Center for Arabic Study Abroad (AVIA)

Director (U.S.A.): Mahmoud Al-Batal, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Co-Director (Cairo): Zeinab Taha
Executive Director: Nevenka Korica

AUC’s Arabic Language Institute also houses the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), an intensive advanced Arabic program for American graduate and undergraduate students who have had at least two years of instruction in Arabic. CASA is a consortium of twenty-eight American universities, including AUC and it receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Mellon and Ford Foundations with support from the Binational Fulbright Committee in Egypt, in addition to program fees paid by participants. Its objective is to raise the level and broaden the base of Arabic language competence in the American academic community.

AUC’s Arabic Language Institute offers both a CASA summer program and a CASA twelve-month program beginning in June. The summer program emphasizes the spoken Arabic of Cairo with adequate attention to modern standard Arabic. Students in the full-year program develop a facility in the use of the four major language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The CASA II program aims to provide further opportunities for CASA fellows, who have completed the CASA full-year program within the past five years, to continue to enhance their language skills and advance their Arabic-based research in Egypt. The CASA II program offers the opportunity to study for one or two semesters (fall or spring or both). In addition to these programs, CASA provides a program in Arabic for professors in the humanities & social sciences called CASA III. This program is generally offered in the summer, but can also be offered for two months during the fall or the spring.

Students are chosen to participate in the program on the basis of a competitive examination given every February in the United States. They must be American citizens or permanent residents, and be enrolled in a recognized institution of learning in the United States or Europe. During their CASA studies they are enrolled at AUC.

Students enrolled in AUC’s academic or intensive Arabic programs are eligible to apply for CASA. The CASA examination is given in Cairo at AUC every February at the same time that it is given in the United States.

Applications and further information on fellowships can be obtained from: Director, Center for Arabic Study Abroad, University of Texas at Austin, WMB 6.102, 1 University Station, F9400, Austin, TX 78712-0527, and from the CASA web page: UTcasa@austin.utexas.edu