Bio: Shannon Gavin

This website is my senior Capstone Project for a degree in Middle Eastern Studies at Brown University. I double-majored in Middle Eastern Studies and Latin American Studies. These regions of the world are intricately linked in my own personal experiences. In 2001, I was teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) to Latino immigrants in Minneapolis, MN. In the aftermath of September 11, my students faced increased harassment, eviction, and deportation. The experiences of these students and friends affected me profoundly and led me to wonder what the situation was like for Arab immigrant communities in the US. When the United States invaded Iraq in March of 2003, I was in Chiapas, Mexico. That spring I spent several months volunteering in Chiapas and Guatemala, and being a US citizen in Central America at the onset of another US invasion of a Third World nation was a challenging and eye-opening experience. Over the course of those three months in Central America, I spent much time thinking and having conversations about that other region, also centrally located according to someone’s map. It was this experience that solidified my desire to study Arabic and travel to the Middle East. After graduating in May of 2007, I will travel to Egypt for further Arabic study, this time through the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA). In the future, I hope to work with Latino and Arab immigrant and refugee communities in the United States.