Across the first half of 2026, the UCLA Islamic Studies Program will offer a series of online lectures aimed at assisting middle and high school history, religious studies, and social studies teachers in teaching about the medieval Middle East. We will be focusing on three cities as case studies of intercultural exchange in the late antique and premodern periods: Jerusalem, Damascus, and Baghdad. We welcome all interested educators and especially those who expect to teach about Islam and/or the premodern Middle East in alignment with California public education curricular requirements.
In summer 2026, UCLA’s Islamic Studies Program will hold a one-month fellowship program for Southern California-based educators featuring a series of workshops on teaching about the Islamic world in secondary education contexts in alignment with the California State Board of Education’s History-Social Science Framework for seventh-grade instruction. In addition to participating in the workshops, fellows will be provided an honorarium and will be expected to produce a set of teaching materials for use by other educators. Applications will open in the spring.
This program has been developed in partnership with UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies and is co-sponsored by the UCLA History-Geography project.
Jerusalem
Dr. Timothy Garrett
Saturday, March 7 — 10:30 AM
Event details here
Damascus
Dr. Mohsin Ali
Saturday, April 18 — 10:30 AM
Event details coming soon
Baghdad
Dr. Mohsin Ali
Saturday, May 2 — 10:30 AM
Event details coming soon