Dartmouth has signed an innovative new agreement in Jordan with UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, as part of its efforts to deepen relationships and build new collaborations in the Middle East.
The Dartmouth Initiative for Middle East Exchange, or DIMEX, was created last year as a three-year pilot program to create powerful experiential learning opportunities, collaborative research, and tailored academic initiatives for faculty and students, led by Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Jonathan Smolin.
The partnership formalizes cooperation between Dartmouth and UNHCR-Jordan to support refugee-focused research, learning opportunities, and public health initiatives. The program envisions having up to 10 students from across Dartmouth provide a range of services, from supervised clinical care internships to field research in public health.
Amer Al-Nimr, assistant professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at Geisel School of Medicine and director of the DIMEX-UNHCR program, says the clinical and field experience these internships will provide is vital.
“Dartmouth has extraordinary academic expertise, students, and research capacity, while UNHCR has the infrastructure and deep background working with refugee communities in Jordan,” Al-Nimr says. “By harnessing these strengths, we can develop approaches that are both academically rigorous and responsive to real-world needs.”
The goal is to build a sustainable model with meaningful impact for refugee populations and generate knowledge that can inform care and bridge care gaps together, says Al-Nimr. He anticipates applications for the program to open in the fall for internship opportunities in the spring and summer of 2027 that can last from 8 weeks to 6 months.
“The DIMEX-UNHCR partnership will provide invaluable learning and research opportunities for our students and help solidify our strong reputation in a crucial part of the world,” says Barbara Will, vice provost for academic and international affairs. “This is a fantastic opportunity for us and a perfect example of the depth of Dartmouth’s global impact.”
Faculty research opportunities
Beyond forging partnerships, DIMEX has been working to create experiential learning and research opportunities in the field. Professor of Archaeology Jesse Casana, who directs Dartmouth’s Spatial Archaeometry Lab, knew there were prospects to both explore archaeological heritage sites in western Tunisia and create meaningful openings for student interns.
Using a series of innovative technologies including satellite imagery, drone-based sensors, and thermal imaging, Casana led an exploratory research trip in April with Henry Stauch ’27 and Postbaccalaureate Fellow Jasper Clayton to survey a region in western Tunisia with a significant but unknown quantity of antiquities. The work is being done in partnership with Tunisia’s Institute for National Patrimony. Casana’s technology will be used to map the area and reconstruct the region’s settlement history.
“Dartmouth’s presence in Tunisia is a great combination of student engagement, faculty research, archeology, and cross-cultural collaboration,” Casana says. “DIMEX has opened new doors and opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to get this type of direct field experience.”
Creating hands-on internships
A central mandate of DIMEX is curating experiential learning through internship opportunities in the Middle East. In Morocco this summer, ORNX, a green-energy company owned by Peter Gish ’84, is hosting DIMEX-sponsored student interns interested in the business development and financing of green hydrogen. Ella Moore ’27 is supporting environmental assessments and financial modeling, while Connor Kilkenny ’27 is building a tool to optimize the company’s energy storage solutions. Both have found the three-month internship highly immersive and rewarding.
“Coming from Dartmouth, I’d heard of green hydrogen before, but hadn’t had the chance to explore it more, making this the perfect way to learn about an industry that I am genuinely interested in,” says Moore. “What really excited me was getting to see firsthand how renewable energy projects are developed behind the scenes.”
“There’s something so powerful about getting outside the classroom and learning in challenging and complex environments,” says Smolin. “In the age of artificial intelligence, experiential learning is invaluable. We are also creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences that can only be replicated through in-person interactions. This is anchored in Dartmouth’s approach to dialogue and understanding.”
