HOUSTON, May 14, 2012 – The University of Houston (UH) has launched a new minor in Arab Studies and named Emran El-Badawi as the first director of the Arab Studies Program. Beginning in fall 2012, UH students may declare the minor, which will be housed in the department of Modern and Classical Languages (MCL) within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS).

“We are very excited about the new Arab Studies minor,” said Hildegard Glass, chair of the MCL department and director of the German program at UH. “The University of Houston has been offering courses in Arabic language and culture for more than a decade, and now we are adding more advanced courses to our Arabic curriculum. While this is an area we wanted to expand for quite some time, we could not do so without the faculty in place to build the program.  With the support of the CLASS Dean, John Roberts, we were able to make a tenure-track appointment in Arabic, the first in the history of this university. With Dr. Emran El-Badawi joining our department as its director, we could move forward with developing the Arab Studies minor.”

The Press Release also stated:

El-Badawi joined the department of Modern and Classical Language in fall 2011 as assistant professor of Arabic language and literature. Prior to joining the UH faculty, he earned his Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Chicago in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He received his master’s degree in religion from Temple University and a bachelor’s degree in religion and computer science from Rutgers University.

“Since students are exposed to a great deal of information – and misinformation – concerning the Arab world and Islam in the media, many students will have questions that can best be answered through the Arab Studies minor,” El-Badawi said.