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Faculty News: Spring 2008
Published in 2008
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Fida Adely
received a Spring 2008 Competitive Grant-in-Aid from the Georgetown University Graduate School to support hiring a research assistant for her project, “Foreign Aid and the Discourse of Reform for Education in the Arab World.” Dr. Adely also gave a paper entitled “‘Good’ Development for Women? Neoliberalism, Work, and Constituting Progress” at a symposium on women and development at McGill University on April 17.
Rochelle Davis
has been on a junior faculty research leave for the spring semester. She is writing two articles with three MAAS students (Dahlia Elzein, Lizzie Foster, and Dena Takruri) based on the research they conducted interviewing U.S. soldiers and Marines who served in Iraq. The research focuses on the soldiers’ interactions with Iraqis, the types of cultural training they received, and their ideas about Iraqi culture and society. Two other MAAS students, Rola Abimourched and Brian Siebeking, also participated in the interview part of the research project. Professor Davis is also completing a book manuscript on Palestinian histories of village life before 1948 and has collected over 100 books written by refugees about their destroyed villages. During the spring semester she gave talks at Reed College and Illinois State University and participated in a conference at the University of Chicago entitled “Anthropology and Counterinsurgency.” She recently joined the editorial boards of the Middle East Report and Information Project (MERIP) and the Arab StudiesJournal and is also a board member of the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). In early March, Dr. Davis was the Georgetown Faculty Representative on a Georgetown alumni tour of Egypt and Jordan.
Michael C. Hudson
served as a panelist at the U.S. Arab-Economic Forum in Washington, D.C. May 7. In April, he spoke at a CCAS educational outreach conference on the current state of Palestinian-Israeli relations and the outlook for diplomatic progress. That month, he also appeared on the weekly Al Jazeera English show, "Inside Iraq," and lectured to the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University on prospects for reform and democratization in the Arab world. Dr. Hudson also participated in the annual conference of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi entitled "The Arabian Gulf: Between Conservatism and Change." Comments from Dr. Hudson's paper, "With All Deliberate Speed: The Incremental Approach to Political Reform in the Gulf," subsequently appeared in local papers, including Gulf News. In March, Dr. Hudson lectured, along with Dr. Bassam Haddad of George Mason University and Dr. Augustus Richard Norton of Boston University, at a well-attended CCAS panel presentation on "The Impasse in Lebanon." He also spoke at a CCAS-organized event on "Changing Security and Financial Conditions in the Gulf," held at the Dubai School of Government (DSG) on February 17 and chaired by Dr. Tarik Yousef, the Kuwait Chair holder at CCAS and currently on leave as Dean of the DSG. The next day, Dr. Hudson was the luncheon speaker at the Rotary Club of Dubai, where he spoke on the U.S. presidential election and the views of the three main contenders on Middle East issues. On February 7, he participated in a conference at the Library of Congress on the history and beliefs of the Druze. Dr. Hudson also gave a lecture at the World Bank January 31 at a workshop convened to discuss how to improve the Bank's development in the Arab world. On a trip to Qatar and the UAE in January, Dr. Hudson lectured to students in Dr. Amira Sonbol's class at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service campus in Doha. He also participated in a meeting of the advisory board for the SFS-Q Center for International and Regional Studies.
Adel Iskander
completed a co-edited manuscript on the late literary critic and public intellectual Edward Said. The 28-chapter volume entitled Edward Said: Emancipation & Representation includes contributions from Gayatri Spivak, Noam Chomsky, Jacqueline Rose, Daniel Barenboim, Joseph Massad, Laura Nader, Ilan Pappe, Ella Shohat, W.J.T. Mitchell, and others, and is forthcoming from the University of California Press in late 2008. Dr. Iskander also authored several review articles: “Making Arab News” for the Sage journal Journalism and “The Specters and Spectacles of Iranian Media” for the Journal of Intercultural Communication, both forthcoming in late 2008. His review article “Global War—Local Views: Media Images of the Iraq War” appeared in the 2007 issue of the Journal of Communication Inquiry. In addition, Dr. Iskander authored a three-part article series on media representation and resistance in the Arab world entitled “1001 Arabian Plights” in the online journal FlowTV, which is based at the University of Texas at Austin. He also authored several other articles: “Back to the Future: New Charter for Charted Territory” in the Spring 2008 issue of Arab Media & Society; “Arab Journalism: Between De-Westernization and Objectivity” in the Italian literary journal Reset: Dialogue on Civilizations; and “Lines in the Sand: Problematizing Arab Media in the Post-Taxonomic Era,” published in the Fall 2007 issue of Arab Media & Society. As for lectures, Dr. Iskander presented the following: “Spoon-fed Objectivity: On the Appropriation of Western Media Development Initiatives in Arab Broadcasting” at the Mediterranean Research Meeting of the European University Institute in Montecatini, Italy on March 14; “The Challenges of Independent Media in the Arab World” at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador, Cairo, Egypt, March 4; “New Media and Communication in the Arab World” at the Embassy of Canada, Cairo, Egypt, March 3; “Progress Beyond the Illusory: Envisioning the Prospects of New Media Development in Palestine” at Birzeit University, Palestine, February 20; “From Palestine to the World: Media Education for Media Literacy” at the Arab-American University of Jenin, Palestine, February 19; “The 60-year Quagmire: The Challenges to Palestinian Journalism” at the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, Ramallah, Palestine, February 18; and “Indigenizing Orientalism? Reflections on the Mediated Self-Portrayal of Coptic Orthodox Christian Identity” at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) in Montreal, Canada in November 2007. He also gave a series of invited lectures, including “Recent Trends and Developments in Arab Media: The Case of Al-Jazeera” at Cairo University, Egypt, March 10, and presented the following guest lectures: Undergraduate Communication Theory class, Modern Science & Arts University, Cairo, Egypt, March 8; Undergraduate Research Methods in Communication class, Cairo University, Egypt, March 5; Graduate Seminar in Media Studies, Birzeit University, Palestine, February 20; “Palestinian Media at the Crossroads,” Media Development Center, Birzeit, Palestine, February 20.
Noureddine Jebnoun
participated in the South African Institute of International Affairs’ conference, “Seeds of Contempt: Rethinking Radicalization and Responses.” The event was held in Johannesburg March 6 through 8, and Dr. Jebnoun presented a paper on radicalism in North Africa. He also gave a presentation in January at Washington, D.C.’s National Defense University entitled “Implications and Impacts of Al-Qaeda on the Algerian and North African Context.” In addition, Dr. Jebnoun has appeared numerous times on Al Jazeera and the BBC in the last several months, speaking on topics ranging from the brain drain in North Africa to the bombings in Algeria to French-U.S.-Maghreb relations.
Laurie King-Irani
became Managing Editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies in Washington, D.C. in January. She also published an article in April, “Exiled to a Liminal Legal Zone,” which addresses the current positioning of Palestinians in the emerging architecture of international humanitarian law. The article appeared in a volume edited by Richard Falk entitled International Law and the Third World: Reshaping Justice (Routledge, 2008).
Gregory Orfalea
is at work on an essay entitled “Obama and the Middle East: Stand Up for...Change?” He also has two books forthcoming in 2009. The first, Angeleno Days: Selected Memoirs and Essays, includes two sections—one on Los Angeles Memoirs and the other on Arab America—and will be published by the University of Arizona Press. The other work is his first collection of short stories, entitled The Man Who Guarded the Bomb. The collection is forthcoming from Syracuse University Press. He is also serving as a judge for the 2nd Annual Arab American Book Award in Fiction, offered by the Arab American National Museum in Detroit.
Sherene Seikaly
presented her work in February at Yale University in two lectures—“Nakba and Historiography: The Centrality of Catastrophe in Palestinian History” and “Borders, Incarceration, and Gender.” She also presented a lecture at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service-Qatar on December 11 called “A Public Good? Palestinian Businessmen and the British Colonial State.” In addition, Dr. Seikaly spoke that same day at Qatar University about “Nakba wa Ta`rikh” [Catastrophe and History]. She also gave a public lecture at Georgetown University on November 27 entitled “The New Arab Home: Consumer, Housewife, and Citizen in Forties Palestine.”
Jean-François Seznec
presented a number of papers, including the following: “Reform and Security in the Gulf: A Review of Democratization in the GCC” at the United States Institute of Peace, April 7; “The Gulf Economies and Globalization: The Impact of WTO and FTAs” at the Emirates Center for Strategic Study in Abu Dhabi, March 30; “Financing Industrialization in the Gulf” at CCAS’s symposium on Industrialization in the Gulf (of which Dr. Seznec was the chair of the committee organizing the conference), March 27; a presentation on Dubai’s economy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, March 5; “Industrial Policy in the Gulf” at the Dubai School of Government, February 17; lectures at the First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis on the state of affairs in the Middle East, January 12 and 20; “An Overview of the Gulf States” at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, January 8. Dr. Seznec also wrote a paper on Gulf sovereign wealth funds for Middle East Policy, published in the spring. In addition, since January, he has spoken numerous times on Radio Canada on oil prices, Gulf politics, and industrial issues in the Gulf. He also appeared on TV Argent, the French-Canadian affiliate of Bloomberg, and spoke to the New York Times on industrial growth in the Gulf. Dr. Seznec has given a number of interviews for internet publications as well, such as ECSSR in Abu Dhabi, Middle East Online, Bloomberg News, and Gulf Base. Finally, he participated in a series of workshops on the future of the Middle East at the National Intelligence Council and consulted for a major U.S. oil company on oil policy in the Gulf in March.
Samer Shehata
was awarded a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2008-2009 academic year, where he will begin a new research project on Islamist electoral participation in the Middle East. Dr. Shehata will also publish a chapter entitled “Egyptian Parliamentary Campaigns” in the edited volume Political Participation in the Middle East, to be published by Lynne Rienner in the summer of 2008. In May, Dr. Shehata participated in two workshops: one on elections in the Middle East at Brandeis University and the other on Islamists and elections at George Washington University. In April, Syracuse University’s Middle East Studies Program invited Dr. Shehata to give a lecture entitled “Approaches to Understanding Culture and Politics in the Arab World.” He was also asked to participate in a United States Institute of Peace study group on “Reform and Security” in the Middle East, for which he will be writing a short memo on Egypt. Dr. Shehata also presented a lecture entitled “Political Succession Scenarios in Egypt” at the Washington, D.C. Meridian International Center in April. He published a 3,000-word entry entitled “Democracy: the Middle East” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World in March. That month, he presented a paper entitled “Political Da`wa: Understanding the Electoral and Parliamentary Participation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood” at the “Islamists and Democrats” conference at the American University in Cairo. In February, Dr. Shehata served as a discussant for a Georgetown panel devoted to examining Dr. Steven Heydemann’s recent paper, "Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World." During that month he also participated in another panel held at Georgetown entitled “Engaging the Arab World: Balancing Priorities,” which examined the intersection of Security Studies and Regional/Arab Studies. Dr. Shehata also continued a busy administrative schedule, serving on a number of committees for CCAS and for the School of Foreign Service-Qatar. He continued directing the Qatar Arabic Language Scholarship Program, which entailed traveling to Doha in March 2008. There he spent several days at Qatar University (QU) consulting with faculty and administrators responsible for the program, in addition to meeting the four American students currently studying intensive Arabic at QU. Dr. Shehata chaired the selection committee for the Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Arab, Islamic and U.S.-Arab relations. He gave a number of media interviews throughout the term as well, including appearing on Al Jazeera English a number of times, among them the April 16, 2008 episode of “Inside Story” to discuss the verdicts in the trial against Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Egypt. He also appeared on that network's show Min Washington in March to assess the U.S. presidential race and in January to discuss the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Dr. Shehata was asked by NPR’s Marketplace to write a short commentary on Islam and modernity for a special series on the Middle East. His contribution, entitled “Modernity and Islam go together,” was broadcast on March 13, 2008. In addition, he did a number of interviews for CBS News Radio, Iranian television, and other media outlets.
Judith Tucker and Kassem Wahba
organized the April 4 seminar, “Teaching/Learning Culture in the Foreign Language Curriculum: Critical Issues and Future Directions,” which explored the question of teaching students culture while instructing them in Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, and Persian. A number of CCAS and CCAS-affiliated faculty participated, including Sylvia Onder, Reem Bassiouney, Amin Bonnah, Farima Mostowfi, Margaret Nydell, Felicitas Opwis, Karin Ryding, Irfan Shahid, and Yoel Wachtel.
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