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Kurdish political studies chair at UCF
receives $600,000 donation from Dr. Najmaldin Karim
14.3.2008
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University of Central Florida (UCF) receives
$600,000 donation from WKI president Dr. Najmaldin
Karim to create chair in Kurdish political studies
March 14, 2008
With a $600,000 donation from a Washington, D.C.,
neurosurgeon, the University of Central Florida
intends to create the first endowed university
professor's chair in Kurdish political studies in
the United States.
UCF announced Thursday that it would establish the
endowed professor's position with money donated from
Dr. Najmaldin Karim, combined with anticipated state
matching funds.
The professor's position would help UCF expand its
offerings related to Kurdish issues, including
Kurdish discussions of the creation of an
independent Kurdistan state. Kurds play an important
role in several countries, notably Iraq, Turkey,
Iran and Syria. |
Dr. Najmaldin Karim
Neurosurgeon, Falik & Karim, Greenbelt, Maryland,
and President, Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI),
Washington, D.C. |
"The establishment of an endowed chair in Kurdish
Political Studies at UCF will offer a new
opportunity for the academic study of Kurdistan and
the Kurds in the United States," Karim said. "UCF is
shaping a leadership position in Middle Eastern
studies,www.ekurd.net
and a Kurdish Political
Studies chair can only increase the breadth of its
programming."
Karim founded and serves as president of the
Washington Kurdish Institute
(WKI), a
nonprofit organization dedicated to research and
education for Kurdish people worldwide. He said he
hopes the endowed chair will set a trend for the
growth of Kurdish studies in American universities.
John C. Bersia, the special assistant to the
president for Global Perspectives and co-chair of
the Middle Eastern Studies Advisory Board at UCF,
said "the Kurds are well-known as a stateless people
who have struggled against difficult odds." He added
that Kurds have entered the world's consciousness as
never before.
Within Iraq, Kurdistan, a region with substantial
autonomy, has become known as "the Iraq that works,"
said Bersia, who played a key role in securing the
endowed chair. He described Kurdistan as developing
a model government with increasingly democratic
features and an economy based on free-market
principles.
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