Tom Paradise’s office in Ozark Hall has a rug from Persia, tapestries from Afghanistan and Jordan, a variety of colorful Middle Eastern keepsakes — and an open door.
As the new director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Paradise is working to foster a new sense of communication and collaboration in the 12-year-old program.
Paradise was named the center’s interim director in May after former director Vince Cornell left for a position at Emory University in Atlanta. Paradise has been a professor of geography at UA since 2000.
Don Bobbitt, dean of UA’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, said Paradise was selected to help the center grow and evolve into one of the country’s foremost Middle East studies programs.
“There are a lot of opportunities that we have,” Bobbitt said. “I don’t think we’re doing as much as we can yet.”
Paradise, who will serve as interim director for 18 months, said he hopes to add new language courses, introduce a rotating scholars program, and bring in new faculty with specialties in areas such as Turkey and Iran.
The college is in the process of evaluating the center’s activities and resources, after which a more concrete plan of action will be developed, Bobbitt said. He hopes to have the center recognized among the country’s elite by the U. S. State Department.
“We are interested in being in their top level of classification,” Bobbitt said. “We’ve looked at our programs and I don’t think we’re far away.”
UA’s Center for Middle East Studies was founded in 1994 with an $ 18 million gift from the Saudi government, then the largest gift in the university’s history. The gift came after a 1991 proposal from then-Gov. Bill Clinton for a Middle East studies program in Arkansas, which led to a 1992 gift of $ 3. 5 million from Saudi Arabia to start an Arabic translation program.
The center has an annual budget of about $ 1 million through the endowment, Paradise said.
The federal government provides money for international education and foreign language studies, but programs must meet certain criteria, Paradise said. The need for more language offerings is one of the key qualifications UA is missing, he said.
“Since we have a large endowment, we are able to thrive and expand without [federal ] funding, but most programs in the U. S. can only exist with it,” Paradise said.
The benefit of getting federal money is the program would be recognized with other top Middle East studies programs at universities such as Georgetown and the University of Texas at Austin. It would be part of a “bigger club,” Paradise said.
“Once you have that you’re on the radar screen for the government and the media,” said Charles Adams, associate dean of the Fulbright College.
Adams, who has been at UA for 20 years, said there was a lot of excitement when the university first received the endowment to create the center.
The first few years brought some controversy, including faculty infighting, accusations of misappropriation of funds and a lawsuit from a former faculty member claiming discrimination.
“As with the creation of anything new, there were competing visions for what the center should be like,” Adams said.
In May 2000, UA fired then-director Adnan Haydar and replaced him with Cornell, who expanded the center to include Islamic studies beyond the Middle East.
“It’s gone through a number of phases,” Adams said of the center.
The faculty consensus now seems to be to refocus the program on the Middle East, and offer new courses to cover the diversity of cultures found in the region, he said. Paradise would like to expand language offerings through the center with Farsi, Turkish and modern Hebrew.
Stephanie Kirkland, 29, studied at the center and graduated with a master’s degree in geography earlier this year. Kirkland, who grew up in Fayetteville, is now working on a doctorate in environmental studies at York University in Toronto.
Her studies through the center helped her get a full scholarship to the highly competitive program at York University, she said. Offering a wider variety of languages would further expand opportunities for students.
“I would definitely like to see it add more languages,” she said.
Nani Verzon, 21, started studying at the center as a freshman four years ago. Verzon, a Bentonville High School graduate, is majoring in geography, international relations and Middle East studies. She likes the variety offered through the program, but would like to see more money for scholarships and study abroad programs, she said.
The center will continue to support graduate and faculty research in a variety of areas, including water resource studies, historic preservation, music and art, cultural studies and regional sciences, Paradise said. He also plans to work with faculty to ensure they get the recognition they deserve. While many are considered high-ranking experts in their fields internationally, Paradise said he feels their expertise has been “wasted” locally. “The problem is they’re famous on their own, they’re not famous as a group,” he said. “No one was ever utilized. Networks were never forged. We’re going to test the waters. Once you open things up, things change.”
To contact this reporter: cpark@arkansasonline. com
