University of New England

Nexus
African-born Teachers Bring Unique, International Perspectives to Their Classes

by Steve Price

Perhaps the greatest strides the University has made in "internationalizing" itself has been to diversify the faculty. Today, several UNE faculty members come from other parts of the world. Two of them, Anouar Majid, Ph.D., and Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, Ph.D., are chairs of their respective departments.

Both men were born and raised in Africa. Both are Muslim. Majid, professor and chair of the English Department, is from Morocco, a north African country with exotic appeal and strong cultural ties to Europe. Ahmida, associate professor and chair of the Political Science Department, hails from Libya, another north African country, better known to us as a military dictatorship that until recently foreswore state-sponsored terrorism.

Majid and Ahmida share many other attributes and attitudes. Both men are renowned scholars, as well as superb teachers. Both were educated in African and American universities. Both have published well-received books in their fields and they are popular speakers and presenters. Just recently, both were featured in a television documentary about the Battle of Tripoli shown on The History Channel.

Ahmida has presented before the United Nations Security Council. Anouar has written one published novel and is at work on his second. Both bring a global, multicultural view to their classes. Ahmida teaches his students to look for cultural similarities rather than differences in people. Majid emphasizes the world’s rich cultural resources to establish a more humane global society.

What follows are excerpts from recent conversations with both men.

Anouar Majid

As an African and a Muslim, did you find it difficult to adapt to living
in Maine?

Anouar Majid at the ancient city of Mogador, now Essaouira, in Morocco

It is interesting that you should ask that question, because I remember when I applied to UNE, writing my letter of application, I was typing as I looked over the Mediterranean. I grew up in Tangier. It is where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet. It is spectacular. I spent my entire childhood on the ocean. I love the beach. The way it [UNE] was described, it sounded wonderful and so beautiful.

When I came here I was the first international person they had hired. I was able to make multiple trips to Portland and to Boston and to New York in my first years at UNE to be in touch with a lot of international politicking, to be in places where there was a lot of culture and cultural artifacts. I didn’t find it [living here] impossible to adapt to.

Were you the first person to teach cultural studies at UNE?

Cultural studies is a major discipline and focus in English studies. You know, sometimes the title "cultural studies" can be misinterpreted by a variety of people. Some people think that it is just a cultural tour; some people think that it is a class passing on what they do. Actually, cultural studies brings together a variety of disciplines.

And then you combine them with the skill of structural analysis. When you try to teach an African novel, a Moroccan novel, or a Mexican novel in the classroom, the [cultural] references don’t click with students. So what happened was, two years after arriving at UNE [now retired professor] Jacque Downs asked me to take over conducting the tour of Mexico, which he had had done for years. He asked me to take over because I speak Spanish. So I went with him to see what happened in Mexico. The summer I went with Jacques was the year the Zapatista rebellion erupted in Chiapas. The city where we were, Oaxaca, was next to Chiapas and it was a very interesting experience. An epiphany to be there. The following year I conducted my own tour to Mexico, taking a student to Chiapas. In 1997 I did the first semester-long semester abroad in Mexico at UNE. It was a pioneering experience.

What does your international experience and exposure bring to the classroom and to the students? How do they respond to you?

They respond with interest. Our students are savvier than we give them credit for. They go with the flow; they are quite cool. They don’t seem to be shocked. I am not made to feel that I am a novelty. I taught two courses in American literature. For a long time I viewed this as a challenge. I approached the teaching of American literature from a critical perspective. And sometimes students see me as criticizing their culture and traditions. But now I have developed a methodology. It doesn’t happen anymore.

What do you see is your unique relationship with UNE?

I love being at UNE. It has been a tremendous bonus for me. I was able to do the kind of work I do. I did something to help diversify the climate. I was on the committee that hired Ali [Ahmida]. I played a major role. [My background has] allowed me to create a department around a philosophy that I think is beneficial for UNE.  I love living in Maine, at least this part of Maine. I just like to work. I am leery of institutional trappings. I am happy. I find being at UNE extremely rewarding. It is a great institution and has a tremendous future if it continues on the path it is taking. We are making connections.

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida

How did you come to the U.S., and ultimately to UNE?

Ali Ahmida

I came as an international student. I came to study and to attend graduate school; to learn English and to get my master’s and Ph.D. I got a small scholarship to finish my degree in Cairo, and they gave me options to go to Europe or America. So I decided to come to the States. I came from a small town in Libya. I was very intimidated by Cairo. But I overcame it. I studied English in Seattle.

What does your cultural heritage, foreign travel and international scholarship bring to the classroom?

As a young professor at UNE what I bring to my classroom and the UNE community at large is a broad bilingual and bicultural background where I try to deal with cross-cultural questions but at the same time, bring the stories, the human agencies and voices. Also, the various ways of dealing with a question.

What I bring to my classes, my students and  my scholarship,  are the original questions one has but also the various cultural answers that are Muslim, Arab and African Libyan. I bring not only the structure of [these] societies and public institutions, but also their cultural history, the movies and the political circles of opportunities and their strong voices.

When I first came to UNE as an educator, I began to see that UNE was  good in the sense that they give you the opportunity to design your courses. And I began to see how I could reach my students ... how I could avoid making my courses not stuffy and dry but critical and useful to them. I began to develop themes that are related to this way of thinking. I designed courses that are broad enough but also critical enough to expose them to different ways of looking at Africans and Arab and Muslim cultures. I do that by making them aware of the issues and times, and the way different societies look at these things. And at the same time give the voices, examples and cases that represent how others thinks about these cases.

I teach three major late 20th century revolutions: the Iranian Revolution, the Nicaraguan Revolution and the South African Revolution. We also teach the geography of the area. The other course I teach is the Inventing of Tradition: the Politics of Culture and their vision of traditions. We look at how Americans view other cultures and how traditions can be manipulated and how we can see American and African cultures get better. We see them and their commonality. Another course I teach is on globalization, where we look at how people react to globalization. I tell a lot of personal stories. As a scholar, I also write in two languages, English and Arabic. So I try to keep in touch with both.