutional Member)
Georgetown University
Princeton University
Qalam Wa Lawh Center, Morocco
An institutional membership application is also included with your Newsletter mailing. Please speak to your chair or dean about institutional membership. Institutional membership carries with it a number of benefits. It is not simply an indication that an institution places great importance on the teaching of Arabic; it can be considered a way to promote your Arabic program to AATA members in the US and overseas.
We look forward to welcoming you, your colleagues and your institution as members soon.
Best,
Elizabeth M. Bergman, Ph.D.
Executive Director
ACTFL Arabic Special Interest Group: A message from the Chair
Dear AATA members,
As many of you know, the ACTFL Arabic Special Interest Group was formed during the last ACTFL convention in Orlando, Florida. This is a milestone that was the result of the hard work of many AATA members and officials, whom I would like to thank, in my capacity as the Chair of the Arabic SIG. I hope and expect – inshaAllah - that the Arabic SIG will advance the teaching of Arabic by improving the networking capability among Arabic language educators at all levels of education and enhance the presence of Arabic at future ACTFL conventions.
The purpose of this message is to invite and encourage you to join the Arabic SIG (membership in the Arabic SIG is open to any ACTFL member for an extra $5, and is valid for one year). I also would like to invite you to submit proposals to present at the 2009 ACTFL convention in San Diego. During the last ACTFL convention, there were very few sessions focusing on Arabic (six out of several hundred sessions), hardly a reflection of the growing number of Arabic educators who attend this convention. Let’s hope that this dismal participation will change in the future.
In addition to submitting proposals to ACTFL for regular sessions (deadline is January 9, 2009), I also would like to invite you to propose topics you deem important, that could be discussed during the 2009 Arabic SIG business meeting and special events.
In order to join the Arabic SIG or submit a proposal, please visit the Web page on
www.actfl.org.
Again, and on behalf of the Arabic SIG officers, I would like to thank AATA and its members for all their support.
Salah Ayari (Chair, Arabic SIG)
Director
Arabic and Asian Languages
4224 TAMU, 103B Academic
College Station, Texas 77843-4224
979-458-1342 Fax: 979-458-3581
Supporting members of AATA
AATA would like to thank Supporting Members for their generosity. The following have become Supporting Members since October 2007:
Sawsan Abbadi, University of Massachusetts
Mahmoud Al-Batal, University of Texas, Austin
Shlomo Alon
Mahdi Alosh, United States Military Academy
Aman Attieh, Swarthmore College
Maher Bahloul, American University of Sharjah
Austin Bell, Islamic American University
John Eisele, College of Wililam and Mary
Annie Higgins
Hisham Khalek, University of Minnesota
Gerald Lampe, NFLC
Jamal Mavrikios, Pacific Arabic Resources
Ernest McCarus, University of Michigan
Ra'ed Qasem
Aleya Rouchdy, Wayne State University
Karin Ryding, Georgetown University
Martha Schulte-Nafeh, University of Arizona
A SOUDI, University Of Pittsburgh
Please consider becoming a Supporting Member of AATA with a donation of at least $25. See the AATA Membership Application (download it at http://aataweb.org/Default.aspx?pageID=11for details.)
Contact Information for AATA
American Association of Teachers of Arabic
3416 Primm Lane
Birmingham, AL 35216
telephone: 205.822.6800
fax: 205.823.2760
For membership, subscription, and administrative questions: info@aataweb.org
For newsletter submissions and other questions: admin@aataweb.org
AATA Lifetime Achievement Award 2008: Dr. Karin C. Ryding (Georgetown University)
Remarks by Zeinab Taha, American University in Cairo
It is a true pleasure to speak in this celebration about a very dear person to me. Asking me to speak about Karin Ryding made me think of several hard but very productive years in my life. It made me remember details I had almost forgotten. Thinking of Karin for me is thinking of a story of struggle and success. In the early 90’s I entered Karin Ryding’s office for the first time and I asked her to give me the opportunity to work with her as a research assistant in partial fulfillment of my doctoral scholarship. It did not take her long before she assigned me to work with her and hence to start a very special and collegial relationship with her.
Karin took the risk and entrusted me with reviewing her work. I worked very hard and soon after we started working together she realized that she did not make a mistake by giving me the opportunity. This incident taught me a lot. It taught me that in academia it is very important that you give younger people the opportunity to show their potential and that it is your duty as a mentor to coach them, and follow up with their work. I know of many people who would not take the risk and would not entrust young ones with their work. But, Karin did that graciously and later, I was able to transfer this positive experience to my own work.
I also took two courses with Karin through which I came to know her as a great teacher; someone who not only cares for her students but more importantly encourages them to excel in whatever areas they wanted to investigate. It was in her class on historiography of Arabic linguistics that I started an acquaintance with Ibn As-Sarraj; an acquaintance that developed very fast into a close relationship for three years and resulted in a dissertation on him and other earlier grammarians.
Professor Karin Ryding was not only a teacher for me. She was a role model. I saw her chairing the Arabic department at Georgetown University, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and doing original research on Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad. I also saw the other side of her, the humane side. I saw Karin the very kind and honest person: Someone who likes people to progress in their lives and be happy.
I am very happy that Karin is being honored today. She certainly deserves the honor and I am proud to be speaking here on her behalf. I thank you Karin for all what you did to help me be a better student and a better person at work. I wish you many more years of good health and success in all your endeavors.
Remarks by Dilworth Parkinson, Brigham Young University
I am very pleased today to speak in honor of Dr. Karin Ryding, this year's recipient of AATA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Karin has been, and is, the consummmate professional. Through a series of important positions she has served her students, her university, her country, and her field with passion and ability. Karin received her B.A. at MIddlebury College, her M.A. from the American University of Beirut, and her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. (Reading this early part of her CV made me nostalgic for the pre-Lebanese civil war Middle East.) After teaching for a time at SAIS and Georgetown, she worked for six years as the Language Training Supervisor at the Foreign Service Institute, where she developed her ideas about a practical level of Arabic which would allow people to function on various levels, ideas which bore fruit in a number of publications.
After her State Department stint, Karin returned to Georgetown University and stayed there the remainder of her career. She served numerous terms as chair of the Arabic Department, head of the Eastern Mediterranean Languages section, and Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies. She also held the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professorship of Arabic. I find this to be a remarkable level of administrative service, and quite unusual for a professor of Arabic.
In the profession she has served several terms as a member of the AATA Executive Board, and recently as President of AATA. She has served on numerous other boards, including AMIDEAST, the Georgetown University Press Arabic Publications Advisory Board, MLA committees, NCOLCTL, the Joint National Committee on Languages, and many, many others.
Dr. Ryding's interests are wide and varied, ranging from pedagogy to modern grammar, the medieval grammatical tradition, and even Arabic alchemy. Her publications include the extremely useful Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, her Formal Spoken Arabic courses, and a book and other publications on early medieval Arabic and the Arabic grammatical tradition. She has also been the series editor for Georgetown University Press' recent flurry of publications and republications of important texts on the Arabic language.
In short, Karin's record of achievement is remarkable and impressive, and we are deeply indebted to her both for her contributions to our field, and to her service to our organizations. On a personal note, I must state that when I first became active in this field, Karin made a point of reaching out to me and other young scholars, offering friendship and helpful advice. She has been a constant voice of reason and competence throughout our association in various organizations and meetings. She is a warm and helpful person, and has been such a stalwart in our field that I felt a little shocked when she told me last year that she was retiring. Things would not be the same.
In any case, I am very pleased to congratulate Dr. Karin Ryding on this Lifetime Achievement Award. I believe it is richly deserved. She has been a marvelous example of scholarship, teaching and service to our profession.