Interview in the local press about the expansion of the religious studies program at UCSB

In the fall, UCSB welcomed a brand new language course in Pashto, a language spoken throughout Afghanistan and in parts of Pakistan. The addition of this course to the current arsenal of language courses offered at UCSB aimed to expand the university’s coverage of languages across the Middle
 East. I am interviewed in this article and I talk about how the new course won’t be in any language department but instead offered through the department of religious studies. Furthermore, I discuss how the new classes won’t further stress the school’s already tight budget, as the teaching position for Pashto I, along with four other language courses, will be financed largely by the U.S. Department of State.

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/jul/03/ucsb-offer-middle-eastern-languages-fall/ 

Image of the world Pashto in the Pasto language (Nastaliq style) by Syed Wamiq Ahmed Hashmi (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons