Shabbas, Audrey

Posted Oct 20, 2005      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version Bookmark and Share

Audrey Shabbas
 
Audrey Shabbas is the Council’s Teacher Workshop Leader. She has over twenty-two years experience in teaching, curriculum development and teacher training about the Middle East and Islam. Her curriculum works include: The Arab World Studies Notebook (printed by the Middle East Policy Council); The Arab World Notebook: For the Secondary School Level; The Arabs: Activities for the Elementary and Middle School; and A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace, the curriculum chosen by Sidwell Friends School for their study of Islam, and a culminating event in which the president and Mrs. Clinton and daughter Chelsea participated. 
 
A long time member of The National Council for the Social Studies, she has served as a presidential appointee to its Equity and Social Justice Committee, and as chair of the International Human Rights Education Special Interest Group. She is a regular presenter for Social Studies educator conferences—state, regional and national—as well as for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Association for Multicultural Education, and the National Association for Bilingual Education, among others. 
 
In 1985, Ms. Shabbas was asked by the United Nations to organize in New York a workshop on the question “How To Work With Educational Institutions: Schools and Libraries.” She was asked by the United Nations to return in order to develop a training program in “How To Organize Successful Teacher Workshops” for the International NGO Symposium in Geneva, and participated in United Nations forums on issues of Israeli/Palestinian peace. During many of these meetings at the United Nations, Ms. Shabbas chaired drafting committees, chaired floor fights over final declarations, acted as Rapporteur for final draft declarations, and has brought opposing factions together for resolution of conflict Ò mediating between opposing positions in order to bring them into common consensus. 
 
Her work has been honored by the University of Pennsylvania, which presented her with their Janet Lee Stevens Award (1992) for contributions to Arab American understanding. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Education, The World’s Who’s Who of Women and the Dictionary of International Biography. She is the founder and director of the non-profit organization, AWAIR: Arab World And Islamic Resources, Berkeley, California. 

More at: http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/workshops/shabbas.asp

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