Columbia University Seminar on the Middle East
The Columbia University Seminar on the Middle East is one of
approximately seventy-five at Columbia University on a vast variety of
subjects. Each Seminar acts as an autonomous and voluntary grouping of
scholars and practitioners brought together under the auspices of
Columbia University by their dedication to a particular line of
investigation. The movement is not only interdisciplinary but
inter-institutional, and involves members of the community who might not
otherwise participate in university activity.
The Middle East Seminar meets once a month during the academic year. A
prominent expert from here or abroad, commonly from the Middle East,
leads a four-hour discussion at each meeting, assuring ample time for
in-depth exploration of contemporary political issues. The Seminar
provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences by Middle
East experts in various spheres--business, banking and investment,
federal service, the foundations, the media, and the liberal professions
as well as academia.
Operating continuously since its creation by Professor J.C. Hurewitz in
1971, the Seminar has been closely associated with the Middle East
Institute from its inception. Over the years, it has hosted hundreds of
the most highly respected academicians and officials in the world of
Middle East politics and has developed a loyal group of members whose
abiding interest in the region is their primary shared characteristic.
It is recognized as a medium for carefully defined and informed
evaluation of stubborn problems in a region that frequently symbolizes
political instability and crises.
The membership of the Seminar is quite diverse in terms of professional
experience and background. Membership is generally not available to
students, although two outstanding graduate students are selected each
year to act as administrator and rapporteur. A number of these have gone
on to become members-and even senior officials-of the Seminar after
graduation. Although members of the media often participate, discussions
are conducted on a not-for-attribution basis to promote candor. Detailed
minutes are circulated to participating members for use on the same
basis.
The University Seminar Movement
The University Seminar movement has flourished for over fifty years,
growing from the original five Seminars in 1945 to approximately
seventy-five Seminars today. The Seminars have as their central goal the
integration of otherwise fragmented knowledge, a pulling together of the
many threads of knowledge and experience through the stimulus of
continuing discussion.
Frank Tannenbaum, Professor of Latin American History at Columbia,
founder of the University Seminars, and director until his death in
1969, was an ardent believer in the potential for enlightenment
contained in meaningful dialogue. In an essay entitled "Implications of
an Education Movement," Tannenbaum wrote: "The primary aim of the
University Seminar is the attempt to see things whole, to merge the
disciplines for the purpose of getting a unified view. The aim is
synthesis, insight, wisdom, the understanding of the full incidence of
the ongoing phenomenon to which any collegium is devoted."
In this regard, the Seminar movement may be viewed as the protagonist
for the development of a new relationship among the various institutions
that comprise our intellectual communities. However great the need fifty
years ago, when the Seminar movement was founded, the subsequent
explosion of knowledge and increasing fragmentation of disciplines make
more urgent than ever the establishment of interdisciplinary forums for
learning and communication. There is a manifest need for a structure
that acts not only to unite specialists but to join the academy with
other elements of society into an "intellectual guild."
For more information about the Seminar movement, see their website at:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/seminars/index.html
