Fall 2010
CCAS News National Resource Center on the Middle East Receives $2 Million in Funding from U.S. Department of Education Catherine Parker
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CAS is pleased to announce that the National Resource Center on the Middle East (NRC) at Georgetown, of which CCAS is an integral part, has received $2 million in funding for the next four years from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI program. This funding includes $267,000 per year for the NRC, which will use it to expand the breadth and scope of courses, outreach workshops for educators, and events for the public. The funding also includes $235,500 per year for six academic year and five summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, which are awarded to graduate students for the study of Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. Georgetown’s NRC is one of only 19 university centers on the Middle East funded through Title VI. The grant will particularly help expand language course offerings to include more advanced-level instructional and content courses in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. Planned courses include Media Persian, Media Turkish, an Arabic content course on literature, an Arabic content course on politics, and Ottoman Turkish. The NRC will also use the Title VI funding to continue its support of CCAS’s Community Resource Service (CRS). The CRS is an outreach program that offers resources and workshops about the Arab world to K-12 teachers and other educators in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Title VI funds will be used for educational activities during the academic year as well as for the week-long summer workshop entitled “Approaches to Teaching the Middle East.” Two joint conferences with the University of Arizona’s NRC on the Middle East will be held thanks to the funding. The conferences will explore the interface of environment and politics in the Middle East as well as media, IT, and public policy in the region. The NRC will also hold a conference on refugee health in the Arab world in collaboration with other departments at Georgetown. Ms. Catherine Parker, Grants Administrator at CCAS, authored the successful grant proposal, with help from Brenda Bickett, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Bibliographer for Lauinger Library; Alexa Poletto, Associate Director for Public Relations at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding; Melissa Spence, Assistant Director for the Program for Jewish Civilization; and Meriem Tikue, Administrative Assistant for Financial Affairs in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. “We are delighted about the renewal of the Title VI grant,” says Dr. Barbara Stowasser, Director of CCAS. “This recognition highlights Georgetown’s continued role as an integral resource for language acquisition, outreach programming, and timely events about the Middle East.” Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Georgetown University
The Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Intercultural Center, where the National Resource Center on the Middle East is housed.
I Center News 2 Dr. Barbara Stowasser Delivers Inaugural Oman Chair Lecture 2 Center Welcomes Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholars 3 Interview With David Jackson, CCAS Board Member
Outreach news 4 Summer Workshop Provides Strategies for Teaching the Region 6 Remembering Egyptian Author-Illustrator Mohieddin Ellabbad 7 After-School Workshop Explores Arabic Music Tradition
Publications News 7 CCAS Announces Its New Volume, Industrialization in the Gulf
Public Events 8 Dr. Sebastian Günther Speaks on Ibn Rushd and Thomas Aquinas 8 Fall Events
Academic News 10 MAAS Students Master New Languages 10 Faculty News
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Center News
Dr. Barbara Stowasser Delivers Inaugural Oman Chair Lecture
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Dr. Barbara Stowasser delivers her inaugural lecture as the Oman Chair.
n October 7 in Riggs Library, CCAS Director Dr. Barbara Stowasser delivered her inaugural lecture as the new holder of the Oman Chair in Arabic and Islamic Literature. Dr. James J. O’Donnell, Provost of Georgetown University, approved her appointment to the Chair last year. The previous holder was Dr. Irfan Shahîd, who was appointed to the Chair in 1982 and retired in 2008. In the lecture, entitled “Time Sticks,” Dr. Stowasser looked at the five daily prayers of Islam in order to explore how the “day” and the “hour” are structured in Islamic tradition and in Islamic science, and how they are being reconfigured in the age of globalization. The paper stems from Dr. Stowasser’s current research on Islam and time, about which she is writing a book. The Center congratulates Dr. Stowasser on her appointment and lecture.
Center Welcomes 2010-11 Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholars Dr. Nida Alahmad Dr. Nida Alahmad, the Center's 2010-11 Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow, received her Ph.D. in politics from the New School for Social Research in 2009. Her dissertation, “State Power in Iraq (19882005),” was the recipient of the New School’s Frieda Wunderlich Memorial Award for an outstanding dissertation by an international student. Her dissertation examines popular, academic, and policy understandings of third world state power generally and the Iraqi state in particular through a detailed examination of episodes of power contestation in Iraq between 1988 and 2005. Dr. Alahmad’s research and teaching interests include social science theories of state, violence, democratization, and political economy of development, and the connection of these academic fields with practices of political engineering. As the Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Alahmad will revise her dissertation into a book manuscript and teach the class, "Politics of Oil, Development, and Intervention."
Ángela Suárez-Collado Ángela Suárez-Collado, a visiting scholar for the academic year, graduated from the University of Granada, where she studied political science and sociology. She is currently a researcher in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid and is part of the International Mediterranean Studies Team. Her research focuses on issues of ethnic and linguistic diversity in Morocco and civil society, identity, and political transnationalism between Europe and North Africa. She is working on her doctoral thesis, “Identity, Politics, and Culture in Northern Morocco: The Case of the Rif.”
Dr. Lamia Zaki Visiting scholar Dr. Lamia Zaki completed her Ph.D. at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris in 2005 on the political representations and practices of Moroccan slumdwellers. She was a research fellow at the Institut de Recherches sur le Maghreb Contemporain in Tunis between 2007 and 2009, where she edited a book with a sociological approach to the 2007 Moroccan legislative elections. Her present work focuses on transformations of urban and social policies in North Africa in the context of political and economic reform. She is working on a book that analyzes the evolution of rehousing policies in Morocco with regard to politics and social protest in the slums.
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CCAS News
Fall 2010
Center News
CCAS Board Member David Jackson: Proud MAAS Alum Mimi Kirk
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avid Jackson may be president of Northridge Capital, an independent real estate management firm in Washington, D.C., but he calls himself an “Arabist.” “People in the real estate business look at you like you’re some kind of an insect when you tell them that,” he says. “But I have a different kind of perspective.” This perspective comes in handy at Northridge, where Jackson invests in real estate for a small number of Saudi families. It also comes in handy at CCAS. A 1983 MAAS alum, Jackson has been an active and valued board member since 2006. This past year, he served on the board’s “troika” with H.R.H. Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Alexander Ercklentz, partner in the firm of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. The three men played a crucial role in the Center’s April 2010 board meeting in Riyadh; they planned the meeting and its accompanying policy and education events and contributed support in the form of funding, venues, and airplane tickets. “For me, it’s almost reflexive that if you do well you help the institutions and people that helped get you where you are,” Jackson says. And indeed, it was Jackson’s experience at MAAS, as well as a stint in the Peace Corps in Morocco, that started him on his Saudi-focused career. Jackson became an expert in the Arab world by chance. After college he worked a number of odd jobs, including playing a Revolutionary War soldier at Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge National Park. During that time, he applied to the Peace Corps, and he got the call about his appointment to Morocco one day while in full colonial regalia. “I didn’t even know where Morocco was or what language they spoke,” he says. After three years as an English teacher in Goulmima, a date palm oasis in the southeast of the country, Jackson returned to the United States. He wanted to continue to learn about the Arab world, so he applied to MAAS in 1980. “I got in to other programs,” he says, “but Georgetown offered me a full scholarship.” Jackson CCAS News
Fall 2010
CCAS Board Member David Jackson with his family in the Suq Al-Hamidiyah in Damascus.
speaks of the “phenomenal” faculty he years later, he came back to Washington to studied with at CCAS, including Drs. start Northridge Capital. Hanna Batatu, John Ruedy, and Hisham Jackson says his experience in Morocco Sharabi. While a student, he worked at and at MAAS has helped him enormously the Saudi embassy preparing the press in his work. “Having a grounding in cable for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Modern Standard Arabic is so useful when Riyadh. It was there that he met Lydia, a I’m in a meeting with, say, a Lebanese, two fellow employee, who he married in 1985. Saudis, and an Englishman,” he says. “It’s They now have three children: Alex, 21, not necessarily a pure Arabic business and Dina, 19, a senior and a sophomore at environment, but it helps me follow Georgetown, respectively, and Chris, 15, a everything that’s going on—even the asides.” student at Georgetown Prep. His main advice for MAAS students Soon after graduating from MAAS, relates to the portrayal of the Arab world Jackson attended Georgetown Law, where and Islam in the United States today. he excelled and landed a gig as a summer “There’s no analysis about it anymore,” he associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in says, adding that what now sells is people downtown D.C. He was offered a position taking the most extreme position and with the firm upon graduation, and after screaming at each other. “Students coming working in its D.C. and New York offices, out of MAAS have an understanding of the he went to work in its Riyadh office in 1988. history and the culture of the Islamic world Jackson experienced the Gulf War there and the real story behind its relationship firsthand in 1991. “Riyadh took as many with the West,” he says. “Maybe you’re not SCUD missiles as Tel Aviv,” he says. “The a lobbyist or an activist. Maybe you’re just airports were closed, and I couldn’t leave working for a bank. But whatever you’re for two weeks.” He then returned to the doing, don’t let that knowledge lay fallow. firm’s New York office until 1993, at which Go ahead and refute the stereotypes. Go time he moved to its Jeddah office. Four ahead and say what you know to be true.”
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Outreach News
Annual Summer Workshop: Educators Consider Different Approaches to Teaching the Middle East Zeina Azzam Seikaly
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rom June 28 to July 2, the outreach program was host to 33 teachers for the annual week-long summer workshop. As in previous years, the program explored multidisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching about the Middle East and North Africa. Scholars and analysts offered presentations about a number of topics in an interactive setting where attendees could ask questions freely, discuss important issues in the field with experts, and gain ideas about integrating new content into their curricula. Four speakers discussed specific themes and time periods in history. Dr. Kimberly Katz (Towson University) spoke on “Diaries and Textbooks: Insights into History, Conflict, and Identity in Palestine/Israel.” She focused on her book, A Young Palestinian’s Diary 19411945: The Life of Sami `Amr (University of Texas Press, 2009), which includes the translated diary of Sami Amr as well as a comprehensive essay that contextualizes the diary in 1940s Palestine. The
teachers had read the book beforehand and engaged with Dr. Katz in a lively discussion about life and politics in Palestine in that era. They also explored the idea of using such a primary source in the classroom, thus introducing their students to the voices of real people in their historical time. Dr. David Cuthell (Georgetown University) offered a presentation on “Empire and Nation at the Crossroads of the World: Turkey and Its Ottoman Ancestor.” One needs to understand the Ottoman Empire in order to understand modern Turkey, Dr. Cuthell said, and it is important to learn about it from the Ottoman archives and not to rely solely on Western sources. He offered a historical sweep that included discussion of the Janissaries, the Tanzimat era and reforms, the Young Turk movement, World War I, and modern Turkish nationalism. Dr. Cuthell concluded with a discussion of contemporary Turkey and the issues it faces, such as inflation, secularism, and its history with the Armenian and
Workshop participants show off their handiwork.
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Kurdish communities. Speaking on “Sykes Picot and the Creation of the New Middle East after the Great War,” Dr. Salim Tamari (Birzeit University) said that World War I was a pivotal moment in the history of the Middle East, as there had been no serious notion of nationalism in the region beforehand. Dr. Tamari described and analyzed twentieth-century political developments during and after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, with the resultant interference and patronage by world powers. “When Sykes-Picot became public in 1917 [with its carving up of the region into states and spheres of influence], the Arabs realized that they were betrayed,” said Dr. Tamari. He also discussed the roles of Arab nationalism and Zionism and the fragility of borders. Dr. Tamari spent the last hour of his session on Jerusalem’s history, its significance as an urban center and locus of pilgrimage, and its current social and political status. Dr. Elliott Colla (Georgetown University) took a broad perspective on history and spoke on “Modern Uses of the Past in the Middle East”—a region “with a lot of past,” he said. He explained that there is a distinction between historical events and our understanding of them. It is possible for the ancient past, in particular, to be part of or absent from a people’s collective memory, depending on whether they choose to keep it or repress it. Nationstates, as modern inventions, often rely on claims of an ancient past in order to buttress political and social goals such as solidarity, pride, and nationalism. Dr. Colla used examples from Iran, Turkey, Greece, Iraq, Israel, and Egypt. He focused his remarks on Egypt’s ancient past, including how it was studied by colonial archaeologists, who marginalized the role of Egyptians in the process. Two scholars presented on the role of the media in learning and teaching about the Middle East. Dr. Livia Alexander (ArteEast) addressed “The CCAS News
Fall 2010
Outreach News Cultural Politics of Teaching Middle East Arts in U.S. Classrooms.” She challenged the ubiquitous presentation of the dichotomy, “the United States versus the Muslim world,” saying that these are not mutually exclusive, discrete domains. It is important to think about people, values, and ideas in a more nuanced way, and to look at art as a promoter of humanity. Dr. Alexander cautioned against viewing a film as a mirror of reality, but rather as “a story, a point of view, a commentary.” She discussed teaching about the Middle East using documentaries and feature-length films from the region, where the film industry is vibrant and growing. She concluded her session by showing two short films about the Kurdish community, one set in Iraq and one in Europe. Dr. Adel Iskandar (Georgetown University and Voices Without Borders International) led a session titled “Media Matters: Charting the New Arab Renaisssance” in which he first explored the negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in U.S. popular culture. He said that these have crept into the U.S. news media and obfuscate meaningful reporting from the Middle East. “We are missing some of the major stories coming out of the region,” Dr. Iskandar said, explaining that “…the Arab world is not just this distant place where young Americans are sent to fight.” With over 500 satellite stations, the Arab media is a thriving enterprise and offers rich content for study in the classroom. He noted that research shows that Arabic is the second most broadcast language in the world after English. Turning the discussion to the Muslim community, Dr. John Esposito’s (Georgetown University) presentation, titled “Islam: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” began with U.S. media images of Muslims and the resultant perspectives in U.S. society. “In today’s legal system,” he said, “if you’re Muslim, you are guilty until proven innocent.” Dr. Esposito emphasized the importance of understanding the diversity of Islam, saying that “Islam is present in cultures and languages all over the world.” He talked about the Shari`a, or Islamic law, and its role in Muslim societies as a moral compass; using reason, analogy, and customary practices, CCAS News
Fall 2010
Shari`a also provides a framework for the Muslim community to adapt to new questions about human existence. He said that Muslim grievances with the West include the West’s doublestandard of preaching about human rights while supporting authoritarian regimes. In “Islamism and Gender in the Middle East: A Historical Perspective,” Dr. Sara Scalenghe (Loyola University Maryland and Georgetown Uni- Dr. Nadia Naser-Najjab addresses family law in the Arab world. versity) offered an law are changing women’s status in the overview of the history of Middle Eastern Arab world. She said that the factors that Islamist movements—a phenomenon of affect Arab women are personal status the second half of the twentieth century— issues (such as marriage, divorce, child such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt custody, and inheritance), Islamic law, inand Sudan, the Iranian Revolutionary ternational pressures, and the local social, Guard, the Algerian Islamic Salvation cultural, and political traditions of their Front, the Taliban, Hamas, and Hizbal- milieux. Dr. Naser-Najjab discussed her lah. Dr. Scalenghe outlined some of the research findings regarding the practice factors that contributed to the formation of polygamy in Palestinian society, which and appeal of these movements, includ- she said occurs in about four percent ing a reaction against “modernity,” capi- of marriages and is rarely entered into talism, and the hegemony of the West, a willingly by women. In general, Arab rejection of authoritarian state regimes, countries continue to try to restrict and/ the failure of the nation-state to provide or prohibit polygamy. She cautioned services, and the ongoing Arab-Israeli against focusing solely on single issues conflict. She explained the history of that often have a negative impact on Arab veiling in the region and the few Qur’anic women, such as divorce or polygamy, as suras about the practice, saying that a way for the West to justify its attacks in much depends on how scholars interpret the region. “We need to end the injustices these sources. Consequently, there is being done to women in the Muslim much diversity in veiling (and not veil- world” through homegrown efforts, she ing) in Islamic societies over history and said, and not through violence and war. in the present. Dr. Scalenghe focused the The teachers received a thick binder second part of her session on the Iranian of resources and enjoyed networking Revolution and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic with each other every day over a Middle novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Eastern lunch. Their evaluations of the which the teacher attendees had read workshop were most favorable. Three beforehand. teachers wrote the following in their Dr. Nadia Naser-Najjab (Birzeit Uni- evaluation forms: “Universally excellent, versity) continued the discussion of well-prepared scholars speaking on wellgender in her presentation on “Family chosen topics;” “An invaluable experiLaw and Arab Women.” She discussed ence in its richness, professionalism, and how new interpretations of the Shari`a scholarship;” and, “This week has been (the process of ijtihad, increasingly by phenomenal. I learned so much about the female jurists) and reforms of family Middle East—present and historically.”
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Outreach News
Mohieddin Ellabbad, 1940-2010 Author-Illustrator of The Illustrator’s Notebook Zeina Azzam Seikaly
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he Center was sad to learn that one of the Arab world’s foremost and most celebrated illustrators of children’s books, Mohieddin Ellabbad, died September 4. A native of Cairo, Mr. Ellabbad studied painting at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts and began illustrating children’s books at an early age. He illustrated as well as wrote a number of books in Arabic, including Lugha Bidun Kalimat (Language Without Words), Mulahazat (Observations), Hikayat al-Kitab (Story of the Book), Nazar (Vision, or Perception; four editions), Kashkul al-Rassam (The Illustrator’s Notebook), and T-Shirt. In addition to working as an authorillustrator, he shared his vision as an art director, art consultant, and senior graphic designer with many Arab and international publishing firms. His fiction and nonfiction books for children have been translated into Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Persian. Mr. Ellabbad received a multitude of awards, such as “The Most Beautiful Arab Book” at the Arabic Book Fair in Beirut in 1975, 1979, and 1992, as well as internationally prestigious awards in Bratislava (1975), Leipzig (1985), Paris (1994), Frankfurt (2002), and Switzerland (2004). The Illustrator’s Notebook, published in English in 2006 by Groundwood Books, is a collection of Mr. Ellabbad’s reflections on the process of writing and creating art, and the fascinating personal and social contexts that inform his work. It was also translated into German and French and won numerous awards: the Middle East Outreach Council’s Youth Non-Fiction Award, 2006; the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age award, 2007; the International Reading Association’s Book Award Notables selection, 2007; the Children’s Literature Assembly Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts selection from the National
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Council of Teachers of English, 2007; and the C hi ldren’s Af r ic ana Book Award, 2007. In the fall of 2007, when Mr. Ellabbad was scheduled to travel to New York to receive the Children’s Africana Book Award for The Illustrator’s Notebook, the Center’s outreach program invited him to come to D.C. and present a teacher workshop on his book and on his CCAS's Director of Educational Outreach Zeina Azzam Seikaly perspectives regarding with Mohieddin Ellabbad in 2009. art, writing, and the creative process. He accepted; however, describe Ellabbad’s creative process in due to ill health he did not make the a thoroughly non-linear way…we move trip to the United States at all. It was a by mysterious steps, through his beautibig loss to our program. ful collages and pictures that blend dazAt that time I suggested developing a zling, classical Arabic calligraphy with teaching unit based on The Illustrator’s very modern collages and drawings.” Notebook, and Mr. Ellabbad loved the The School Library Journal says that the idea. For two months in 2007, I had book is “…full of wonders from start to the privilege of writing this unit and finish…the pages are magnificently and emailing parts, as I completed them, to surprisingly illustrated.” Mr. Ellabbad for his comments. I preIt is clear that the world of children’s sented the final document at the teacher literature has lost an enormous creative workshop that he had been scheduled force. Mohieddin Ellabbad had an to lead; the D.C.-based artist, Helen amazing ability to articulate innovaZughaib, and I offered writing- and art- tive ideas creatively and meaningfully based activities to the elementary and through his children’s books. I had the middle school teachers in attendance. good fortune to meet him and his The unit was well received and, based family in Cairo in the summer of 2009, on teacher feedback, has been revised; during a study-tour that our Center teachers can use its activities in con- sponsored for teachers. From our conjunction with The Illustrator’s Notebook. versations and through visiting his art The unit can be downloaded at http:// studio, I was so impressed by his fertile ccas.georgetown.edu/k12/education/ imagination, serious and playful subteaching. jects, political astuteness, deep sense Mr. Ellabbad’s sensitively written of justice, generosity of spirit, humility, book is a gem. The University of Flor- and by his wonderful sense of humor. ida’s renowned John Cech, director of One cannot exaggerate the depth and the Center for the Study of Children’s breadth of his legacy in Arab children’s Literature and Culture, describes it literature. CCAS Assistant Professor as follows: “The book reads in the Samer Shehata summed up the passing traditional, Arabic way, from left to of this great man as follows: “Egypt has right, back to front. And it attempts to lost one of its national treasures.” CCAS News
Fall 2010
Outreach News
Exploring Arabic Music: The Maqam Tradition Zeina Azzam Seikaly
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his after-school mini-workshop, on September 28, was conducted by Dr. Riad Abdel-Gawad, an accomplished musician and violinist who performs and holds workshops on Arabic music internationally. The program provided a general introduction to Arabic music and focused on the concept of the maqam, which is usually translated as a “melodic mode.” Arabic music is based on melody and does not have a chordal structure or harmony; therefore, musicians improvise together on the same melody, producing a “heterophony” around the melodic line. Dr. Abdel-Gawad explained the building blocks of the maqam as well as the art of improvisation, providing copious examples on his violin. He also demonstrated Middle Eastern rhythms and invited workshop participants to
play with him on the instruments they brought to the workshop. Thirty-five teachers—mostly from school music
programs—attended this workshop. Each received a packet of resources and one of Dr. Abdel-Gawad's music CDs.
LEFT: A music teacher tries her hand at the maqam style. RIGHT: Dr. Riad Abdel-Gawad improvises on his violin.
Publications News
Announcing Our New Edited Volume, Industrialization in the Gulf: A Socioeconomic Revolution Mimi Kirk
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Coedited by Dr. Jean-François Seznec and Mimi Kirk, Industrialization in the Gulf: A Socioeconomic Revolution examines the far-reaching consequences of the Arab/Persian Gulf region's recent and rapid transformation.
CCAS News
Fall 2010
CAS is pleased to announce the publication of its new edited volume, Industrialization in the Gulf: A Socioeconomic Revolution (Routledge 2010). Dr. Jean-François Seznec, Visiting Associate Professor at CCAS, and Mimi Kirk, Editor for the Center, co-edited the volume. Its twelve chapters emerged from CCAS’s 2008 symposium of the same name (chaired by Dr. Seznec), which featured some of the top scholars and practitioners working in the field. The book examines the region’s rapid industrialization, local economies’ diversification away from petroleum, and the political and social ramifications of the Gulf ’s transformation as they relate to shifting relations with Iran, an ever-increasing reliance on foreign labor, and pioneering changes in women’s educational opportunities and working lives. For more information, please contact Mimi Kirk at mek75@georgetown.edu or visit http://www.routledge. com/books.
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Academic News
Dr. Sebastian Günther, 2010 Kareema Khoury Annual Distinguished Lecturer, Speaks on Ibn Rushd and Thomas Aquinas Mimi Kirk
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r. Sebastian Günther, Professor and Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and President of the European Union of Arabists and Islamicists, examined the educational concepts of Ibn Rushd (also known by the Latinized form of his name, Averroes) and Thomas Aquinas in his Kareema Khoury Annual Distinguished Lecture on November 11. He asserted that an awareness of these medieval scholars’ positions on the aims, contents, and methods of teaching and learning may be of help when dealing with contemporary educational issues. Ibn Rushd, who hailed from twelfthcentury Muslim Spain, argued for a connection between divine law, philosophy, and logic. He asserted that logic and demonstrative syllogism are the basis of dealing with almost all of the sciences, be they religious or profane. In this way, he followed Aristotle, and advised his students to learn from the ancient masters, despite the fact that they were not Muslim. The thirteenth-century Italian thinker Thomas Aquinas was one of the most important disciples and critics of Ibn Rushd, and also discussed education within a theological and philosophical framework in his major writings. While he agreed with certain of Aristotle’s and Ibn Rushd’s key concepts, he differed
from Ibn Rushd in his conceptualization of the so-called "passive" (or information processing) intellect. For Ibn Rushd, there exists only one "passive" intellect shared by all humans. In contrast, for Thomas Aquinas, each individual person possesses his own "passive" intellect, whose nature it is to receive, retain, and process information. Thomas Aquinas thus called on the individual to make use of his mind, which promoted the idea that each human being thinks "on his own"—an understanding that promoted the secularization of knowledge and education in medieval Europe. The concepts that Ibn Rushd and Thomas Aquinas share include: 1) the centrality of scriptural truth as a source of wisdom; 2) the priority of logic in learning and teaching; 3) the usefulness of careful contemplation; 4) the duty of learning from the past; and 5) the idea that students and teachers should enjoy academic freedom in the educational process. While Thomas Aquinas was canonized in 1323 and declared patron of all Roman Catholic educational establishments in 1880, Ibn Rushd as a scholar has remained controversial in the Muslim world. The rationalism of his thought, however, plays an increasing role in intellectual debates in the Arab world. For certain prominent secular Muslim intellectuals, Ibn Rushd
Dr. Sebastian Günther speaks thoughtfully on medieval philosophy.
has become a leading figure “of their pleas for a modern, Muslim civil society which acknowledges its debt to its own Islamic past and heritage but is at the same time open to other cultures and civilizations,” said Dr. Günther. Dr. Günther ended his talk with the assertion that the rediscovery of the classical Islamic and the medieval Christian intellectual heritage is an opportunity for the Muslim and Western worlds given the potential universality of all rational knowledge. “Ibn Rushd and Thomas Aquinas’s educational ideas have lost nothing of their initial thought-provoking appeal,” he said. “Indeed, they appear to be as relevant and useful even today when considering contemporary issues in education, be it in the Middle East or the Western world.”
Fall Public Events Forced Nomadism in Southern Israel/Palestine
September 20, 2010 Dr. Oren Yiftachel, Professor in the Geography and Environmental Development Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, gave a lecture on the forced nomadism of Bedouin communities in southern Israel/Palestine. Dr. Yiftachel is one of the foremost critical geographers working in Israel.
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Little Town of Bethlehem: D.C. Premiere and Panel Discussion
September 24, 2010 The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies joined with the International Peace and Conf lict Resolution Program and the Peacebuilding and Development Program, both at American University, to host a screening of Little Town of Bethlehem (produced by EthnoGraphic Media). The new documentary,
filmed in the West Bank, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, shares the gripping story of three men—a Palestinian Muslim, a Palestinian Christian, and an Israeli Jew—who are willing to risk everything to bring an end to violence in their lifetime. A discussion with the film’s producer Mart Green, director Jim Hanon, and two of the three protagonists of the film followed the movie screening. CCAS News
Fall 2010
Public Events Al Jazeera English: Reporting from the Front Lines September 29, 2010 Dr. Adel Iskandar, an adjunct professor at CCAS, moderated a special screening and conversation with Emmy-nominated Al Jazeera English (AJE) Gaza reporters Sherine Tadros and Ayman Moheyldine and AJE host and former Marine Josh Rushing. They discussed the mission of AJE and the ever-changing mediascape.
The Human Rights Crisis in Bahrain October 19, 2010 This panel addressed the crackdown on members of the opposition movement in Bahrain, which began in advance of the country's parliamentary elections in October. Panelists included Joe Stork, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch; Maryam al-Khawaja, an active member in the Bahrain Center for Human Rights; and Dr. JeanFrançois Seznec, Visiting Associate Professor at CCAS.
Dr. Joel Beinin of Stanford University discussed the new social movements that have been born of the struggle against Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank. Dr. Beinin’s research and writing focus on workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East and on Israel, Palestine, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Love, Power, and Torture in Iran October 26, 2010 Houshang Asadi, an Iranian journalist, shared his memoir, Letters to My Torturer: Love, Revolution, and Imprisonment in Iran (Oneworld Publications, 2010). In 1983, Mr. Asadi was arrested and sent to Moshtarek prison, where he was severely tortured until he falsely confessed to operating as a spy for the British and Russian intelligence agencies. He received a sentence of death by hanging, but was freed after serving six years. In 2003 he escaped Iran. He now lives in exile in Paris, where he co-founded the Persian-language news site Rooz Online.
Islamically Marked Bodies and Neoliberal Locations in Egyptian Cinema (Re)Orienting Public Diplomacy: America October 13, 2010 Engaging with the Arab World Dr. Walter Armbrust of the University October 20, 2010 of Oxford discussed how people and This roundtable discussion featured locations are constructed in Egyptian key players in public diplomacy. Panelists mass media visual culture. Dr. included Ambassador Steven Seche, a career Armbrust’s main focus was the film Ana Foreign Service officer who served as U.S. Mish Ma‘ahum (I Am Not With Them, Ambassador to Yemen from September 2007 2007), which, with its Islamically marked to August 2010; Ana Escrogima, a career people and urban spaces, contrasts Foreign Service officer who most recently sharply to the more common secular served as the Deputy Director for the State representations found in Egyptian Department's Regional Public Diplomacy cinema since the early 1970s. Hub in Dubai; and Mohammed Elshinnawi, Arab Voices: What They Are Saying and who has worked with the Voice of America for Why It Matters Saving Iraq: Rebuilding a Broken over 30 years and currently serves as Senior October 28, 2010 Nation TV Journalist. CCAS adjunct professor Dr. Dr. James Zogby, Founder and October 18, 2010 Adel Iskandar moderated the panel. President of the Arab American Institute, Nemir Kirdar, Founder, Executive discussed his recently released book, Chairman, and CEO of the global Social Movements, the New which is based on the latest Zogby investment group Investcorp, presented Internationalism, and the Struggle against polls in the Middle East. Arab Voices his new book. In Saving Iraq: Rebuilding Israel’s Separation Barrier in the West (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) brings into a Broken Nation, Mr. Kirdar discusses Bank stark relief the myths, assumptions, and the American invasion and lays out his October 22, 2010 biases that interfere with cross-cultural vision for a prosperous Iraq. Renowned Middle East historian understanding.
LEFT: Dr. Oren Yiftachel examines Bedouin communities in Israel/Palestine; CENTER: Mr. Houshang Asadi presents his memoir, which chronicles his experiences in an Iranian prison; RIGHT: Mr. Nemir Kirdar shares his vision for a new Iraq.
CCAS News
Fall 2010
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Academic News
MAAS Students Master New Languages Robert Duffley
T
he MAAS program emphasizes the acquisition of Arabic, but as the number of admitted students who are already proficient in Arabic grows, more of them are studying other languages, such as Persian and Turkish, to enhance their understanding of the wider Middle East. These students, like those who study Arabic, often travel to the region for rigorous study and firsthand experience. One such MAAS student is Zach Foster, who, after studying Arabic in Israel, Palestine, and Syria, received a State Department-funded Critical Language Scholarship for the study of Turkish. He spent this past summer in Ankara at TÖMER, Turkey’s national language institute. Foster’s study of Turkish arose through his academic interest in the emergence of a distinct Palestinian identity in the late Ottoman period. He plans to examine this subject through memoirs of Ottoman soldiers who served in Palestine during World War I. The diaries offer a window into
a crucial time in Arab history inaccessible through knowledge of Arabic alone. “Because the Ottomans shut down the press during the war, we have only fragmented sources for the period. These memoirs are helping to uncover this buried piece of history,” Foster says. “Eventually I’d like to read Ottoman documents. But for now, I’m trying to master the modern language.” Dr. Sylvia Önder, Visiting Assistant Professor of Turkish at Georgetown, comments that this kind of research that crosses countries and language groups makes for truly innovative work. “Having students here at Georgetown who do this kind of research is really enriching, because they can do unique comparative studies,” she says. Dr. Önder cites MAAS alum Chris Gratien, who, after studying both Arabic and Turkish, examined national heroes in Egyptian and Turkish detective and MAAS Student Zach Foster in Turkey with graphic novels. Gratien is now a Ph.D. his language partner, Emel Özdaş. Foster is candidate in the History Department one of several MAAS students enhancing his study of the Middle East by mastering at Georgetown. another language.
Faculty News Fida Adely, Assistant Professor, Center
Subcommittee on Investments and was for Contemporary Arab Studies, was elected elected to the Board of Advisers of the to the board of the Middle East section Yemen College of Middle East Studies. of the American Anthropological He escorted 10 Arabic language and Arab Association. She will serve as the area studies cadets and faculty from West section’s treasurer. She received a Point to the UAE for a 10-day study visit National Endowment for the Humanities in April. He also escorted 10 participants fellowship in residence at the American from the National Council on U.S.-Arab Center for Oriental Research in Amman, Relations’ Model Arab League Program Jordan, where she will spend the spring to Saudi Arabia for a 10-day study visit in semester. She will also be a fellow at the June. Dr. Anthony delivered remarks at a Institute for Scholars at the Columbia variety of events: He addressed the “Sixth University Middle East Research Center Annual Iraq Conference: The New Iraq— in Amman. Internal and External Dynamics Shaping Its Future” in Washington, D.C. on June 14 and 15; he delivered five addresses on , Adjunct topics related to Arabia, the Gulf, ArabProfessor, Center for Contemporary U.S. relations, and American foreign Arab Studies, was appointed to the U.S. policy to the National Council’s 2010 Department of State Advisory Committee University Student Summer Internship on International Economic Policy’s Program participants at The George
John Duke Anthony
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Washington University in June and July; he briefed U.S. defense attaches, security assistance officers, and representatives of the Commanding General, U.S. Central Command, at the Defense Institute for Security Assistance Management on July 16; he addressed the topic of “Arab Cultural Dynamics” for U.S. armed forces personnel assigned to the U.S. Trading and Doctrine Command at Sierra Vista, Arizona on July 27; and he addressed the Richmond, Virginia World Affairs Council on October 7.
Noura Erakat, Adjunct Instructor, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, presented her findings on using habeas corpus on behalf of Iraqi refugees in a Ruwad conference in Lebanon in June 2010. That month, she also helped lead CCAS News
Fall 2010
Faculty News the Palestinian track at the second U.S. Social Forum, the largest convergence of the U.S.-based left, on behalf of the U.S. Palestinian Communities Network (USPCN). She published an article on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in the United States in the summer issue of MERIP, entitled “BDS in the USA: 2001-2010.” More recently, Ms. Erakat completed a policy brief examining the Gaza blockade in international law and the UN’s response in collaboration with the American University of Beirut (AUB)’s Issam Fares Institute. She then presented her research at AUB in a public lecture entitled “Is it Wrong or Illegal? Israel’s Blockade of Gaza, Its Challenge to the International Legal Order, and the Adequacy of the UN’s Response,” on October 11. Also in October, Ms. Erakat participated in a conference sponsored by Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, in Ramallah, where she examined the Palestinian diaspora’s response to a politics of exclusion and the crisis of representation in its national leadership. Later that month, she helped organize and participated in the USPCN’s Second Popular Conference for Palestinians, which featured Palestinian-Israeli Knesset member Haneen Zoabi and Al Jazeera television journalist Ghassan Ben Jiddo. She recently joined the board of the Trans-Arab Research Institute (TARI). During the past months, she has also published several pieces of commentary on The Huffington Post, and she helped launch Jadaliyya, a new electronic magazine exploring the Arab world as a home and not just a subject of U.S. foreign policy.
World, edited with Ali Paya (London: Routledge, 2010); Islam: The Straight Path, fourth edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); and Islam and Peacebuilding: Gulen Movement Initiatives, edited with Ihsan Yilmaz (New York: Blue Dome Press, 2010).
Michael Hudson, Professor, Center
for Contemporary Arab Studies, published a number of articles and book chapters in the past two years: “Advice to President Obama: U.S. Policy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: What Should and Can the Next President Do?” in Middle East Policy (Winter 2008); “The Incremental Approach to Reform in the Gulf,” in The Arabian Gulf: Between Conservatism and Change (Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 2009); “The United States in the Middle East,” in Louise Fawcett (ed.), International Relations of the Middle East, second edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); “America’s ‘Palestine Fatigue,’” in Camille Mansour and Leila Fawaz (eds.), Transformed Landscapes: Essays on Palestine and the Middle East in Honor of Walid Khalidi (Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2009).
Shireen Hunter
, Visiting Professor, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for MuslimChristian Understanding, published Iran’s Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Resisting the New International Order (New York: Praeger, 2010).
Stephen King
, Associate Professor, Department of Government, published , Professor and Director, The New Authoritarianism in the Middle Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim- East and North Africa (Bloomington: Christian Understanding, was recently Indiana University Press, 2009). elected vice president of the American Academy of Religion. He will serve for three years, as vice president (2011), as , Assistant Professor, president-elect (2012), and as president Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, (2013). He also published the following published Maslaha and the Purpose of the books: The Future of Islam (New York: Law: Islamic Discourse on Legal Change Oxford University Press, 2010); Iraq, from the 4th/10th to the 8th/14th Century Democracy and the Future of the Muslim (Leiden: Brill, 2010).
John Esposito
Felicitas Opwis
CCAS News
Fall 2010
Ibrahim M. Oweiss, Professor
Emeritus, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, recently published “The Global Depression and the Gulf Economies” in The Role of Faith in the Global Economic Crisis (Doha, Qatar: Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, 2010). On October 13, he gave a one-hour interview to the Al Jazeera program “Bela Hodood” in which he discussed “Why Islamic Banks Landed Safe in the 2008 World Financial Crisis.” Dr. Oweiss was also the keynote speaker at the First Doha Conference on Islamic Finance in Doha, Qatar on October 20; he presented the paper “Islamic Finance in the West: Opportunities and Challenges.”
Jean-François Seznec
, Visiting Associate Professor and Interim Director, Academic Programs, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, undertook a number of activities over the past months: In May, he held a full day simulation for his class on project finance in the Gulf. In June, he lectured on Gulf reactions to a potential rift between the United States and Israel. In July, Dr. Seznec served as a panelist at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ event on “China and the Persian Gulf.” That month he also chaired a panel on Islamic banking at The George Washington University for the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. In August, his book, Industrialization in the Gulf: A Socioeconomic Revolution (coedited with CCAS editor Mimi Kirk), was released by Routledge. In October, he continued participating in the Iran-Iraq working group at the Stimson Center with Georgetown Professor Dr. Daniel Brumberg. In November, the Brookings Institution and the Qatar Foundation invited him to a conference in Doha on “Carbon and Energy.” He also participated as one of the four panelists in the Doha Debates, which was broadcast by the BBC to 400 million people worldwide November 12 and 13; Dr. Seznec’s topic in the Debates was on democratization in the Gulf. Finally, he gave four lectures to the Critical National Infrastructure Authority in Abu Dhabi. Dr. Seznec also continued to give interviews to
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Continued from page 11 such media outfits as Voice of America, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Radio Canada. Media highlights include his August 16 quotation in Arab News of Jeddah on the courage of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg to support the right to establish the Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York City; his August interview to the Saudi-U.S. Relations Information Service (SUSRIS) on “Tracking Challenges and Changes [in Saudi Arabia];” and his quotation in the October 27 New York Times on environmental problems in Dubai.
Samer Shehata
, Assistant Professor, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, presented a lecture entitled “Egypt’s Uncertain Transition” at a conference at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center in May. In September, he participated in a panel about methodology (i.e., ethnography) at the American Political Science Association’s annual conference. In the same month he also participated in a panel discussion at The George Washington University about the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Egypt, and he presented a lecture on similar issues at a conference about Egypt’s future in Washington, D.C. Dr. Shehata also gave a number of television and media interviews, including with Al Jazeera International, Al Hurra TV, and Kuwait TV. He was interviewed by several print publications as well, including the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, Al Masry Al Youm, Jeune Afrique, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The subject of the interviews ranged from the U.S.-sponsored “peace process” to Egyptian domestic politics.
PHOTO CREDITS Page 2: Photos courtesy of Nida Alahmad, Ángela Suárez-Collado, and Lamia Zaki Page 3: Photo courtesy of David Jackson Page 4: Book photo taken by Robert Duffley Page 5: Photo courtesy of Zeina Azzam Seikaly Page 10: Photo courtesy of Zach Foster All other photos taken by Mimi Kirk Newsletter design by Robert Duffley
CORRECTION
In the Summer 2010 CCAS News, we listed Ava Leone and Ania Nikonorow as having graduated with an M.A. in Arab Studies in May 2010. Ms. Leone graduated in December 2010, and Ms. Nikonorow is currently studying Arabic in Damascus and will graduate at an undetermined date.
CCAS NEWS CCAS News is published three times a year by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, a component of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Director: Barbara Stowasser Interim Director, Academic Programs: Jean-François Seznec Academic Programs: Kelli Harris Associate Director: Rania Kiblawi Development: Liliane Salimi Grant Administrator: Catherine Parker Multimedia and Publications: Mimi Kirk Outreach: Zeina Azzam Seikaly Public Affairs: Margaret Daher Information Officer: Marina Krikorian ICC 241 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057-1020 T 202-687-5793 F 202-687-7001 E ccasinfo@georgetown.edu http://ccas.georgetown.edu