The United States names only four countries on its State Sponsors of Terrorism List — Iran, Syria, Sudan, and Cuba, though the latter is expected to come off that list in the coming weeks. The government has determined these countries have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism,” according to the State Department’s website, and has responded with a set of sanctions based on that activity.
While scholarly pursuits generally rise above political disagreements, the nation’s colleges and universities are affected by U.S. sanctions. In February, the University of Massachusetts Amherst made its policy of restricting access by Iranian students to certain science and engineering programs public. Administrators said the policy conflicted with the institution’s values, but they didn’t believe they had a choice in its implementation because of federal sanctions aiming to prevent Iranian students from taking nuclear concepts back to Iran.
After a week of intense criticism, and clarification from the State Department, the university backtracked on its policy.
“It is now clear, after further consultation and deliberation, that we can adopt a less restrictive policy,” said Michael Malone, vice chancellor for research and engagement, in February.
Nearly 10,200 students from Iran were studying in the United States during the 2013-14 school year, according to data from the Institute for International Education. That was up from about 8,750 the year before.
There are also students here from Cuba, Syria, and Sudan. In the 2013-14 school year, the latest for which the IIE posts data, 693 Syrian students, 186 Sudanese students, and 69 Cuban students traveled to U.S. universities for post-secondary studies, most of them for graduate work.
A State Department spokesman said the government doesn’t have any blanket opposition to admitting students from particular countries. All of their visa applications are given equal consideration on an individual basis.
But scholars know complications based on government interference are sometimes insurmountable.
Charles Kurzman is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. A survey he did in Iran nearly got scuttled by government meddling in both countries. First, it took Kurzman nearly a year to get a license from the U.S. government that would allow him to actually pay a company in Iran to conduct the survey. By then, the Iranian government had shut down the company for its work helping other international organizations conduct their own surveys.
When Kurzman and his team finally collected their data, they found a majority of urban Iranians said they consider themselves feminist, even among less-educated and older male respondents. The survey data, and Kurzman’s paper based on it, was an important contribution to Islamic studies. But it almost didn’t happen.
Kurzman said that, over the years, he has had a hard time getting Iranian scholars to the U.S. for speaking engagements and other collaboration. Because the United States doesn’t have an active embassy in Iran, Iranians have to travel outside of their country to get a visa. Sometimes it takes multiple trips. For professionals, the costs are often easier to bear, but Kurzman said graduate students sometimes find the hurdles too difficult to overcome.
Overall, Kurzman finds the bureaucratic hoops frustrating and time-consuming.
“Academic collaboration and partnership and exchange are, I believe, crucial to forging better international relations,” Kurzman said. “Hurdles that are put in the way of these academic partnerships are not in the United States’ long-term interest and not in the interest of global scholarly advancement.”
Iran has been on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List since 1984. According to data from the Institute for International Education, the 1983-84 school year was the first in which Iran was not the top sender of foreign students to U.S. schools in nearly a decade. The number of Iranian students peaked in 1979, before that country’s revolution, and dropped steadily until 2000, when it began a slow climb that has continued to this day.
With Cuba coming off the list and relations normalizing, U.S. scholars should soon find it easier to travel and collaborate — at least across these borders. Perhaps as academics find common ground and mutual understanding, world leaders can follow.
“If the governments got along as well as the academics, I think world affairs would be a lot easier,” Kurzman said.
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