Academic Year 2009-2010

Summer Experiences in the Middle East and North Africa
October 28, 2009, 12:30PM
Fares Center Conference Room
Speakers: Stephen Allen, Rachel Brown, Robert Berry, Elsa Palanza, and Maggie Williams

Speaker Biographies

Stephen Allen (MALD 2010) grew up in Sub-Saharan Africa but has always been fascinated with North Africa and the Middle East. He first traveled to the Middle East as an undergraduate for a study abroad program, when he spent a semester based in Cairo, and traveled to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel/the West Bank. He returned to Cairo after graduating to work for the same study abroad program, and has returned to the region many times since. Steve spent this past summer struggling to learn Arabic verb forms in Tangier, Morocco on a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. State Department.

Rachel Brown (MALD 2010) is a second-year MALD student focusing on Conflict Resolution and Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization. She just returned from a summer in Jerusalem where she worked as an Advocacy Project Peace Fellow at the Alternative Information Center, and traveled through Israel and the West Bank. Prior to Fletcher she worked as an intern at CARE and The Carter Center and was also a Teach For America corps member. She graduated from Brown University in 2005, where she majored in Middle East Studies.

Robert Berry (MALD 2011) is a first year MALD specializing in Southwest Asia & Islamic Civilization and Conflict Resolution. He spent the past year in Jordan and Oman on a Fulbright scholarship. He studied Arabic in Jordan and volunteered assisting Iraqi refugees in Amman. In Oman, he conducted independent research on democratic institutions written into Shariah law of the Ibadi sect, and studied Shariah at a traditional Islamic school of law.

Margaret Williams (MALD 2010) is a second-year MALD student concentrating in International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Law and Development. Before beginning her studies at Fletcher, Margaret worked in Thessaloniki Greece as an International Teaching Fellow at the American Farm School, and in New York City as a corporate immigration paralegal. Margaret spent the summer of 2009 working in Nablus, West Bank for Tomorrow's Youth Organization, a non-profit, non-government organization/community center dedicated to serving the most disadvantaged youth and families in the Middle East.

Elsa Palanza (MALD 2010) is a second-year MALD student focusing on International Security Studies and Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization. She spent the summer doing language study and independent research in Istanbul, Turkey. Prior to Fletcher, Elsa did geopolitical consulting for foreign energy companies in Washington D.C., as well as several cultural diplomacy projects related to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.