HAGOP KEVORKIAN CENTER REVIEW 20 15 /2 016 STAFF Director Helga Tawil-Souri Associate Director Greta Scharnweber Director of Graduate Studies Joanne Nucho Faculty Fellow Begum Adalet Program Coordinator Arthur Starr 2015–2016 Outreach Administrator Diana Shin Administrative Aide Vitandi Singh Writer-in-Residence Fall 2015 Nancy Kricorian Human Rights Activist-in-Residence Spring 2016 Sarah Leah Whitson

Hagop Kevorkian Center NYU 50 Washington Square South, 4th Floor New York, NY 10012 http://neareaststudies.as.nyu.edu #nyuKevo

The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU is a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) for modern Middle Eastern Studies as named by the United States Department of Education. NRC support is essential to the Center’s graduate program (area and language studies) Editor Greta Scharnweber, Sabahat Zakariya and bolsters outreach programs to the NYU academic community, local educators, media and culture workers as well as the general public. Title VI funding, through its Foreign Language and Layout and Design Melissa Runstrom & Josh Anderson Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, also enables important opportunities for NYU graduate students Cover Design The Goggles (Paul Shoebridge, Michael Simons, Mika Senda) to intensively study the languages of the Middle East and South Asia (including Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Turkish and Urdu). Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Contents Letter from the Director Letter from the Director 5 It is a pleasure to celebrate the Kevorkian Center’s achievements by look- crew! Our indefatigable Associate Director, Greta Scharnweber, continues ing back at another great year. This HK Review also marks the mid-point of to make all aspects of what we do possible, and does so with excellence Scholars the Center’s 50th year, a milestone that we began honoring in Spring 2016 and affability. As of August 2016, we welcome Joshua Anderson into the Experiences of the Trans-Iranian Railway 6 and will continue celebrating for the months ahead. team as the Center’s Program Coordinator. Turkey’s Role in American Developmental Thought and Practice During the Cold War 7 Our Master’s program remains among the most competitive in the country, Our faculty fellow Begum Adalet, who joined us in Fall 2015, has been a with a student population that is nothing less than the intellectual and social bright addition to our intellectual profile. She taught two popular and suc- Research core of our community. We are delighted to see twenty-one students tran- cessful seminars - “US and The Middle East” and “Technologies of Devel- Research off the Record: What the Visual Brings to Scholarship 8 sition from being second years to alumni, welcome back eighteen students opment in the Middle East” - and led the MA Thesis Writing Workshop. This The Program in Ottoman Studies 10 into their second year, and nineteen more joining as the Class of 2018. past year, Director of Graduate Studies Joanne Nucho offered two new Kevo @ 50 10 courses: “Infrastructures of (Im)mobility in the Contemporary Middle East” During the 2015–16 academic year we held a range of academic, educa- and “Document, Archive, Evidence: Making and Contesting Histories and tional, and cultural events, some of which are highlighted throughout these Practitioners-in-Residence the Politics of Collection in the Contemporary Middle East.” She contributed Dissecting the Democratic Movement 11 pages. Scholars, filmmakers, artists, activists, journalists, writers, and oth- prominently to our events programming and also managed to complete Life Stories: Transforming Family and Oral Histories into Narrative 14 ers shared their expertise and touched on issues from Palestine to India, her monograph and documentary film. We wish Joanne the best as she Writing Memory after Violence and Loss 15 Israel to Saudi Arabia, Yemen to Syria, Turkey to Egypt. We were delighted joins the Anthropology department at Pomona College in sunny California. Crafting my Own Narrative About Alexandria 15 to host author and activist Nancy Kricorian in Fall 2015 and human rights Economic sociologist, Marc Michael, joins us in Fall 2016 as the new DGS. lawyer Sarah Leah Whitson in Spring 2016 through our residency program. Visual Culture They provided our students with unique opportunities through their special- There is no doubt that the intellectual vibrancy of the Center owes much Art & Memory 16 ized workshops and engaged us all through the public events they spear- to our associated and affiliated faculty across the university, and those in Rethinking “Iran” at the Film Festival: Cinematic Counternarratives and National Aesthetics 18 headed - one marking the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, and one the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies especially. We were investigating human rights abuses during the year-long Morsi administra- delighted to celebrate our 50th anniversary alongside MEIS’s 20th anniver- Media tion in Egypt. sary this Spring. Listening to alumni from both programs during the anniver- Post, Share, Arrest: Israel Targeting Palestinain Protestors on Facebook 20 sary event held in April confirmed our combined intellectual vibrancy and Diana Shin, our outreach coordinator, has done a phenomenal job with our successes, and reassured us that we will be marking the achievements of teacher-training program. She organized five Saturday workshops as well future academic generations for decades to come. Both MEIS and Kevo K-12 Outreach as a summer program focused on the U.S. relationship with the Middle Islam and the Americas: A Summer Institute for K-12 Teachers 22 will be hosting further anniversary events in Fall 2016, particularly at the East, and her first study tour in Uzbekistan. Diana has also brought the Spotlight on K-12 Teacher Fellowships 24 annual MESA meeting, which we invite you to join us for. Center into the digital world by improving our website and social media Heart of the Silk Road: A Study Tour in Uzbekistan for Educators 25 presence. If you haven’t yet, do follow #NYUKevo on various platforms. As we look towards the immediate academic year ahead—and the next 50 years--we thank you for being part of this incredible, diverse, and produc- The Center would not be what it is without the dedication of its staff, student Experiences tive community, and are eager to share and learn so much more with you. Digging in the Turkish Archives 26 workers, and faculty. The dynamic administrative team of Tandi, Diana, Serving Refugees in the Transition to Life in New York City 26 and Greta deserves the deepest gratitude for their ongoing support. Tandi The Nuts and Bolts of Thesis Writing 27 SIngh joined us in October and has quickly become an integral part of the Investing in Post-9/11 Veterans 27 Center, and we are excited to welcome her newborn into the “kevo kids” —Helga Tawil-Souri, Director The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies Student News In Fond Memory of Falak Sufi: Scholarships and Essay Prize 28 MA Student News: Class of 2016 30 MA Student News: Class of 2017 32 PhD Student News 34

Faculty News 35 Events Archive 42 Turkey’s Role in American Developmental Experiences of the Trans-Iranian Railway Thought and Practice During the Cold War by Mikiya Koyagi, Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies By Begum Adalet, Faculty Fellow, Near Eastern Studies If you travel around Iran today, you will likely In 2003, American social scientists became active participants in the returned in later years to enlist local allies for the making of modern- travel by bus, not by train. The railway is a rela- reconstruction of Iraq, offering grand theories of democratization, so- ization theory. The hesitations of his Turkish and American colleagues tively marginal mode of transport in contempo- cial change, and counterinsurgency to US military personnel, private came to inform Rustow’s increasingly critical attitude towards linear rary Iran, both for passenger and freight traffic. defense contractors, and policymakers. Their work entailed predict- models of development. Thus, modernization theory was not an in- Yet the railway once occupied the center stage ing behavioral patterns of enemy combatants, and aiding the battle tellectual endeavor and policy prescription designed in the United in Iranian nationalist politics as the symbol of for the hearts and minds of local populations in the War on Terror. States and then applied to the global periphery, but an intellectual modernity, particularly during the early Pahla- Some participants quickly became disillusioned with their experi- and political project that was from its inception in contentious dia- vi period, when the Trans-Iranian Railway was ence, and wrote scathing critiques of the occupation. Others avowed logue with its object of development. completed with funding from the Iranian state. that Iraq’s lessons would not be forgotten. Yet this was not the first Although contemporary social scientists increasingly refrain from the Although its completion in 1938 was more than instance of academic contributions to American foreign policy, in- language of modernization given its value connotations, its critical te- three quarters of a century after India and terspersed with moments of scholarly self-reflexivity about the links nets are recycled in circles of international development and evoked Egypt had their first railways, the fact that the between empire and knowledge. in efforts like the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey now railway was built by the Iranian state, not by My current research examines an earlier episode in a long history of has its own agency responsible for developmental and technical as- colonial powers, contributed to the symbolic entanglements between the social sciences and power. Specifically, sistance across the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa. But their status of the railway as the pride of the Irani- I study how the idea of modernization, as theory and as a set of con- efforts both reproduce the inequalities intrinsic to the international an nation. My research is a social history of tested practices, was constructed and implemented in encounters development regime, and detract from the turmoil and the disposses- this little-studied massive infrastructure project between American and Turkish scholars, experts, and policymakers sion of populations who bear the brunt of uninhibited growth at home. from its conception in the mid nineteenth cen- during the early phases of the Cold War. Examining political theories As with postwar theories and projects of modernization, however, tury through its early years of operation in the as embedded in a set of social practices and material sites, I show ideas of development and their material applications are once again mid twentieth century. the concrete effects and realities they generate on the ground. pregnant with unexpected consequences and resistant participants. Scholarship typically sees the railway project In the aftermath of World War II, political actors in Turkey presented from a top-down perspective; that is, whether the country as a staunch anti-communist ally of the United States. one views Reza Shah Pahlavi as a great mod- Turkey became one of the first beneficiaries of Truman Doctrine ernizer or a cruel dictator, the railway is largely The tramway between Tehran and the Shrine of Shah Abd al-Azim was opened in 1888, and Marshall Plan funds, and an important venue in which postwar seen as the product of the shah and his state. half a century before the Trans-Iranian Railway. developmental thought and practice were tested and prefigured. Instead of focusing on the shah and a small American aid and expertise enabled agricultural mechanization, group of political elites, I examine how the railway project shaped and was shaped through interactions among a broad segment of and the extension of roads and hotels across the country, providing Iranian society. My research explores contested experiences and understandings of the railway among various social groups, such as the infrastructure for its political and economic restructuring. These early intellectual disciples of “modernization,” merchants, nomadic tribes, travelers, and railway workers. It departs from most nationalist tangible transformations in its material and social landscape, along renderings of Iranian modernity by exposing how the railway project not only connected disparate parts of Iran, but also integrated Iran with its program of market-oriented liberalization between 1945 and into global circuits of capital, labor, and ideas. 1960, captured the imagination of American social scientists as they To look beyond a state-centric, national perspective, I use a broad range of primary sources, such as British consular reports, memoirs grappled with problems of development. They described the chang- of Scandinavian and German engineers, Persian travelogues, and hitherto unused Persian periodicals, including publications of the es they observed as modernization, and by labeling it as such, they Ministry of Road. My research is also informed by Iranian archival sources, in particular petitions submitted by villagers, landowners, contributed to the transformation of their objects of inquiry. Iranian and non-Iranian workers, and victims of industrial accidents. These sources provide vivid accounts of how the railway became a Conventional literature depicts the West as the unique site of knowl- new site where difference was created along lines of nationality, ethnicity, local identity, and class. edge production. Instead, my research shows that scholarly theories, Another area of my research is the history of intra-Asian connections, especially Japan’s interactions with the Islamic Middle East since such as modernization theory, are often produced through specific the late nineteenth century. While scholarship in this area is mostly concentrated on intellectual history, I am more interested in the and often uncertain encounters among a range of actors engaged connections between concrete socioeconomic interactions and converging trans-regional identities. I find this a fascinating question in transnational intellectual and policy networks. For example, I use considering that Japan was one of the top exporters to a number of Middle Eastern countries by the interwar period. (for the first time), the private papers of political scientist Dankwart Scholars Rustow to explore the crucial work of translation and mediation that he performed between the United States, where he received his PhD and taught, and Turkey, where he did his undergraduate work and The highway between Izmit and Istanbul, 1957, an indicator of

Scholars modernization for social scientists like Dankwart Rustow. 6 7 moments during which the checkpoint has increasingly severed Research off the Record and changed their experiences of space and time. Joanne Nucho’s project, filmed in Bourj Hammoud, a suburb of What the Visual Brings Beirut Lebanon between 2008-2015, is not so much a documentary about the history of this neighborhood, but rather a lyrical to Scholarship ethnographic reflection on space, time and the material accretions of the past as they are narrated by longtime residents as well as By Joanne Nucho, Near Eastern Studies and recent arrivals to the city. Countering usual forms of interviews or Helga Tawil-Souri, Media, Culture, and oral histories as reconstruction, the film experiments with drawing as a form of ethnographic engagement. Participants drew maps Communication and Near Eastern Studies that radically challenge spatial and temporal histories of space and place in the context of postwar Lebanon in a neighborhood constructed through decades of violent displacement and eviction. By documenting the drawing process, the film challenges representational modalities of visual “evidence,” instead exploring the status of these drawings as singular works of art that draw on memory and the materiality of cities, but are not reducible to In contributing to the Center’s “Research off the Record” series-- reflections of a “reality” or the status of testimony. which explores different research methods the joys of carrying out scholarship--we took the opportunity to think through the various The drawings themselves added an additional layer of ways in which the visual has been a part of our thinking practices. visual work displayed in the ongoing online archive site Both of us used video not as a means of recording or documenting mappingbourjhammoud.com. The visual here is not a way to add a fixed “reality,” but rather as a way to connect with and reflect to a textual framework, in other words it does not supplement on an experiential mode of ethnographic engagement. Both of our written text as a mode of illustration. Rather, the visual is a way video projects have taken place over a number of years, reflecting to think through the relationship between memory, a set of ever- the span of time both through the changing technology of the shifting urban spaces, migration, a sense of belonging, political camera and, in Helga’s case especially, through the radically and economic imaginaries, a sense of belonging or exclusion. By changing architecture of space. filming people as they draw, the associations between memories and visual representations of space are explored through their Helga Tawil-Souri’s film on the Qalandia checkpoint, which has narrations in a way that sometimes challenged the linearity of time been in the works since the checkpoint first emerged in 2002, produced through other kinds of interviews. This was something traces the ‘history’ of Qalandia and brings into the focus its that my interlocutors could do through the visual and that could function as a space that stops time. The camera’s gaze is not on the soldiers, on the barricades and the fortifications (what one would expect from a ‘checkpoint movie’) but on the taxi drivers, the merchants, the toys, the fingers thumbing through ID cards, and the range of relations that have both historically grown and shrunk since the early 2000’s. The film’s ethnographic approach is in its choice for long takes, single shots over extended periods of time, returns to the same place year after year, so as to reflect a picturesque quality which unexpectedly gains a political meaning, Qalandiya Checkpoint. Photo courtesy of Helga Tawil Souri. ver slowly seducing the viewer into looking at a terrain that does also be explored through editing and juxtaposition of their images, It was exciting to have the chance to talk about the visual as a means not immediately announce the horror of what is actually taking words and images of the streets of the neighborhood that inspired this of ethnographic activity in a way that goes beyond just a “methods” place. Filming over a long time, and representing the checkpoint ethnography. conversation that presumes the text as the end result of ethnographic in increments of time, began to parallel the stages in which the inquiry. occupation transforms Palestinian space-time into one of volatility; Research or, how the occupation has “prepared” Palestinians for the

Research mappingbourjhammoud.com 8 9 JW: So clearly you already had a background in the events, but I was asking, outside of Dissecting the the context that you developed through the The Program in Ottoman Studies intricate insider knowledge that you gained By Alex Boodrookas, MA NES ‘14, PhD Candidate MEIS Democratic Movement through your reporting, how do the techniques This year, the Hagop Kevorkian Center hosted seven speakers as part In their use of photographs and legal documents, two speakers of human rights reporting carry over to dissect- of the ongoing Ottoman Lecture Series. While the group represented showed how sources often dismissed as either too rare or too ver- The Morsi Administration’s One Year of Power in Egypt ing a democratic moment? a range of cutting-edge scholarship, they were particularly notable for nacular could be read in new and potentially productive ways. Edhem reevaluating conceptions of space, drawing on new or underutilized Eldem drew on detailed visual analysis of a vast number of vernacu- An Interview by Jeremy Wheatley, SLW: The methods that (…) we’ve been using sources, and challenging the portrayal of minorities in Ottoman histo- lar photographs of Ottoman subjects to trace how Ottomans used a NES ’16 with Sarah Leah Whitson, the in the class are very much the methods that we riography. range of background objects and visual signals to self-consciously use when carrying out a human rights investi- represent themselves. Ceyda Karamursel, on the other hand, showed Human Rights Activist-in-Residence gation. A lot of our work relies on testimony and Several speakers pushed to more fully incorporate the Ottomans into how slaves built legal cases against their owners, excavating agency interview and knowing what questions to ask. global historiography by expanding the geographic boundaries of the at the Hagop Kevorkian Center Spring and vernacularizing concepts such as freedom and equality before When we try to understand what happened at field. Palmira Brummett drew on an array of sources, including maps, the law. 2016 a particular event, that’s also what we were travelogues, and encyclopedias to explore how they mapped – and trying to do with the class. The reason why I were mapped – space in the eastern Mediterranean in comparison to Finally, two speakers directly confronted received narratives or loud JW: In Human Rights reporting, while often decided to focus on the more specific events the Christian kingdoms. Harun Küçük, meanwhile, traced the emer- silences in the history of Ottoman minorities. Julia Phillips Cohen chal- contested, there are usually clear victims and or incidents during the Morsi administration gence of empirical discourses in Ottoman medical practice in treatises lenged the idea of Jewish Ottomans as reluctant or disconnected perpetrators, and assigning responsibility and is because I thought the parallels would be from the early modern period. Ottoman subjects, drawing on the papers of a number of merchants blame seems straightforward. Using interna- strongest to what we would be doing in human to show how they imagined themselves as dedicated members of an By focusing on hypochondria and melancholy hypochondria, two con- tional law, we can evaluate actions. What are rights investigation. Usually we have to drill Ottoman imagined community. And in a stunning presentation on Ar- ditions usually attributed to seventeenth-century Europe, Küçük traced the standards we use to determine or investi- down to the nitty gritty details to understand menians who remained in Turkey after World War I, Lerna Ekmekçioğlu a remarkable genealogy to an unexpected destination. And by exam- gate a “democratic” moment? How do we as- what happened literally minute to minute, hour asked how the community fought to continue living alongside the very ining how the late Ottoman Empire drew on discourses of internation- sign blame or get to the facts in politics? What to hour, in particular incidents, during particu- people who had perpetrated the genocide. Bereft of its former leaders al law and imperial diplomacy to try and enter the game of imperial was your experience translating your skills as lar events. So [for] the negotiations of particular and intellectuals and surrounded by an increasingly exclusionary na- expansion in Africa, Mostafa Minawi both highlighted the continued a human rights reporter to the project of the provisions of the constitution, what we would tionalist discourse, the Armenian community was largely ignored by a dynamism of imperial policy and showed how the empire struggled to workshop? do in a human rights investigation is take the historiography that rarely acknowledged their partial survival. retain relevance in the new community of nations. testimony of what the person said, what that SLW: Because of my human rights experi- person heard, what that person saw. So, [in ences covering Egypt over the past decade-- the workshop] we were using those very same Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the more than a decade--especially during the techniques to understand what was negotiat- Middle East and North Africa Division, Human uprisings and the period of the Morsi admin- ed, when, and how for the constitution--or, for Rights Watch Kevo @ 50 istration, I was very familiar with the govern- example, the events in Ittihadiya which was, in The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York ment’s human rights record. I have a very litical and security dynamics during the period a sense, a human rights incident--understand- University was created in 1966 to foster the interdisciplinary study of good understanding of the period that preced- of the Morsi administration [that needed to be ing what happened on that particular day and the modern and contemporary Middle East and to enhance public ed it under Mubarak, of the events during the answered in order] to better understand [what] [during] those particular hours. understanding of the region. 2016 marks our 50th anniversary, and uprising, the events during the [Morsi] coup, happened. This [residency] was definitely an we launched a year of commemoration and celebration of 50 years of as well as during the Sisi presidency, which opportunity for me to think about and seek an- JW: So in your experience leading the MENA Middle Eastern Studies at NYU with a half-day conference. Panelists is of course [still] in place. So I had a pretty swers to questions that I had that go beyond division of Human Rights Watch, how does included alumni from both the highly regarded PhD program in Middle good understanding of the factual record, and my human rights mandate. [It was an opportu- gathering human rights information differ when Practitioners-in-Residence Eastern and Islamic Studies as well as the professionally-oriented MA had already established a lot of contact with nity to] understand what happened during this collecting testimony from civilians vs. politi- program in Near Eastern Studies. See page 43 for program details members of the Morsi administration [as well period--this tumultuous [and highly contested] cians vs. activists or others? and the lineup of speakers. More celebrations will continue through as] people affiliated with the Muslim Brother- period. Many (...) blamed the Morsi adminis- the Fall 2016 semester, including an event at the annual meeting of hood because they had been our interlocutors tration, blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the SLW: I don’t know that it really differs….be- the Middle East Studies Association of North America in Boston, MA. during the Morsi administration. They had also eventual coup that happened, [for] basically cause when we’re doing a human rights inves- been victims of abuses in the coup so we had creating [the] conditions that made it possible, tigation we’re really focused on a particular ac- gathered testimony from them as well. So, for whereas others put the blame on the military tion or event or date and we don’t usually step me, there were interesting additional [unan- and security establishment, and some even back to ask broader overview pictures. swered] questions--not just the human rights have the view that nobody stood a chance

Research questions--but also [questions about] the po- against [the] deep state. 10 11 JW: I was thinking that perhaps the question shouldn’t have been “how people, like Amr Moussa, who’s obviously not a Muslim Brotherhood JW: I suppose then, to rephrase the question, what challenges do too afraid to appear in the same room alongside members of any op- does collecting testimony differ” but “how does interpreting testimony member, agreed to particular provisions and signed a statement you think we faced in the course, in terms of the interview process, position party, and so it was very challenging to find as much diver- differ?” A large part of the introductory section of the class included agreeing to those proposed provisions of the constitution, or he did within the workshop and outside of it? sity as we’d have wanted during the same class sessions. [For ex- readings and handbooks on how to interpret a speaker’s behavior in not. So I don’t know where the party line fits into that. I’m really not ample], we ended up interviewing one speaker at a separate event, SLW: Well, the biggest challenge was that a number of people who order to understand whether they were lying or telling the truth or at- interested in party lines; those are already out there. I’m interested because he was concerned about appearing in the same room as we approached to participate in the class were simply too afraid, tempting to conceal something. Do you think there is a sort of different in actually understanding the who-what-where-why-when, which are Muslim Brotherhood members, purely for security reasons. There particularly those [who live in or frequently visit] Egypt. They were way to interpreting political testimony? more factual inquiries. was another invited speaker who cancelled the night before he was supposed to come because he got cold feet. So that is really an in- SLW: There is an element of reading body language when you’re inter- dication of how frightening the environment is in Egypt right now that viewing someone to try to detect if they’re lying or if they’re not giving people don’t want to be seen with Muslim Brotherhood members for you the complete truth. [But] we try to get to what happened typically fear of being labeled and tarnished and getting into trouble. So that by not relying on one person. When we carry out an investigation of, for was a [frustrating] challenge. Additionally, a number of people whom example, two kids getting shot at a demonstration, we’ll have ten wit- we invited were denied visas by the US government. The State De- nesses, not one, and we’ll interview them separately. We seek corrobo- partment swore up and down that there was no deliberate effort to ration [and] we also rely on physical evidence where its available. [For do that, but it is the unfortunate outcome that four of our speakers example we might try] to find out where a bullet wound is, so if someone weren’t able to come because they weren’t able to get visas. I think testifies that [the perpetrator] shot [the victim] in the back while [they that the quality of in-person interviews was much higher than people were] fleeing then you have corroborating information and corroborat- on Skype. ing evidence. JW: What about this moment (Morsi’s year in power) in particular JW: Yes, but that doesn’t translate so easily to dissecting a democratic did you find so interesting? How close do you feel the class came

moment. Emad Shahin (Professor, American University in Cairo) and Michael Hanna (New Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, Gamal Hishmat, and Yehia Hamed (via Skype). as a whole to dissecting the complexity of this political moment? Century Foundation). SLW: This is Egypt’s only experience with democracy. For [the first SLW: No, we were not engaged in gathering physical evidence in this time in Egypt’s modern history] Egyptians were able to democrat- class, we weren’t doing field investigations, we were sitting in a class- ically elect a government, [and for 12 months, that democratically room in New York city. elected government] attempted to establish itself as the authority of the state. The factors that led to its overthrow are terribly import- JW: So [in regards to what happened in the classroom] I imagine that ant. The military coup deposed [Egypt’s] only democratically elect- you might agree that the biggest challenges we faced in the course ed government. It obviously took violence to carry out the military were that frequently, the members of various political parties who spoke overthrow but they [also had] a lot of [popular] support. I think [it is in the class would refuse to budge from their party’s narrative. What do very] important to understand the factors that led to this failure of the you think we can glean from this reluctance? Where do you think there egyptian people in the end and all of the participants that contribut- were elements of truth in the party line, particularly vis-a-vis the Muslim ed to that failure. Brotherhood? JW: What section of the course do you feel came closest to the truth SLW: Well to say that they didn’t budge from a narrative, to assert that as we were seeking? a question, suggests that you believe that they’re not speaking truthfully Wael Haddara, Heba Morayef, and Osama Rushdi (via Skype). Helga Tawil-Souri introduces Saif Abdelfattah, Mohamed Almohandes, Amr Darrag, or honestly. I’m not sure that I agree with that or that I would make such and Sarah Leah Whitson at the worskhop’s public event. SLW: I found the interview with Amr Hamzawy extremely interesting an accusation to begin with. I think it really suggests a predisposition and valuable but also very moving because it felt so painfully honest and a bias of the questioner rather than of the speakers per se; it would and reflective. I’m eager to go back and watch the video once it’s assume that you have a particular truth in your mind and because the distributed because I thought it was such an interesting assessment Practitioners-in-Residence person you’re interviewing gave you answers different from the answers of what a liberal secular party faced, the challenges that he faced, you were expecting to hear, it must be propaganda, party line, because and the environment in which they were operating. I also found Amr the answers you have in your head are closer to the truth. So that’s kind Darrag’s interview and Yehia Hamed’s interviews very interesting as of an odd question to begin with. I think that the discussions and the well particularly because both were self reflective and self critical in questions were designed to focus on factual incidents and events as terms of the Muslim Brotherhood’s own shortcomings, challenges opposed to positions and platforms, and so for example understanding and failures. Amr [Darrag] in particular is so knowledgable about how it is that particular articles of the constitution made their way into the that period of time; he was such a close and deep inside player in draft is a factual inquiry; it isn’t really about a party line. Either somebody the constitution drafting process and the negotiations with the mili- proposed a particular provision, and the paper record would support tary during that period. So it was interesting to hear about the details that, because the paper record exists, or they didn’t. Either particular of particular incidents from someone who was there. Practitioners-in-Residence Wael Qandil and David Kirkpatrick. Sarah Leah Whitson (Human Rights Watch), and Amr Hamzawy (Egyptian political 13 12 scientist, human rights activist and public intellectual). Writing Memory after Violence and Loss By Stephanie Kraver, NES ‘16

Life Stories During the Fall 2015 semester, in the Center’s softly lit library, Many wrote about their family histories; we read pieces telling of Writer-in-Residence Nancy Kricorian gathered with Near Eastern an Egyptian family’s life in a fishing village during the 1960s, of a Transforming Family and Studies MA students, aspiring journalists, and a few Ph.D candi- young man’s return to his Bosnian town years after the genocide, dates. We all convened over bagels and coffee for Nancy’s writing and of women’s mourning rituals in Iraq. Oral Histories into Narrative workshop Life Stories: Transforming Family and Oral Histories into For me, this workshop was particularly meaningful. After losing Nancy Kricorian, the Hagop Kevorkian Center's Fall 2015 Writ- Narrative Non-Fiction and Fiction. both my sister and father a year apart from one another--and not er-in-Residence, is a New York City-based writer and activist. She During our five Friday morning sessions, the group concentrated long before Nancy’s first session convened in Fall 2015 -- I was is the author of the novels Zabelle, Dreams of Bread and Fire, and on pieces that explore constructions of memory after violence and grateful to take part. It allowed me to write about my family and to most recently All The Light There Was, which is set in the Armenian loss. We read Palestinian author Liana Badr’s novel The Eye of the memorialize those who were now gone. The workshop enabled me community of Paris during World War II. Her poetry and essays Mirror, recounting the tragedies that female protagonist Aisha en- to take ownership over my story and to experiment with the most have been published in Guernica Magazine, The Minnesota Re- dures in the Tal el-Zaatar refugee camp in Lebanon. We also read effective way of telling it. I appreciated the thoughtful feedback I view, The Mississippi Review, Parnassus, and Women’s Studies Raffi Khatchadourian’s A Century of Silence published in “The New received in the group, and I was also humbled by the opportunity Quarterly, among other periodicals. She has been the recipient of Yorker” about his visit to Turkey roughly a century after the Arme- to listen to my peers and their stories. I’m thankful for this creative a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, The Anahid Literary nian genocide, along with one of Nancy’s own novels, All The Light outlet for literary exploration, and that Nancy and the other students Award, a Gold Medal of the Writers Union of Armenia, and the Dan- There Was, which beautifully tells of an Armenian family’s struggles in the workshop helped cultivate a safe and nourishing space for iel Varoujan Prize of the New England Poetry Club, among other living in France during WWII. sharing our work. honors. She participated in the 2010 Palestine Festival of Literature The readings were thought provoking and at times they told dev- and is a fellow of Columbia University’s Women Mobilizing Memo- astating stories. Each of them allowed us to reflect on the art of ry Workshop. She has taught at Barnard, Columbia, Yale, Rutgers writing. For many of us, the highlight of the workshop was the last and Queens Colleges, as well as with Teachers and Writers Collab- couple of class meetings -- when we were able to share works of orative in the New York City Public Schools. our own. Crafting My Own Narrative about Alexandria By Mariam Elba, NES and Global Journalism, ‘16 This past fall, Nancy Kricorian, in her workshop, “Life Stories: Trans- to them. I wanted to show how the experiences they had growing forming Family and Oral Histories into Narrative Non-Fiction and up are now quite uncommon in this same neighborhood today. I Fiction” showed us how to take oral histories and experiences of hoped to add another narrative of Alexandria, one outside of the trauma and craft them into written narratives. I had taken many nostalgic, pre-1952 narrative of cosmopolitanism that dominates creative writing courses in college, but this one was unique. We the discourse around Alexandria, a narrative outside bashawat, ha- looked beyond fiction and non-fiction narrative to address family wanem, and khawagat. histories, personal and family trauma, and private and public mem- I wrote an excerpt of what I envision to be a larger project. Such ory. stories have all the more significance now, as the neoliberal trans- I saw the class as an opportunity to write my own family history, formation of Alexandria is in full swing. The state continues to de- Practitioners-in-Residence especially their experiences embedded in the working-class urban molish landmarks, historic buildings, and change the character of spaces of Alexandria in the 70s and 80s, a period often overlooked the city that was shaped by the very same residents who are over- in Alexandrian urban history. I wrote a fictionalized account of a looked in the city’s narrative. I aimed to connect stories to central, family in a well-known working class (sha’abi) neighborhood in Al- everyday landmarks in Alexandria that are currently at risk of dis- exandria, and tried to show how they grew up and apart from each appearing, or have already disappeared. To me, this form of writing other. I used landmarks such as the sea, the Qait Bay fort, and is an act of resistance against the corporate and state interests other known sites in downtown Alexandria as anchors for the story. I seeking to erase these elements that my family knew so well. Kric- used my parents’ memories and experiences of the neighborhood, orian’s workshop helped me craft these thoughts and stories into a the same one they grew up in, to reconstruct what this area was like new narrative--my own narrative. Practitioners-in-Residence 14 15 Art and Memory Treasures Looking Back and Moving Forward Silvina Der Meguerditchian Much of Silvina Der Meguerditchian’s work as an artist has focused treasure that stands – pars pro toto – for the collective identity of a on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide on concepts of the collective identity and cultural heritage of the people, a priceless artifact evoking an entire bygone era. Armenian people. Her installation Treasures continues her ongoing Kevorkian Gallery Exhibit exploration of these themes and at the same time challenges any Of course, old books are bound to elicit associations of transience attempt to approach it in purely historical terms. and impermanence. However, by overlaying, digitally processing November 9, 2015–February 6, 2016 and framing her historical sources and thus entering into a dialogue Treasures is based on a manuscript written in Turkish using the with them, Der Meguerditchian manages to transcend these asso- Armenian alphabet, a compilation of folk remedies the artist’s great ciations and build a bridge between past and present. Suggestive 1915 grandmother put down on paper in Buenos Aires more than seven- of the delight children take in drawing and scribbling in books, the Diana Markosian ty years ago. Drawing on additional texts, collages and objects to techniques she uses translate commentary into visual form. Since supplement and comment on this historical source, Der Meguer- commentary is generally concerned with examining the authenticity ditchian takes it as a point of departure from which to explore the of texts and placing them into a wider context, it often serves to “1915” is a photography series examining the relationship between text and commentary in her artist’s book and detach us from the text itself. memory of the first genocide of the 20th century: installation. the elimination of one and a half million Arme- Der Meguerditchian gives this familiar practice a surprising twist nians by the Ottoman Empire. The artist’s decision to incorporate the extant display cases and by harnessing it to the opposite effect: In using it to amplify their create a site-specific installation attests to the special significance “whisper,” she allows her sources to speak to us today and turns One century later, I returned to Armenia in the location holds for her. For Der Meguerditchian and the others them into “treasures” whose significance goes beyond the purely search of those who had survived. After months at the school she attended as a girl, the island of San Lazzaro de- historical. of researching archives and traveling across the gli Armeni was what Mount Ararat was for most other children in country, I discovered the stories of three survi- the Armenian community in Argentina: an almost mythical place of Berthold Reiss* vors, all well over 100 years old. I traveled to Tur- longing, particularly close to the heart and yet impossibly faraway. key to re-trace their steps and bring back a piece The title she has chosen for her installation points to the fact that This text, by Berthold Reiss, is excerpted from the catalogue of of their memory. Each survivor also asked me to the manuscript it is based on is much more than a document solely “Armenity,” the Armenian Pavilion in the 56th Biennale Di Venezia, fulfill a wish. Movses, from Musa Dagh, asked of interest to historians and possibly antique book dealers. Much 2015 me to find his church and leave his portrait on like the fragment of a marble statue from Classical Antiquity, it is a the footsteps of what are now ruins. Yeprkasia, from Kars, asked me to find her older brother from whom she was separated after the geno- cide. Mariam, from Sason, requested a handful of Turkish soil for her to be buried in.

All these years later, upon seeing the image of their native land, the survivors grabbed on, as if by holding the image close they would be taken back to a place they called home many years ago. This is a story of home — everything they had, everything they lost. And what they have found again. Visual Culture VIsual Culture 16 17 derstand. The characters appear stuck within no role. While Ghazvinizadeh is herself Ira- Rethinking “Iran” at the Film Festival the illegally-rented apartment or on the marsh nian, along with some members of her film’s boardwalk as the camera remains in close-up crew, the film itself takes place in the United and medium-close-up shots. The obese man, States, or, rather, an English-speaking locale, Cinematic Counternarratives and National Aesthetics struggling for every breath, seems stuck be- with non-Iranian characters. In both cases, Laura Fish, PhD Candidate, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Texas, Austin tween reality and fiction, at times knowing language and location destabilizes the ex- (excerpted from the original that first appeared on the Ajam Media Collective) Counternarratives and National Aesthetics who the woman is and at other times con- pected “Iranianness” of the films. fused at her presence and brazen refusal to Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s Needle suggests financing measures. As Azadeh Farahmand submit to his bullying. As the large man drinks that audiences should consider whether a “Rethinking Iranian Cinema: Aesthetics has noted, domestic financial restrictions more alcohol, cigarette packs float, shots pro- film needs to address Iran at all. The story and Counternarratives” was a film se- have enhanced Iranian filmmakers’ reliance ceed without rhyme or reason to subsequent of an approaching divorce plays out through ries co-curated by Ajam Media Collec- on international festivals, compelling them scenes, the camera’s shakiness seems to re- the daughter Lilly’s patient attempts to have tive and Cine-Eye, sponsored by the to appease the expectations of international veal the alcoholic man’s drunken perspective her ears pierced. Unlike Hamid Naficy’s defi- Hagop Kevorkian Center, NYU Iranian festivals in order to acquire funding—an is- and disconnect with reality. nition of (Iranian) émigré cinema in Making Studies Initiative, and the Grey Art Gal- sue filmmakers from multiple national back- While Fat Shaker’s disjointed narrative mix- Films with an Accent: Iranian Émigré Cinema lery. grounds also face, particularly Palestinian es potential dream with potential reality and (2002), Ghazvinizadeh’s short does not attest filmmakers. Often, external funding requires plays with temporalities only discernible to any political concern nor any traumatic re- filmmakers to include the language of the aid- through the fat man’s shaved beard, Behzad lationship with a perceived homeland.[3] Tak- As international investment in and recognition ing country, or thematically to include images Azadi’s Slaughterhouse and Anahita Ghaz- en on its own, Needle might not be viewed of films labeled “Iranian” has grown within the of veiled women and children. The themes, vinizadeh’s Needle retain stronger holds on as an Iranian film. By juxtaposing the film with past three decades, international audiences’ aesthetics, and even languages expected of Still from Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s Needle (2013). decipherable realities, albeit rarely seen real- other films by and about Iranians, “Rethinking imaginings of what counts as both “Iranian” Iranian art films result in film styles that vary praise amongst international audiences. ities in Iranian cinema, or ones that make the Iranian Cinema” questions whether author- and “cinema” has shaped our expectations of vastly from the commercial genre-driven films viewer question “Iranian” cinema altogether. ship still matters in determining a film’s con- what we will see at film festivals. The “Rethink- that only play in Iranian theaters. Prior to the The “Rethinking Iranian Cinema,” film series’ ing Iranian Cinema: Aesthetics and Coun- Slaughterhouse’s short storyline follows a text. The white American girl, who escapes Islamic Revolution, these popular domestical- selection makes clear that while “place” may Poster for Mohamed Shirvani’s Fat Shaker (2013). group of Kurdish boys who obtain heroin in from her parents’ self-centered arguments ternarratives” series hosted by the Hagop ly focused films were romantic melodramas, clearly and critically function within any one an attempt to make money in their neighbor- by playing with a piece of indestructible Kevorkian Center Spring 2016 reconsiders crime thrillers, and tales of patriotism, while of the narratives exhibited, the audience can- film’s production allow it to fall within the realm hood of “Koshtargah.” Persian, the national blue gum, might not speak to any audience how international film festival selections have during the Iran-Iraq War, war films dominat- not locate these narratives unambiguously of an Iranian project? privileged the definition of Iranian cinema as language, plays no role in the film, although as an Iranian tale, or even a universal tale ed, and now comedies and even horror films in the Iran of their imagination. Instead, the At the heart of this series is an opening for an auteur-dominated tradition that produces “the north” or Tehran represents their escap- of adolescence. But do the Iranian and Ira- have found their way to Iranian audiences. quotidian spaces of apartments, coastlines, interpretation of what an audience can con- particular snapshots of Iran and its people ist fantasies. In Needle, Persian again plays nian-heritage voices who contributed to the But these films have seen little of foreign film alleyways, and swimming holes of Fat Shak- sider as belonging to the Iranian cinematic without due attention to the methods of story- festivals. er and Slaughterhouse take precedence over milieu in part through the injection of young- telling Iranians can create. Tehrani skylines pinned against the Alborz International audiences attending festivals er or alternative voices to cinema alongside Experiencing Iranian cinema often comes down mountains and meandering village scenes more established filmmakers. This privileges have also formed associations or expecta- so recognizable to the Iranian art cinema of to name-dropping those Iranian filmmakers with tions from festival offerings. Documentary film neither generation of filmmakers and instead whom international film scenes and festivals are Kiarostami, Panahi, Rakhshan Bani-E’temad, spotlights the multiplicity of stories that Irani- scholar Bill Nichols argues that “[i]ndividual and Bahram Beyzai. familiar. No other Iranian filmmaker has become films gain value both for their regional distinc- an filmmakers can create. The series blasts more recognizable to international audiences tiveness and for their universal appeal.” View- In Mohamed Shirvani’s Fat Shaker, the con- “Iranian cinema” out of the confines of a than Abbas Kiarostami, with his flare for sun- ing a film, a festival-goer becomes a “tourist” stant close-up shots anchor themselves to national cinema that must define “Iranian” glasses and teasing apart narrative structures who encounters difference. Festival viewers the three central characters of the twisted, through spatially -- and linguistically-recog- to question the distinction between truth and fic- expect to engage with difference, and Irani- semi-surrealist plot. While the film moves from nizable means. Instead, the films selected tion. The names of Jafar Panahi (The White Bal- an films “usher us into a world of wind, sand, street scenes to an apartment and coast- dislocate international audiences’ expecta- loon, 1995), Majid Majidi (Children of Heaven, and dust, of veiled women and stoic men, of al area, it refuses to scrutinize any of these tions of Iranianness by attending to stories of 1997), the Makhmalbaf family (Marriage of the unusual temps and foreign rhythms.” From locales in depth. The viewer has no idea often-ignored groups and resisting the cine- Blessed, 1989 & The Apple, 1998), and more Nichols’s perspective, the festival-goer seeks where the apartment is or even what space matic representation of a discernible place. recently Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, 2011) the exotic but requires an understandable or the apartment contains. Instead, the interac- Taken individually, none of these films might spin around festival circuits, correlating “Iranian tions between the stumbling fat, older man, be considered Iranian, but as “Rethinking relatable narrative, otherwise they will feel Visual Culture cinema” with the theory of auteur cinema. alienated by too much difference. There is an the deaf young man who may or may not be Iranian Cinema” gathers these films togeth- Audiences understand Iranian cinema as expectation that the viewer will see and expe- his son, and the mysterious woman whom er, it persuades its audience to consider the marked by key filmmakers who leave a sig- rience “Iran” through what they can see in the the man claims to be the boy’s mother, make role international film festivals play in shaping nature on their film productions through cam- film. Narratives revolving around children and room for an examination of abusive relation- opinions regarding what counts as any na- era style, editing techniques, distinctive nar- gender relations, along with pictures of Iran’s ships and social outcasts of a society to which tion’s “cinema.” the viewer does not have visual access to un- A still from Behzad Azadi’s Slaughterhouse. Visual Culture rative structures, realist social critique, and landscape in Tehran or in villages, have found Image Credit: Cinema Firozeh 18 19 after two Palestinians killed five Israeli Jews, Shalabi wrote, “Ask death to grant you life; glory is bestowed upon the martyrs.” Investigations of Palestinians for social media postings center Post, Share, Arrest around Israeli laws against incitement. For those who fall under Israeli civilian law, the attorney general has relied on Israel’s law Israel Targeting Palestinian Protestors on Facebook against “Incitement to Violence or Terror.” The measure, passed in 2002, prohibits speech by Israeli citizens or East Jerusalem resi- by Alex Kane, NES/Journalism, ’16 dents that supports or encourages violence or terrorism and would likely result in an attack. Civil rights attorneys say the law chills (This piece was adapted from an article first published by The Intercept) speech and is applied disproportionately to Israeli Palestinians and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, most of whom are not citi- On the morning of August 28, 2014, two days after the end of the Zahda’s case, still ongoing, is part of a new battleground in the zens but are still governed by Israeli civilian law. Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Sohaib Zahda hopped into a shared taxi long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians using so- Palestinians in the West Bank are governed under Israeli military in Hebron that was going to Ramallah, where he had a job interview. cial media to spread news about arrests and deaths, and Israeli in- law, which has its own broad prohibition against incitement. Zahda Thirty-three-year-old Zahda, who owns a paintball company, is an telligence and law enforcement officers scouring the web for clues bounced back and forth between different branches of Israeli secu- unlikely terrorist. An avid cyclist who speaks Arabic, Italian, French, about the next stabbing or protest. rity forces: arrested by the army, turned over to the police, then re- and English, he is a member of Youth Against Settlements, a nonvio- Facebook has not changed the fundamental contours of the con- turned to the army. His case illustrates a bewildering state of affairs lent organization that protests against Israeli settlers who live in and flict, but it has accelerated it. A demonstration against the Israeli in which cooperation and intelligence sharing among agencies with around Hebron. He is opposed to Hamas firing rockets into Israel. occupation can be organized in a matter of hours, while the monitor- different jurisdictions, at least nominally, is routine. He likes to tell visitors his grandfather had Jewish friends in Hebron ing of Palestinians is made easier by the large digital footprint they in the 1920s. Zahda was officially charged with “threats posed against a senior leave on their laptops and mobile phones. [Israel Defense Forces] officer” and calling “upon residents in his Hebron and Ramallah are about 25 miles apart. To get between Israeli officials have blamed social media for inciting a wave of vio- area to attack Israelis using Molotov cocktails,” an army spokesper- them, Palestinians must pass through the “container checkpoint,” lent attacks by Palestinians that began in October 2015. Since then, son told me. Before those charges were laid out, however, the po- manned by Israeli soldiers on a road that connects the southern Israeli security forces have arrested about 400 Palestinians for so- lice investigated him for violating Israel’s civilian prohibition against West Bank to its central and northern cities. At the checkpoint — cial media activity, according to Palestinian rights groups Adda- incitement, despite the fact that Zahda is not an Israeli citizen, his named for a shipping container once located at the barrier — Pal- meer and Adalah. Most of the arrests have been for postings on lawyer said. estinian pedestrians queue up to get their IDs checked, while cars Facebook, a popular network among Palestinians. wait for inspection and for soldiers to wave them through. When “Israel has access to anything it wants because when you think Zahda’s taxi drove up, masked Israeli soldiers stopped the vehicle, In that year alone, the Israeli attorney general opened 155 inves- about it, the Israeli army can go and do whatever they want in the asked him to get out, and then handcuffed him. tigations into alleged social media incitement, a marked increase West Bank and no one can stop them,” said Amit Meyer, a former from previous years, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz member of the military’s Unit 8200, Israel’s equivalent of the Nation- They took his mobile phone and his bag and brought him to a room (although the law on social media incitement applies to all citizens al Security Agency. “So if they want to go and dig a hole and add near the checkpoint. After two hours, he was told he was being in- and residents, the vast majority of cases have been directed at Ar- another cable … they can just do it, and then all the communication vestigated for threatening an Israeli army leader. The alleged threat abs in Israel). goes to them as well.” was made on a Facebook page calling for an uprising in Hebron. Zahda was then blindfolded and placed in an Israeli military jeep The arrests of Palestinians for Facebook posts open a window into Meyer says collecting information from social media platforms be- the practices of Israel’s surveillance state and reveal social media’s came more of a priority while he served from 2010 through 2013. The soldiers took Zahda to a counterterror unit of the Israeli police, darker side. What was once seen as a weapon of the weak has Facebook users, he explained, place a lot of information in the which held him for the crime of incitement to violence. At one point turned into the perfect place to ferret out potential resistance. open, which makes the job of understanding Palestinian social net- during Zahda’s interrogation, the police showed him content they works easier. Facebook is considered open source information, i.e., had collected from his personal Facebook page. But Zahda wrote Zahda was the first Palestinian in the occupied territories tobe content that is freely available for intelligence services without using Facebook posts from the West Bank, an area governed not by Israe- arrested by the army for social media postings. Before his deten- special tools. Newspaper articles, Twitter posts, radio segments, li civilian law but by Israeli military law. The police had no jurisdic- tion, the Israeli police had arrested Palestinians living in Israel for demographic information, and academic papers are all open source tion over Zahda, said Nery Ramati, his attorney. Instead of releasing Facebook posts, including Razi Nabulsi, a Palestinian citizen of the information ripe for exploitation by intelligence agencies him, the police transferred Zahda to an Israeli military prison. When state who was arrested in 2013 for posting about his hope that the asked about his arrest and interrogation, the Israeli army respond- “nightmare will be over” one day and writing against “Israeli terror- In late 2014, the police arrested eight East Jerusalem residents for In the pre-Facebook era, intelligence agents had to go into the field ed, “Because Mr. Zahda’s case is still open, we are unable to elab- ists” and in support of Palestinian prisoners, according to Nabulsi posting in support of violence against Israeli Jews. Omar Shalabi, to find out who was part of a target’s network. Facebook has sim- orate on any specific details.” The Israeli police did not respond to and his lawyers. (In court, the Israeli police claimed the evidence one of those arrested, became the first person convicted for social plified that need. “It’s all there,” Meyer said. “It’s perfect for intelli- Media detailed requests about the interrogation. against Nabulsi was secret, even though it was based on public media postings by an Israeli court, and in May 2015, he was sen- gence gathering.” Facebook posts.) tenced to nine months in prison. According to the New York Times, Media 20 21 This workshop was a wonderful overview of the U.S. in the Mid- I’m always looking for ways to get mhy students to love history. Islam and the Americas dle East. All the scholars were engaging and extremely infor- This week I added a few more strategies to my toolkit that will mative. I loved the use of primary documents and close reading help me to “hide the veggies.” modelled for the classroom. The role playing game modelled not - Stephanie Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, A Summer Institute only the intricacies of the Middle East but provided a model to U.S. History and Government Teacher, Grades 9- 12 incorporate research into teaching, point-of-view, close read- for K-12 Teachers ing, speaking skills, and critical writing. I am looking forward to This Institute offered consistently excellent presentations that en- By Diana Shin, Outreach Administrator, Hagop Kevorkian Center implementing the role playing in my ELL classes. riched understanding and provided opportunities for expansion of curriculum and new units of study. Fantastic Institute. One of - Christina Armas, Pioneer Academy, From August 18 to August 22, the Hagop Kevorkian Center hosted its 2016 Summer Institute on “U.S. and the Middle East” the best I’ve ever attended (in 29 years of teaching). English Teacher, Grade levels k-5 for k-12 educators. 35 teachers based in New York City and the broader tri-state area benefitted from the course, including 15 - Maria Valentin, Scarsdale High School, teachers who took it as a “3P-Course,” as accredited by the New York City’s Department of Education’s After School Professional This was the most moving and inspiring seminar I have ever World History Teacher, Grade 10 Development Program (ASPDP). The course featured Peter Valenti (NYU) as the Lead Instructor, and also brought top experts as taken (and I have attended many!) guest speakers: Eric Davis (Rutgers University), Michael W. Hanna (The Century Foundation), Benjamin Hopkins (George Wash- -Walter Gern, Stuyvesant High School, This week-long program allowed time and space to learn about ington University) Arang Keshavarzian (NYU), Toby Jones (Rutgers University), Zachary Lockman (NYU), Marc Lynch (George English Teacher, Grade levels 10 & 12 the Middle East and its impact on the U.S. and the world politi- Washington University), Curtis Ryan (Appalachian State University), Mara Revkin (Yale University), and Chris Toensing (Middle cally, socially, and economically. It was clear that the speakers East Research and Information Project).In addition to the lectures, the course incorporated curricular workshops vital to class- The use of graphic novels, modelled in this workshop to engage were experts in their fields with extensive experience on the room teaching: an interactive role play of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a fun and engaging teaching method that enables students to students in historical content that is sensitive, brings to life the field. It was a privilege to gain their insights, interpretations, and have a greater understanding based on Barnard College’s “Reacting to the Past” Curriculum, modelling of units based on close human side of history. This course engaged me in the facts, but analysis of a region with a complicated history. readings of primary texts, and a modelling of a unit for incorporating graphic novels. In particular, teachers read graphic novels, also allowed me to empathize with the human experience. Operation Ajax: the Story of the CIA Coup that Remade the Middle East by Mike de Seve and David Daniel Burwen as well as - Jennifer Kim, NYC Department of Education, - Shanna Douglas, Lower Manhattan Community Middle excerpts from Palestine by Joe Sacco. Teachers left the Summer Institute with a deeper understanding of the Middle East and TESOL Teacher, Grade 9 School, equipped with a variety of new teaching resources and tools. We will let the teacher feedback speak for itself (see next page). ELA Teacher, Grade 8 Highest level of research shared by scholars working in the field – Turkey, Kurdistan, the councils – generously shared with ele- This workshop provided an incredible swath and depth of infor- mentary, middle and high school teachers. It seems that every mation about the Middle East. I left the Kevorkian Center each week, nay, every day, brings various crises and challenges in day with the feeling that I had spent time with experts of the the region, and in this class, we have explored the roots of these region – committed, informed, passionate scholars who wanted crises and social movements and have been able to gain insight to illuminate the past to a clearer degree. on the social, political and economic aspects of these crises, as -Abbe Karmen, Riverdale Country School, History Teacher, well as the ideological, psychological, philosophical, spiritual Middle School and High School Levels nature of these moments and events. Thank you again! And the fellow teachers were as enjoyable to work with as much as it was The 2016 Summer Institute “U.S., and the Middle East” provided a privilege and honor to listen to the scholarly researchers and a wealth of documents and knowledge that I will bring back into presenters. my history classes. Great speakers and discussion.

- Marium Rizvi, M.S. 354 The School of Integrated Learning, - John O’Mally, Townsend Harris High School, History Teacher, Grade levels 6-8 Social Studie and AP World History Teacher, 9th & 11th Grades The 2016 Summer Institute 2016 “U.S. and the Middle East” was one of the most informative classes that I’ve ever taken. The information is great for my students in my classes. K-12 Outreach - Matthew, Ho, JHS 227, Social Studies Teacher, 7th Grade

Teachers in the institute read two graphic novels-Joe Sacco's Palestine and Operation Ajax by Daniel Burwen and Mike de Seve K-12 Outreach 22 23 Spotlight on K-12 Teacher Fellowships Heart of the Silk Road By Diana Shin, Outreach Coordinator A Study Tour in Uzbekistan for Educators Launched this academic year, the Hagop Kevorkian Center’s Teach- July 25–August 3, 2016 er Fellowships aim to enhance the development of k-12 curriculum Together with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, materials that both convey a nuanced view of the Middle East and Berkeley and GEEO.org (Global Exploration for Educators Organization), the Hagop adhere to Core Curriculum standards. Fellows receive a number of Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU co-hosted a fascinating 7-person benefits including: a grant in the amount of $1,500 that covers costs study tour to Uzbekistan this summer. From the remarkable architecture and cultur- for curriculum development, borrowing privileges at NYU Libraries for al life of post-Soviet Tashkent to the world heritage site of the ancient capital Khiva, one calendar year, and a formal mentoring relationship with a NYU travelers followed the legendary Silk Road through the best of Uzbekistan. Through faculty member. Three Teacher Fellows were selected for academic stops in the famous bazaar in Bukhara to the the Islamic monuments and minarets of year 2015-2016. Samarkand, participants learned along the way about the famed Timurid dynasty that Twenty-eight 8th Grade students at M.S. 354, The School of Integrat- ruled over much of modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. A true crossroads ed Learning, benefitted from the curriculum project implemented by of empires, Central Asia (particularly the territory of today’s Uzbekistan) provided the Marium Rizvi. Students were assigned specific countries, including perfect venue through which teachers could explore the overlapping histories of the the former Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Iran, and Palestine, given primary many social and political groups that have both passed through and remained influ- source documents, and commissioned to draft speeches that inform ential in the region. the assembly of member nations about the issues, challenges, and goals of their countries. The curriculum unit culminated on a Model UN-style Peace Summit, in which student delegations presented their drafted speeches to the assembly followed by a floor open to chal- Marium Rezvi’s 8th grade social studies class at work. lenges. Photo courtesy of Marium Rizvi Geoff Agnor, a high school teacher at Berkeley Carroll in Brooklyn pursed a curriculum project on Iran that centered around primary source analyses of CIA documents. The lesson gave Geoff’s students the opportunity to explore the complex relationship between Iran and the United States through the CIA’s involvement in the coup against Mossadegh. Using declassified CIA reports from 1953, students ex- amine sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration of primary sources to better understand the events of 1953.

Maria Valentin, who teaches high school in Scarsdale, developed a unit on the Cold War in the Middle East with a focus on Iran for her 10th grade World History course. Her curriculum project examined how Cold War tensions affected the politics of Iran in the early 1950s and how the U.S. / Soviet intervention resulted in the Pahlavi rule of Iran and the subsequent Iranian Revolution. Her unit was ultimately integrated into a series of lesson plans that present Cold War conflicts in various world contexts and explore their connections. Geoff Agnor’s students reviewing CIA documents on the 1953 coup in Iran.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Agnor K-12 Outreach

The 7 participants of the Uzbekistan Study Tour pose in front of Registan Square in the historic city of Samarkand. K-12 Outreach 24 25 Digging in the Serving Refugees in the Turkish Archives Transition to Life in New York City The Nuts and Bolts of Thesis Writing By Bengu Ezgi Aydin, NES ‘16 By Soleiman Mustafa, NES ‘16 By Aqsa Khalid, NES ‘16 With support from a Kevorkian Center Trav- Thanks in part to my credentials from NYU and the Kevorkian Center, I was able to begin an My master’s thesis, “Unveiling the Silence: Understanding the nationalist resources at your disposal. One of my persistent anxieties in the whole el Grant I conducted research in the Turk- internship with the International Rescue Committee in November 2015. I work in the Employment sentiments among the 1947 Partition survivors,” aimed to go beyond the process was to be able to be absolutely sure if my research material ish state and newspaper archives. My the- Services division of the New York Resettlement office, where my primary duty is to help refugees nationalist discourses and the popular academic discussion of historical would be able to justify my thesis topic, the research topic undergoing sis examined 1930s nationalization policies and asylees to find work during the early months and years of their transition to the United States. facts surrounding the event of the Indian partition. The idea of the proj- constant revision until the very last minute to ascertain the alignment of imposed on the Arab Alawite minority by My “clients” come from all over the world, but I’ve found myself working primarily with people from ect was to bring to light the human dimension of partition; essentially, research goals. the Turkish state. The entire experience in West Africa, the Himalayas, and certain parts of the Middle East. I’ve also had the good fortune of how people saw, understood and situated the divide and the task of Once I was completely sure of the focus of my paper, another challenge the archives was highly insightful for an as- being able to utilize Arabic skills I learned at the Kevorkian Center to assist clients with everything nation-building within their own experiences and struggles resulting from seemed to be the availability of resources that would address my re- piring academic. Compared to the Ottoman from housing issues to interview preparation to enrolling their kids in school. the partition. search aspirations. It is one thing to have a research idea in mind and Archives located in Istanbul, the Prime Min- At the same time, I’ve found myself dealing with the difficult tasks of un-selling a disingenuous Amer- One of the many challenges during the research process started with another to be able to execute that research under the constraints of re- istry’s Republican Archives in Ankara at- ican dream to Afghans who translated for the American army, or explaining to skilled immigrants the first step: choosing the topic. This undoubtedly presented to be the sources of time and other such factors. But eventually there are these tract a relatively small number of research- that African university degrees mean very little in an American job market. My education informs most crucial step in the entire process as it basically determined the thrilling moments when your study starts speaking to you in the manner ers, and therefore the archivists are more my conversations, but the hawkish foreign policies and racist immigration policies that brought trajectory and focus of my research problem. Often times this proved to you envisioned it, when the research data starts fitting your study like a accommodating and helpful. Once my data these refugees to NYC are ultimately irrelevant by the time they’re sitting in front of me. Once be the most challenging part, laying the foundation by deciding on the glove. It is such moments that make that long journey worthwhile. collection in Ankara was complete, I visited they’re here, I’m just teaching topic is just the first step in a series of attempts to come up with the right Istanbul to dig through the newspaper ar- them how to get by in New York research problem that aligns your research aspirations with the research chives in Ataturk Library. The library has a just like I had to learn when I first good view of the Bosphorus, and the staff is got here for graduate school. I’m very welcoming but it is always full of Turk- explaining how my father came ish high school students preparing for the from Egypt with an engineering university exams so the crowd can be over- Investing in Post-9/11 degree and started out washing whelming from time to time. In this archive, dishes before he ever became an one can obtain original hard copies of the electrical engineer, or how I had newspapers from the 18th century through to sleep on a couch for months Veterans the present day. I had failed to fathom how before I was ever able to afford a By Emily Bader, NES ‘16 time consuming this research would be decent apartment in this city. It is In 2006 Bob Woodruff was covering the awareness for and invest in post-9/11 vet- since you need to go through every single a very tough transition that I work war in Iraq when he was seriously injured erans. Most recently, the Foundation has page of each newspaper in order to find an to guide people through, and my by a roadside bomb. The Bob Woodruff introduced a new plan to reach out to the article related to your subject matter. This experience as an American is Foundation, created in his honor by his next generation and get them involved in forced me to limit my time period to the one of the few things I can offer to family, is dedicated to investing in the next the Foundation’s mission. Because the 1930s. One of the nicest things about the people who are already extreme- chapter for our nation’s wounded, ill, and Foundation has such a small staff, I have Ataturk Library is that the older and more ly resourceful and resilient. injured veterans, service members and been given a significant amount of projects experienced researchers are always happy their families. I connected with the Bob to develop independently. I have designed to offer help or advice once they see you A few months into the internship, Emily Bader ‘16 at the Bob Woodruff Foundation Woodruff Foundation when I was research- proposals for our Executive Director, pre- are baffled, annoyed or completely lost. Af- I was offered a full-time position ing internships at non-profit organizations pared briefing books for board members our partners, and how to act as a liaison terwards, I returned to Ankara’s National Li- with the organization, continuing in NYC. With a small staff that makes a big and staff to prepare for the Foundation’s between the Foundation and our vendors. brary since Ataturk Library did not have one much of the same work I had impact, I felt that the Foundation would be events, created a 50-page training man- of the newspapers I was seeking. Although been learning to do in my intern- The amount of administrative experience I a great place for me to develop profession- ual for new hires to the organization, and the National Library offers digital scans of ship. I spent my last few months have been exposed to while at the Founda- ally before seeking full-time employment at conducted numerous outreach initiatives.

the newspapers, you are not able to search at the Kevorkian Center working tion has exceeded the expectations I had Experiences a non-profit organization after graduation. Throughout my experience, I have learned via keyword. The National Library is also a at the same time I was finishing as an intern. I look forward to the opportuni- how to effectively manage an organiza- highly bureaucratic institution and it was up my degree, and have happily During my time interning at the Founda- ty to bring these skills to a non-profit whose tion’s budget, review grant applications occasionally nerve-wracking to get advice continued into this position past tion, I have played an instrumental role in work is more focused on the Middle East. and contracts, enhance relationships with from the somewhat unhelpful staff. graduation. the execution of events designed to raise Experiences 26 27 In Fond Memory of Falak Sufi Scholarships and Essay Prize Falak Sufi was born in Pakistan in 1983. She possessed a Her research through her thesis looked at the nationalist sen- generous heart, the urge to engage with and change the timents in the first-person accounts of the 1947 Partition of world, and a brilliantly original, vivacious mind. She grad- India. Aqsa plans to take some time off in the summer to uated from the National University of Singapore with first unwind while also looking for exciting job opportunities that class honors in Political Science. While young, she began might take her anywhere in the world. to publish the work that showed her great gifts and talent. Among her interests were women and gender in South Asia, Sabahat Zakariya ‘17 was able to attain her lifelong dream the historiography of this region, and the strength of the hu- this year of living and studying in New York City thanks to the manities. However, no list can capture the range of subjects generosity of the Falak Sufi scholarship. Unlike previous re- about which she thought, spoke and wrote. She was a much cipients, however, her journey to the city was not conducted beloved, deeply admired graduate student in Near Eastern alone. She has brought her teenage son along who is study- Studies at NYU when she died tragically in Spring 2008. With ing at a high school in Brooklyn and enjoying the joys and the generous support of her family, Kevorkian has awarded challenges of his move to New York as much as his mother. an annual scholarship in honor of her memory. The balancing of the intellectual demands of student life with the domestic pressure of family life has made her feel like a The Falak Sufi Scholars have had a very busy year. For Aqsa true adult, says Sabahat, and helped evolve a work ethic that Khalid ‘16 these past two years have been absolutely mem- is alien to the more laid-back pace of her home city of La- orable, both academically and personally. She says she is hore. Her first year classes at the Kevorkian Center and the

genuinely going to miss her time at NYU. This past year for partner program in Journalism have helped her reflect more Nadeen Shaker ‘16 (smiling, center), celebrates her honorable mention with colleagues and Falak Sufi’s family her was spent juggling coursework with internships. She in- deeply on issues close to her heart. She hopes to translate terned at the Independent Diplomat for sometime over the this into her MA thesis for which she is travelling to Pakistan A number of outstanding essays were sub- research Shaker uncovers the brutality and were all written in English and under occu- summer and is now interning at the World Policy Institute. this summer. Sabahat wants to write about the rise of single mitted this year on a diversity of subjects, secrecy shrouding the prison system in pation or siege, Kraver’s essay examine the women and divorcees in the country and the impact of urban historical time periods, and from a variety of Egypt. Culling a variety of sources: media ways in which diary writing is not merely “a and social infrastructures on those who wish to lead ‘alter- methodological approaches. Four of these archives, personal interviews and personal recollection,” but also a means of “aspira- nate’ lifestyles. She hopes to turn her thesis into a published explored a remarkable range of issues con- observation she goes into the brutal and tion” for political change. book to fill a much needed void in Pakistani popular culture nected with Egypt, including socializing self-contradictory nature of Egypt’s judi- on the depiction of modern Pakistani women. as Infrastructure in urban Egypt, the bro- cial and prison system that awards minor Applications for next year’s scholarships ken prison system in the country, the early female debtors longer and harsher prison will arrive in Fall 2016, and the essay prize This fall, Shandana Waheed will be joining us from Forman private press in nineteenth century Egypt sentences than the dictators who looted the competition will take place in Spring 2017. Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan. After initially pursuing and the indigenous Amazigh community of country. The Hagop Kevorkian Center remains in- medical coursework, Shandana completed her BA in polit- North Africa. Other topics included mission- debted to Falak Sufi’s family for supporting ical science in May 2016. As an undergraduate, she has ary involvement in the Early Arab migration The winner of the Falak Sufi memorial essay this recognition of outstanding M.A candi- been interested in the plight of religious minorities in Pa- to the US and Israeli state surveillance of prize was Stephanie Kraver, whose paper, dates and their writings. kistan--a subject she has studied through case studies of social media. The papers relied on archi- “Palestinian Diary Writing: A Performance of historical minority endowments and research in Punjab ar- val work, ethnographic methods, social re- Human Rights” is a testimony to the adage chives in Lahore. She is excited to join the legacy of Falak search, pop cultural analyses and a host of ‘the personal is political’. By surveying eight Sufi scholars in New York City. other methodologies. Palestinian diaries, Sharon and My Mother- Student News in-Law, the Sealed Room, When the Birds The paper that received honorable mention In April 2016 Kevorkian also awarded the eighth annual Fal- Stopped Singing, Dahaysha Diary, Diary was Nadeen Shaker’s “Egypt’s Prison Nos- ak Sufi Memorial Essay Prize that recognizes originality and of an Invasion, Occupation Diaries, Gaza trums: Why the Prison System is Broken.” promise in MA scholarship to Stephanie Kraver ‘16. An hon- Mama, and The Drone Eats with Me, which Dean Thomas Carew awards Stephanie Kraver ‘16 the Falak Sufi Through in-depth interviews and extensive Memorial Essay Prize.

Student News orable mention went to Nadeen Shaker ‘16. 28 29 MA Student News: Class of 2016 Alex Kane: My last year at the Kevorkian scription of transgender Iranians within covered my love for video production and Nader Atassi: This past year, I complet- Paul Bielecki: I happily graduated this Gulf Cooperation Council. Following my Center was fantastic. The highlight of the homonationalist subjectivities by interna- documentary making. I plan to spend the ed my MA thesis on the economic thought May. My last academic year was about graduation from the M.A program, I ac- year--aside from eating delicious Tanor- tional LGBT organizations. This summer I summer further exploring these interests. of Arab intellectuals in the late Ottoman research for my MA thesis and for the cepted a full-time offer at a management een meals with friends at Kevo parties-- will travel to Oman to continue my Arabic era. I focused particularly on the late Iranian Studies Conference in Vienna consulting firm in New York City as a Con- Kathryn Thornton: This year I had am- was the completion of my thesis on Israeli studies with the SALAM 2016 scholar- nineteenth-century writings of a period- (August 2016). In my MA thesis, which I sultant. I plan to move to the United Arab ple opportunity to apply my thoughts surveillance of Palestinian social media ship. Afterwards I hope to return to my ical published in Egypt by intellectuals completed with the inspirational help of Emirates in the coming months, opening about the media that began in my first users. I plan to publish a series of arti- career developing grants focused on ca- from Greater Syria. This summer I will be Prof. Zvi Ben Dor-Benite and Prof. Nahid my firm’s first international office in Dubai year to my academic work through tak- cles derived from my thesis in the next pacity-building of civil society within the engaging in private study to improve my Mozaffari, I tried to make several points. ing a class about the ethnography of the Nafisa Dhanani: I have had a great last few months, and continue to do freelance Middle East. modern Turkish language skills to pre- I was up against an historiography of media through the Anthropology depart- year at the Kevorkian Center, making the journalism on issues related to social pare myself for studying Ottoman Turkish science in the Early Islamic world and I Soleiman Moustafa: I had an incredible ment. I also completed my master’s the- most of my time in NYC in between thesis media and surveillance in Israel/Pales- in the future. Next year, I will begin a PhD tried to make an important intervention second year at the Kevorkian Center, and sis, a longform journalistic article about writing. I’ve been working on establishing tine and the United States. I will also be program in the Department of History changing the in way in which we think I’m sad to be saying goodbye to many the production of alternative news at Di- a startup that looks like it is turning into exploring funding opportunities for more at Columbia University, where I hope to about Christian-Muslim interaction with of my colleagues and professors and cle News Agency in Turkey. I will be mov- something bigger, so I’ll be returning to long-form journalistic projects in Israel/ expand upon my original MA thesis and regards to science during the early Ab- friends in the program. In this past year I ing to Turkey this June to pursue journal- Toronto to make it happen. I am going to Palestine. conduct further research on the intellec- basid period. Now, I am getting some rest traveled to Egypt and Jordan, completed ism and English teaching, and I plan to miss the Center terribly! tual history of economic thought in the and in the very near future I would love to Aqsa Khalid: My two years at the Kev- a thesis on the history of political activity apply to PhD programs in Media Studies late Ottoman era. continue my research about medical doc- Zeynep Ekmekci: This year has been a orkian Center went by really fast but pro- in the Egyptian prison system, and began and Anthropology in the Fall. tors during ‘Abbasid period. I want to say busy one. I completed my thesis on state vided me with a deeply memorable and an internship with the International Res- Bengu Ezgi Aydin: This year I received Jeremy Wheatley: My work at the Kev- thank you to all my professors and my fel- violence in Turkey, focusing on Maraş enriching experience. I interned at the In- cue Committee where I help refugees get a Kevorkian travel grant to conduct re- orkian Center has focused mainly on the low students at Kevo for giving me such massacre that took place before the 1980 dependent Diplomat and the World Policy resettled in New York City. I was hired search for a month in Turkish archives to relationship between visual media and a creative, demanding, and intellectual coup d’état. I tried to understand how vio- Institute over the course of the last year. from my internship in March to a full-time examine the nationalisation of the Alaw- state power. In my first year I explored time in one of the best cities of the world. lence that target an ethnic community, in I won the internship grant from the Was- position with the IRC, and will be continu- ite population in the Cilician plain during the ways the Islamic State’s media rep- At Kevo I always felt like I was among this case Alawi population in Turkey, and serman center during the year. My MA ing my work with refugee resettlement the 1930s. Apart from my studies, I have licates, and often mimics, methods used friends. Thank you all for that. impunity that protects the perpetrators ar- thesis looked at the nationalist sentiments into next year and beyond. been working as an intern since March by the United States to project its own ticulate a specific type of experience of among the 1947 Partition survivors. I plan 2016 for the organization of the first-ever Keith Collela: Over the past year, I Julian Phillips: Over the past academic military capabilities via popular culture citizenship. In the summer, I will do an in- to stay in the country for a while looking World Humanitarian Summit, an initiative have worked in a variety of positions as year, I completed two research fellow- during the early 2000s. In keeping with ternship in Middle East Institute at Wash- for work and exploring the city. of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The I finished my coursework and thesis. I ships in mission history. Along the way, I the general theme of vision and power, ington, DC in order to broaden my under- Summit, which took place between May interned at the United Nations Develop- Stephanie Kraver: During this past year, published an article in the peer-refereed though diverging slightly to more emo- standing of the politics of the region. 23-24 in Istanbul, is now successfully ment Program, where I helped develop I had the opportunity to participate in nov- ejournal L’Espace Politique, and present- tionally bearable media, my thesis exam- complete. After graduation, I will return strategies for partnerships with private Mariam Elba: I spent an engaging year elist Nancy Kricorian’s rewarding writing ed my research at universities in Florida, ined the political potential of Snapchat to my home country and start working for multinational firms and regional develop- looking at urban spaces and class iden- workshop on composing family stories New York, and Pennsylvania. within the context of Israel-Palestine. I’m the Danish Refugee Council as a Report- ment banks. During the spring, I worked tities in contemporary Egypt. I finished and histories. I wrote my Master’s thesis currently searching for work in the hu- Simone Rutkowitz: I enjoyed my final ing Officer on the Turkish-Syrian border at the Council on Foreign Relations under my thesis in which I looked at the de- on Palestinian diary writing, or Palestin- manitarian sector and hold an internship year at the Kevorkian Center and my Ambassador Robert Blackwill, provid- velopment of communities of Egyptians, ian refugees’ everyday chronicling of position at PAX for Peace, working on Emily Bader: After an exhilarating sum- work as a research assistant for Joanne ing research support on US-Israeli and Syrians, Iraqis, and others in a private, their experiences under occupation and human rights advocacy targeted at the mer studying Arabic at the Sijal Institute Nucho. This summer I am finishing my US-China relations. This May, I began a gated housing compound on the outskirts siege, and I was awarded the Falak Sufi United Nations. in Amman, Jordan in 2015, I returned thesis, “Reading the UAE through Brown full-time position as a Risk Analyst at JP- of Cairo. Additionally, this fall semester Memorial Essay prize for an abridged to KEVO and commenced my thesis Book Magazine.” Morgan Chase & Co. here in Manhattan. I I explored social infrastructures that are version of this work. This summer, I will research on U.S. aid to Egypt. When I work on a team that coordinates firm-wide emerging in Cairo and Alexandria. This spend four weeks living with a Jordani- Nadeen Shaker: Last year, I have grown wasn’t occupied by my research, work- risk policies, both internally and in coor- past spring I worked on looking the so- an family and studying Arabic in Amman so much as a journalist and scholar. I’ve shops, or coursework, I spent my time

dination with domestic and international cial, political, and economic context of at Qasid Institute. I plan on applying for written extensively about Egypt’s prison Student News working various KEVO events and intern- regulators. the development of sha’abi music in doctorates this coming fall. system and explored other exciting ideas. ing at the Bob Woodruff Foundation. This Egypt. I am now looking forward to work- I won an honorable mention in the Falak summer I plan to continue my work at the Jessica DeOliveira: During the 2015- Brian Gareth Lewis: I have thoroughly ing with public and/or independent media Sufi Essay award competition, and my Foundation while pursuing a position at 2016 academic year, I completed my enjoyed my final year with the Kevorki- and applying for a PhD in anthropology thesis will be published soon. I interned a non-government organization whose thesis analyzing cooperation and coordi- an Center, during which I developed my sometime in the near future. for CNN and through other classes dis- work is focused on the Middle East. nation amongst the member states of the thesis analyzing the contemporary rein- Student News 30 31 estinian refugee camps in South Lebanon. While Alexander Schinis: I had a tremendous year at chance to engage with people across pro- working in the camp I hope to look at the politiciza- Kevo developing my Arabic as well as studying fessions - from professors to journalists to tion of water and the ways in which different water the Qur’an, Islam, and fine arts in Syria. This year I artists - which really challenged my own MA Student News: Class of 2017 sites and infrastructures create a new mapping of was also fortunate enough to begin working as an career goals. Most recently, I’ve been cov- Saghar Bozorgi: I had an interesting but tough This summer, I will also be researching for my the- to expand my interests while also having a clear- the camp configuration itself. editor with the online publication Muftah, where I ering Dana Bayramı, a special Bayram, or first year! At the end of the year I had the fasci- sis on Gnawa reggae and Berber metal in Moroc- er idea of what I want to write for my thesis. This write critical and expository pieces about Middle festival, celebrated by AfroTurks. In terms of nating opportunity to continue my project on ear- co. summer I am spending a few weeks in California Kelley O’Dell: This summer I will be conducting Eastern affairs. Over the summer, I will continue this summer, I’ll be heading to Iran for two ly elections in Iran while employing the insights to interview the Iranian Americans of Orange Coun- research in Beirut for my tentative thesis topic—ex- my work with Muftah as well as beginning re- weeks in July to pursue Persian language gained in my classes. I tried writing on a different Clare Busch: I received the 2015-2016 academic ty while also visiting some museums on the East ploring how humanitarian framings of “gay raids” search on my thesis, which will revolve around the study. topic: the use of Persian secondary sources by his- year FLAS fellowship, which allowed me to focus Coast. Of course, I will also be expanding my cu- in Lebanon obfuscate both the Lebanese state’s crisis in Syria. torians who work on Iran. For summer 2016, I am on and improve my Turkish speaking and writing linary repertoire since picking up cooking this past oppression of Syrian refugees and the United Gabriel Young: A very stimulating first year at the working on my thesis comparing the experience of abilities. I also interned for the magazine Women year. I hope the next year will prove as stimulating Nations’ pathologizing of straight male Muslim Kasper van Laarhoven: This year I took courses Kevorkian Center deepened my interest in devel- elections for the first and second Iranian parliament Across Frontiers as a writer and social media fellow. and challenging as the first! refugees as terrorists. For five weeks I will also be at both the Near Eastern and the Journalism de- opment politics, political economy, and modern (around 1906 and 1909) in different cities. I hope to I also wrote for Bedford + Bowery and Al-Jazeera working for LEAP, a program that works to em- partments. I have worked on, among other things, Egyptian history - all fields which will feature in check a number of Iranian archives/libraries in sup- English. This summer I received an ARIT fellowship Ghayde Ghraowi: During the school year, I began power Palestinian refugees in Southern Lebanon the plight of Eritrean refugees and the informal my thesis on labor at the Aswan High Dam. I will port of this research. I am also teaching Elementary for research and language study in Turkey. In ad- work on the Jack G. Shaheen archive’s digitization through educational enrichment. economy of Beirut. Tying into this last topic, I will spend this summer studying Arabic in Jordan on Persian and plan to continue during the summer. dition to conducting my thesis research, I hope to project. This summer, with the support of FLAS travel this summer to Lebanon to make a short a Critical Language Scholarship, traveling in the publish additional stories on Turkish politics. funding, I’ll be studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. Ada Petiwala: I was grateful to receive a FLAS fel- documentary film on the lives of the people of region, and preparing applications to doctoral Jesse Brent: In my first year at NYU I took classes lowship for Arabic this past year. I also worked with Beirut in the light of the influx of Syrian refugees, programs in History and Middle Eastern Studies. I on Nationalism and the Nation-State, Musical Eth- Aristo Fatwan: My first year at Kevo has been Mone Makkawi: In this first year of my MA, I’ve fo- the NYU Speaking Freely Online program as an focusing on Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian res- would like to thank our graduate students, faculty, nography, and Comparative Politics in the Middle nothing short of incredible. From the classes on cused on expanding my understanding on issues Arabic coach and continued freelance translating idents alike. and staff for providing such a welcoming commu- East and North Africa. I received a FLAS grant to rethinking the Middle East to digitizing the Jack of biopolitics, infrastructures, borders, and camps. and editing. I am hoping to continue my research nity of friends and scholars, and for making my study Arabic over the summer in Fes, Morocco. G. Shaheen Collection, I have had the opportunity This summer I will be continuing my work in the Pal- on Bollywood and Indian culture in Egypt this sum- Olga Verlato: During my first year at the Kevork- time in New York thus far so enjoyable! mer despite being refused entry to the country. ian Center, I had the chance to deepen my un- derstanding of the pre- and modern Middle East Sabahat Zakariya: My year at Kevo taught me Layla Quran: I enjoyed writing and working through the lens of material history and the study much more than I had bargained for, both inside around the Kevorkian Center and New York at of media flow and reproduction. In particular, I and outside the class. Problems and Methods and large this year. Throughout the year, I focused on focused on the development and circulation of Tahira Naqvi’s Advanced Urdu class helped me labor and minorities and in the spring I interned printed media in turn of the century-Egypt, a topic focus on comparative literature work I intend to do for the UN bureau of Al Jazeera English. I will be that I will expand for my thesis during the summer in the future. In the summer I will be working on in Jordan this summer writing for the Associated through archival research on Egyptian newspa- my thesis on the response of Pakistani urban and Press in Amman and conducting research on mi- pers and advertising. I will also attend a MSA social infrastructures to a rising class of single and grant domestic workers in the country. course at the International Language Institute in divorced women in Pakistan. Cairo. This year, I presented a paper at the ME- Matthew Reynolds: This summer, I will be a stu- SAAS Graduate Student Conference at Columbia dent affairs intern at Global Maximum Educational University, and combined my studies with working Opportunities, a startup company based in New experiences at the Richard Ettinghausen Library York that administers study abroad programs in and as Research Assistant in the department. various locations. I also plan to conduct prelim- inary research for my M.A. thesis. Thanks to the Zavier Wingham: As a Fulbright Student generosity of the Kevorkian Center, I look forward Researcher, I’ve been in Turkey for the past to returning in the fall as a FLAS fellow in Arabic. year, researching AfroTurks - the descen- Student News dants of African slaves from the Ottoman Empire. During my time here, I’ve had a

Student News The MA class of 2017 begins at NYU 32 33 PhD Student News Faculty News Begum Adalet: This year, which tion of a greater variety of selec- Daniel Fleming: My work strad- inar on Islamic Art and Architec- Robert Bell: This academic year marked my Isaac Hand: In the fall I presented my research Berthelot Trust Fellowship through the MEIS De- was my first at the Kevorkian Cen- tions from modern classics such dles questions about ancient ture at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai first in the Joint History and Middle Eastern Stud- on Turkish Panorama paintings and Ottoman partment, which helped me successfully defend ter, I taught two courses, “Tech- as Sinekli Bakkal, Huzur, Anayurt Israel in its regional context and and a one-week seminar in the ies PhD program, which has proved to be an nostalgia at the Middle Eastern Studies Associ- my dissertation. During part of the fall 2015 term nologies of Development in the Oteli, Berci Kristin as well as to ancient Syria and Mesopotamia, series From the Miraculous to enlightening and stimulating experience. While ation Conference in Denver and the University I was a graduate research fellow at NYU-Shang- Middle East,” and “US and the historical and critical essay selec- working in both cases especial- the Mundane, at Ashkal Alwan in in courses I worked to develop and expand the of Illinois at Chicago’s Discipline and Doctrine hai. In the spring 2016 term, I taught interme- Middle East.” I also offered the tions. At the advanced level, we ly from written sources. On each Beirut. While a fellow at the Wis- scope and horizons of my potential dissertation Conference. This year I have continued research diate and advanced Persian and was invited to Thesis Writing Workshop for our watched and discussed the ten side, I have been engaged in senschaftskolleg, I co-organized topic, a potential chapter of which I have been into eugenicist city officials in early Republican give lectures on my research at Harvard and MA students. In each experience, episodes of the soap opera Çilek long-term research with one col- a workshop on Artifacts and Is- working on since February of 2016. For the sum- Turkey. This summer I will be studying Turkish Swarthmore. Beginning in August 2016, I will I very much enjoyed the opportu- Kokusu (Smell of Strawberries) league. Sophie Demare-Lafont, lamic Law, with Leor Halevi of mer of 2016 I look forward to informally work- and visiting archives in Istanbul. have a postdoc with the Volkswagen and Mellon nity to interact with engaged, rig- in addition to our regular work. a specialist in Near Eastern law Vanderbilt University. In October, shopping this chapter as well preparing for my Foundations and be affiliated with the Europe in orous, and creative students. In All Turkish classes at all levels at the University of Paris 2 and I organized a panel and delivered 2017 comprehensive exams. I have also been Ilker Hepkaner: The academic year of 2015- the Middle East--Middle East in Europe (EUME) the fall, my article, “Questions of benefited from the caring and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes a paper on “Globalism Before Eu- awarded with a fellowship by the American In- 2016 has been an incredible year for me. I fin- program in Berlin for a year. Modernization: Coding Speech, enthusiastic work of our Fulbright Etudes, and I pursue an alterna- rope?: Object Histories and Medi- stitute of Iranian Studies to study Persian inten- ished my coursework and second comprehen- Regulating Attitude in Survey Re- assistant Merve Zalgi who could tive political and social perspec- eval Ethiopian-Indian Contacts,” sively in Iran and am currently awaiting a visa to sive exams in the fall semester. Meanwhile, I was Jennifer Varela: During the academic year of search” was published in Com- provide images and sound for tive on what is usually considered in the conference Africa-Asia: travel to the country in July and August. While in research assistant to Professor Ella Shohat, and 2015/2016, I taught undergraduate students parative Studies in Society and any reference we ran into. She a world of centralized authority, A New Axis of Knowledge, at Iran I also hope to begin archival research. I have learned a lot from her work. At MESA in for the first time in my role as teaching assis- History. I spent most of the year tutored students individually and through the vehicle of a single the University of Accra, Ghana, Denver, I presented a paper on a panel about tant for Arang Keshavarzian’s course, Politics of revising my book manuscript, provided them with opportunities small city and its archives. Our a topic on which I also spoke at Samuel Dolbee: I spent part of the fall at NYU museums in the Middle East with colleagues the Middle East. The experience was immensely which was discussed at the Ju- for conversation, for individual first major publication from this the Universities of Cambridge London, where I both worked on my dissertation from NYU. During the spring semester, I held a valuable and enjoyable, especially when I was nior Scholars Book Development reading and help with research. work appeared this year: “Emar and Oxford. In October, I spoke and periodically haunted the National Archives Global Research Initiative Fellowship and I was invited to lecture the students on material related Workshop organized by the Proj- I’m thankful for the wonderful work Chronology and Scribal Streams: in a conference on Buddhist and at Kew. In the spring I presented a paper on lo- away for my archival research and fieldwork on to my research interests. I also presented at the ect on Middle East Political at she’s done. I’ve enjoyed my work Cosmopolitanism and Legal Di- Muslim Encounters in Premod- custs and borders at the American Society for Turkish Jews in Palestine/Israel and Turkey. annual MESA conference in Denver on a panel Princeton University in Novem- as the Director Of Undergraduate versity,” Revue d’Assyriologie ern South Asia at the University Environmental History conference, which oc- consisting of fellow MEIS PhD students and fac- ber. I also began writing a new ar- Studies this year, including at- 109 (2015) 45-77. On the Israel of Lausanne and in November curred during four gloriously rain-free days in Shimrit Lee: This academic year, I passed my ulty. Concerning my dissertation, I began work ticle about land reform in postwar tending graduation ceremonies in side, Lauren Monroe of Cornell delivered a paper on marble Seattle. Over the summer I’m teaching a course final comprehensive exam in fulfillment of my on both my preliminary research and my pro- Turkey and presented this project May. I thank Subrina Moorley for University and I are in the last mosques and modernism at the on modern Iraqi and Syrian history at NYU. And PhD requirements. I presented papers at the spectus. Several drafts later, I will be defending at the Annual Meeting of the In- the dedicated and nurturing way stages of completing a major ar- University of Basel. In December, next year, with support of the Mellon/ACLS Dis- annual meetings of the International Studies As- in the upcoming fall term. ternational Studies Association in she helps our undergraduates at ticle to be titled, “Greater Israel I delivered a keynote talk, “Seeing sertation Completion Fellowship, I’ll be complet- sociation and the Popular Culture Association/ March. I look forward to another the office. In terms of professional and Little Israel: Reading Biblical Time: Alteration, Cumulation and ing my dissertation (in sha Allah). American Culture Association. I received the Alex Winder: In early 2016, the Institute for Pal- productive, stimulating year at the service, I was on the Book Prize Literature with Historical Interest.” the Palimpsest Artwork,” to the GSAS Predoctoral Summer Fellowship to con- estine Studies published (in Arabic) Between Kevorkian. Committee for the Association of conference Spolia Reincarnated: Alya El Hosseiny: This year I’ve defended my duct preliminary fieldwork in June, as well as Jaffa and Mount Hebron: The Diaries of Muham- Ottoman and Turkish Studies as Finbarr Barry Flood: During the Second Life of Spaces, Materials, dissertation prospectus and advanced to can- the Kathryn Davis Fellowship to study Hebrew at mad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Shrouf, 1943–1962, which I Sibel Erol: I’ve offered six Turkish well as on this year’s MESA Pro- academic year 2015-16 I was a Objects in Anatolia from Antiquity didacy. I presented a paper at the MLA in Aus- Middlebury College. In August, I will present my edited and introduced. I recently returned from courses this year, four of which gram Committee, preparing the fellow of the Wissenschaftskol- to the Otttomans, at Koç Universi- tin this past January, and my review of Mervat research at a Science and Technology Studies a trip to Palestine, to launch the book, and Cy- were at the advanced textual lev- program for next year’s meeting leg zu Berlin, working on a book ty in Istanbul. In May, I presented Hatem’s monograph, Literature, Gender and conference (4S/EASST) in Barcelona, and in the prus, where I presented at the International Auto/ el. In the fall, we read Sabahattin in November in Boston. I continue provisionally entitled Islam and “Islam and Image: Paradoxical Nation-Building, was published by the Arab fall I will participate in a panel I organized on “Is- biography Association Conference. I have also Ali’s Kürk Mantolu Madonna (The to serve on the board of the Insti- Image: Polemics, Theology and Histories,” as the annual lecture Studies Journal in its spring 2016 issue. Finally, rael’s Arms Industry” for the Middle East Studies been awarded the Carola Collier Berthelot Dis- Madonna in a Fur Coat), the pe- tute of Turkish Studies. My essay Modernity. When I arrived in Ber- of the Institute for Advanced Faculty News I was awarded the Humanities Research Fellow- Association (MESA) annual conference. sertation Writing Fellowship for the 2016-17 ac- rennial run-away bestseller origi- on Sevgi Soysal’s “Hanife” came lin in August, I co-taught with Jas Study, Central European Univer- ship at NYU Abu Dhabi for the academic year ademic year. nally published in 1943 together out in the fall in a collection of es- Elsner of Oxford University in the sity, Budapest. During the course 2016-2017. Amir Moosavi: During the 2015–16 academ- with Peyami Safa’s 1931 novel says on her works entitled Isyan- summer school Globalized Clas- of the year, I also gave public ic year, I was a recipient of the Carola Collier Fatih-Harbiye. We devoted the kar Neşe (Rebellious Joy). sics at the Humboldt University. lectures on this and other topics spring semester to the explora- During the year, I taught a sem- at NYU Abu Dhabi and various Student News 34 35 venues in Germany and Switzer- Prof. Brinkley Messck). Interest was published from 1906-1931. at the airport, ordering food in a for The first annual New Fairy- sit (2014 University of Pennsylva- governance of Tehran, and I Center for Latin American and land. In May I spoke on “Euro- in the field is growing remarkably I have also remained part of a restaurant, renting an apartment tales & Fables from the UAE nia Press) and Theorizing Sound co-authored an essay with Narg- Caribbean Studies). I had the pean Moments in the Making of and our participants come from Germany-based, international and asking for directions. I used Writing Competition. I also trans- Writing (in press, Wesleyan UP). es that examined Iran’s policy opportunity for a first-time visit Islam’s ‘Image Problem’”, at the many disciplines (and countries). team of scholars writing on sa- materials from Youtube videos, lated ‘The man who committed I am also translating and editing during and the Arab Uprisings to NYU/Abu Dhabi, to partici- Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. cred shrines in the Caucasus pop music and songs, cooking suicide’, a short story written by a volume entitled Poetic Justice: that will be published this sum- pate in the conference, “Islam in The year also saw the publication Jeff Goodwin: The 2015–16 aca- region. I was grateful to receive recipes, commercials, blogs, Morton Marcus for professor Jim An Anthology of Moroccan Con- mer. An essay of mine on the Global Perspective.” While there, of several articles, and reviews, demic year was my twenty-fifth at a fellowship from the American soap operas (mussalsalat) and Savio in NYUAD writing center temporary Poetry. With the help urban process and restructuring we were treated to a wonderful among them “Staging Traces of NYU. In the fall, I taught a course Council of Learned Societies to- proverbs. The result was amaz- for his workshops and film proj- of the Kevorkian Center and Gre- of port cities in the Persian Gulf few days of learning about this Histories Not Easily Disavowed,” on terrorism (which included ma- ward the Molla Nesreddin work ing. Students were speaking the ects. The translation will also find ta Scharnweber, two poets in this will be published this year in an region—especially fascinating in Eva Respini, ed., Walid Raad, terial on U.S. state-terrorism, the and will be on leave for the 2016- dialect in the first week of class- a home in the literary archive of volume—Driss Mesnaoui and Id- edited volume on Gulf cities and for someone, like me, whose the catalog of an exhibition held Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and 2017 year. es. Students who had no expo- Morton Marcus’ work that is be- riss Aissa—visited NYU during allowed me to advance my ongo- research focuses on the “New at The Museum of Modern Art Al Qaeda) as well as a freshman sure to a dialect before were ing curated by Mark Ong. Foto- the PEN Writer’s Festival in May. ing research on the Gulf region World.” I published an essay in fall 2015. Other publications seminar on the thought of Karl Hala Youssef Halim: With two communicating in Egyptian, re- Evidence publishing company in the twentieth century. Finally, I about the mourning rituals of Mu- included an essay on the histo- Marx. In the spring, I taught an of my graduate students in MEIS cording their own conversations published 13 pics (out of 63 Philip Kennedy: I had a busy re-joined the editorial committee harram, called “Hosay” in the Ca- riography of Islamic ornament in undergraduate course on politics defending their doctoral disser- and sending them as sound files images) from my book ‘Popular year hosting just under 70 events of Middle East Report (MERIP), ribbean, and a review of the an- Gülru Necipoğlu & Alina Payne, and power and a graduate sem- tations, fall semester 2015 got for me to evaluate and give feed- Proverbs’ for the book Occupied at the NYUAD Institute. I took with whom I worked in the 2000s. thology, Crescent Over Another eds., Histories of Ornament: inar on political sociology. I also off to an auspicious start. One of back. Heritage students learned Pleasures by Tanya Habjouqa. part in several colloquia through I dived into the deep end by Horizon: Islam in Latin America, From Global to Local, an opinion published the third edition of The the projects I worked on during a lot about their own dialect and Some publications of 2015–2016 the year, including meetings on writing an essay on the political the Caribbean, and Latino USA. piece on the transmission of me- Social Movements Reader: Cas- my sabbatical in spring 2016 told me that they understood include Kalima wa nagham, Nabati Poetry, the Charisma of economy of the “Iran Deal” for I also continued working on my dieval architectural knowledge es and Concepts (Wiley-Black- was serving as guest editor of a their parents’ converstaions Textbook for beginner learners the Book, Publishing in the Arab a special issue on social class- current monograph project, Sa- in Ars Orientalis, and an essay well), coedited with James Jas- special issue of Alif: Journal of much better at home during and of Arabic with DVD, answer key, world and the Library of Arabic es and struggles in Iran. This cred Sacrilege: Religion and the on early Islamic wall-paintings per, which includes some new Comparative Poetics, on litera- after this class. They understood volume 1 and 2, Emirati Ramsah Literature. This last event took essay was based on a roundta- View from Caribbean Obeah and as talismans in Representations. readings on the Arab uprisings. ture and journalism. I also gave better the relation between writ- with DVD, Textbook for Emirati me back to the American Ori- ble talk I gave at the Kevorkian Hosay, doing some additional During the year, two books for I will be on leave next year, com- an invited lecture, titled “Interna- ten and spoken Arabic, between dialect and culture (Kuttab Pub- ental Society after many years. Center in the Fall as part of the research along the way. I’m also which I had written forewords pleting a wide-ranging book on tionalist and Surrealist Inflections language and culture and most lishing House) 2015, Colloquial I had an article on Abbasid his- Iranian Studies Initiative. ISI delighted that I was able to assist appeared, Azra Akšamija’s, political violence and terrorism, in Edwar al-Kharraṭ’s Resistant importantly, they spoke Arabic Palestinian/Jordanian Arabic toriography and fiction accept- continued it activities, including three of my graduate students in Mosque Manifesto: Propositions which will include material on Is- Literary Modernity,” at Cornell with confidence! Having dialect with DVD, (Amazon) 2015. Cur- ed by the Journal of Abbasid a workshop for graduate student the publication of their entries for Spaces of Coexistence, and raeli state-terrorism, Palestinian University’s Institute for Compar- classes offered at NYU is a great rently I am working on two proj- Studies and delivered a finished development that was organized on Islam in the Encyclopaedia Kathleen James-Chakraborty’s resistance-terrorism, and U.S. ative Modernities. opportunity that graduate and ects that involve teaching Arabic book MS to Edinburgh University in collaboration with colleagues of Latin American Religions (in edited volume, India in Art in Ire- state-terrorism, including drone undergraduate students should through integration of Emirati Press entitled Recognition in the at Princeton University and the press). Finally, I was fortunate to land. warfare. Amani Hassan: Last year I make use of before graduating. Films and Popular Emirati prov- Arabic Narrative Tradition—it is University of Pennsylvania. For receive a residential fellowship taught my usual three Arabic The plan is to continue offering erbs, more information about due out within weeks. I enjoyed the spring semester I developed at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Michael Gilsenan: Administra- Bruce Grant: This past aca- courses in the Spring and anoth- a dialect class every semester. publications, see also www.ara- teaching an eclectic new course a new graduate course. This Institute for Advanced Study, tively last year was dominated demic year I was pleased to be er three in the Fall. It was in the The Arabic program will alternate biyyaat.com. in the fall using books from LAL. seminar was titled “The Political where I will be spending the next for me by our Law and Society able to work with a new round fall that I taught a new and inter- between Levantine and Egyptian It was enjoyable—I will certainly Economy of the Middle East,” academic year. search which led to the appoint- of excellent Kevorkian students, esting course that had not been classes which are two of the ma- Deborah Kapchan: I gave the elect to teach it again soon! which covered issues such as ment of Dr. AlAtas who will join both in my graduate seminar on offered at NYU for more than 15 jor dialects. keynote lecture at the Interna- capitalist integration, the role of Mikiya Koyagi: The 2015–2016 MEIS in the Fall. He will be a political anthropology, as well years. It was an introduction to tional Society for Ethnology and Arang Keshavarzian: During the state in the process off indus- academic year was my first year terrific new colleague. Chairing as in regular visits to the center. Egyptian dialect (Cairene Ara- Nasser Isleem: This was a very Folklore in Zagreb, Croatia. It the 2015–2016 academic year trialization, and the formation of at NYU. I taught three new cours- the committee was a pleasure I greatly enjoyed the chance to bic). I was thrilled to teach my di- busy year for me. Along with was entitled “Slow Ethnography, three PhD students with whom class solidarities and subjectivi- es, including a graduate seminar thanks to my colleagues Sal- meet new faces through an invi- alect at NYU. The class focused teaching courses on MSA, Shami Slow Activism: Lingering in Par- I have been working with, Amy ties. I hope to continue teaching on modern Iranian history and ly Engle Merry of Anthropology tation to participate in the “Notes entirely on conversational skills. and Emirati dialects to students, adox & Listening in the Longue Kapit, Azam Khatam, and Narg- this seminar in coming years and historiography. I also taught an and Zachary Lockman of MEIS. from the Field” seminar. In re- I tried to build on my students’ I taught Arabic 101 to faculty Durée” (Utopias, Realities, Heri- es Bajoghli, completed their to develop an undergraduate undergraduate course entitled The seventh annual workshop on search, I continued work on the prior knowledge of Standard Ar- and Emirati dialect and culture tages: Ethnographies for the 21st doctorates. Not only did they version as well. “Transnational Asia” in the Core

Islamic Law in Society was held role of satire in authoritarian set- abic to make the transition from to members of Tamkeen in Abu century). A short version of this all write highly original disserta- Curriculum. This course exam- Faculty News in May with Kevorkian and MEIS tings as seen through the life and MSA to speaking the Egyptian Dhabi. I also taught Emirati di- talk was published in the Inter- tions, but I had the opportunity Aisha Khan: This was a great ined the history of the idea of support, and this time with addi- work of Celil Memmedquluzade, dialect. Lessons revolved around alect and culture in Al-Ain city. national Journal of Middle Easter to work with two them on pub- year. My volume, Islam and the Asia in various parts of “Asia” tional sponsorship from George- editor of the Azeri-language, daily circumstances and real-life This summer I am teaching Ar- Studies in January 2106. I edited lishing collaborative projects. Americas, was published (with from Japan and China to Tur- town (through Prof. Jonathan Tbilisi-based, multi-regional situations such as shopping, go- abic 101 and 102. In 2015–2016 two recent volumes: Intangible Azam and I coauthored an es- a lovely book launch sponsored key and Iran, with a focus on the Brown) and Columbia (through journal, Molla Nesreddin, which ing to the doctor’s office, being I served as Arabic writing Jurist Rights: Cultural Heritage in Tran- say on decentralization and the by the Kevorkian Center and the nineteenth and twentieth centu- Faculty News 36 37 ries. I really enjoyed teaching a olations of, academic freedom. novelists. I continued as a Fellow finding out what people make of at mappingbourjhammoud.com. Queen. Publications this year manitarian Crisis and the Mixed at the University of Michigan, course that took so much time to These include growing (and ob- in the Women Mobilizing Memory Field Notes, which has been my I had two exciting opportunities include “Becoming Ottoman in Migration Flows of Refugees, Professor Evelyn Al-Sultany, organize from scratch. I hope to viously coordinated) efforts to workshop at Columbia’s Univer- main research and writing proj- to present my research at the 16th-century Aintab”, in Living Migrants and Returnees Cross- conducted a one-on-one inter- tailor this course for different lev- have state (and in Canada, pro- sity Center for the Study of Social ect over the past few years. American Anthropological As- in the Ottoman Realm: Every- ing the Red Sea and the Gulf view with me, highlighting my 40 els in the coming years. I should vincial) governments suppress Difference. I very much enjoyed sociation meetings this past fall day Life and Identity (Indiana of Aden.” With support from an years of research documenting also mention that I was fortunate free and open discussion of the being part of Kevo’s community Joanne Nucho: The 2015–2016 and at the Infrastructures in/of University Press); “Suleyman in NYUAD Research Enhance- and contesting damaging ste- to have two excellent recitation Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of passionate and engaged fac- academic term was an excit- the Middle East workshop we Aleppo”, in Turkish Language, ment Fund grant, I will be trav- reotypes. Later this year, I will at- instructors for the course. Both the advocacy of certain politi- ulty and students. ing year. As always, I enjoyed hosted at the Kevorkian Center Literature, and History: Travel- eling several times to Somalia, tend the annual American Arab Jennifer Pineo-Dunn and Maryam cal perspectives. Perhaps most watching another cohort of MA last month. The workshop pro- lers’ Tales, Sultans, and Scholars Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan in Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Rutner did a wonderful job lead- egregiously, in June 2016 Gover- Brooke Kroeger: I’ve contracted students complete their theses vided an exciting space to think since the Eighth Century (Rout- the coming year to conduct ex- conference and award five Sha- ing weekly recitation sections. In nor Andrew Cuomo of New York with Excelsior, the trade division and move on to graduate. It was about future directions in re- ledge); and nine articles in Dic- ploratory work for a longitudinal, heen scholarships to outstand- terms of research, in Fall 2015, issued an executive order creat- of SUNY Press, for publication of wonderful getting to know the search about critical infrastruc- tionnaire de l’Empire Ottoman. multi-sited ethnographic study of ing media scholars; I will also my article on railway travelers ing a blacklist of institutions and my fifth book, The Suffragents: new incoming MA students and tures like sanitation, electricity, Yemen’s current conflict through lecture at NYU and at the Univer- in early Pahlavi Iran came out companies allegedly advocating How Women Used Men to Get discussing what will become road networks and even tech- Nathalie Peutz: In the fall, I en- the perspectives of those uproot- sity of South Carolina. from The International Journal of for boycott, divestment or sanc- the Vote, for publication in 2017, their thesis research projects nical apparatuses like turnstiles joyed a Goddard Junior Faculty ed by it. Middle East Studies. I also had tions aimed at Israel, and barring and the GloJo program, which I this summer and next academ- in the context of broader social, Fellowship that allowed me pre- Ella Shohat: In the academic opportunities to share part of my departments and agencies of direct, is flourishing. Some high- ic year. I also taught two new political and economic process- cious time to write. I completed Everett Rowson: I was partic- year 2015–2016, two of my works research at various conferences. the state government from doing lights among our GloJo-Near courses—one course focusing es in the region and throughout three book chapters and an arti- ularly happy this year to be in- were republished in translation In addition, I had time to start business with them. Whatever Eastern Studies students and on critical studies of infrastruc- the world. As this is my last term cle that I will submit to IJMES in vited, for the third time, to give as Le Vittime Ebree del Sionis- working on a paper about the one thinks of the BDS campaign, alumni: Thalia Beaty (2015) has ture in the contemporary Middle serving as Director of Graduate the coming month. In the spring, a plenary lecture at the annual mo (Italian, originally published biography of the first Japanese this is crude McCarthyism and a Fulbright Fellowship for Young East, and another on the politics Studies, I would like to thank ev- I taught my “Anthropology and meeting of the American Oriental “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism hajji who traveled around the must be vigorously opposed as Professionals, based in Germa- of archives and collections. The eryone at the center and in the the Arab World” class, during Society, in March in Boston. My from the Standpoint of its Jew- world from South America to Pal- a grave threat to constitutionally ny; Layla Quran (2017) has the second course drew on NYU’s MEIS Department for being such which my students conducted previous talks were about “Love” ish Victims,” 1988) and Race in estine during the interwar period. protected free speech rights and AP summer internship in Am- extensive archive resources wonderful colleagues. My warm- interviews with a wide array of and “Sex”; this one was, less Translation: Kulturkämpfe rings Finally, since March 2016, I have to the principles of academic man; Yasmine Al-Sayyad (2015) at Tamiment and Fales as well est congratulations to the gradu- Abu Dhabi residents on behalf complicatedly, about “Travel,” um den postkolonialen Atlantik had the honor of serving as the freedom. is a full-time staffer at the New as the experiences of our es- ating MA students and my best of the Louvre Project. For my which gave me the opportunity (German, originally published Iranian Studies book review ed- Yorker; Jared Malsin (2013) be- teemed guest lecturer in class, wishes to all! “Extinction” core class, I had the to argue for the extraordinary Race in Translation: Culture Wars itor for The International Journal Nancy Kricorian: As writ- came Middle East bureau chief Guy Burak, scholar and Middle privilege of conducting another mobility of elites in medieval Is- around the Postcolonial Atlantic, of Middle East Studies. In addi- er-in-residence at the Kevorkian for Time, based in Cairo, and Eastern and Islamic Studies li- Leslie Peirce: In October I gave regional seminar on endangered lamic societies, due to the cen- 2012, co-authored with Robert tion to teaching and working with Center in the fall of 2015, I taught Eline Gordts (2011) has moved brarian. The breadth of student the Special Lecture at the formal species and language and music trifugal duty to make pilgrimage Stam). I contributed chapters graduate students, I devoted a a 5-week writing workshop enti- from World Editor of the Huffing- projects and the creative ways opening of the Centre for Gen- endangerment in Uganda. This to Mecca and the centripetal one to edited volumes, publishing fair amount of time this academic tled “Life Stories: Transforming ton Post to become community in which they approached re- der, Identity, and Subjectivity academic year, I presented my to spread knowledge of Islam “The Question of Judeo-Ara- year, as in past years, to my work Family and Oral Histories into editor for News Deeply. search questions in these two at Oxford University; the topic ongoing research on Yemen’s “as far as China”, as well as less bic(s): Itineraries of Belonging” as a member of the Middle East Narrative Non-Fiction and Fic- courses was incredibly inspiring. was “Writing biography with few Soqotra Archipelago locally, at ideologically charged motiva- in Languages of Modern Jewish Studies Association’s Committee tion.” I helped organize and par- Zachary Lockman: During the This year, I completed revisions sources and fewer models: The the Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi in tions such as making a buck with Cultures: Comparative Perspec- on Academic Freedom (CAF). ticipated in a panel discussion 2015–2016 academic year I for my upcoming book, Everyday case of an Ottoman concubine.” the Fall and as part of a “Global long-distance trade. tives; “Critical Ethnic Studies, We all know what a grim period entitled “Art and Memory: Look- completed the manuscript of Sectarianism in Urban Lebanon: While at Oxford, I also acted as Gulf” workshop at NYUAD in the Identity Politics and the Right/ this is for the Middle East, with ing Back and Moving Forward on my latest book, Field Notes: The Infrastructures, Public Services commenter at a workshop on Spring. In November, Soqotra Jack Shaheen: Much of my time Left Convergence” in Critical catastrophic levels of human the Centennial of the Armenian Making of Middle East Stud- and Power that will be released Imperial Identities: Intersections was hit by two severe cyclones, this year has been spent work- Ethnic Studies; “The Red Atlan- suffering, massive violations of Genocide.” My prose poem “Let- ies in the United States; it was in November 2016 with Prince- and Transformations sponsored which destroyed many homes in ing on a screenplay for a pro- tic Dialogue: Response 1” (with human rights and escalating ter to Palestine (With Armenian published by Stanford Universi- ton University Press. I also com- by the Centre as part of the the community where I had lived. posed sequel to my Reel Bad Robert Stam) in Red Pedago- assaults on academic freedom. Proverbs)” appeared in the an- ty Press in spring 2016. Having pleted editing my first feature opening events. In December I In February, I appreciated being Arabs documentary. If funding gy: Native American Social and My CAF colleagues have done thology EXTRAORDINARY REN- a book published can feel a bit length non-fiction film, The Nar- gave the Natalie Zemon Davis able to attend an emergency re- requests come through, film- Political Thought; as well as es- a truly heroic job of monitoring DITION: (American) Writers on anticlimactic, because the con- row Streets of Bourj Hammoud, Annual Lectures at Central Eu- sponse workshop and fundraiser ing may begin mid-October. In says in journals: “Genealogies of

and protesting infringements of Palestine, which was published centration and hard work abrupt- about the working class Beirut ropean University in Budapest. for Soqotra hosted by the Arab March, I lectured on perceptions Orientalism and Occidentalism: Faculty News academic freedom across the by O/R books in December ly come to an end and there en- suburb of Bourj Hammoud. The Entitled “Aspects of Captivity in Regional Centre for World Her- of Arabs and Muslims at Georgia Sephardi Jews, Muslims, and the region. The component of CAF 2015. The Center for Fiction in sues a lull before one begins to affiliated website, which was the World of the Ottomans”, the itage in Bahrain. This summer, Southern University, focusing Americas” in Studies in Ameri- that focuses on North America Manhattan hosted a book launch receive feedback on it, whether designed with the extensive series’ three lectures focused I will spend most of the time in especially on Hollywood Cinema can Jewish Literature: a Journal has tried to do its part as well, event at which I read alongside a directly from colleagues or in help of research assistant Sim- on Desirable Bodies, Captivity Abu Dhabi preparing for my new and Islamophobia. And in April, of Literary Criticism and Theory; by combating threats to, and vi- roster of distinguished poets and book reviews. I look forward to one Rutkowitz, can be viewed as Opportunity, and A Captive research project: “Yemen’s Hu- my good friend and colleague and “The Question of Judeo-Ar- Faculty News 38 39 abic” in the Arab Studies Jour- well as the Forum’s Karl Kahane gave “The Making of an Archive” ters in separate edited volumes Studies for Amanda Islambouli, For many of the participants, attempts to resolve water rights on the bodily capacities, ways of nal. Some of my essays have Public Lecture “Orientalist Ge- as a presentation and conversa- (one on cellular telephony in Is- “The World Bank and Morocco’s this was a first look-back and issues have failed. Knowing knowing and hierarchies of pow- also been republished, includ- nealogies: The Split Arab/Jew tion with documentary filmmaker rael/Palestine, one on territorial Implementation of Education- debate, and thus emotionally how and where negotiations fail er past and present that have ing in translation, such as “Dis- Figure Revisited;” I discussed Avi Mograbi at the Series “The exceptions, and three generally al Reforms: Curing Inequality taxing as well; for many of the is essential if successful resolu- been encouraged through sto- located Identities: Reflections “Orientalist Genealogies: The Trouble with Avi…” Musée Jeu dealing with the relationship be- through Collaboration”; a BA the- students, this was a first expo- tion is to be achieved. My book ries, images, architecture, and of an Arab-Jew” (1992), which Split Arab/Jew Figure Revisited” de Paume; I participated in the tween territorial and virtual bor- sis in PRD (Politics, Rights, De- sure to the intersection of jour- seeks to illustrate a means to ritualization. I have been giving appeared in the multilingual in conjunction with the Jumana Modern Languages Association ders) as well as gave a number velopment), Global Liberal Stud- nalistic study, oral history, and the peaceful resolution of nat- talks on aspects of the projects, volume Cousins: Jewish-Arab Manna Exhibition and Speaker Conference’s inaugural, pre-or- of talks. An extremely rewarding ies, for Satchie Snellings, “The academic research. I hope that ural resource-based conflicts. including revival of medieval sa- Identities in Postcolonial Cultural Series at the Chisenhale Gallery, ganized panel, Diasporic Com- experience was the release of Convergence of Homosexuality the recorded videos will serve as Through a detailed study of the cred stories of filial prowess, and Discourse (German, Cousinen: Mosaic Rooms; I lectured on munities, Transnational Publics, my co-edited volume, Gaza As and National Identity in the Is- a good source of information for Tigris-Euphrates water conflict, I new museums dedicated to the Jüdisch-Arabische Identitäten “Iraq, Trauma, and Artistic Prac- and the Global Arab, speaking Metaphor, published by Hurst raeli-Palestinian Conflict: Explor- scholars and historians for years explore the collective action di- virtue. In the late fall, a grant that im Postkolonialen Kulturellem Di- tices” at the Department of Art & on “The Place of the Arab Jew in in Spring 2016, which was a joy ing the Impact on Homosexual to come. Alongside my teaching lemmas confronting Middle East- I wrote for the Center for Religion skurs) in German and in Arabic. Public Policy Faculty Presenta- Postcolonial and Diasporic Arab to work on with twenty-one oth- Populations in Israel and the Oc- responsibilities, I continued to ern watercourses and reveal the and Media with Kali Handel- The same essay was included in tions Series; I presented recently Studies” for the Comparative er contributors. I am hoping to cupied Palestinian Territories”; manage Human Rights Watch’s bargaining bottlenecks where man, editor of the CRM’s online To Live in Two Worlds: the Pains published research in my lecture Literature and Cultural Studies check off a few things from my and a BA thesis in PRD, GLS, for Middle East and North Africa Di- negotiations fail. I develop an magazine The Revealer and our of Displacement and in Live “The Question of Judeo-Arabic” Global Arab and Arab American “writing to-do list” this summer Francesca Gelet, “From Com- vision, where our team’s time and original framework that explains program coordinator, received Encounters Magazine. “The In- at the Kevorkian Center, NYU; I Forum; and I delivered the open- and also catching some much munity to Society: Female Citi- attention is largely consumed bargaining failures and propos- funding from the Henry R. Luce vention of the Mizrahim” (1999) gave the opening lecture “Lost ing panel presentation, “Oriental- needed down-time before gear- zens and the Islamic State.” I am by the ongoing military conflicts es conditions for creating a new Initiative on Religion in Interna- was republished in A Compan- Homeland, Imaginary Returns: ist Genealogies: The Split Arab/ ing up for the year ahead. currently finishing a chapter for enflaming the region, particular- property rights regime among tional Affairs. The project, “Re- ion to the Anthropology of the Between Hebrew and Arabic” Jew Figure Revisited,” at the “Is- a book project, Cultures of War ly in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, watercourse states that offers a ligious Stakes in Digital Times: Middle East, alongside “The at the “Between Baghdad and lam in Global Perspective” con- Peter Valenti: This year I pub- in Graphic Novels. The chapter and Egypt. In March, I traveled route to governing their shared Scholars and Journalists in con- Mizrahi Cinema of Displace- Haifa: A Tribute to Sami Michael” ference, NYU Abu Dhabi. lished a chapter entitled “In is tentatively entitled “Children to Yemen to see first-hand the water resources in ways that versation,” will bring one post- ment” (originally published as a conference, Northwestern Uni- the Shadows of Prison: Sayy- of the Occupation, Generational effects of Saudi Arabia’s devas- are politically, economically and doc yearly for three years to work subsection of the postscript to versity; I presented “Orientalist Mark Smith: I have served for id Qutb’s Visions of a Perfect Legacies, and a Culture of Resis- tating aerial bombardment of the environmentally sound. Negoti- closely on The Revealer, burnish- Israeli Cinema, 2010). Likewise, Genealogies: The Split Arab/ sixteen years as Skirball Profes- World” in Great Books Written in tance in Joe Sacco’s Palestine.” country, and to interview victims , ating International Water Rights ing skills in public writing. This “A Voyage to Toledo: 25 Years Jew Figure Revisited” as part sor of Bible and Ancient Near Prison (McFarland, 2015). Also civil society leaders, and political offers both a timely contribution is a continuation of a previous After the ‘Jews of the Orient and of the Council on Middle East Eastern Studies in the Depart- over the summer I presented a Sarah Leah Whitson: This representatives. Human Rights to a matter of international con- grant on “Digital Religion” from Palestinians’ Meeting” (2014) Studies Colloquium Series, Yale ment of Hebrew and Judaic paper entitled “Writing Units in Spring, in my capacity of “Human Watch launched its call for an cern and important insights into Luce that brought journalists into was translated as “Eine Reise University; I delivered the open- Studies, but am now leaving the Foundation Sequence” at the Rights Activist in Residence”, I arms embargo against Saudi resource conflict in Turkey, Syria our academic milieu. Much of nach Toledo: 25 Jahre nach der ing panel presentation “The NYU to become Helena Profes- Liberal Studies Summer Sympo- had the opportunity to teach a Arabia based on the strength of and Iraq, countries of vital secu- the programming for that grant Konferenz, ‘Orientalische Jud- Janus-Faced Blackamoor: Fig- sor of Old Testament Literature sium on Writing, at NYU-London. course designed to explore the the evidence we documented of rity interest to the world at large. I was done in close cooperation en und Palästinenser’” in Inamo uring Africa and the Orient” at and Exegesis at Princeton Theo- In November I gave a talk at the year of the Morsy administration dozens of indiscriminate strikes also developed two new courses. with Kevorkian, and tracked me- magazine. Among my speaking “Black Portraiture[s] II: Imaging logical Seminary. My sixteenth LS Politics Club entitled “George through the testimonies of poli- in Yemen, which have killed The first focused on international diations of religion and political engagements, I participated in a the Black Body and Re-Staging book, Where the Gods Are: Spa- W. Bush’s Iraq War: The Gift ticians, activists, and journalists thousands of civilians. development and the second fo- life in the Middle-East. Looking discussion about the documen- Histories” conference, NYU; I tial Dimensions of Anthropomor- that Keeps on Giving.” Over the involved in politics at the time in cused on more in-depth explora- forward to more collaborations in tary film Forget Baghdad at the gave the keynote lecture “Dis- phism in the Biblical World, has course of AY2015–16 I have per- Egypt. The course was designed Muserref Yetim: During the tion of inequality and conflict as the future. Arab Film Festival in Berlin and orienting Cleopatra: A Modern just appeared from Yale Univer- formed a manuscript review for to give students a chance to 2015–2016 academic year, my the world currently faces severe served as a panel discussant Trope of Mediterranean Identity” sity Press. Cambridge University Press, and research particular incidents book, Negotiating International social and environmental crises on the subject of “Arab Jews in at the “Lines Between: Culture peer reviewed for Middle East during the year of the Morsy ad- Water Rights: Resource Conflict and growing inequality, which Postcolonial Cultural Discourse and Empire in the Eastern Med- Helga Tawil Souri: This has felt Journal. I also served as a judge ministration by interviewing first- in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, was have become major concerns – Who is Representing Whom?” iterranean” conference co-spon- like a busier than usual academ- for the Policy Case Competition hand witnesses and participants published by I.B. Tauris. Trans- for developing and developed at the same event; I presented sored by The Richard Stockton ic year, and was also my first of the NYU Politics Society in who had ground-floor experienc- boundary watercourses account countries alike. “Islamophobia” at the NYU Art & College of New Jersey and the full year as Kevorkian director. I April, and prior to that served as es to relate. We were fortunate for an estimated 60 percent of Public Policy Colloquium semi- European University; I lectured taught two undergraduate cours- a member of the MA Admissions to have the Kevorkian Center’s global freshwater flow and sup- Angela Zito: I’ve been on leave

nar; I gave the keynote lecture on “Genealogies of Fear: Jews, es in the Fall in the department Committee for the Hagop Kev- incredible support to bring sev- port the livelihoods of hundreds in academic year 2015–2016 Faculty News “The Question of Judeo-Ara- Muslims, and the West” as part of Media, Culture, and Commu- orkian Center for Near Eastern eral of the speakers to New York of millions of people worldwide. and spent the fall semester as a bic—Between Jewish Studies of the Lecture Series “La Peur: nication: Mediating Israel-Pales- Studies. Furthermore, this year I to appear in person, and the ac- Yet the indeterminate status of visiting fellow at NYU Shanghai. and Arab Studies” at the Bruno Raisons et Déraisons” at the tine and The Cultural Geography have served on three thesis com- tive engagement of a wide vari- water rights in many interna- There I worked on a new project Kreisky Forum’s “Arab-Jewish Musée Des Civilisations De l’Eu- of Commodities which focused mittees: an MA thesis in Center ety of Egyptians with contesting tional watercourses presents a about Forms of Filiality in China, a Engagements” conference, as rope Et De La Méditerranée; I on coffee. I published five chap- for European and Mediterranean views about “what happened.” continuing problem and many book-length collection of essays Faculty News 40 41 Studies and Director of Globalization and NEW BOOKS SPECIAL EVENTS International Affairs Program, Bard College

Art and Memory: Looking Back and America & Its Unfit: Eugenics Then & Now 2015–2016 Events Archive Moving Forward on the Centennial of the series featuring new, groundbreaking Mindy Fullilove, Columbia University; Vasuki Armenian Genocide publications with relevance to the field Nesiah, NYU; N Ordover, author, American Paris, Benoit Challand, Sociology, The New How to Respond to the Targeting of A Nancy Kricorian, Writer in Residence, Hagop RESEARCH of Middle East Studies. Eugenics; Rebecca Amato, NYU; Noah School, Thalia Beaty, NES MA ‘15, Freelance AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Kevorkian Center, and Novelist; Silvina Der Fuller, NYU; Anika Paris, Queens College; Journalist and South Asian) Communities Meguerditchian, Artist; Diana Markosian, OFF THE RECORD Starve and Immolate: The Politics of Dylan Yeats, NYU; Paul Tran, [Tell Me What Lakshmi Sridaran, SAAALT Photographer; Hrag Vartanian, Founder, The Politics of the Square in the Arab Human Weapons (Columbia University Killed You]; Cara Page, artist and Audre With the Asian/Pacific/American Institute Hyperallergic Revolution Press, 2014) Lorde Project; Loretta Ross, organizer and Exhibition and Panel Discussion series designed to introduce students Asef Bayat, Sociology and Middle East Displacement. Borders. Home: Echoes Banu Bargu, Politics, The New School reproductive justice leader; Aimee Suzara, and others to the variety of ways Studies, University of Illinois of the Middle Eastern, North African, and poet; Tomie Arai, artist; Caron Atlas, Arts The Morsy Administration’s One Year in The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Aresearch is done, thus rendering the With the Urban Democracy Lab, Gallatin, Mexican experience and Democracy Project; Michael Oatman, Power: What Happened? Sectarianism (Cambridge University NYU Mark Gonzales; Bocafloja; Laura Torres- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ashley Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch; ‘methods’ aspects of research more Press, 2015) Rodriguez, Spanish and Portuguese, NYU Rahimi Syed, artist; Judy Tate, American Emad Shaheen, Georgetown University; transparent and concrete whilst engaging The Question of Judeo-Arabi Toby Matthiesen, Islamic and Middle Eastern With the Center for Latin American and Slavery Project; Tommy Pico, poet; Catherine Michael Hanna, The Century Foundation; with faculty across NYU who work on Ella Shohat, Art and Public Policy and MEIS, Studies, University of Cambridge Caribean Studies Bliss, University of California San Francisco; Amr Hamzawy, Stanford University; Yehia issues related to the Middle East. NYU Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine Simone Browne, University of Texas Hamed, Former Minister of Investment; Notes from the Field: The Translator’s In the Proximity of ISIS: Observations and the Foundations of US Policy in the Austin; Catherine Lee, Rutgers University; Abdelmawgoud Dardery, Former Member Authority Galore RESEARCH WORKSHOPS Middle East (Columbia University Press, Ayesha Omer, NYU; Cara Page, Audre of Parliament, Freedom and Justice Party; Nader Uthman, MEIS, NYU Ahmed Ferhadi, MEIS, NYU 2015) Lorde Project; R Joshua Scannell, CUNY Gamal Hishmat, Leading Member, Freedom Irene L. Gendzier, Political Science, Boston Graduate Center; Scott Bernstein, Center and Justice Party; Osama Rushdi, former Notes from Behind the Lens: Another Way Trauma without Victimhood? On Combat, he program’s academic cornerstone University for Neighborhood Technology; Ryan Gilliam, member of the National Council for Human of Seeing Killing, and Responsibility Downtown Art & FABnyc; Kelli Harding, Rights; Heba Morayef, Human Rights Helga Tawil-Souri, Media, Culture, and Nadia Abu El-Haj, Anthropology, Columbia features new unpublished work by With the Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern T Columbia University; LaToya Strong, New Defender; Wael Haddara, Former Advisor Communication and NES, NYU; Joanne University established and up-and-coming scholars American Center (MEMEAC) York Collective of Radical Educators; Marta to Mohamed Morsi; Salah Abdulmaksoud, Nucho, NES, NYU of the region. Promotes cross-regional The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the The New Political Regime of Turkey Moreno Vega,Caribbean Cultural Center Former Egyptian Minister of Information; and interdisciplinary engagement of Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Notes from the Field: On the Social Lives Koray Caliskan, Associate Professor of African Diaspora Institute and NYU; Kim David Kirkpatrick, The New York Times; Wael analytical issues in Middle Eastern Liberalism (Verso, 2016) of States and the Mobile Archive Politics at Bogazici University TallBear, University of Alberta; Jack Tchen, Qanduil, Editor-in-chief of al-Araby al-Jadeed Studies and beyond. Cihan Tuğal, University of California, Bruce Grant, Anthropology, NYU NYU Arabic edition; Amr Darrag, Former Minister Persian Lithographs of the 19th and Early Berkeley Subtitling Islam: Translation, Mediation, Co-sponsored by the NYU Department of of Planning and International Cooperation, Notes from the Sufi Files: Mystical 20th Centuries at NYU Critique Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements History, NYU Department of Social & Cultural Member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Universalism & Missionary Zeal: Guy Burak, Dagmar Riedel, Iranian Studies, Yasmin Moll, Anthropology, University of Analysis, Native Studies Forum, Tisch School Guidance Council, Secretary General of Elisha Russ-Fishbane, Hebrew and Judaic Columbia University and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Michigan; Marwan Kraidy, Communication, of the Arts Art and Public Policy Department, the 2013 Constituent Assembly; Khaled Studies, NYU With the Grey Art Gallery Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2015) University of Pennsylvania Joel Beinin, History, Stanford University NYU Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Dawoud, American University in Cairo, Al- Jet Set Frontiers: Tourism, Hijackings, Studies, and Urban Democracy Lab. Ahram Weekly, and former spokesperson Building Politics: Urban Renewal and the Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol (Archipelago Petrodollars, and the Politics of of the Constitution Party and the National SEMINARS Transformation of Personhood Books, 2016) Aeromobility from Beirut to the Gulf Celebrating 50 years of Middle Eastern Salvation Front; Mohamed Almohandes, Sarah El-Kazaz, Politics, Oberlin College; Elias Khoury, Novelist Waleed Hazbun, University in Beirut Studies at NYU Member of the Supreme Council of the Egypt Arjun Appadurai, Media, Culture, and With Archipelago Books Security Revolutions and Gender Justice With alumni presentations by Lara Harb, Strong Party; Saif Abdel Fattah, Former n interdisciplinary series of lectures Communication, NYU in Contemporary Egypt and Brazil Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University; advisor to President Mohamed Morsi, and and presentations pertaining to the The Archive Question: Commemoration, Paul Amar, International Studies, University Mandate Palestine (Stanford University Kristin Sands, Islamic Studies, Sarah former Professor of political science, Cairo A Destruction, and the Politics of History in field of Middle East Studies: of California, Santa Barbara; Lisa Duggan, Press, 2015) Lawrence College; Omar Cheta, Middle University

Saudi Arabia Events Archive Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU Sherene Seikaly, University of California, Eastern and Historical Studies, Bard College; Rosie Bsheer, History, Yale University; Marita Infrastructures in/of the Middle East Inside Assad’s Syria (Frontline 2015) With the Urban Democracy Lab, the Santa Barbara Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney, Sturken, Media, Culture and Communication, Julia Elyachar, Center for Global Peace and Martin Smith, Journalist Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Center for Constitutional Rights; Adrienne NYU Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution Conflict Studies, University of California, department of Social and Cultural Analysis, Fricke, Consultant, Human Rights and The Shadows of the Tunisian Miracle and War (University of Chicago Press, Irvine; Nasser Abourahme, Middle Eastern, and the department of Media, Culture and Refugee Issues in the Middle East and North Nadia Marzouki, Research Fellow, CRNS- 2016) South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia Communication. Africa; James Ketterer, Dean of International

Events Archive Robin Yassin-Kasseb and Leila Al-Shami University; Jared McCormick, Social 42 43 Anthropology, Harvard University; Pascal Traveling Citizens in the Iranian Railway OTTOMAN STUDIES VISUAL CULTURE Ingrasci (2015) Rethinking Iranian Cinema: Aesthetics Menoret, Anthropology, Brandeis University; Space, 1900-1950 With Global Liberal Studies: Politics, Rights, and Counternarratives Arang Keshavarzian, MEIS, NYU; Gokce Mikiya Koyagi, MEIS, NYU and Development & Global Cultures With the Ajam Media Collective, Cine-Eye, Gunel, Anthropology, Columbia University; Recreating 1970s-1980s Iranian Cultural rofessor of History Leslie Peirce Committee, NYU the Grey Art Gallery, and the Iranian Studies Leopold Lambert, The Funambulist; series of films, presentations, History Initiative Laleh Khalili, Department of Politics and curates this wide-ranging Naghmeh Sohrabi, Middle East History, P performances, and exhibitions New York 48mm Film Festival: International Studies, SOAS, University of interdisciplinary series on the Ottoman A Brandeis University; Manijeh Nasrabadi, centered on visual art and media from International Film Festival on Nakba and • Fat Shaker by Mohamed Shirvani London; Brian Larkin, Anthropology, Barnard Empire and its legacies. Asian American Studies, UC Davis; Belle and about the modern Middle East. Return (2013) / Slaughterhouse by Behzad College; Zachary Lockman, MEIS, NYU; Cheves, History, Harvard University With Zochrot.org Azadi (2015) Toby Jones, History, Rutgers University; Hypochondria in Seventeenth-Century The Wanted 18 by Paul Cowan and Amer Ismail: a film by Nora Alsharif (2013) / After-film discussion with Kamran Joanne Nucho, Near Eastern Studies, NYU; Mediating Mercy: Stirring Faith in Istanbul: Hayatizade’s Quintet of Modern Shomali (Palestine, 2015) On The Side of The Road: A film by Lia Rastegar, Tufts University Begum Adalet, Near Eastern Studies, NYU; Diseases in Context Forgiveness Emma Alpert, Public Engagement Tarachansky (2013) / The Wanted 18: A film Helga Tawil-Souri, Media, Culture, and Arzoo Osanloo, University of Washington Harun Küçük, University of Pennsylvania Coordinator, Just Vision by Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan (2014) • I Want to be a King! by Mehdi Ganji Communication, NYU; Mandana Limbert, Dual Society and Culture Wars in Iran Slavery, Freedom, and Vernacularization Just Vision / A World Not Ours: A film by Mahdi Fleifel (2013) / This Worldview Goblet, I Said Anthropology, Queens College, CUNY Houchang Chehabi, Boston University of Rights in the Late Ottoman Empire (2012) by Mohamed Reza Aslani (2013) Ceyda Karamursel, University of In the Labyrinths of Exhibition Histories After-film discussion with Persheng Approaches to Islamic Law in Society: 7th Iranian New Wave Songwriting Pennsylvania Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti, Co-Curators The 2nd International Yemeni Film and Vaziri, Film Critic Annual Research Workshop Shahyar Ghanbari, Artist and Poet Arts Festival Michael Gilsenan, NYU, Chair; Ibrahim El Mapping the Ottomans: Space, Reflections on the Iran Deal: The Nuclear Arabic Movie by Eyal Sagui Bezawe & With the Yemen Peace Project • Bitter Dream by Mohsen Amiryoussefi Houdaiby, Columbia University; Matthew Sovereignty, and the Circulation Agreement in Political, Social, and Sara Tsifroni (Israel, 2015) An Exhibition of Contemporary Art, (2004) / Scheherazade by Mehroush Keegan, NYU; Brinkley Messick, Columbia of Information in the Early Modern Historic Contexts With the MEIS Department and the Taub Photography and Film: Featured artists Aliaghaei (2013) University; Abdul Rahman Mustafa, Mediterranean Ervand Abrahamian, History, Baruch Center for Israel Studies and speakers: Nada Abu Taleb / Bushra After-film discussion with Parviz Jahed, Georgetown; Rasoul Naghavi, Georgetown; Palmira Brummett, History, Brown University College, CUNY; Arang Keshavarzian, MEIS, al-Fusail / Lyla Hasan / Salma Hasan / Arwa Modern Languages, University of St. Yasmina Raiani, University of California, NYU; Nahid Siamdoust, Hagop Kevorkian Aman My Pasha! Time is Precious and Bloody Beans by Narimane Mari (Algeria, al-Hubaishi / Shehab Karman / Yasmin Andrews Berkeley; Maliheh Zare, NYU; Jonathan Center, NYU; Ali Mirsepassi, Gallatin, NYU Short: Ottoman Central Africa Strategy in 2014) Alnadheri /Talal al-Nagar / Mazher Nizar / • The Paternal House by Kianoush Brown, Georgetown University; Guy Late 19th Century Narimane Mari, filmmaker; Sukhdev Sandhu, Alex Potter / Murad Subay / Morooj Alwazir Ayyari (2012) / Needle by Anahita Burak, NYU; Hussein Agrama, University From Iranian Immigrant to American Mostafa Minawi, History, Cornell University NYU / Fatima Abo Alasrar / Bushra Al-Fusail / Ghazvinizadeh(2013) of Chicago; Daragh Grant, University of Murderer: The Trial of Brian Yasipour With Bidoun Magazine and The Infinite Child Morooj Alwazir / Marjorie Ransom. Films: After-film discussion with Vahid Chicago; Ghislaine Lydon, UCLA; Fahad Survivors into Minorities: Armenians in Camron Amin, History, University of series for Flaherty NYC The Mulberry House by Sara Ishaq (2013) Mortazavi, Louisiana State University Bishara, College of William and Mary; Post-genocide Turkey Michigan, Dearborn / Shake the Dust by Adam Sjöberg (2014) Morgan Clarke, Oxford University; Samera Lerna Ekmekçioğlu, History, MIT Iraqi Odyssey: A Global Family Saga by / Rise by Mohamed Samy (2015) / Bara’ah: South Asian Film Series Esmeir, University of California, Berkeley; Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran: Fabricating Staging, Posing, (Self-) Fashioning: Samir (Switzerland and Iraq, 2016) a film by Amal Al-Yarisi (2015) / A Broken With South Asia @ NYU, the Urban Jessica Marglin, University of Southern an Archive Ottoman Subjects before the Camera Ella Shohat, Art and Policy, MEIS, NYU; Home by Abdurahman Hussain (2015) / The Democracy Lab, the Center for Religion California; Mark Massoud, University of Afsaneh Najmabadi, Harvard University; Edhem Eldem, Professor of History, Boğaziçi Sinan Antoon, Gallatin School, NYU Color of Injustice by Abdurahman Hussain and Media, the Center for Media, Culture, California, Santa Cruz; Michael Peletz, Emory Azadeh Tajpour, Visual Artist; Maryam University (2015) / The Melody of Our Alienation by and History, the NYU Council for the Study University; Nora Barakat, Qatar University Momeni, University of Vienna Filming Revolution: A Meta-documentary Abdurahman Hussain (2014) / Lost in Yemen of Disability,a dn the Department of Media, Cosmopolitans for Empire: Ottoman Jews about Documentary and Independent by Sami Taresh (2015) / Hope Always Culture, and Communication The Fabulous Life and Thoughts of and Political Economy from the Margins Filmmaking in Egypt Since the Revolution Remains by Dares Qaid al-Masaabi (2015) Ahmad Fardid Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University IRANIAN STUDIES Alisa Lebow (Film Studies) University of / I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced by • An Ordinary Election by Lalit Vachani Ali Mirsepassi, Gallatin, NYU; Richard Sussex; Alia Ayman Doctoral Student of Khadija Al-Salami (2015) (2015) Wolin, History and Political Science, CUNY Anthropology, NYU with South Asia @ NYU Graduate Center; Andrew Arato, Sociology, cholarly presentations on Iran, With the Center for Religion and Media and Girls Only (2014) • The Factory by Rahul Roy (2015)

New School; Asef Bayat, Sociology and Events Archive curated by Professor Ali Mirsepassi the Center for Media, Culture and History, Basma Alsharif, filmmaker; Suzy Halajian, with South Asia @ NYU S Middle East Studies, University of Illinois with a steering committee drawn from NYU curator • Placebo by Abhay Kumar (2014) With the Urban Democracy Lab and the MEIS and other faculty and students • Margarita with a Straw by Shonali Gallatin School for Individualized Study Salam Neighbor: The Syrian Refugee with support from the Gallatin School Bose (2014) Experience by Chris Temple and Zach for Individualized Study and the Hagop Kevorkian Center.

Events Archive 44 45 K-12 TEACHER TRAINING World War I and the Middle East JACK G. SHAHEEN Osama Abi-Mershed, Georgetown University; Mustafa Aksakal, Georgetown ARCHIVE s mandated by our Title VI grant, University; Najwa Al-Qattan, Loyola AK-12 workshops are hosted by Marymount University; Zachary Lockman, the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near NYU; Nancy Kricorian, Fall 2015 Writer- YU holds the archive of media scholar Eastern Studies in collaboration with the in-Residence, Hagop Kevorkian Center, Jack Shaheen, which includes Steinhardt School of Education at NYU as NYU and novelist; Joan Brodsky Schur, Nover 3,000 TV shows, feature and well as NYU’s Faculty Resource Network. Curriculum Development Consultant documentary films, movie posters, comic Middle and High School teachers as well books, editorial cartoons, and personal The United States and the Middle East as Community College faculty from the papers focused on stereotypes and tri-state area regularly attend alongside Peter Valenti, NYU; Curtis Ryan, Appalachian State University; Arang Keshavarzian, images of Arabs and Muslims in American teachers-in-training from Steinhardt. The NYU; Zachary Lockman, NYU; Curtis Ryan, popular culture. programs increase the quality of Middle Appalachian State University; Toby Jones, East-related content in our region’s K-12 Rutgers University; Michael Wahid Hanna, Powerful, accessible and compelling, curriculum. The Century Foundation the A is for Arab traveling exhibition, which features images from the Jack G. Spotlight on Contemporary Iranian Art Heart of the Silk Road: Shaheen Archive, reveals and critiques Maryam Ekhtiar, The Metropolitan Museum of A Study Tour in Uzbekistan for K-12 the stereotypical portrayals of Arabs and Art; Lucy Oakley, Grey Art Gallery Educators Muslims in U.S. popular culture. Providing With the Grey Art Gallery in conjunction with A ten-day journey led by Diana Shin, historical context about these images, which the Spring 2016 “Global/Local 1960/2015: Outreach Administrator, NES, NYU range from film stills to comic books to Six Artists from Iran” Exhibit With the Center for Middle Eastern Studies editorial cartoons, this traveling exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley and aims to educate and stimulate discussion Theatre and Political Resistance in Syria GEEO.org (Global Exploration for Educators about the impact of stereotypes on both Ted Ziter, Associate Professor of Drama, Organization). individual perceptions and national policy. NYU; Naila Al Atrash, Syrian theatre director This year, the exhibit was displayed long- and human rights activist term at three universities, organizations, and Refugee Stories from the Middle East conferences, including the Moraine Valley Sarab Al-Jijakli, Syrian-American community Community College, Bronx Community organizer and National President of the College, and Rutgers University. Network of Arab-American Professionals, NAAP; Killian Clarke, PhD Candidate, Politics, Princeton University; Gozde Guran(PhD Candidate, Sociology, Princeton University; Barbara Petzen, Middle East Connections and Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS; Leila Abdelrazaq, graphic novelist

Kurdish Nationalism and Multiple Identities in Modern Turkey Omer Taspinar, Brookings Institution; Ozan Aksoy, Independent Scholar Events Archive 46 HAGOP KEVORKIAN CENTER REVIEW 2015/2016