News & Happenings The King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies Newsletter Center Announcements Page 2 MEST Events Page 6 Alumni Spotlight Page 12 Faculty News Page 15 Graduate News Page 17 Undergraduate News Volume 3 • Issue 2 Page 18 Spring 2015 King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas 202 Old Main, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701 mest.uark.edu •
[email protected] • 479-575-2175 King Fahd Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arkansas I would like to wish everyone back for the start of a new semester, hopefully rejuvenated and maybe even caught up on some work. We usher in our semester with the fourth anniversary of the ‘Arab Spring’ and all the attendant questions about what went ‘wrong’ and what might have been. Issues of state sovereignty and borderlines continue to dominate headlines. And we need to consider the implications of a vicious attack in Paris that raises serious, complicated questions about the boundaries of ‘free’ expression and its relationship to issues of power and powerlessness, the ability to promote an inclusive society, and the persistent impact of history on the encounter between self- defined West and East. We mark the loss, within days of each other, of Abdullah bin Abdulazziz, the King of Saudi Arabia, and Fatin Hamama, the Queen of Arab cinema. A foundational generation is passing and our world is shifting under our feet. In the works for this semester, we feature a symposium on ‘The Cultural Heritage Crisis in the Middle East.’ A gathering of distinguished regional Cover: Taza, Morocco; photo courtesy of Kaelin Groom experts will assess the threat of conflict and political instability to the archaeological foundations of world history from North Africa to Central Asia.