The Doha Experiment - Gary Wasserman

The Doha Experiment - Gary Wasserman is located in San Francisco, United States on 311 29th Ave. The Doha Experiment - Gary Wasserman is rated 3 out of 5 in the category political organization in United States. This is a true story that sounds like a politically incorrect joke. A Jewish guy walks into a fundamentalist Arab country he has never heard of to teach American politics at a Catholic college. Assuming survival, it is a good job offering lots of perks. This takes place in 2005, in the shadow of 9/11. With a mix of anxiety, ambition and idealism, I come to believe that I can make a difference teaching in this strange, apparently hostile world. Teaching at Georgetown University’s new Foreign Service School in Doha, Qatar doesn’t get me killed, kidnapped or even treated badly. Instead I become part of a significant, little known movement of American higher education into the embattled nations of the Middle East. The stakes are high, the process often chaotic. Unlike much of today’s reporting from the Middle East, this is not a blood-soaked narrative of despair. Instead there are simpler, often funny stories of a wide diversity of people, dealing with each other and the foreigners they’ve hired to help them. The intimacy of the classroom allows candid exchanges with Muslim youth struggling to find their way amid colliding worlds. Throughout is my own journey with the experiences and changes that I went through, offering insights and humor, irony and hope. I travel from fear, confusion and stereotypes to become part of a significant attempt to bring liberal education to a region of the world where freedom of speech, religious tolerance and co-education are seldom practiced, praised or acknowledged. Yet there is considerable humor and hope in this story. I found myself not in the midst of a clash of civilizations but a confusion of cultures; where the polarities of fundamentalist vs. modern, American vs. Arab, Jew vs. Muslim fade to gray. They are overtaken by people of surprisingly diverse backgrounds, with multiple identities, shared ambitions and, at times, overlapping values. They show what our country still can offer—the gold standard in liberal higher education–that much of the world both wants and needs. For these are stories of lives in motion and confusion, with which we share a future.