Community Organizations and Community-Based Learning after COVID

On Tuesday November 16th, 2021, Amideast Education Abroad hosted a webinar conversation on community organizations and the challenges and possibilities that lay ahead for them in Morocco and Jordan as we move past what we hope is the worst of COVID. We were joined by Dr. Mjriam Abu Samra and Dr. Rachid Touhtou, Community-Based Learning Coordinators in Jordan and Morocco, and the conversation was moderated by Director of Education Abroad, Dr. Elena D. Corbett. Speakers also shared their perspective on how participants can prepare for their community-based learning experience during their time abroad.

Dr. Mjriam Abu Samra is an Arab-Italian researcher and holds a PhD in International Relations with a focus on the Middle East from the University of Oxford. She has been living in Jordan for the past 10 years where she currently works at the Center of Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. Dr. Abu Samra has been teaching at Amideast and other education abroad centers for the past 7 years.

Dr. Rachid Touhtou earned his PhD in Gender and Development Studies from the Sidi Mohamed Ibn Abdellah University in Fez. Dr. Touhtou began his professional career at the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics in Rabat in 2008, where he continues to teach. He has been a research fellow with the Arab Reform Initiative Think Tank in Paris, with the Humphrey School of Public affairs at Minnesota University, and with Cambridge University. Dr. Touhtou has been teaching at Amideast for over 6 years.

Dr. Elena D. Corbett holds a PhD from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Prior to Amideast, Dr. Corbett was Center Director at CIEE in Amman for almost 5 years. Before that, she was on an academic career path at both Penn State University Erie and the U.S. Naval Academy, where she was involved in numerous initiatives to get students to study abroad in the region. Dr. Corbett has been the Director of Amideast Education Abroad since 2017.

Some of our colleagues in Jordan and Morocco, including Dr. Touhtou and Dr. Abu Samra, participated in the Amideast Education Abroad video made for the 2021 MESA Conference. Take a minute to watch the short video below to learn what you can do to support your colleagues and academia in the Middle East and North Africa.