Grads

The MALS Alumni Association held its champagne commencement reception on Sunday, June 8. The event was well attended by MALS faculty, graduates and alumni. Judy Chypre (MALS'99) and Nancy Silliman '95 (MALS'96) coordinated the celebration. We all enjoyed the warm summer day, the excellent food, and the chance to meet our new alumni and learn of their plans. Stephanie Hauck (MALS'07) is working toward a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton. Wole Ojurongbe (MALS'08) will continue his work of holding the MALS office together but wants to do more creative writing. Adam Spanos (MALS'08) is beginning a master's program in anthropology at Columbia, and Jeffrey Tolbert (MALS'08) will enter a Ph.D. program in folklore and ethnomusicology at the University of Indiana. Marcus Winters (MALS'08) plans to spend the summer filming a documentary in Kenya. He will continue his education at the American Film Institute Conservatory.

In the last magazine issue I wrote of an e-mail I received from Barakat Jassem (MALS'06). He described his return to Baghdad, the difficulties of working for an international agency and how he could not allow himself to be noticed as he entered and left the Green Zone. The conclusion of his message follows.

"I lived with my half-brother for six months. One night the U.S. troops raided a house nearby, which turned out to be a hideout for a high-ranking Al Sadr militia leader. He was killed and two militia members were arrested. My family feared that if the militia investigated the death of the leader and found out about my work, it would accuse me of tipping off the Americans. I left immediately for a different neighborhood with a different relative. I kept moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, living with my relatives, until I was not able to tolerate the situation. It is impossible and socially unacceptable for a young, unmarried man to rent a place and live alone in Baghdad. The only option left was to move my mother and siblings from our old neighborhood to live with me in a rented house in a different part of Baghdad. I was happy to reunite with my family, but they had to leave our own property, where they lived for the last 20 years. For the next six months I had to live with my mother's anxiety about my safety. Seeing how the nerve-damaging experience affected my mother was one of the most difficult things I went through. She would call me 10 times a day to be sure I was safe. She would even check outside the house for anything suspicious before I left or arrived home. I never regretted returning to Baghdad, but after a year I realized that my vulnerable situation was damaging the psyche of people who worried about me, if not mine. I decided to leave Iraq to pursue further graduate study. After my year of work in a financial consultancy, I wanted to get a more specialized degree in finance. In the summer of 2007 I was admitted to a M.S. program in finance and financial law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I expect to graduate in September. I intend to continue my career in finance and financial consultancy. London as a world financial center offers great opportunities, but I still want to return to Baghdad to pursue my career. This is not the time to return, but I am sure that moment is not far away."

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover,NH; (603) 643-37801; m.jane.welsh.adv98@alum.dartmouth.org