Thanks to the efforts of Professor Mootacem Mhiri, Senior Lecturer in Arabic, Vassar has once again been selected to host a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) in Arabic. Professor Mhiri will serve as the Academic Advisor of the FLTA. Sponsored by the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), the Fulbright FLTA Program is “designed to develop Americans’ knowledge of foreign cultures and languages by supporting teaching assistantships in more than 35 languages at hundreds of U.S. institutions of higher education.”

The presence of an Arabic language FLTA will provide critical instructional support as well as cultural exposure to Vassar students—two elements that are essential to the comprehensive, successful teaching of any language, especially for less commonly taught languages such as Arabic. This will be Vassar’s fifteenth time hosting an Arabic FLTA, an experience that has been enriching and rewarding.

Housed in the Africana Studies Multidisciplinary Program, the Arabic Language and Culture correlate enjoys robust registration at the introductory level and offers three full years of language study and two literature courses.