What if, instead of just learning about issues in the Middle East, one could discuss them with students who are experiencing them everyday? Now you can with a new class offered by the ExCollege, in collaboration with the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership and the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP).
The Solis Connect Program brings together college students from the United States and Muslim countries in the Middle East to discuss global affairs and improve intercultural communication and awareness.
"Traditional courses don't put a human face to the issue," said Matan Chorev, a 4th year student in the Tufts/New England Conservatory Double Degree Program and the co-leader of the course. "[Webcams help] people form friendships. When there is a bloody day or a terrorist attack occurs, it is tangible."
"The Solis Program is a great way to interact with students from the Middle East on a personal level and create a discussion which will delve into the depths of their beliefs and help bridge communication," sophomore and Solis class member Danielle Warner agreed.
According to the Solis website, students participating in the program are divided into eight-person units, each with four American and four Middle Eastern students. For an hour and a half every week, the units utilize Solis' online technology to hold discussions with trained facilitators. Students are able to receive credit for the program, which is run in concurrence with International Relations, Media Studies and Conflict Resolution professors.
The Solis website lists Harvard University, American University in Cairo, Virginia Commonwealth University, Clark University and American University of Beirut as participants in the pilot Connect Program in the fall semester of 2003.
Solis takes a three-pronged approach: exploration, expression and engagement. The first stage, "Explore," is a crash course in U.S. - Middle Eastern history and politics. Once students have developed a thorough understanding of the underlying issues, they cultivate their own ideas, which are communicated in the course's second stage, "Express."
Using raw footage supplied by the BBC, Al Jazeera, and Solis, students create videos to communicate their perspectives to other students participating in the course. In groups of eight, students from across the world communicate via webcam in weekly online sessions and post thoughts on an internet forum.
The course culminates with the opportunity to reach beyond the Solis community and share ideas with the outside world through a media project. Students collaborate to create documentaries and editorials that highlight the issues and propose solutions. The projects will appear in film festivals, newspapers, and on television programs all over the world.
Chorev received a grant this summer to develop the Solis "curriculum menu." The menu is a fifteen page syllabus of reading material from academic journals, books, newspapers, magazines and interviews.
Students are exposed to a variety of diverse resources in order to develop an understanding of government, foreign policy, religion in society, culture, and the role of the media. According to Chorev, exposure to a wide spectrum of opinions allows students to identify and explore the role of biases in politics and culture.
Readings are accompanied in class by guest speakers, including Joshua Hammer, former Jerusalem bureau chief for "Newsweek," and a religious professor from Boston University.
When Chorev sat down with the president of the Solis program, Lucas Welsh, and the executive director, Liza Chambers, to discuss including Solis in the ExCollege, he stressed the importance of creating a curriculum that emphasized not only communication, but also education. Arming the students with information enriches conversation and allows for more meaningful discussion.
Jamie Morgan, a freshman in the class, is grateful for the background information she is receiving. "One of my main concerns, and probably a concern for other kids in the class, is that we wouldn't know enough about the Middle East to get as much as we could out of [the conversation]," she said. "Researching the Middle East first really helped."
The class's online discussions are synchronized with lectures so that students discuss the topics they have learned about in the previous class. The discussions play a vital role in the course, by allowing students to speak "face to face."
Sophomore Emily Andrews, who co-leads the course along with Chorev, pointed out that the chats are not only valuable because they bridge a cultural gap, but also because they bring together people with very different points of view who can teach and learn from one another.
"With the broader focus of talking to [American] students not just from Tufts, but also from schools like Harvard, Clark University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Maine, and students across the world, you get a diversity of opinions," Andrews said.
Junior Negar Razavi is a student in the class who looks forward to the live chats. "I really hope that through such dialogue I gain new perspective on the daily situation of young people in Arab countries," she said. "I want to know how they view the US and what kind of future they envision for the Middle East."
Students in the class are encouraged to become as involved as possible. They post comments on the web log, share new reading material with the class, and pose questions to their peers when they do not understand something. The hope, according to Chorev, is "to connect future regions and form friendships and deep understandings very early on."
Sophomore Danielle Warner believes her and her classmates "will leave the class with more than just a broader knowledge of the conflicts in the Middle East. [We'll] walk away with eight or nine new friends from all over the world," Warner said.
Chorev and Andrews understand that the students will most likely come across issues that are not easy to talk about. They encourage students to face their discomforts rather than hiding from them. Addressing uncomfortable topics, they believe, is the only way to eliminate tension.
"I explain to the students that they should be open about their sensitivities," Chorev said. "People are afraid they'll be stereotyped. The goal is to break these stereotypes, and to come to understand cultural sensitivities."
As Chorev and Andrews work to make Tufts' first semester of Solis an enriching and successful one, their minds are also on the future of the program. A goal for the spring is for students to receive a full credit for the class, rather than the half-credit that is currently awarded.
Solis administrators and leaders also hope that further down the line, Tufts will adopt the course into a liberal arts concentration, most likely International Relations or Political Science. Additionally, they want the course to be able to fulfill the World Civilizations requirement.
"I sincerely hope Solis expands to a larger class size so even more of the students can experience this amazing program," Warner said. "I see this course having a great influence on the International Relations department."
Warner believes offering Solis through the IR department would create "demand for more interactive and interesting courses which really introduce students to world politics, and allow them to connect with other students across the globe," Warner said.
But for now, Chorev, Andrews, and their students are focusing on making meaningful relationships with students across the world.
