Two Gain Top Honors, New Perspective at Model Arab League

Two UC students won top honors as outstanding delegates in the Model Arab League that took place in Miami earlier this month. With the United States at war in Iraq, the need for a program like this, which builds better understanding of the Arab world, becomes even more critical, says the UC team’s adviser, Elizabeth Frierson.

Peers from the participating universities selected UC’s Michael Hinckley and Angie Vaught, both history majors in the

McMicken College of Arts and Sciences

, as the outstanding delegates in their categories. Hinckley and Vaught represented Morocco, with Hinckley posing as an interior minister and Vaught as a minister of social affairs.

The UC Moroccan team was rounded out by history majors Josh Finnegan, who served on the Joint Defense Council, and Tim Hennies, who served on the Palestinian Affairs Council. Even though the UC delegation lacked a fifth member, the team won an honorable mention.

Participants were volunteers from an upper level-course on War and Peace in the Modern Middle East taught by Frierson, an assistant professor of history who is an expert on Middle Eastern and African history.

Taking part in the model league allowed Hinckley to become more aware of his misconceptions about the Middle East, he says. “The hard part was submerging one’s self into the role of a minister from the country, thinking like they might think, influenced by the very things they are,” says the 1987 graduate of Carson High School in Carson, Calif.

“I want the focus of my study to be on the Middle East. Too many universities are turning out students of history that are trained only as Americanists or Europeanists,” Hinckley adds. “There is a much larger world out there than just America or Europe. Participating in this league gave me an opportunity to study an area that has always intrigued me and holds great importance to the world – culturally, religiously and politically.”

His teammate, Vaught, enjoyed meeting a variety of people from the Middle East. “It changed the way I viewed Middle Eastern politics. It brought me into contact with a large variety of people from the Arab world. It gave me a different context to understand the Middle East,” says the 2000 graduate of Colerain High School. Vaught plans to go to law school next year.

The team’s adviser and teacher explains that the Model Arab League is based on the Model U.N. “It allows students to immerse themselves in a very different perspective on world. In the long run, it helps us to understand how we can communicate more effectively and get along more effectively with the Arab world. It helps us become more sophisticated observers and participants in the Arab world,” says Frierson.

Each university’s participants represent one Arab nation and spend one quarter studying that country and its issues, including defense matters, social affairs and environmental issues. Once they arrive at the meeting, the teams meet in a plenary session to set the agenda of the meeting. They then break into ministerial-level meetings, which last two days. Each group of ministers introduces and debates proposed resolutions. Finally, a General Assembly of all the countries votes on the various resolutions. In addition to the conference experience, the model league also serves as a gateway to several language and study abroad fellowships for undergraduates in the Arab world.

“I see the Model Arab League delegates as a potentially moderating,
pragmatic, and duly skeptical voice on our campus as our students' interest in and emotions about Middle East politics rise in the next year or so,” says Frierson. A UC delegation from four years ago resulted in one student going to Washington D.C. for an internship, another going to Turkey to start language study, and another who is now in her fourth year of study and work in Israel.

 In addition to UC, the other universities participating were Miami University of Ohio, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Bellarmine University, St. Louis University, Ohio Wesleyan University and Shawnee State University.