OLLI101519 - Turning Points of Recent Times in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) [In-person at TUCC]
Course Description
Turning Points of Recent Times in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Instructor: Jerry Sorkin
Dates: Wednesdays, Sep 27-Oct 11
Time: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM
Location: In-person at Center City (TUCC)
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are one of the few areas of the world that often draws international diplomacy into action to keep events from spreading beyond the region. This course will focus on some major activities that have impacted the region in the last decade or so. While lectures will concentrate on these events, one will learn about some of the actors, what changes have taken place and the question of whether things in the MENA are getting better or worse! The primary events we will look at will be:1) The media dubbed “Arab Spring;” 2) The Abraham Accords; 3) The continuing unresolved issue of Israel and Palestine.
Pre-requisite: A suggested reading list to be provided.
Maximum in-person registrants: 60
Instructor’s Bio:
This will be the sixth semester that Jerry Sorkin has taught at OLLI, trying to accommodate his hectic international travel schedule. He is a frequent contributor to the English language newspaper, The Arab Weekly, as well as other media. Jerry is conversant in Arabic, French and Hebrew and holds a B.A. and M.A. from Univ of Pennsylvania. He has served as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Tunisia since July 2018 and has US State Department credentials.
Notes
Why when I’m registering do I join the Wait List?
Several of our courses are in high demand. In order to accommodate our members who are not tech-savvy and have trouble registering online, we created a registration system in which there is no advantage to registering early, no disadvantage to registering later.
When registering, you join the Wait List for each course. Don’t be alarmed. This does not mean the course is full. After the registration period is over, we run a lottery on the courses, and it randomly determines who is admitted to each course and who is not. You typically will receive notification regarding which courses you are admitted to, about two weeks before the start of the semester. If a course accepts 150 or more students, you are very likely to get into it.