Projects

What is a Babel Project?

A Babel Initiative project is first of all a personal endeavor, which reflects the identity and interests of each participant. In this sense, Babel capitalizes on the great diversity within the Menton campus. The project itself can be constructed in one of three ways: Either as a scientific project in the goal of writing a mini research paper, or as an artistic project, or as a humanitarian project with or without a partnership with a local NGO. Of course, this list is far from exhaustive, and many of our projects fall within several of these three categories. The projects can be conducted individually or in groups of up to three members.

This year, Babel Initiative has selected 9 student led projects run by 18 students, and here follows a short presentation of some of them:

1. Once Upon a Time: Tales of Lebanon and France
(30 minute documentary and collection of tales)
by Taynja Abdel Baghy, Marguerite Robb, Soraya hajjaji

The Babel project Once Upon a Time sets out to bring two cultures, two oral histories and two generations of children together through words.  “Once Upon A time” is a documentary about the role of folk stories in two Mediterranean countries, Lebanon and France, which looks at the process of identification, belonging and understanding of culture through the eyes of children.  Working with the children in a classroom setting, the Lebanese folk story Saraya and its European counterparts Rapunzel and Donkeyskin will be compared and contrasted to see how the children react to and understand the stories.  Whilst coming from different sides of the sea, Saraya contains remarkable thematic similarities with Rapunzel and Donkeyskin.

The project in question intends to highlight these commonalities and frame the practical hands on element of bringing two classrooms together within an academic framework.  This will be done by interviewing experts in the fields of literature on folklore and symbols, sociology on the role of oral traditions in societies and the concept of identity, and psychology on the thought process behind children’s perception of fiction and understanding of concepts and themes.   The resulting documentary can play a double role in not only enlarging the study of intercultural literature, but also in bringing together and building bridges between two countries, two cultures and two generations thus helping to break down stereotypes and increase the understanding of the other.

2. Lebanese Painting through its Mediterranean Influence and its Specificity
(Research paper and photo exhibition)
by Nisrine Hajjouji

Nisrine’s project consists in demonstrating how Lebanon’s cultural diversity manifests itself through art and in particular through Lebanese paintings. More concretely, it will involve a study of the evolution of Lebanese art since the 16^th century and several interviews with Lebanese art students and managers of art galleries.

3. To what extent can Lebanon be characterized as a center for Islamic finance?
(Documentary filmed during the study trip)
by Hakim Ourhim, Jean Claude Yawili

This project will try to assess the role of Lebanon in Islamic Finance, and gauge its possibilities to become the main link between Europe and the Muslim World in the International Islamic Financial system. The study will be divided in two parts:

First, the students will conduct a comparative study of Beirut compared to other centers of Islamic finance, namely Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur and London in order to assess the specificities of each center. Then, a series of interviews will be conducted with key actors and experts at the Lebanese Central Bank, the “Ecole Supérieure des Affaires” in Beirut, and others institutions, in order to determine Beirut’s specific contributions to the world of Islamic finance.

Islamic finance is conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of Islam, Sharia. The French Islamic finance market remains undeveloped, but internationally, ethical banking is witnessing a rapid expansion, to the extent that it has come to represent an important source of international capital.  Now, Babel Initiative and the world of Islamic finance is turning their attention towards Lebanon and what might become the next center for Islamic banking.