Dr. Eric Davis, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and past director of the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Dr. Davis' research has included the study of the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq, the political economy of Egyptian industrialization, the ideology and social bases of religious radical movements in Egypt and Israel, and the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in Arab oil-producing countries. Dr. Davis is a member of an eight nation study, "Democracy and Development in the Arab World," being conducted under the auspices of the World Bank and the American University in Beirut.

The Islamization of Europe: Rhetoric or Reality?
In this talk, I will differentiate between the different forms immigration from the Middle East and other Muslim areas of the world, e.g., Africa, to Europe have taken.  I will argue that the social and political structure of such immigration is so varied as to challenge the concept of the "Islamization of Europe."  We find that many Muslim immigrants to Europe are professionals who are highly Westernized, which is the case, for example, in the United Kingdom and France.  In other countries, such as Germany, Muslims have achieved upward mobility to become political activists and office holders or are second generation residents who no longer maintain strong ties to their parents' country of origin.  North African Muslims in Spain and Italy have little contact with Muslim immigrants in other parts of Europe whose origins lie in Turkey and the Arab East (Mashriq).  Kurds from Turkey and Arab countries maintain few ties with Muslims from other ethnic backgrounds. The effort in the talk will be to suggest a better conceptual scheme for understanding the relationship between Europe and the Muslim countries of the Middle East that avoids stereotypical and reductionist thinking.

Workshop #2:

Dr. R. Daniel Kelemen, Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Director of the Center for European Studies.
Dr. Kelemen is a specialist in EU politics, law and regulation. He serves on the Executive Committee of the European Union Studies Association and the editorial board of the Journal of European Public Policy.

The Future of the European Union: Wider and Deeper?
The EU recently emerged from its 'constitutional crisis' with the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.  Today it continues to be tested by the fallout from the global financial crisis. These episodes underlined long-standing questions about the stability of the EU and the impact of the decades long drive to both 'widen' the EU by adding new member states and to 'deepen' the EU by giving more power to Brussels. Many observers on both sides of the Atlantic have questioned whether the enlarged and increasingly diverse EU of 27 member countries can hold together under the strains generated by such crises. Can the EU continue to grow larger and stronger? In this workshop, we will explore these questions and discuss a range of recent developments in the EU.

Dr. Elvira Swender, ACTFL, Director of Professional Programs
Dr. Elvira Swender is a specialist in proficiency-based language instruction and assessment, overseeing a number of programs and projects for the improvement of language teaching and testing. Among her publications are the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines -Speaking (1999) and Writing (2001), the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners (1998), and the ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA). Dr. Swender is a consultant to various U.S. and international educational, private sector, and governmental organizations and agencies. Current areas of research include correlations and concordances among testing scales and frameworks, including the ACTFL Guidelines, the U.S. Government’s Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Scale, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and the STANAG 6001 (NATO scale). 

Harmonious Scales: The Common European Framework of Reference and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines
As the world becomes smaller, the need to communicate with speakers of many different languages increases.  Language programs across the globe are now being described and designed not only in terms of language achievement – what students are taught  - but rather in terms of language proficiency - what students are able to do in the real world with what they have been taught in school.  The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the Common European Framework of Reference are two examples of how language abilities and language program outcomes are currently articulated on both sides of the Atlantic.  This sesssion will take a look at the two Frameworks, describe their commonalities and differences, and present information regarding what both the ACTFL Guidelines and the CEFR are telling language educators about the proficiency of language learners.  Ongoing and proposed research initiatives on this topic will also be presented.

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) in Helsinki, Finland.
Dr. Sahlberg has global expertise in educational reforms, training teachers and leaders, coaching schools to change and advising education policy-makers. He speaks and writes about educational change, development and cooperation. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and the University of Oulu. (http://www.pasisahlberg.com)

Finland's Educational System: A Success Story
The small country of  Finland is regularly singled out as one of the top performers in international comparisons of student achievement.  What are the keys to success of the Finnish model of education?  How does Finland approach issues of teacher training, inequality of educational opportunity, and school choice. Dr. Sahlberg will talk about what aspects of the Finnish system can be adapted to an American classroom.

#1 - The Islamization of Europe: Rhetoric or Reality?

#2 - The Future of the European Union: Wider and Deeper?

#3 - Harmonious Scales: The Common European Framework of Reference and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines