Who are the Arabs? To answer this question, a group of scholars in 1975 established Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS). They recognized that there was a failure on the part of American universities to provide their students with adequate opportunities to know the Arab world and sought to meet this need. Among the faculty who contributed greatly to the Center in its early days and years after were internationally-renowned experts such as Dr. Hanna Batatu and Dr. Hisham Sharabi.

The Center is part of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the oldest school of international affairs in the United States. It focuses on the contemporary Arab world, from Morocco to the Gulf, through teaching, scholarship, public events, research, publications, and outreach to the community. Today, CCAS is a premier source of information on issues concerning the Arab world both within the classroom and for the larger community.