The Office of the Provost is launching the Dartmouth Initiative for Middle East Exchange, a three-year pilot program to strengthen academic and professional partnerships between Dartmouth and the Middle East and North Africa region. DIMEX is seeking to work with other universities and institutions in the Middle East and North Africa to “enrich Dartmouth’s global excellence,” according to Middle Eastern Studies professor and program director Jonathan Smolin.
Dartmouth’s “core mission is learning, education and the production of knowledge,” Smolin said. “The way to do that in the 21st century is to reach out to partners across the world.”
As director, Smolin is charged with ensuring that broad connections are made — both geographically and in the kinds of projects that are pursued.
The College already has “quite a bit of academic strength and student engagement opportunities,” according to vice provost for academic and international affairs Barbara Will, who will oversee DIMEX.
“We're known for our Middle Eastern Studies program and our Jewish Studies program and we have a lot of strengths in that area,” Will said. “So we were thinking this would be a good place to really put some investment of resources and faculty and student engagement.”
Some of Dartmouth’s opportunities for international study are already in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, Dartmouth has a “long-standing” relationship of over 20 years with the American University of Kuwait, according to Will.
The new DIMEX programs will extend to all of Dartmouth’s graduate and undergraduate schools. At the Tuck School of Business, all students are required to complete the Bakala TuckGO program, which involves studying in a country that the student had previously not spent more than 90 days in, according to Bakala TuckGO executive director and DIMEX advisory board member Lisa Miller. Miller said one of her responsibilities is making sure the program had “geographical coverage.”
"As much as possible, [DIMEX is] trying to incorporate as many different partners geographically,” Miller said. “Not just centered in one country, right, or even one one part, but that it really is from Istanbul to Casablanca.”
DIMEX will also expand collaborations between faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine and at Yarmouk University in Jordan, according to the program’s website.
Will said that DIMEX will “keep pushing forward Dartmouth's reputation” in the MENA region.
“We want to become known as one of the most important academic presences in the Middle East and North Africa region,” Will added.
Miller said that DIMEX also creates a “virtuous cycle” for “the Dartmouth brand” and global academic exchange.
“If Dartmouth is out making a name for itself in a positive way in a country in the MENA region, then potential undergraduate applicants will learn more about it,” Miller said. “The more knowledge there is among potential undergraduates, and parents of undergraduates and government entities, maybe the more applicants there are.”
Will said the initiative comes at “an exciting moment” in history.
“It's a cauldron of potential for understanding and cultural exchange,” Will added. “And for that reason, Dartmouth should take advantage of our already existing ties and really develop those further.”
Smolin said that the program is looking to announce their first student opportunities in September and October.
Tierney Flavin ’28 is a news reporter. She is from Kansas City, Mo. and plans to major in Government and Sociology.
