July 2018
أهلاً ! Ahlan! I’m Jackie Salzinger. If you’re reading this, I’d be really surprised if you don’t already know me in some capacity, so I'll keep things short. Whatever brings you here today, thanks for taking the time to visit the site.
I just graduated Yale in May 2018, where I studied Anthropology and Arabic, and I am now spending Academic Year 2018-2019 in Amman, Jordan at the Qasid Institute. This incredible opportunity is possible thanks to fellowship funding from Yale and administrative support from the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA). I'm still a little in shock about all this; CASA was my dream postgraduate outcome, and I feel incredibly blessed.
But on to the specific madness at hand. Is it cliché to keep a blog during one’s travels? Absolutely. But I’m nonetheless enthusiastic about this writing project, for a few reasons. Firstly, I’m hoping this will be a way to more consistently and thoroughly share what I am learning with my family and friends back home. We live in an era in which a highly selective (read: racist) sort of media is carrying the weight of international, cross-cultural learning; perhaps some of my own experiences can serve to complicate your understanding of the Arab world. (My success on that front will be better if you ask questions!)
Just as importantly, however, I like to think that this public journal will hold me accountable to reckoning more honestly and meaningfully with my own personal growth, which I know will be shaped by my experience living as a foreigner. In the coming months, I intend to take a risky step beyond the platitudes of “cultural exchange”/tourism/vague hippie humanism. I hope to forge connections between my day-to-day in Amman, on the one hand, and, on the other, the questions and concerns that shape conversation in the U.S. -- quite often among people who are never afforded the luxury of traveling to this region of the world themselves. I won't pretend that I am some sort of "enlightened" traveler who is above all that. I also need to work out the internalized b&*!$%*t I've metabolized into a shortsighted outlook toward Arab countries and Muslim culture. Inshallah this year will be ripe with chances to change and grow.
So! Ideally I want this website to be a dialogue. Please, please, please a) ask anonymous questions via this form and b) leave comments or clarifying questions on my posts! I’d love to know how my writing does or doesn’t spark your own reflections.
أهلاً ! Ahlan! I’m Jackie Salzinger. If you’re reading this, I’d be really surprised if you don’t already know me in some capacity, so I'll keep things short. Whatever brings you here today, thanks for taking the time to visit the site.
I just graduated Yale in May 2018, where I studied Anthropology and Arabic, and I am now spending Academic Year 2018-2019 in Amman, Jordan at the Qasid Institute. This incredible opportunity is possible thanks to fellowship funding from Yale and administrative support from the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA). I'm still a little in shock about all this; CASA was my dream postgraduate outcome, and I feel incredibly blessed.
But on to the specific madness at hand. Is it cliché to keep a blog during one’s travels? Absolutely. But I’m nonetheless enthusiastic about this writing project, for a few reasons. Firstly, I’m hoping this will be a way to more consistently and thoroughly share what I am learning with my family and friends back home. We live in an era in which a highly selective (read: racist) sort of media is carrying the weight of international, cross-cultural learning; perhaps some of my own experiences can serve to complicate your understanding of the Arab world. (My success on that front will be better if you ask questions!)
Just as importantly, however, I like to think that this public journal will hold me accountable to reckoning more honestly and meaningfully with my own personal growth, which I know will be shaped by my experience living as a foreigner. In the coming months, I intend to take a risky step beyond the platitudes of “cultural exchange”/tourism/vague hippie humanism. I hope to forge connections between my day-to-day in Amman, on the one hand, and, on the other, the questions and concerns that shape conversation in the U.S. -- quite often among people who are never afforded the luxury of traveling to this region of the world themselves. I won't pretend that I am some sort of "enlightened" traveler who is above all that. I also need to work out the internalized b&*!$%*t I've metabolized into a shortsighted outlook toward Arab countries and Muslim culture. Inshallah this year will be ripe with chances to change and grow.
So! Ideally I want this website to be a dialogue. Please, please, please a) ask anonymous questions via this form and b) leave comments or clarifying questions on my posts! I’d love to know how my writing does or doesn’t spark your own reflections.
disclaimer/summary!
Things this blog isn't about:
“The Middle East”™
American Foreign Policy
Counter-Terrorism
Things this blog is about:
Expat and Cosmopolitan Culture in Amman!
Me Accidentally Violating Social Taboos Probably!
Dreams and Schemes for a Borderless World!
Tamam?
>> Start Here <<
(first post coming soon)