8/10/2019 Geroge F Roberson - CMI feature in Keene State Today Fall 2014

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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S

Keene State TodayVolume XXXI Number 1 Fall 2014

8/10/2019 Geroge F Roberson - CMI feature in Keene State Today Fall 2014

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SPRING 2014 17

George F. Roberson 86 explores Taoistsites on Laoshan Mountain, near Qingdaoin Shandong Province, Peoples Republic ofChina. Courtesy photo

No single thing impacted me more

during my KSC years than Dr. Al

Rydants lecture on the apartheid

system in South Africa, writes

George F. Roberson 86. Roberson,

who has a PhD in geosciences

and spent a year as a Fulbright

research scholar in Morocco, is the

founder, publisher, and director of

Collaborative Media International,

a nongovernmental organization

dedicated to furthering

intercultural dialogue and

understanding between the USA,

the North Africa / Middle East

Regions, and world-wide through

multinational collaboration,

research, and education. He

divides his time among Denver,

Amherst, Massachusetts, Tangier,

and Mexico City.

Ive traveled in over 50 countries,

and nothing has humbled and

impressed me more than the

generosity, friendship, and solidarity

of the people Ive met.

Once, visiting in a war zone (I cant

mention the place due to safety

concerns), I met a large group of high

school teachers. They invited me to visit

their school to attend classes and talk

with their students. I eagerly agreed, but

the administration wouldnt allow it.

A few days later I joined them to break

the fast during Ramadan at the home

of the top military commander in the

region. He was hosting a series of elegant

dinners, having just returned from the

Hajj in Mecca. He greeted me with great

humility, bowing low, head turned down,

gently holding my hand for a long time.

The school administrator was also there;

he greeted me more warmly than my

own family, with rounds of cheek kisses,

hugs, and compliments. All the guests

were male. The next few hours we were

served mountains of food, more food

than Ive ever seen before. The final

course was five-foot round platters of rice

and a whole grilled lamb, placed on the

floor, with eight or nine men crouched

around each. The odd thing was that no

one spoke the entire evening; I felt like Id

stepped into the twilight zone. After we

left the dinner, all the teachers crowded

around, anxiously asking me questions,

talking, joking, etc. And I asked, But,why did no one speak at the dinner? It

was a protest, they replied, against the

administrator since he wouldnt let me

visit their school.

George F. Roberson 86

NRead more from George F. Robersonabout what drew him to his work and

link to CMIs website at keene.edu/mag.

An Elegant Dinner,

Conducted in Silence

8/10/2019 Geroge F Roberson - CMI feature in Keene State Today Fall 2014

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George F. Roberson 86 is the founder, publisher, and director of Collaborative Media International, a

nongovernmental organization dedicated to furthering intercultural dialogue and understanding between

the USA, the North Africa / Middle East Regions, and world-wide through multinational collaboration,

research, and education. He divides his time among Denver, Amherst, Massachusetts, Tangier, and

Mexico City.

KSC launched me into the world. Although I hold a PhD in geosciences, liberal arts is the toolbox with

which I work and engage in the world. No single thing impacted me more during my KSC years than Dr. Al

Rydants lecture on the apartheid system in South Africa. I took from it a responsibility to try to do things in

my life that might help reduce injustice.

In the 1990s I became interested in processes of change and in Muslim-majority countries and began

traveling to places like Bosnia, Lebanon, Syria, the occupied West Bank, Western Sahara, and Indonesia.

I observed that force is neither a constructive nor a lasting strategy. I learned how little I knew about these

headline-grabbing places. I learned that what I knew was incomplete and often wrong.

So I returned to school and, after September 11, 2001, determined to learn as much as I could about the

Middle East and North Africa. I focused my research on Tangier, Morocco. At the cusp of lands, seas and

cultures, Tangier has been successfully negotiating whats been called the contact zone since the arrival

of Phoenician traders 2,500 years ago.

By 2006, with force-centered strategies failing in Iraq and Afghanistan, I turned my efforts to putting

alternative theories into practice. With a Fulbright research grant I worked for a year in Morocco with Dr.

Khalid Amine of Universit Abdelmalek Essaadi. Weve established two NGOs dedicated to constructive,

collaborative international engagement: International Centre for Performance Studies, based in Morocco,

and Collaborative Media International (CMI), based in the US. We host an annual international conference

and publish educational materials, Arabic to English translations, and volumes of literary criticism and

debate. CMIs first film, Joshua Tree, takes up the impacts of the 2008 US economic collapse.

Putting knowledge to use to create constructive theories, and then putting those theories into practice to

me, this is what academics do. CMI is an example of this; our hope is that it will prove a more successful

and lasting approach to international engagement than the use of force.

George F. Roberson 86 Learn more about CMI.

2014 Keene State College. Keene State College is a member of the University System of New Hampshire.

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