Spring 2006 -- Vol. 59, No. 2

Although Jim Miller is a geography professor at Clemson, his office in Hardin Hall has been empty since the summer of 2003. For the last three years, his other office has been tucked behind the blue-studded door to an old villa at the end of an alley. Beyond this alley are the gardens, souks, beaches and museums of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

Tunisia is an Arab-African country that sits between Algeria and Libya and borders the Mediterranean Sea. It’s where the outline of Africa dips sharply south, and at its closest, it’s 90 miles from Italy. It’s also the possible future home to a Clemson study abroad program.

Miller is currently the program director of CEMAT, the American Research Center in Tunisia, which facilitates scholarly research in a country with an ancient and rich history.

This peaceful nation has assumed many names through the years — from Carthage to the Roman province of Ifiqiya, from various Islamic dynasties to the Ottoman Empire of the Turks, and finally from French colony to the modern-day Republic of Tunisia.

Both a colorful and friendly country, Tunisia is an ideal location for academia to establish positive relations with the Arab world.

CEMAT aids and supports American researchers who come to Tunis with a scientific desire to understand the Maghreb — or the western Arab world composed of the countries of northwest Africa — and who become cultural mediators because of the knowledge and understanding they take home.

Now in his third and final year as center director, Miller knows that understanding the Arab world is essential to ameliorating the tensions that exist between cultures. Last summer, he furthered CEMAT’s academic mission by launching a program called “Tunisia Past & Present.”

The program offered college students three weeks of Arab language courses and daily lectures on topics concerning Tunisia, Islam and the broader Arab world. Fifteen students from 10 universities across the United States attended. Among them was Clemson’s own Brandon Essary, currently a junior majoring in history.

Brandon was immersed in the deep history and sophisticated culture of Tunisia. One of the most significant impacts that this sojourn had on his Clemson experience came from the multilingual people he met there. “As a result of encountering so many Tunisians who spoke multiple languages,” he says, “I returned to Clemson linguistically inspired.”

One night, Brandon ate dinner with a Tunisian family, and during the meal everyone discussed — in English — political concerns of Tunisia, France and the United States.

“The Tunisian willingness to embrace other languages made all the difference in the world,” he says. Back at Clemson now, he’s continuing the Italian studies that he had begun prior to the trip and, in addition, is taking Russian and brushing up on his Spanish.

Brandon’s admiration of Tunisia’s diverse languages and his own desire to study them are the kinds of positive results that CEMAT and Miller hope to encourage among Americans in regard to the Arab world.

Professor Stephanie Barczewski, of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities’ International Programs, says the University has a great interest in expanding the summer program in Tunis.

“We think it offers a rare and valuable opportunity for Clemson students to study in a country in the Islamic world,” says Barczewski, “obviously a region that is crucial to contemporary world affairs and likely to remain so.”

Though plans are in the very early stages, one goal is to create a consortium of U.S. universities that would participate in the Tunis program.

This year, CEMAT, part of a network of similar American research centers across the Arab world, is offering a six-week program in Arabic language for 16 students. Again sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Tunisia Arabic Program is a direct result of the National Strategic Language Initiative first announced by President George W. Bush at the 2006 National Conference for College and University presidents attended by Clemson President Jim Barker in early January.

Miller will return to his Hardin Hall office this fall and resume teaching Clemson students on campus. But through his leadership at CEMAT and the potential for future programs, the Clemson classroom now has a richer international scope.

For more information about CEMAT, visit the Web at www.caorc.org. For more about Clemson international affairs, visit www.clemson.edu/IA.