National Public Radio national correspondent Jamie Tarabay will keynote a half-day workshop about Islam and Muslim practices for journalists and media professionals on March 27 in Bloomington, presented by Voices and Visions -- a consortium of six Title VI National Resource Centers at IU, funded by the Social Science Research Council.

This year's Middle Eastern Arts Festival again will feature a vivid array of music and dance from the region, as well as exhibits, museum events and presentations by artists and scholars. Most festival events, which run from Feb. 4 through April 20, require no admission fee. All are open to the public.

About 80 faculty members at Indiana University's Bloomington campus have research or professional interests in the Middle East. They can be found from the Kelley School of Business to the Jacobs School of Music and in many specialized areas as well, such as designing national health care plans and government administration. The new director of IU's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program hopes to involve as many of them as possible in the program's future activities.

Indiana University has been selected to receive a two-year federal grant for $481,630 to provide strategic language and culture training to undergraduate students in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs.

This year's Middle Eastern Arts Festival will again feature a vivid array of music and dance from the region, as well as exhibits and lectures by artists, scholars and foods.

Indiana University has become the first university in North America to offer a class in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, a language spoken throughout several Middle Eastern lands, including Iraq and Iran. Kurmanji Kurdish is spoken by nearly 15 million of the estimated 27 to 30 million Kurdish speakers worldwide.

Lecture Notes includes lectures that will be held at Indiana University's Bloomington campus Sept. 13-24, 2006. The events are all open to the public.

The annual Middle Eastern festival at IU Bloomington will feature Middle Eastern films, food tastings, exhibits of Islamic art and instruments, presentations of Arabic folktales and poetry, and lectures on Jewish culture among its many offerings Feb. 7-10.

We are providing information about IU professors who can offer insights on the transfer of power in Iraq, as well as homeland security, ethics, media coverage and other impacts of the war on Americans.

In addition to a tipsheet we distributed on March 18, here are more faculty experts at Indiana University who can provide insights on various aspects of the situation in Iraq including the areas of Near Eastern cultures, Islamic studies, economics, medicine and politics.

As the clock ticks down on the U.S. deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave his country, the world is bracing for war. Indiana University faculty experts can provide insights on various aspects of the situation including politics, Near Eastern cultures, Islamic studies, Jewish studies, law and medicine.