Staff Interview with Christina Gordon

What led your path to AMIDEAST, as a student and later as an employee?

During my first study abroad experience as a teenager spending a summer with a host family in Sicily, I discovered how quickly I could learn a new language when immersed in the culture and forced to speak the language.  After that, I wanted to learn as many languages as possible.

I became interested in studying in Morocco with AMIDEAST because I could continue to develop my French skills there while diving into Arabic for the first time.  I developed some great relationships as a student at AMIDEAST and after I graduated from college and moved to Washington, DC, I applied for an internship in AMIDEAST’s DC office.  The rest is history!

It has been a pleasure to pay it forward as an AMIDEAST employee by developing opportunities for students to go abroad and have similar experiences to the ones that I had.

Describe a typical day at work for you.

A typical day can vary a lot depending on the time of year.  As with any office job, I do a fair amount of data entry, tracking expenses, documenting issues, program evaluation and reporting.  All of that is intermixed with more strategic, long-term thinking about how we can improve our programs, how we can make them more accessible to different kinds of students, and how we can best support student intercultural development.

Some days I spend purely on logistics and planning for student groups while others are spent writing reports and working with our field staff to help them support students who are on program.  The work day is always busy and rarely boring.

What are the challenges you face as the Senior Program Officer and how do you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges with this type of work is that we always have multiple programs running at one time and each has its own set of requirements and deadlines.  This means that it can be difficult to keep track of all of the moving parts, especially in the summer, which is our busiest time of year.

Obviously, organization is key, but I find that fostering open communication with colleagues and students is also very important so that you are always aware of how you can support others in their work and keep things moving.

What qualities are important for AMIDEAST programs?

Because AMIDEAST programs focus specifically on fostering mutual understanding between peoples of the Middle East and North Africa and people of the United States, we are operating in a particularly tricky space.  Students can appreciate the tense history and current political affairs of the region to an extent, but they don’t always see their study abroad as a political act, which it is.  For this reason, it is important that we foster and encourage flexibility and open-mindedness in our students as much as possible.

I don’t think students necessarily understand what it means to be open-minded until they are confronted with perspectives and opinions about the world and the role of the United States in the international system until they go abroad and have conversations with folks who understand these dynamics in a completely different way.  Coming to terms with these dynamics and the positionality of US students abroad is an important learning process.

You have a lot of international experiences including time spent in Italy, Morocco, Peru, and Jordan. How do those experiences influence your work today?

I reflect often on the experiences that I had abroad, what I learned and how I learned it, and what I might have done differently.  These reflections inform how I think about building programs and providing support to students on programs.

I think above all, it is helpful to be open with students and share my experiences, particularly when it comes to culture shock, homesickness, and all of the ridiculous mistakes that I have made as a student and as an adult.  It helps students to see that they are not alone, that the process of adjusting to another culture is difficult for everyone, and they will be more self-aware and sensitive people as a result of it.

What have you learned about cultural identity and gender during your time abroad?

Cultural identity and gender go hand-in-hand in many ways.  Gender norms and roles are possibly the most fundamental component of cultural and individual identity in that all cultures are gendered, and gender is assumed by most to be ”natural,” so this part of human identity is rarely unpacked and challenged in the way that other components may be.

I think the number one lesson that I have learned is that understanding and unpacking cultural identity is a lifelong process. I cannot stress enough to students that when they go abroad and reflect on these questions, it is just the beginning. They must continue to reflect, learn about others, and unpack their perspectives as much as possible. The other major lesson is that understanding and bridging cultural difference is more about understanding your own cultural perspective than it is about understanding another.

Students can get so fixated on seeking out difference when they go abroad that they are only looking outwards, never inwards, assuming that their cultural perspective is “normal” or not really recognizing that they have one at all.  This is like putting the cart before the horse.  It is so important to understand your own cultural values and perspectives and how these are rooted in your identity so that when you meet someone who comes from a different perspective, you do not jump to judge them at the first impasse.

You have to observe what is going on around you and how you are reacting to it, think about why that is, and then find out how people in your host community view that same issue or behavior and why.  This requires cultivating immense self awareness, which again, is a lifelong process.

How did Jordan become such a big part of your story, and why would you encourage others to be open to experiencing the Middle East?

Since I was so determined to become fluent in a variety of languages, I ended up spending much more time in the Arabic-speaking world because it takes much longer for a native English speaker to become proficient in Arabic than in a romance language.

I think it is incredibly important for people from the US in particular to be open to exploring and visiting the Middle East because the US relationship with the region is so fraught.  In my opinion, there is no better way to have your ideas and perspectives of US politics challenged than listening to the people who have been directly impacted by US policy for generations.

What does meaningful travel mean to you?

For people with a US passport, we have the privilege of making travel whatever we want it to be.  It might be escaping work for a vacation, exploring a new place, learning about world history, eating new foods and/or learning about a new culture.

For me, travel is meaningful when it fosters relationships that otherwise wouldn’t exist because of linguistic, cultural or physical barriers.

Even exchanging simple pleasantries with someone who is different from you and sharing a moment together means something.  It is important to note that you don’t need to travel to another country to bridge divides in this way.  As you travel through your daily life, you have countless opportunities to bridge difference and spread peace, you just have to choose to do it.

Why do you think people should travel abroad and experience new cultures, especially in the Middle East?

As I mentioned before, traveling abroad and experiencing new cultures, especially in the Middle East, is critical to building mutual understanding and bridging difference.

I think the key is not just to go there and see the sites, but to think critically about that act and your positionality as a traveler. 

Travel, study abroad, freedom of movement, and lack thereof, are political issues and only once we understand our cultural perspectives and privileges can we begin to unpack these issues and bridge the differences that exist.

What hopes do you have for the future of AMIDEAST programs?

I hope that AMIDEAST programs continue to draw students who are interested in challenging themselves in truly unexpected ways.  I also hope that we can create opportunities for students to study in more countries in the region because there is so much diversity across the Arabic-speaking world.

Lastly, I hope that students come away from AMIDEAST programs with a more nuanced understanding of the region and, more importantly, a deeper understanding of themselves and their role in the world that influences how they interact with others for the rest of their lives.