Michael Toler
Area of responsibility: Program Development
Home Office: Middlebury, Vermont
By way of: Boston, Massachusetts
Phone: (734) 661-1014
E-mail: michael.toler@nitle.org
Michael leads Al-Musharaka, NITLE's collaboration on Arab, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. He works with faculty and staff to take advantage of the borderless world of Internet technologies and provide opportunities at participating colleges for the study of this important yet poorly understood area. Michael develops programs, resources, and communities of practice that enhance and expand course, curriculum and faculty development.
A Chief Program Officer for NITLE, Michael has a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.A. from New York University, both in English. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature/Translation Studies from Binghamton University. His interest in the Middle East and North Africa grew out of the six years he spent in Morocco, four as a Peace Corps volunteer and English teacher in the Moroccan University system. His research since then has focused on the relationship between the North African novel (especially Moroccan and Algerian) and post-colonial historiography, as well as the translation of Maghrebi fiction into English.
Because his job is so closely connected to his interests, Michael often has a difficult time knowing when work ends and free time begins. Off work, he reads history and literature and listens to music, much of it from North Africa or the Middle East. When he does have clearly distinguishable free time, he likes writing, travel, exercise or, best of all, just getting on his bicycle and going wherever his mood takes him. Find out more about Michael at his personal web site.
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