MSI Press Blog

  MSI Press authors are located all over the world. Getting to know the authors can also mean getting to know a new part of the world. We will be sharing this information on a regular basis. Follow us and map our authors' locations. Yasir Sakr, author of  The Subversive Utopia ,  lives in Amman, Jordan, where he teaches architecture at one of the many universities there.  Here is some information about Amman.  Amman  ( English:  / ə ˈ m ɑː n / ;  Arabic :  عَمَّان ,  ʿAmmān   pronounced  [ʕamːaːn] ) [5] [6]  is the capital and the largest city of  Jordan , and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. [7]  With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's  primate city  and is the  largest city  in the  Levant  region, the  fifth-largest city  in the  Arab world , and the  ninth-largest metropolitan area  in the  Middle East . [8] The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC, in a Neolithic site known as  'Ain Ghaz

excerpt from Teaching and Learning to Near Native Levels of Language Learning III (Dubinsky and Butler)  Introduction of Keynote Speaker, HRH Prince Firas bin Raad of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, by Betty Lou Leaver, Executive Director, CDLC               Because I have been a resident of the extraordinary Kingdom of Jordan since January 2004, it is a singular pleasure and honor to introduce our very special keynote speaker, His Royal Highness Prince Firas bin Raad of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. His biography and international and cross-cultural experiences coincide very much with the international orientation of our audience today. Let me give you a few examples:   (1) He was born in Amman, Jordan, attended boarding school in New Hampshire, earned a BA in economics and public health in 1991 from John Hopkins University, an MA in international studies in 1993 from the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins, and a Master of Public Health in 1997 fr

  (Princess Muna in white, middle; Me in black, far right; Dr. Alexa, NYIT/NY, in blue, far right; others - members of the American Psychological Association) I knew who she was. She knew who I was. But I had never personally met Princess Muna until the American Psychological Association came to Jordan on the quest of setting up a degree in psychology at one of the universities there. Until then, psychology was not a topic of study at any of the several universities in the country. At the time, I was working as the chief academic officer at New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. We also had a very small branch, computer science studies only, in Irbid, Jordan on the campus of the Jordan University of Science and Technology, which oversaw the in-country activities of NYIT. Princess Muna (nee Tony Gardner) was/is the mother of King Abdullah. A Brit by origin, she wed King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, a much-beloved (for obvious reasons, it seemed to me) royal, one whos

  Shenan (CB) Leaver, author of Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest , was recently interviewed by the Mission Village Voice , where his book is being serialized. From the MVV introduction to the column: "Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest is collection of anecdotes about a 'detail-oblivious' homemaker and traveler, told from the point of view of CB, her mentally challenged son. The simplicity of language has made this book a favorite with ESL students, and the humorous 'conclusion' about life from a child's point of view endears it to anyone with a sense of humor. The reason CB's mother worked with him to write the book was to teach him the impact of literacy -- why people write and why people read. Even though it has been impossible for him to learn to read and write very much, through the joint preparation of the book he did learn a lot about literacy. CB is a 42-year-old CHARGE Syndrome, on of about 4-5 worldwide his age. He was given 0% chance of living, dispro

  photo includes Princess Muna of Jordan (mother of King Abdullah) in the center and Dr. Betty Leaver, MSI Press editor, second from the right; others - members of a visiting delegation We are happy tp provide you with a taste of the Middle East. Each of the books below contains nuggets and insights that are hard to find elsewhere -- written by the residents of the Middle East. Follow the links to more information. Damascus amid the War by Muna Imady Written by popular author, Muna Imady, whose book, Syrian Folktales, has delighted an uncountable number of readers outside of Syria, Damascus amid the War tells the very human story of the devolution of a society. The book containts 29 pre-war poins, vibrant with imagery of daily life in a robust Damascus. The 100 war poems that follow show the devastating affect on the people who navigate a daily existence after war came. This is a posthumous publication, containing Muna’s very last works and an introduction by her mother, Elaine Imady,

Excerpt from Intrepid: Fearless Immigrant from Jordan to America (Leaver & Leaver): A Tenuous Beginning We do not know just how Intrepid got his start. We met him as a squalling, bird-legged, rough-furred, unkempt, insatiably hungry kitten of just a few weeks, being delivered to us by the hands of Ahmed, a professor of history at New York Institute of Technology in Amman when we were living and working in Jordan. Since our landlord hardly delighted in our adopting additional cats (we already had several that we had rescued from the streets), we typically brought them upstairs to our third- floor apartment, past his first-floor door, in cages, quietly. There was and would be nothing quiet about Intrepid, though. As Ahmed mounted one stair after another the squalls radiated in ever-increasing intensity. Clearly, Intrepid had had a difficult start. A kitten so little (perhaps 4-5 weeks—a guess) could not have been weaned from its mother. Very likely, the mother had died

This book is a collection of short stories, poetry, and dramatic essays, written by students and faculty of the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan, a rich mix of Arab and American authors, reflecting on experiences in the Middle East and elsewhere. To see other works by Dr. Geri Henderson, click HERE . Available from MSI Press webstore .