Ariel Salzmann, associate professor of Islamic and world history, is the first Canadian to be awarded a prestigious fellowship at the University Research Centre for Antolian Civilizations, a position that she will begin in two weeks time.

The Centre is located at Koç University, one of three Turkish universities Queen’s currently has ties to through undergraduate exchange programs. The other universities are Bosphorus University and Billkent University.

Salzmann said she will conduct research as a fellow on multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire and will work at the university until June.

“I want to see what the relationship [between the Ottoman Empire and Europe] was, and I am particularly concerned about how the Catholic Church responded to what I call the challenge of Ottoman multiculturalism,” she said. “The Middle East is a region with a rich, diverse history … this is something that we can all learn from, particularly in the area of multiculturalism.”

This research, alongside the newly established exchange programs could help increase the University’s internationalization agenda as mentioned in Principal Woolf’s 2009 ‘What’s Next’ document, she said.

“Internationalization is not just a bridge from … Kingston to the rest of the world, but a sort of coming together and embracing of the diversity here,” Salzmann said. “[It’s about] showing how this can be part of the bridge that goes and hopefully brings more Turkish, more Middle Eastern students here.”

Salzmann said it’s important for students to have greater opportunities to study world languages at Queen’s, adding that students can advocate for more language training and research in topics such as Muslim Middle Eastern studies.

“The University has listened already. It was the students … who pushed for Arabic to be taught two years ago … and as a result now we have Arabic,” she said. “They put together a petition and that’s why the administration responded.”

Salzmann said two important languages that should be taught at Queen’s but currently aren’t, are Hindi and Urdu. Hindi is spoken by a large population in India while Urdu is spoken by many in Pakistan, Salzmann said.

“Every major world language should be taught Queen’s,” she said. “If students don’t have these languages in undergraduate, they will have problems going to into programs at other universities.”

As well as teaching more world languages, Queen’s needs to address regional and thematic topics in class, Salzmann said.

“For example, my colleague [history professor Adnan Hussain] and I are working to establish a theme ‘within Muslim societies’,” she said. “We all have to be … citizens of our countries, but we all have to be global citizens [as well.] We have to respect, we have to learn about other people, other societies, other histories.”