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Taskla or The Creation of a New Literature Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-02-23 El Khatir Aboulkacem
Taskla means literature in Tamazight. A neologism, taskla has been used since the 1980s by a group of Kabyle cultural activists, who had joined together in the academic association Imdyazen, to refer to modern literary genres that have been emerging in the field of Amazigh creation since at least the 1960s. Members of the Moroccan Association for Research and Cultural Exchange (AMREC) also adopted
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The Absent Dimension: Anti-Racism in Mbark Ben Zayda's Amazigh Poetics Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Brahim El Guabli
Racism is a scourge that has not spared any society or community. Moroccan society is not different in its grappling with the legacy of the complex history of slavery and racialization in North Africa. Although social scientists have dedicated much scholarly attention to the study of race in Morocco, they have not accounted for Amazigh language's rich documentation of and grappling with race and racism
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Identity Poetics in Modern Amazigh Poetry: Dramatizing History and Memory in Ali Sidki Azaykou's Poem “Taketbiyt” Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Lahoussine Hamdoune
A pioneer of the Amazigh Cultural Movement and modern Amazigh poetics, and one of the first intellectuals to interrogate – from the margin – Moroccan official historiography, Ali Sidki Azaykou has produced two collections of poetry, Timitar (Signs) and Izmuln (Scars), in addition to a posthumous collection, Indguiguen Aghaman (“Eternal Sparks”), appearing in 2019. The present article examines “Taketbiyt”
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The Amazigh Republic of Letters: A Review and Close Readings Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Brahim El Guabli, Aomar Boum
Amazigh literature refers to the literary tradition of Amazigh-speaking populations. Imazighen or Amazigh speakers are the Indigenous people of Tamazgha. Described as the Amazigh homeland, Tamazgha encompasses the territory extending from the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the oasis of Siwa in southwest Egypt, including Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Libya, Burkina Faso,
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The Question of Generic Contiguities in Amazigh (Kabyle) Literature: The Novel (ungal) and The Short Story (tullist) Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Nabila Sadi
This article is dedicated to the study of the question of generic contiguities within Berber (Kabyle) literature. It is devoted more particularly to the study of the boundaries between novels (ungal) and short stories (tullist). I show that the identities of literary genres do not depend only on a norm coming from elsewhere (from the West in particular) but that they are also shaped by the context
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A “Church of / for Poetry”: Revue Aguedal and The Friends of Amazigh Literature Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Aomar Boum
This article examines the literary and spiritual initiatives undertaken by Henri Bosco and his collaborators, notably Captain Léopold Justinard, in interwar colonial Morocco. Focusing on the Revue Aguedal, inaugurated by Bosco in Rabat in 1935, I highlight the revue's primary role as a cultural conduit between French and indigenous Amazigh and Arab intellectuals. Bosco's concept of a “poetic church
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From the Heights of the Atlas: A Panorama of Traditional Poetry in Tamazight Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Abdelkader Aoudjit
Traditional oral poetry in Takbaylit, Tachelhit, Central Moroccan Tamazight, and Tarafit dialects has been the subject of numerous studies ranging from ethnographic to linguistic. Rather than duplicate what is already widely available, the following brings together comments on a number of representative poems from across the Maghreb to give the reader an idea of the variety of types, styles, and themes
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The Out-of-Flock Dissident: An Interview with Kurdish – Syrian Writer Jan Dost Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Nuha Askar
The recent Syrian uprisings have impacted all sectors of life and played a major role in redrawing internal boundaries among different groups in Syria, not only between Kurds and Arabs but also within the fabric of Kurdish life. Among Syrian Kurds, calls for militarization and separation based on national chauvinism (Qasad) are countered by more moderate voices warning of the dangers of escalation
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Reading Slimane Azem as a Poet of Wisdom Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Ghalia Bedrani
The celebrated Kabyle singer Slimane Azem is known as a poet of exile due to his expatriation in France. His mastery of the mother tongue is inherited from both the Kabyle oral tradition and great poets such as Si Moh Oumhand. His repertoire tackles a variety of themes such as freedom, exile, culture and identity, in songs that celebrate peace and tolerance. His poems “Syadi L3uqal,” “Si Moh Yenna-d”
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Changing Lives Through Hip-Hop in Casablanca Beats: Interview with Nabil Ayouch and review of the film Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Nevine Abraham
The following interview took place via Zoom with Moroccan film director, producer, and writer Nabil Ayouch on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 11:00 AM EST. Lightly edited for ease of comprehension.
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The Amazigh Novel, Mythology of Origins, and Return of the Repressed: A Titrological Approach Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Mohamed Zahir, Tegan Raleigh
Amazigh literature has undergone a veritable historic shift from oral to written form, following the constitutional and institutional recognition of this indigenous language in Morocco and Algeria. We intend to seize this historic moment by focusing on a titrological analysis which, in our view, would be able to highlight the pragmatic side of a stammering literature that would like to proclaim its
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Lyrical Opponency in Amazigh Music: The Racial and Gender Question in Tanddamt Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Hassane Oudadene
A very significant sub-version that derives from Tirruyssa (ⵜⵉⵔⴻⵢⵙⴰ) is called Tanddamt (ⵜⴰⵏⴹⴰⵎⵜ), which refers to musical jousting between two seemingly opponent Rways and/or Raysat. Each singer attempts to address convincing and satirical chants to the opponent singer. Tanddamt is rich of social topoi such as race and gender. This chapter aims to deconstruct the discursive contexts that gave rise
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Narration and Representation of Space in Amar Mezdad's Novel Tettḍilli-d ur d-tkeččem Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Mohand Akli Salhi, Samir Akli, Tegan Raleigh
This article analyzes the narration and representation of space in Amar Mezdad's novel Tettḍilli-d ur d-tkeččem. Concretely, we highlight the relation between the spatial dimension and the narrative fulfillment of the novel. The main objective is to accentuate the way in which the spatial dimension is inscribed in the narration and in moments of narrative suspension (commentaries, descriptions, secondary
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The Onomastics of Characters in the Kabyle Tullist Genre Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Saida Mohand Saidi, Tegan Raleigh
This article highlights, through a poetic approach, the onomastics of the character in a genre called tullist in the Amazigh language. The article works through the first ten collections of texts designated by the terms Tullizt / Tullist that mark the beginnings of this genre (1998–2008). An in-depth analysis then reveals the different naming processes that Kabyle writers use in assigning names to
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Report on Osark 2022: A Congress Dedicated to Ottoman Studies Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 İrem Gündüz-Polat
The third meeting of OSARK, an international Ottoman Studies conference founded by members of the Sakarya University History Department, was hosted and coordinated by Istanbul Medeniyet University between September 7 and 9, 2022. It was supported by TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency), YTB (Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities), the Üsküdar Municipality, and Turkish Airlines
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To Be or Not to Be A Nomad: The Limits of Iconoclasm in Si Mohand U'Mhand's Poetry Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Lynda Chouiten
The nineteenth-century Kabyle poet Si Mohand U'Mhand is often celebrated as an icon of freedom and unconventionality. Questioning this myth, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate that this bard was rather a liminal figure that oscillated between iconoclasm and conservatism. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus and Mikhaïl Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque
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Review of Three Studies of Egyptian Cinema: Cinematic Cairo: Egyptian Modernity from Reel to Real; The National Imaginarium: A History of Egyptian Filmmaking; Making Film in Egypt: How Labor, Technology, and Mediation Shape the Industry Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Samirah Alkassim
Nezar Alsayyad And Heba Safey Eldeen, eds., Cinematic Cairo: Egyptian Modernity from Reel to Real (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2022). xxxiii + 288pp., £49.95 hardcover. ISBN 978-1-64903-133-4.
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The Amazigh Musical Style of Rouicha: Transcending Linguistic and Cultural Boundaries Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-21 Mounia Mnouer
Mohammed Rouicha is an Amazigh musical legend. Rouicha came to prominence in his teenage years in the mid-sixties in Morocco and continued to evolve and rise internationally until his death in 2012. An artist and a musician, he was ahead of his time in that he believed that people and communities should connect with one another through music, regardless of ethnicity or language. Rouicha appreciated
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Kabyle Literary History and Questions Related to its Periodization: The Case of Poetry Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-21 Hakima Bellal
Writing about Kabyle literary history today is a difficult task, considering the very nature of this literature. It is fundamentally oral and did not take its first steps toward a written form until the mid-1940s. There is a considerable lack of works dedicated to Kabyle literature, and those that do exist have primarily focused on poetry, due to the characteristics inherent to this genre. Indeed,
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The Proverb and its Function in Abdellah Mohia's Play “Menttif akka wala seddaw uẓekka” Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-12-21 Farida Hacid
Until the nineteenth century, Kabyle literature was primarily oral, passed down through word of mouth and limited to various genres such as poetry, proverbs, riddles, tales, myths, and legends. The nineteenth century marked the beginning of the transition to writing in the Kabyle language through the transcription of oral literature. However, the true departure from orality occurred in the twentieth
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Revisiting Legacies of Anfal and Reconsidering Genocide in the Middle East Today: Collective Memory, Victimhood, Resilience, and Enduring Trauma Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-08-03 Ibrahim Sadiq, Bahar Baser, Stephen McLoughlin
Since the end of World War I, the people of the Middle East have lived – from Turkey to Iraq – in a world created by Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, and Georges Clemenceau. From the outset, the victorious powers of the War, especially Wilson, paid lip service to the principle of self-determination in addressing various nationalities, but they soon realized this great principle can be a double-edged
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Cultural Racism and Ethnic Cleansing: The Islamic Republic of Iran and Minority Rights Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-07-10 Said Shams
The phenomenon of “political Islam” has been explored in several social theories. These accounts have mainly concentrated on the forms of violence that Islamists have instigated, but the racist drive that is often embedded within political Islam has remined overlooked and unexplored, that is, at least until recently when the brutal crimes by ISIS against Yazidis and Christians in northern Iraq were
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The Last Genocide against the Yazidi People Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Hawre Ahmed Mohammed
When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) emerged from the ashes of unsolved political, religious, and sectarian conflicts in the Middle East, it became one of the greatest threats to global order in recent years. It invaded and occupied a large swath of territory in Iraq and Syria, leaving a trail of bloodshed in its wake. ISIS fighters carried out a deliberate campaign of annihilation against
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The Arabesque of Script and Metaphor in Islamic Art Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-05-12 Rita Elizabeth Risser
The use of script as an aesthetic device is longstanding in Islamic art. Indeed, one of the earliest forms of Islamic art are terracotta oil lamps with text inscribed on their surface.2 These inscriptions are not merely decorative but also reference the light emitted from the lamps as a metaphor for revelation. As I will show, the use of script in Islamic art is not only meant to delight the eye; it
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The Anti-Kurdish Thoughts of ISIS Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-03-22 Mohammad Salih Mustafa, Abdulrahman Karim Darwesh
This article explores the ideological motivations for ISIS's prejudice against the Kurds. From the group's inception, ISIS has rejected any kind of understanding of Islam but its own. However, its animosity toward Kurds has its own purpose and foundations, separate from its religious dogmas. The aim of this article is to study the reasons behind its fundamental aversion toward the Kurds. An analysis
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The Deportations and First Anfal of Faily Kurds in Iraq Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-03-06 Kamal Aziz Ketuly
On April 4th, 1980, Saddam Hussein's government initiated a mass deportation of Iraqi citizens to Iran. In total, an estimated one million people were deported between 1980 and 1990. At the same time, thousands of the relatives of these deportees were detained as hostages, an estimated 4,000 of whom are still missing. This is considered the first Anfal operation undertaken by the Baʿthist regime against
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Collective Memory in Post-Genocide Societies: Rethinking Enduring Trauma and Resilience in Halabja Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Hawraman Fariq Karim, Bahar Baser
This article investigates the collective memory that occurred as a result of the chemical attack on Halabja, on March 16, 1988. In light of discussions that deal with memory and reconciliation in post-genocide societies, we look at how collective memory and “postmemory” are formed among the survivors and their descendants. The merit of the article is that it brings together the victim's accounts and
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Gender Roles and Feminism: The Experience of Barzani Single Mothers Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Ibrahim Sadiq, Media Fattah
Under the leadership of the Baʿthists, in 1983, the Iraqi state arrested some 5,000-8,000 members, all male, of the Barzani tribe of Kurds and subsequently killed them. The mothers, wives, and children of these men were put into compounds controlled by Iraqi security forces. As a result, thousands of children were left without their fathers and hundreds of wives were suddenly left widowed. In a society
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The Past Explains the Present: Dealing with Anfal in the Kurdistan Region Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-01-27 Nahwi Saeed
“Transitional justice” refers to a set of strategies for promoting reconciliation in societies that have been ravaged by conflict and human rights abuses in the recent past. In some cases, however, the political leaders of post-conflict societies choose not to pursue transitional justice, instead preferring to keep the status-quo peace. This essay explores the situation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq
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“Goodbye Mshatta”: Connections and Disconnections on Berlin's Museum Island Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2023-01-25 Katarzyna Puzon
This essay is concerned with a contemporary art intervention in Berlin's Museum of Islamic Art, in the context of the Mshatta Façade's move. Sketching out Mshatta's relocation history, the essay highlights how the dynamic of connection and disconnection plays out in a museum setting and is embedded in epistemic concepts mobilized in knowledge-making about objects. Specifically, it focuses on an installation
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MERIP as a Model for Politically Committed Knowledge Production in Middle East Studies Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Waleed Hazbun
While MERIP's offered incisive critiques of the power relations that defined the existing field of Middle East studies, this essay explores how it also represents an alternative model of knowledge production, built outside academia, that has helped reshape scholarship and teaching about the Middle East and North Africa and more broadly about the US relationship to the region. The essay also introduces
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MERIP's Impact on Middle East Studies: Showcasing a MESA Roundtable Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Waleed Hazbun
In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, past and present members of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) organized a roundtable for the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) entitled “MERIP's Impact on Middle East Studies.” Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on October 14, 2020, the roundtable was conducted as a virtual webinar. The participants
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How a Middle Eastern Experience Helped Lead to the Formation of MERIP Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Michael R. Fischbach
During the late 1960s, left-wing American activists faced challenges when trying to find out about what was happening in the Middle East and what their government was doing there. Yet overall, some activists still felt that by 1970 the American Left suffered from an overall dearth of solid information and regular, independent, critical analysis of the Middle East. As a result, the Middle East Research
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MERIP's 50 Years of Women and Gender Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Judith E. Tucker
Drawing on a reading of MERIP's articles related to women's and gender studies over the course of its 50-year history, this piece reflects on how MERIP's forays into this field formed part of its overarching aspiration to place scholarship in the service of progressive political projects. I explore how intellectual trends and political commitments worked together to shape the topics and approaches
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The Cultural Politics and Political Culture of MERIP and Beyond Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Paul A. Silverstein, Ted Swedenburg
In this essay, we examine how MERIP has navigated the frictions between the political economic critique of extraction and domination in the region, and more semiotic models which center “culture,” variously understood, in their analyses of power and inequality. Broadly speaking, MERIP authors have addressed four dimensions of culture writ large: aesthetic expressions and artistic performances; everyday
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Egypt's 2011 Uprising, Islamism, and the Unpopularity of Being Popular Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-08-05 James Toth
Descriptions and analyses of the 2011 “Arab Spring” uprisings constitute a veritable cottage industry for journalists, academics, and think-tank consultants. The three books under review here join an ever-expanding library that documents and interprets those crucial events in December 2010 and January 2011, that so passionately raised our hopes only to later so bitterly crush them.
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On Academic Research, Legitimacy, and Fieldwork in Times of Crisis Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-06-24 Ali Kassem
In thinking through the stark differences in how a research project in Lebanon was received in 2018 versus 2020, this paper seeks to reflect on the fragile relationship between academic researcher and community, on the legitimacy of research in moments of crisis, and on the complexity of pursuing decolonial research in the contemporary West Asia North Africa region.
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Seeing and Hearing Omar ibn Said Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Courtney Dorroll, Colleen Ballance, Philip Dorroll
This article will illustrate how using interdisciplinary student-faculty collaborative research can help decolonialize Islamic Studies. This article will be based on a case study of our recently completed student-faculty collaborate research project, Seeing and Hearing Omar ibn Said. Faculty members led a student-faculty research and public outreach project regarding Omar ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim
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Rocks and Hard Places: Gender, Satire, and Social Reproduction in Pre-Revolutionary Iran Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Sahar Razavi
This article examines the ways that Iranian women have been situated in the nation-building exercise from the White Revolution of 1963 to the 1979 revolution and period of consolidation of clerical power. Social Reproduction Theory elucidates critical facets of both state control and spaces of counterhegemonic resistance. These spaces include publications like Tawfiq, a political satire magazine published
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Transformation from the Ottoman State to the Modern Republic of Turkey: The Renewal Party and Karakol Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Evren Altinkas
After the end of WWI, the leaders of Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) established a political party, Renewal Party, and an underground organization, Karakol, in order to organize a resistance against the Allies and their presence in Ottoman territories. These institutions played an important role in the formation of national resistance in Anatolia before Mustafa Kemal's arrival in the region.
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Attribute Agenda Setting on Twitter and the Wall Street Journal: The Case of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Mariam Alkazemi, Sameneh Oladi Ghadikolai, Marilynn Oetjens, Edward L. Boone
This study examines attributes associated with U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Omar's unique intersectionality of identities as a Black, immigrant, Muslim woman presents a rich case study for an examination of attribute agenda setting. A sample of Tweets, all Wall Street Journal articles referencing the congresswoman, and Google searches were obtained for the hashtags (“IlhanOmar,” “GoBack,” and “WelcomeHome
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Double Colonization: A Voice of the Voiceless in Leila Abouzeid's Year of the Elephant Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Redhwan Qasem Ghaleb Rashed
Many Afro-Arab women novelists, if not all, have been addressing feminist issues for ages while homeland issues have been masculinized. Against this trend, Leila Abouzeid's academic interests span not only women's issues, but also those of men and of her country as well. Her book shows how a woman is dominated by patriarchy and colonization and how she herself appears to be an executioner. It also
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Middle East Studies Under Occupation: The Case of Washington, D.C. Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Corey Sherman
A key component of Middle East Studies methodology is to identify and deconstruct the relationship between knowledge about the region and the power structures that give knowledge meaning. Typically, that methodology is applied to Middle East Studies at the post-secondary level. This paper applies that methodology to public schools in Washington, D.C. Through structural analysis, I will tease out the
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Revisiting Multilingualism in the Ottoman Empire Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Sooyong Kim, Orit Bashkin
Evliya Çelebi (d. after 1685), in his Seyahatname, Book of Travels, completed circa 1683, records a host of languages and dialects spoken within the Ottoman Empire at the time and provides practical word lists in transcription, especially for those less familiar to his Turkophone audience, such as Hungarian in the western borderlands and varieties of Kurdish in the eastern regions. Evliya also remarks
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Studying Turkey through a Graphic Lens Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-07 Amy Singer, Chris Martin
In Turkish Kaleidoscope, social anthropologist and novelist Jenny White has expanded her repertoire to the graphic novel format to create an account of the violence and political chaos that pervaded Turkey in the late 1970s.2 White builds here on her academic work and her own student experience at Hacettepe University in Ankara. Artist Ergün Gündüz has created visual interpretations of place, space
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Integrative Learning and Simulating Revolution and Protest in the Middle East Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-02 Brian Mello, Mark Stein
This essay explores insights from our experiences teaching undergraduates a set of paired history and political science courses on protest and revolution in the Middle East. Working in groups, students developed simulations of key moments of revolution or protest explored during the courses. The simulation assignment was designed to engage students in an active learning setting and as a shared assignment
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A Reflection on the Importance of Philosophy and Ethics in the Gulf and in Saudi Arabia Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Marzia A. Coltri
This essay offers a critical perspective on the future of the Arabian Gulf universities with respect to the humanities and philosophy. Although higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries have begun offering some philosophy courses, there are too few degree programs for the humanities and philosophy. Most Gulf colleges still do not offer a bachelor's or master's degree
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Introduction to the Special Issue Pluralism in Emergenc(i)es in the Middle East and North Africa Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi, A. George Bajalia, Sami Al-Daghistani
The issue “Pluralisms in Emergenc(i)es” is a result of a two-conference series that took place in Amman and Tunis, in December 2017 and October 2018, respectively. Taking these two locations as historical epicenters of human, commodity, and capital mobility, in two connected regions, these conferences set out to interrogate the historical, social, and religious underpinnings of the migrant and refugee
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Narrative, Resistance and Manus Prison Theory Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Omid Tofighian, Behrouz Boochani
In early 2020 Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian conducted a speaking tour of the United States, Canada, UK, and Europe (including Ireland). They presented at numerous universities, including the University of Cambridge. In their Cambridge talk they focused on the transformative potential of storytelling and the importance of creating new intellectual frameworks for resistance. Key themes and issues
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On the Migrant Subject Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Hengameh Ziai
Pluralism is deployed to govern migration across the Global North and Global South in contradictory ways. Fearing the arrival of migrants on its own shores – a threat to its biopolitical constitution – Europe deploys discourses of pluralism in the Global South to encourage migrants en route to Europe to sedentarize in “transit” countries like Sudan. Neoliberal development projects propagate the virtues
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The Refugee Camp as Site of Multiple Encounters and Realizations Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Ayham Dalal
Literature in Human Geography has given much attention to “encounters” and their impact on negotiating difference in everyday life. These studies, however, have focused solely on cities, while “other” spaces like refugee camps have received little attention to date. In this paper, I highlight the significance of “encounters” in camps by exposing three main types: the “refugee-refugee,” the “refugee-humanitarian
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“Safe but Frozen Camps”: Syrian and Palestinian Refugees around a Football Field in Beirut Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Stefano Fogliata
Palestinian camps in Lebanon have turned once more into “transitional zones of emplacement” for thousands of people recently fleeing the Syrian conflict. In this context, the plural subjectivities emerging within the camps highlight a further connection between spatial marginalization and precarious legal statuses. My research hinges on the interconnectivities evolving around the Palestinian Bourj
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Politics and the Limits of Pluralism in Mohamed Arkoun and Abdenour Bidar Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Madeleine Dobie
One of the striking features of the literary culture of the modern Maghreb is the profusion of works that undertake to identify the essential features of the region – exercises in definition that almost always emphasize plurality. Philosophers, social scientists, and literary writers have highlighted the Maghreb's multilingualism – the coexistence of different forms of Arabic, Tamazight, French, and
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Reflections on Race and Ethnicity in North Africa Towards a Conceptual Critique of the Arab–Berber Divide Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Mohamad Amer Meziane
This essay argues that the usages of the divide between Berbers and Arabs by the Algerian government and Berber activists alike should be analyzed in light of the transformation of the Imazighen into a cultural minority by the nation-state. The nation-state's definition of the majority as Arab, as well as the very concept of a minority, has shaped both the status and the grammar of the Arab-Berber
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Theology and Philosophy of Pluralism Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Souleymane Bachir Diagne
This essay is a reflection on the very notion of “pluralism” examined in a philosophical and theological approach. It evokes Quranic verses on pluralism and then examines the thoughts of different Muslim thinkers on the question, such as al-Farabi (d. 950), al-Ghazali (1058–1111) in the tenth and twelfth centuries, and Tierno Bokar Salif Tall (1875–1939), from Mali, in the twentieth.
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Learning from Past Mistakes and Living a Better Life: Report on the Workshop in Istanbul on “Ottoman Ego-Documents” Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Selim Karahasanoğlu
A workshop entitled “Ottoman Ego-Documents” was held at Istanbul Medeniyet University on March 11–13, 2020. The workshop was organized by Istanbul Medeniyet University's Faculty of Letters in collaboration with the Center for Ego-Document Studies and supported by the Turkish Historical Society and the Foundation for Science, Art, History and Literature (İSTEV). It was attended by specialists in history
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New Student Films from Palestine: Dreamers and Dreams in the Classroom Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Nancy Kalow
Palestinian student filmmakers based in the West Bank and Gaza tell stories of daily life in a collected set of short films which provide valuable insights for classes on the Middle East.
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Another Cartography is Possible: Relocating the Middle East and North Africa Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Harun Rasiah
Teaching the history of the modern Middle East and North Africa at a small liberal arts university offered an opportunity to address student demands to “decolonize the curriculum.” As the survey course comes under increasing scrutiny, we asked where exactly is the Middle East located in our political imagination today? This essay focuses on the role of maps in rethinking geographic frameworks by using
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The MESA Global Academy: Sustaining Knowledge Production Among MENA Scholars Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Mimi Kirk
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Global Academy is an initiative that sustains research collaborations and knowledge production among regionally-focused scholars from the Middle East and North Africa and their counterparts outside the region. Spearheaded by MESA, the project is an expression of the scholarly field's commitment to scholarship in and from the region. By awarding scholarships
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Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation Review of Middle East Studies Pub Date : 2021-07-07 Viviane Saglier
What can film studies bring to the study of Arab culture, politics, and history? The past ten years have seen an increase in historical, theoretical, and methodological exchanges between Middle East studies and film and media studies. The sub-field of “Arab film studies” (Ginsberg and Lippard 2020, viii) has emerged as one possible intersection of these two fields of inquiry. This is illustrated by