STUDENT NEWS

Adam Kuranishi

Political Science Major Wins U.S. State Department Scholarship to Study Arabic in Morocco

Adam Kuranishi’s passion for learning the Arabic language began with a topic for his high school debate team. As captain of the team at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, Kuranishi was inspired by a debate topic on the issue of detaining individuals without probable cause for national security purposes.

"I drew parallels between the post-9/11 Arab-American experiences with what my grandparents went through as Japanese-Americans with the internment camps as a result of Pearl Harbor," said Kuranishi, a junior majoring in political science and minoring in African American studies.

He was recently awarded a Critical Languages Scholarship from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The scholarship will cover Kuranishi’s study of intermediate Arabic during a 10-week summer program at the American Institute for Maghrib Studies in Tangier, Morocco, as well as travel and living expenses. Kuranishi will use the scholarship to pursue his interests in not only the Arabic language, but also in the Middle East and social justice.

LEARNING THROUGH THE LENS

As a sophomore, Kuranishi established a project called Project FOCUS: India. Joined by fellow Honors College student Dan Schneider and UIUC student Nina Gupta, Kuranishi traveled to India last summer to implement the program, which uses photography for critical reflection. Working with a class of 30 underserved children, the team taught students to use 35-mm cameras to take photos within their community to create stories. Kuranishi hopes to replicate the program in the Middle East this summer.

About Project FOCUS, Kuranishi says, Dan, Nina, and I wanted to offer a unique learning experience for the children of Dehradun. Inspired by progressive educational philosophy, including the works of Paulo Freire, we wrote a curriculum that defied the colonial pedagogy of the Indian schools which inhibits creative expression. We believe all knowledge is experiential, and our program encouraged the students to reflect critically on their own lives. Their photographs exposed the common elements of humanity, and we became students of our students."

"After spending the last two years studying Arabic, I’ve abandoned the notion of thinking Arabic is going to make me a better advocate," he said. "It has evolved into making me a better person because I started examining different cultures and investigating the human experience. It developed into a passion."

Kuranishi will remain in the Middle East to study Arabic and modern Islam at the University of Jordan in Amman during the fall semester. He plans to pursue a PhD in Middle Eastern languages and culture after graduating from UIC in May 2010.

Adapted from a UIC News article by Brian Flood, April 22, 2009.