SPRING 2011 MEIS Courses

Declare MEIS Minor Form

Workshop I -- About That Other Middle East (The Non-Muslim One)

Contact Person: Prof. Carel Bertram, San Francisco State University

Orit Bashkin, University of Chicago, "Iraqi Jews as Arab subjects."
Carel Bertram, San Francisco State University, "The complications of memory: Diasporic Western Armenians visiting Turkey and confronting loss, lahmacun, legitimization of self, and Muslim cousins."
Judith Bing, Drexel University, "Ottoman houses and religious confessions: From Ohrid in Macedonia to Turnovo in Bulgaria, from mahalla to mahalla, from village to village."

Amal Cavender, "Historic and physical aspects related to urban forms in Maloula, an Aramaic village in Syria."

Sebastian Elsässer, Freie Universität Berlin, "Coptic issues in contemporary Egypt."
Charles G. Häberl, Rutgers University, "Endangered Languages and Cultural
Survival in the Middle East."
Nancy W Jabbra, Lebanese American University, "Relations Melkite Greek Catholic villagers in the Zahlah area of Lebanon have with their neighbors in surrounding villages."
Roberto Mazza, SOAS, UC Davis, "Christian institutions of Jerusalem and Palestine;  late 19th century to early 1920s."
Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, California State University, Fullerton, "Minority Girls’ Schools in Iran, 1800s-1930s."
Lucia Volk, San Francisco State University, "The Other South Lebanon: Christian Lebanese between Emigration, Exile, and Exclusion."

Susan Gilson Miller, UC Davis, "A Moroccan Jewish Quarter: History and Conservation."

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Workshop II -- Iran: Thirty Years After the Revolution

Contact Person: Prof. Sasan Fayazmanesh, Professor of Economics, California State University, Fresno

Session 1: Reform, Revolution and Containment, Friday, October 16, 2009 (9:30-12am)

Ali Assareh, New York University School of Law, “Failure of the Reform Movement in Iran: A Political Economy Perspective.”

Maziar Behrooz, California State University, San Francisco, “Chances and Choices: Post-Revolutionary Iran’s first two years.”

Sasan Fayazmanesh, California State University, Fresno, “The Iranian Revolution and the US Policy of Containment.”

Session 2: The Transformation of Iranian Society and National Identity, Friday, October 16, 2009 (2-5pm)

Afshin Matin-Asgari, California State University, Los Angles, “Both Eastern and Western: The Transformation of Modern Iran’s National and Islamic Identity.”

Shahla Talebi, Arizona State University, “From Iran to Nariman: The Sociopolitical and Gendered Transformation of Iranian Society since the 1979 Revolution.”

Session 3: Art and Media in Iran, Saturday, October 17, 2009 (9:30-12am)

Hannah Jacobi, Free University, Berlin, “Contemporary Art in Iran within the global and the local context.”
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego, “Internet, Politics and Shia Iran since the 1979 Revolution.”

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Workshop III -- Teaching the Middle East Through the Humanities: Representing The Region Through Literature, Art, and Film

Contact Person: Prof. Persis M. Karim, San Jose State University

Mario Ruiz, Assistant Professor, Hofstra University, “Teaching Middle East History through Islamic Youth Culture.”

Mary Husain, Instructor, Communications, CSU Fresno, “Emphasizing the Middle East: General Education Courses as a Gateway to Cultural Understanding.”

Ahmet Okal, Instructor, Turkish Language, The University of Arizona, “Teaching Language and Culture: Living in a web-built apartment building in Istanbul.”

Johanna Movassat, San Jose State University, Lecturer Art and Art History, “Teaching Islamic Art An (Art) Historical Approach.”

Carol Bier, Instructor, Humanities Department, San Francisco State University, "Cultural Equity: Humanities in Teaching about Islam."

Anna Oldfield, Hamilton College Asian Studies Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, “Teaching Cultures of the Islamic World, Old and New: Challenges and Possibilities.”

Adrian Gully, Deakin University, Australia, “Islam, Orientalism and the Arabs in Film.”

A. Sameh El Kharbawy, Associate Professor, Fresno State University, “The Art of Being Middle Eastern in the ‘Modern Time’."

Samirah Alkassim, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film, Towson University, Maryland, “Using Indigeneous Filmmakers and Artists to Introduce the Culture of the Middle East.”

el-Sayed el-Aswad, Professor, Department of Sociology, United Arab Emirates University, “Teaching Folklore of the Arab Gulf Region through Ethnographic Documentaries and Visual Narratives.”

Persis Karim, Associate Professor, San Jose State University, “Middle Eastern Literature as World Literature: Teaching Prose and Poetry in Translation from the Middle East.”

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Workshop IV -- Islam in Mughal Historiography

Contact Person: Prof. Santhi Kavuri-Bauer, San Francisco State University

This Workshop has been cancelled.

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Workshop V -- Human Rights In The Middle East and the Muslim World

Contact Person: Prof. Mahmood Monshipouri, San Francisco State University

Session 1: Framing the Debate: Friday, October 16, 2009 (9:30a.m.-12pm)

Lawrence Davidson, Professor of History, West Chester University, PA, “Framing the Human Rights Discourse: The Role of Natural Localism and the Power of Paradigm.”
Manochehr Dorraj, Professor of Political Science, TCU, “Islam and Human Rights.”
Turan Kayaoglu, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of Washington, Tacoma, “Defamation of Religions and Incitement to Religious Hatred in International Human Rights.”
Ellen McLarney, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor, Duke University, “Human Rights in Islam: A Genealogy of Two Islamic Thinkers.”
Halim Rane, Deputy Director of Islamic Research Unit, Griffith University, Australia, “Human Rights through the Lens of Islamic Legal Thought.”

Session 2: Case and Areas Studies: Friday, October 16, 2009: 2-5pm

Anthony Tirado Chase, Associate Prof., Occidental College, “Sexual Rights, the Muslim World, and Why Pushing the Envelope is Essential to Human Rights Global Resonance.”
Nader Entessar, Professor of Political Science, University of South Alabama, “Human Rights and the Kurdish Question in the Middle East.”
Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Professor and Director of Middle East Studies Center, Florida International University, “Islam, Human Rights and Security Discourse in Eurasia.”
Mahmood Monshipouri and Jon Whooley, SFSU, IR Dept., “Minority Rights and Marginalized Communities in the Middle East.”
Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan, Assistant Professor, Central Washington University, “The Janus Nature of Human Rights in Iran: Limited Progress on Human Rights Since the Revolution.”

Session 3: Strategies: Saturday, October 17, 2009: 9:30a.m.-12pm

Bahey Eldin Hassan, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Which Strategies to Improve Human Rights in the Arab World?”
Rachid Touhtou, Researcher, INSEA, Rabat, Morocco, “Transitional Justice in Morocco: The Case of Women Narratives of Human Rights Violations,”

Note: Each presenter is expected to share a draft copy of her/his paper with others during our meetings. The paper’s length should be around 25-30 pages—font 12, Times New Roman. Please kindly use endnotes and share a draft copy of your paper electronically with other participants before attending the workshop or bring 15 hard copies of your paper to the workshop. FYI, the proposal by Mrs. Shadi Mokhtari, Human Rights Attorney, Managing Attorney of the Family Crisis Center, Prince George’s Country, Maryland, “Strengthening the Reach of Middle Eastern Human Rights Advocates’ Voices beyond the Region” has been accepted, but she is expecting in early fall season and will not able to attend. Nonetheless, her proposal is significantly relevant to our larger project. We will welcome her addition to our larger project should she decide to contribute. Given that several participants are coming from overseas: Cairo, Rabat, Australia, Turkey, and Canada, a formal acceptance letter will be provided for visa purposes upon request.

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Workshop VI -- State-Society Relations in North Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim Asia

Contact Person: Prof. Nicole Watts, San Francisco State University

Organizer and Director

Nicole Watts, Department of Political Science, San Francisco State University

Workshop Co-Director

Lauren Basson, Department of Humanities and Sciences, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA (comparative citizenship and national identity, ethnicity and race, Israel-Palestine, U.S.)

Workshop Assistant and Participant

Manar Hassan, Dept of Political Science, San Francisco State University (electoral politics, state-NGO relations, contemporary Egyptian politics)

Participants

Saad Abi-Hamad, Dept of History, Texas Tech University (colonialism and the colonial state, Islamic activism, nationalism, Egypt)
Nosheen Ali, Islamic Studies Program, Stanford University (development sociology, minority-state relations, politics and ecology, North Pakistan)
Khashayar Beigi, Dept of Anthropology, UC Berkeley ( culture and technology in Iran)
Elif Babül, Dept of Anthropology, Stanford University (human rights, state-society relations, Turkey)
Houri Berberian, Dept of History, California State University Long Beach (Iran, Armenians in the Middle East, gender)
Leila Harris, Dept. of Geography and Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Univ. of Wisconsin (politics of water, gender, Turkey)
Ali İğmen, Dept of History, California State University Long Beach (history, Central Asia, early Republican Turkey, nationalism)
Damla Işık, Dept. of Anthropology, Western Connecticut State University (civil society, state-society relations, Turkey)
Sadia Saeed, Department of Sociology, Univ. of Michigan (human rights, international development, religion and culture, contemporary Pakistan, sociology of nationalism)
Odile Moreau, Montpelier Univ. (Ottoman military, North Africa)

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