Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Student Involvement
About Us
Welcome! MICA is excited to help support, foster community with, and work alongside Southwest Asian and North African students at UMD. This is a new involvement area, brought about by the years-long hard-won advocacy of the UMD student community. As a new involvement area, we are still building and learning how we will best support and advocate for the community. Contact us to help share your voice and build our foundation for the future!
Announcements
Upcoming Events
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Stay up to date on MICA and campus events and resources through our various newsletters. Check them out and subscribe
FAQs
There are no hard and fast rules about what is included in SWANA. SWANA refers to the region commonly referred to as the "Middle East", ranging from Mauritania and Morocco all the way to Afghanistan and even Pakistan. Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Armenia, Georgia and Türkiye are examples of groups that are often excluded from the traditional Middle Eastern definition, but are typically included in SWANA.
We choose decolonial and liberatory language that decenters the West. By using geography instead of nation states or ethnicity to describe the region and its people, we are intentionally centering the diversity of this community, and uplifting the most vulnerable among us.
There are many other ways to get involved with the UMD SWANA community, from joining student organizations, coursework and language opportunities, to helping plan campus-wide SWANA Heritage Month Events. See below to learn more.
- Subscribe to Noor News, MICA's biweekly SWANA newsletter
- Search Terplink for specific cultural, religious, and political student organizations
- UMD Faith Communities and Chaplains
- Middle East Studies Minor
- Roshan Institute for Persian Studies
- Arabic Studies and Arabic Flagship
Get in Touch
1120 Adele H. Stamp Student Union - Center for Campus Life
University of Maryland
College Park, 20742
301-314-8600
MICA-contact@umd.edu
FEATURE: feature-widget image-right bg-gold heading-red text-black link-red
SWANA Heritage Month
The office of Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy (MICA) of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union and a dedicated committee of students and staff is excited to announce the University of Maryland's first ever campus-wide celebration of Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Heritage Month in April 2024!
FEATURE: feature-widget image-left bg-black heading-gold text-white link-red
SWANA Student Organizations
Get involved and learn more about SWANA student organizations on campus.
FEATURE: feature-widget image-right bg-red heading-gold text-white link-gold
SWANA Resources
MICA is comprised of professional and student staff skilled in advising (personal and organizational), event planning, diversity education, and leadership development. We support the campus commitment to multiculturalism and social justice, and we are here to be a resource for you individually, for your organization, and for the larger student body!
