THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, NEWS

SPRING 2015

1 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR A message from William Granara

2 SHIFTING TOWARDS THE Announcing a new lecture series

3 NEWS AND NOTES Updates from faculty, students and visiting researchers

12 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS Spring lectures, workshops, and conferences LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

SPRING 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

I’M HAPPY TO REPORT THAT WE ARE DRAWING TO THE CLOSE OF AN ACADEMIC YEAR FULL OF ACTIVITY. CMES was honored to host a considerable number of outstanding lectures this year by eminent scholars from throughout the U.S. as well as from the Middle East and Europe. I mention only a few highlights below. Our new Middle Eastern Literatures initiative was advanced by several events: campus visits by Arab novelists Mai Nakib (), Ahmed Khaled Towfik (Egypt), and (); academic lectures by a range of literary scholars including Hannan Hever (Yale) on Zionist literature and Sheida Dayani (NYU) on contemporary Persian theater; and a highly successful seminar on intersections between and Turkish literatures held at Bilgi University in Istanbul, which included our own Professor Cemal Kafadar, several of our graduate students, and myself. In early April, CMES along with two Harvard Iranian student groups hosted the first Harvard Iranian Gala, which featured a lecture by Professor Abbas Milani of Stanford University and was attended by over one hundred guests from the broader Boston Iranian community. Also in April, CMES co-sponsored an international multilingual conference on The Thousand and One Nights with INALCO, . Our new Arabian Peninsula Studies Lecture Series was inaugurated with a lecture by Professor David Commins of Dickinson College, and we are happy to report that this series will continue in both the fall and spring semesters of next year thanks to the generous support of CMES alumni. Finally, we capped off the academic year in early May with our Iranian Cities conference, organized by Professor Roy Mottahedeh. I close with thoughts of hope and best wishes for all the members of the CMES community who have family and friends throughout the Middle East who have been, and continue to be, subjected to the violence and turmoil that is scarring the areas so very close to all of us.

—William Granara, CMES Director

ON THE COVER: “Bosphorus Crossing,” by Caroline Silber (’17) SHIFTING TOWARDS THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

The following is an excerpt of an interview with CMES William Granara (left) Director William Granara about CMES’s new Arabian introduces David Commins Peninsula Studies Lecture Series.

Why Arabian the study of the countries of Peninsula Studies? the Arabian Peninsula in their Over the last twenty years the courses. Our new lecture series Arabian Peninsula has grown in is the first small step in that both geopolitical and academic direction, made possible by importance. When I was a generous alumni gifts, which student twenty or thirty years we will use to bring scholars ago, the Arabian Peninsula to CMES once a semester to was essentially a footnote. For give public lectures. [David a long time Middle Eastern Commins, Professor of History studies has been thought at Dickinson College, delivered of as centering around the the series’ inaugural lecture on Mediterranean and looking up April 21, 2015.] towards Europe—both during Another factor that has the colonial and post-colonial drawn my attention to the novelist and public intellectual but also from other schools periods, the field assumed a Arabian Peninsula is that over from Saudi Arabia, together on campus. I would like to long historical connection to the last twenty years, we’ve with faculty from Harvard. encourage all of our students Western Europe. More recently seen a dramatic rise in the CMES also recently invited Mai from undergraduates to however, there has been a production of the Arabic novel Nakib, a short story writer from master’s and doctoral students major shift in Middle Eastern in the Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait, to give a talk for the to consider going to the Arabian studies, from a Mediterranean- particularly in Saudi Arabia. Director’s Series. Peninsula to conduct fieldwork centered perspective towards Our effort to bring Saudi writer for their theses, and to facilitate the . In response, and scholar Moneera Al- What are your hopes for a faculty exchanges, offering I would like to start building Ghadeer here as the Shawwaf larger program of Arabian short-term grants for our faculty up a multidisciplinary program Visiting Professor last fall was Peninsula Studies? to go to the region, and inviting focused on this area of the part of this larger project as A program like this should scholars from the Arabian world, not to replace, but to well. Professor Malika Zeghal be multi-targeted and Peninsula to come to Harvard. broaden the Middle Eastern and I organized a conference at multi-purposed, engaging studies curriculum at Harvard Radcliffe last fall that brought undergraduates and graduate → Visit http://cmes.fas. University, and to encourage Professor Al-Ghadeer and students and as many faculty harvard.edu/news/aps to read the full interview. and support faculty in including Umayma Khamis, a prominent as we can, not only from FAS

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 2 NEWS AND NOTES

FACULTY NEWS talks at the American University of Beirut, Princeton, Hebrew Preceptor Irit Yale, Brigham Young University, Aharony recently organized University of Connecticut, two talks for the Modern George Mason University, Ohio Hebrew program: a talk by State University, and Harvard. Lilach Lachman entitled Murray A. Albertson Professor “Veiling and Unveiling: The of Middle Eastern Studies poetry of Avot Yeshurun, Erez William Graham wrote the Afsaneh Najmabadi Ousmane Kane Biton and Haviva Pdaya,” and section “The Qur’ān as a a second by Edna Shemesh Discourse of Signs,” for No entitled “We, The Children— Tapping Around Philology: A Second Generation to the Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler Holocaust: Complex Past, McIntosh Thackston Jr.’s 70th a Contemplative Present.” Birthday (Harrassowitz Verlag, CMES Associate Don Babai 2014). William Granara, CMES contributed an article to the Director and Gordon Gray third edition of the Wiley Professor of the Practice of Encyclopedia of Management Arabic, visited Egypt and (2014), entitled “Business in January. His trip Ethics in the Middle East.” included consultations with Persian Preceptor Nicholas university faculty and William Graham speaks with a Boylston co-translated, along administrators at the American guest at the Iranian Gala in April with PhD candidate Farhad University in Cairo. At Bilgi Dokhani, an article on Mulla University in Istanbul on Hadi Sabzawari’s Ghurar January 16, he co-led, with Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Getty Project on cultural al-Fara’id (The Blazes of the Cemal Kafadar, a roundtable Studies Cemal Kafadar will history in the Balkans. In Gems) for the Oxford Handbook discussion entitled “Inter- again direct the Harvard October and December 2014, of Islamic Philosophy sections between Turkish and Summer School program in Professor Kafadar gave lectures (forthcoming). Professor of Arabic Literature.” They were Istanbul on “History and at two conferences in Istanbul, Government Melani Cammett joined by Turkish literary Human Rights” in 2015 for its on the reign of Mahmud I and published A Political Economy scholars Murat Belge and Jale second year. Professor Kafadar intellectual life under Mehmed of the Middle East (Westview Parla as well as several graduate is part of a team of Harvard II, and in March 2015 he gave a Press, Fourth Ed., 2015). Since students from CMES and the faculty including Gülru series of lectures and seminars joining the Harvard faculty on Department of Near Eastern Necipoğlu, Aga Khan Professor at the University of North January 1, 2015, she has given Languages and Civilizations. of Islamic Art, involved in a Carolina and Duke University.

3 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 CMES Associate Director and the Harvard West rescuing hundreds of refugees was a finalist in the Lambda Director of the AM Program Program 2015–2017. Lecturer during and after World War II. Literary Award for her 2014 Susan Kahn chaired a session on Near Eastern Languages and Last fall Professor Miller book Professing Selves: on “Ethics and Regulation of Civilizations Luke Leafgren received an Honorable Mention Transsexuality and Same-Sex Inter-Country Medically translated two Arabic novels: from the American Institute of Desire in Contemporary Assisted Reproduction” at the Dates on My Fingers by Muhsin Maghribi Studies’ L. Carl (Duke University Press). The UNESCO 10th World al-Ramli (AUC Press, 2014), and Brown Book Prize for her book book received the 2014 Joan Conference on Bioethics, Oh, Salaam! by Najwa Barakat The History of Modern Morocco Kelly Memorial Prize from the Medical Ethics & Health Law in (Interlink, 2014). Lenore (Cambridge University Press, American Historical January 2015 in Jerusalem. Dr. Martin, CMES associate and 2013). Roy P. Mottahedeh, Association for best book in Kahn is also coordinating the chair of the Department of Gurney Professor of History, women’s history and feminist “Harvard Animal Studies Political Science at Emmanuel was an honoree at the first theory, and was co-winner of Project,” a new interdisciplinary College, was interviewed in the annual Iranian Gala held in the 2015 John Boswell Prize initiative to bring animal Turkish publication Analist in April 2015, and gave a talk at from the Committee on studies to Harvard—Kristen January 2015 on “Turkey-U.S. Princeton on March 31, 2015 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Stilt, Cemal Kafadar, and Relations in 2014.” She entitled “Ghaznavid Panegyrics Transgender History. Roger Roy Mottahedeh are among presented several papers over as Historical Source.” Professor Owen, A.J. Meyer Professor of the many esteemed faculty the last year including “China Mottahedeh’s recent Middle Eastern History on the steering committee. and Turkish Foreign Policy publications include “The Emeritus, continues to write Ousmane Kane, Professor of Through a Security Lens,” Quandaries of Emulation: The regular bi-monthly op-eds for Near Eastern Languages and Shanghai International Studies Theory and Politics of Shi'i Al-Hayat and is working on a Civilizations and Prince University, March 2015; Manuals of Practice” (2011 memoir called My Life in Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of “Turkey Has Read Its Ziadeh Lecture, University of Middle Eastern Studies that has Contemporary Islamic Religion Davutoglu But Has It Read Its Washington, December 2014). been accepted for publication and Society, wrote the chapter Morgenthau?” International Francis Lee Higginson by Tadween, the publishing arm “Negotiating Settlement: Studies Association, New Professor of History and of of Jadaliyya Enterprises. Senegalese Muslim Immigrants Orleans, February 2015; and Studies of Women, Gender, and Professor Owen reviewed and the Politics of Multiple “The Kurds and Turkish Sexuality Afsaneh Najmabadi : A Legacy of Belongings in New York City” Foreign Policy in a Tumultuous Emancipation and for Religion in Diaspora, Middle East,” Friedrich Ebert Roy P. Mottahedeh Representation, Iskandar and Cultures of Citizenship (Palgrave Stiftung and Middle East Rustom, eds. (2010), for The Macmillan, 2015). Professor Technical University, Ankara, European Legacy 19.4 (2014). He Kane earned the Everett November 2014. Susan G. is serving as a technical expert Mendelsohn Excellence in Miller, CMES associate and for Michal Goldman’s Mentoring Award from the professor of history at the documentary “Nasser: An Harvard Graduate Student University of California, Davis, Egyptian Story.” Professor of Council in April 2015, and is working on a biography of the Law and Islamic Legal Studies received a grant from the charismatic Moroccan Jewish Program (ILSP) Co-Director Presidential Fund for lawyer Hélène Cazes Benatar, Intisar Rabb published Doubt International Experience for who was instrumental in in Islamic Law (Cambridge (continued on next page)

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 4 NEWS AND NOTES

University Press, 2015). As a include “‘My love for writing Studies Annual Lecture at STUDENT NEWS part of the 2015 Law and went beyond everything’: The Swarthmore College, entitled Society Program organized by Life and Times of Sultan Ali “‘Gaza Deserta’: New AM STUDENTS the Federal Judicial Center in Mashhadi,” Freer|Sackler, Dynamics, Future Prospects” Amreeka Laa!, a short April, Professor Rabb Smithsonian Institution, and in April and May she film written and directed presented “Against Kadijustiz: Washington, DC, December, spoke at the Middle East by Hind Al-Ansari, was On the Negative Citation of 2014; and “‘In the Rays of Policy Council and the screened at the Cannes Film Foreign Law” to a group of Light of Imperial Favour’: The Simpson Center for the Festival in May 2015. Logan judges from around the world. Visual Arts of Early Fifteenth Humanities, University of Heiman has received a Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Century Timurid Herat,” Washington. Professor of Fulbright English Teaching Professor of Islamic Art Yarshater Lecture Series, Law and ILSP Co-Director Assistantship in Turkey for History David Roxburgh School of Oriental and African Kristen Stilt gave a talk in the 2015–2016 academic year. attended the Fourth Biennial Studies, University of London, April entitled “Constitutional Nora Lessersohn published Symposium of the History of February 2015. CMES Assoc- Animals: Promoting Animal “‘Provincial Cosmopolitanism’ Islamic Art Association at the iate Sara Roy organized and Welfare through Constitutions in Late Ottoman Anatolia: Aga Khan Museum in Toronto chaired a panel entitled in India, Germany, and An Armenian Shoemaker’s in October where he formally “Abandoned yet Central: Gaza Egypt” at the 2015 Law and Memoir” in Comparative presented Envisioning Islamic and the Resolution of the Society Program organized Studies in Society and History Art and Architecture: Essays in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” by the Federal Judicial (April 2015). She presented Honor of Renata Holod (Brill, at the Middle East Studies Center. Professor Stilt is “Forces of Ownership, Sources 2014), which he edited, to its Association Meeting in the director of the new of Dispossession: The Memoir dedicatee. Professor November 2014. In March she Animal Law Program at of Hovhannes Cherishian of Roxburgh’s recent lectures delivered the 2015 Islamic Harvard Law School. Marash (1886–1967)” at “Three Apples Fell From Heaven” (CMES, April 2015) and IN MEMORY OF EDWARD L. KEENAN “Provincial Cosmopolitanism” The CMES community mourns the passing of Edward L. “Ned” at the conference Genocide and Keenan, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History Emeritus who Global History (University of died on March 6, 2015 at his home in Deer Isle, Maine at the age California, Los Angeles, April of 79. Keenan spent much of his adult life at Harvard, receiving 2015). Lessersohn will begin his AB degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1957, his AM the CMES PhD program in in Regional Studies in 1962, and his PhD in History and Middle History and Middle Eastern Eastern Studies in 1962. He received tenure in the History Studies in Fall 2015. Aaron Department in 1970. After becoming an emeritus faculty member Magid published several in 2008, he was the Andrew W. Mellon Research Professor of newspaper articles over the last History until 2011. In addition to his outstanding scholarship in Russian medieval history, he served year including “Jordan Admits in many Harvard leadership positions, including long stints as the director of the Dumbarton Oaks to Barring Entry of Palestinian Research Library and Collection, chair of the History Department, dean of GSAS, and director of Refugees from Syria” in the Russian Research Center. A longtime CMES affiliate, Keenan served in leadership roles multiple Al-Monitor on July 8, 2014, times in the 1980s and 1990s as the director, and acting director, of the Center. “Jordanians ‘Disappointed’ with

5 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 Center for Metropolitan Studies. Yildirim Tschoepe has received a TUBITAK/EU co-funded research grant for fieldwork in Turkey.Deniz Türker’s article on the late- nineteenth century Ottoman art collector Hakky-Bey was George C. Kraehe (AM ’15), Professor Steven Caton, D. Max published in Muqarnas 31 Korzen (AM ’16), John M. Hambley (AM ’16), PhD student Nora C. Lessersohn (AM ’15) Bethany Kibler, and Andrew H. Watkins (AM ’15) (2014). In November 2014, she presented at an international symposium commemorating the Response to Killing of Judge of America’s 2015 annual 2014). She gave presentations life and work of architectural at Israeli Border” in Haaretz conference in Berlin in March this year for Harvard’s Global historian Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi, on June 29, 2014, and “Senior entitled “Ottoman Roads and Studies Outreach Program and in February 2015 she Fatah Official: PA Will Never be Mobile Ragusans: Linkages (on the nexus between delivered a talk for the Harvard Disbanded” in Al-Monitor on between Ottoman Istanbul and architecture, spatial studies, AKPIA Lecture Series, a version January 16, 2015. the Republic of Ragusa.” He will and anthropology), as well as of which will appear in the spend this summer as Program at Istanbul Bilgi University and International Journal of Islamic PHD STUDENTS Coordinator for the Harvard Technical University Berlin’s Architecture in Summer 2015. Farhad Dokhani co-translated, Summer School program with Persian Preceptor on “History and Human Nicholas Boylston, an article Rights,” in Istanbul, Turkey. CMES STUDENT PROFILES on Mulla Hadi Sabzawari’s Han Hsien Liew presented a Wadah Al-Shugaa Ghurar al-Fara’id for the paper entitled “The Caliphate Master of Arts in Regional Oxford Handbook of Islamic of Adam” at the Middle Studies—Middle East Philosophy (forthcoming). Eastern Studies Association “After taking a survey class Aslıhan Gürbüzel received conference in November on the political economy a fellowship at the Orient- 2014, and received a Bok of the Middle East as an Institut Istanbul, and was a Center Certificate of Teaching undergraduate, I became visiting researcher at the Center Excellence from Harvard in interested in questions like: for the Study of Manuscript Spring 2015. Aylin Yildirim how can trade and mutual Cultures at the University Tschoepe’s chapter “Changing economic interests build bridges between the people of the Middle of Hamburg. She presented Landscapes of Education: East and the international community? How can free and open her work on seventeenth- Teaching Architecture through markets build understanding and mutual respect across cultures? My century manuscript sources Inquiry-Based Approaches” master’s will examine the race between Doha, Manama, and on preachers and sermons was published in Inquiry- Dubai to become the Middle East’s financial center and will attempt at both centers. Jesse Based Learning for the Arts, to analyze what impacts those efforts will have on the countries’ Howell presented a paper Humanities, and Social political economies, institutional arrangements, business laws, at the Renaissance Society Sciences (Emerald Group, government-market relations, and regulatory infrastructures.” (continued on next page)

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 6 NEWS AND NOTES

Gwendolyn Collaco Aya Majzoub Joint PhD Program in History Master of Arts Program in Regional and Middle East Studies Studies—Middle East “I research the intersections “I grew up in Saudi Arabia because between popular and material my parents left Lebanon after the culture in the early modern civil war. However, I remained Ottoman Empire. As of now, I’m hopeful that our generation could working on costume albums made accomplish what our parents in the bazaars of Istanbul and their couldn’t, and bring political translations into the turquerie stability and economic opportunity fashion movement in European back to Lebanon and the region. states. The wealth of museums in the area has contributed a great While I was pursuing an undergraduate degree in politics at the deal to studying here. Especially after the reopening of the Harvard University of Cambridge, the Arab Spring erupted in the region, Art Museums, I have had multiple classes in the art study center demonstrating that we were indeed capable of effecting change. and viewing sessions with curators and conservators in the lab. My work now focuses on conflict resolution and democratization. I cannot express what a privilege it is to study these items up close As a region undergoing a tumultuous transformation, we need to and in person. From Qajar albums and Mughal paintings to World’s focus on mechanisms for creating a sustainable peace. However, Fair ephemera, the collections offer a great scope to explore.” we should not compromise justice for order, and as such, democratization should not become sidelined.” John Hambley Master of Arts Program in Mira Schwerda Regional Studies—Middle East Joint PhD Program in History “My interest in the Middle East of Art & Architecture and began as an undergraduate—from Middle East Studies the safety of a college campus, “I specialize in the visual culture, I started studying the political art, and architecture of 19th-century dynamics following the 2003 Iran and Central Asia. My main invasion of Iraq, and slowly became focus is the history of photography fascinated by the region as a and printing. In my dissertation whole. After college, I served in I analyze visual and written sources the U.S. Marine Corps as an Intelligence Officer, and then worked related to political imagery of the for a consulting firm supporting national security projects. I Qajar period, which have received little attention so far. The idea chose CMES based on the program’s flexibility. While providing of a joint program and an interdisciplinary approach perfectly an academic structure based around language and Middle East corresponds to my dissertation research, which bridges different history requirements, it also grants students the opportunity to take disciplines. At Harvard I am able to learn from many different advantage of Harvard’s extensive resources, encouraging them to specialists, not only professors, but also curators, librarians, and take classes at the professional schools based on their academic conservators. Harvard also has wonderful libraries and great interests and focus.” collections of manuscripts and works of art.”

→ Visit http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/applying/profiles to read these students’ full profiles.

7 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 CONGRATULATIONS 2014–15 AM GRADUATES! ■■ Paul Fargues ■■ Wan Li ■■ Elsien van Pinxteren ■■ Philip Gardner ■■ Katherine Lyman Thesis: “Gender, ■■ Logan Heiman ■■ Aaron Magid Parody, and Activism: ■■ George Kraehe ■■ Jonathan Mautner* Rethinking Conceptual Thesis: “First Do No Harm: A Thesis: “Financing Tools through Drag Perfor- Critique of the International Jihad: ISIL, Al-Qaeda mances in Lebanon” Counternarcotics Regime in and the Money Behind Advisor: Soha Bayoumi North Africa and the Sahel” Mass Casualty Terrorism” ■■ Andrew Watkins Advisor: Ousmane Kane Advisor: James A. Baker Thesis: “To Coin a Phrase: ■■ Nora Lessersohn ■■ Jennifer Quigley-Jones Counterinsurgency, Thesis: “Armenian Self and Thesis: “Syrian Refugee Innovation, and the U.S. Ottoman Society: Christopher Adolescents and Parental Military’s Enlistment of Oscanyan’s Oriental and Involvement in Livelihood ‘Enablers’ in Iraq and Turkish Museum in London Programs in Lebanon” Afghanistan”

(1853–54)” Advisors: Cemal Advisors: Denis Sullivan, Advisor: Tad Oelstrom Philip Gardner (AM ’15) Kafadar, Gülru Necipoğlu Rima Rassi * Winner of the 2015 CMES AM Thesis Prize.

UNDERGRADUATE PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE REGION CMES awarded a first prize and three honorable mentions in the 2014–15 Harvard College International Photo Contest. Vanessa Rodriguez (’16), a sociology concentrator with a history secondary, received first prize for an image she captured while studying abroad last summer in Turkey. Her bright and energetic photo of a gay pride parade in Istanbul captured for her “the nation’s unique intersection of modern and traditional institutions.” Turkey was a popular photo opportunity this year: honorable mentions were awarded to government concentrator Caroline Silber (’17) for an “Gay Pride in the Middle East,” by Vanessa Rodriguez (’16) atmospheric image of a ferry ride along the Bosphorus (cover photo), and to applied math and computer science concentrator Tarek Moon (’15) for a grand interior shot of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. Social studies concentrator Annika Nielsen (’15) received the third honorable mention for her photo of a colorful street scene taken in Asilah, Morocco.

→ Learn more about the winners at http://cmes. “Prayer Time,” by Tarek Moon (’15) “Artbeat of Asilah,” by Annika Nielsen (’15) fas.harvard.edu/2014-15-photo-contest

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 8 NEWS AND NOTES

ALUMNI NEWS IN MEMORY OF IRENE A. BIERMAN-MCKINNEY Irene “Renie” A. Bierman-McKinney (1942–2015) earned an AM from CMES in 1966 and went on to AM ALUMNI receive her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1980. She joined the art history faculty at UCLA Kay H. Campbell (’83) spoke in 1982, retiring as professor emerita in 2012; during her tenure at UCLA she served as director of the at the NYU– Middle East Center for eight years, and as chair of the Department of Art History. Professor Bierman’s Conference on Music of the seven authored and co-edited books include Writing Signs: The Fatimid Public Text (University of Arabian Gulf, March 1–3, 2015 California Press, 1998) and Text and Context in Islamic Societies (Ithaca Press, 2004). Nasser Rabbat, on “Researching Women’s Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Folk Dances of the Arabian “Her work on the role of public writing Architecture at MIT, writes: Peninsula.” Samah Choudhury in Islamic iconography was path- “Her work on the role of public (’14) has been working at the writing in Islamic iconography was Duke University Middle East breaking; her study of the Ottomanization path-breaking; her study of the Studies Center for the last of cities extremely inventive, and Ottomanization of cities extremely year. She will begin a PhD her understanding of the function of inventive, and her understanding program in Islamic Studies at conservation in our understanding of of the function of conservation in UNC Chapel Hill in the fall. cities today constructively critical.” our understanding of cities today Hannah-Louise Clark (’05) constructively critical.” defended her dissertation in the history of science at Special thanks to Jere Bacharach (AM ’62), a longtime friend and colleague whose memorial note on Princeton in September 2014 Professor Bierman will appear in the MESA Review of Middle East Studies. and is currently a departmental lecturer in European and world history at the University is currently working on his the Middle East and North Malcolm Peck (’66) returned of Oxford, Trinity College. doctorate at the Juilliard Africa. He published an article to Meridian International After a decade as a journalist School, and recently scored in January on the website of the Center as a “seasonal” reporting on oil, Ayesha Daya two Grammy nominations for Middle East Institute entitled program officer for most of (’04) has founded a strategic work with his ensemble New “Cold Lessons from the Balmy 2014, working on programs communications consultancy York Polyphony. Iza Hussin Euphoria of the ‘Arab Spring’.” for visitors from the Middle called Al Kalima in Dubai. (’00) has accepted a permanent Since graduating from CMES, East and wider Islamic world Marwan D. Hanania (’02) position in the Department Murat Metin Hakki (’06) has for the State Department’s received his PhD in history of Politics and International been admitted to the New York Office of International Visitor from Stanford in 2011. He will Studies at the University State Bar, Gray’s Inn (London), Leadership Programs. He begin a position as assistant of Cambridge, and is the the Cyprus Bar Association, published a chapter on the UAE professor in the Department Mohamed Noah Fellow in Asian and the Chartered Institute of in the 2013 edition of the World of International Studies at the Studies at Pembroke College, Arbitrators, and in 2012 set up Almanac of Islamism (American American University of Sharjah Cambridge. While enjoying his own law firm in Nicosia, Foreign Policy Council). Alex in the fall. Hanania is working retirement, David Mack (’60) Cyprus (Metin A Hakki & Shams (’13) has been working on a book project about the continues to write occasional Murat M Hakki Advocates as an editor at Ma’an News history of modern Amman. articles and give lectures and & Legal Consultants). After Agency in Bethlehem, Palestine Christopher Herbert (’05) interviews on topics involving ten years of retirement, since graduation. He will start

9 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 a PhD program in anthropology PHD ALUMNI NEWS in Soviet and Post-Soviet accepted an assistant professor in Fall 2015 at the University of Abigale Balbale (’12) gave Tajikistan entitled, “Surviving position at Washington Chicago, focusing on gender, a talk titled “Constructing Stalin: Practicing Islam Amidst University in St. Louis in the piety, and urban space in Legitimacy: Ibn Mardanish’s the Purges” at the Boniuk Department of Jewish, Islamic, modern Iran. Charles D. Smith Quest for Power in Sharq Institute for Religious Tolerance and Near Eastern Languages (’60) is currently preparing the al-Andalus,” on March 5, 2015 at Rice University in December and Cultures. Daniel Pipes (’78) ninth edition of his Palestine for the Aga Khan Program for 2014. Philip S. Khoury (’80) has a new book forthcoming and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Islamic Architecture at Harvard continues to serve as Associate in 2015: Nothing Abides: (Bedford/St. Martins), and University. Mark Farha (’07) Provost and Ford International Perspectives on the Middle East writing a bibliographic essay presented “The Sectarian Tide Professor of History at MIT and Islamism (Transaction). of publications in English and in the Middle East: Sources, and as Chairman of the Board Asher Orkaby (’14) published French dealing with World Symptoms, and Solutions” for of Trustees of the American an article in the Wall Street War I from 1918 to the present. the New York/New Jersey University of Beirut. Paul J. Journal on April 9, 2015 titled “A He received the Middle East Alumni chapter of Lebanese Magnarella (’71) has given Road Map to Chaos in Yemen.” Studies Association (MESA) American University in July a series of lectures on “The Aida Othman (’05) spoke on Mentoring Award in 2012, and 2014. Richard Foltz (’96), Turbulent Middle East: Iraq, Islamic banking and finance his book The Middle East and professor and founding director Syria, ISIS, and Other Major at a session on “Challenges North Africa: A Documentary of the Centre for Iranian Studies, Players” at Georgia Southern Facing Banks in Asia” at History received a MESA Concordia University, Montréal, University, Armstrong State the Asia Desk Forum at the prize in 2013. Stephanie Canada, gave a book talk hosted University, Warren Wilson University of Victoria, British Sobek (’14) joined the United by Bukhara magazine in College, and the Savannah Columbia, Canada, in April States Foreign Service after on April 24, 2015. The eleventh World Affairs Council.Jessica 2015. Nicolas Trépanier (’08) graduation and is currently edition of Art Goldschmidt’s Marglin (’06) is beginning a published Foodways and Daily serving as a political officer at (AM ’61, PhD ’68) Concise position as Assistant Professor Life in Medieval Anatolia: A the U.S. Embassy in Amman, History of the Middle East is of Religion at the University New Social History (University Jordan. Her work is primarily forthcoming from Westview of Southern California this of Texas Press, 2014), which focused on the human rights Press in July. John Gault (’75) is summer. Aria Nakissa (’12) has is based on his dissertation. portfolio, including trafficking co-director of the International in persons, labor rights, and Oil and Gas Leadership program religious freedom in Jordan. at the Graduate Institute, Jason Wimberly (’14) Geneva. His latest article, published a book review on “OPEC faces $750bn losses Shiism and Politics in the Middle from market share strategy,” East, by Laurence Louër, co-authored with former translated by John King, in the Algerian oil minister Nordine Arab Studies Journal XXII.1 Ait-Laoussine, was published (Spring 2014). A paper he wrote in Middle East Economic Survey at CMES on Hizballah has been on March 13, 2015. Zahra N. accepted pending revisions to Jamal (’08) delivered a lecture Rachel Goshgarian (PhD ’07) Middle Eastern Studies. on cultural assets among Shi’as

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 10 VISITING RESEARCHER NEWS

Visiting Scholar Günil Özlem Ayaydin Cebe delivered a talk in April 2015 for CMES’s Visiting Scholar Fatih Usluer Visiting Scholar Bayram Soy Visiting Scholar Gunil Ayaydin Cebe Sohbet-i Osmani lecture series entitled “Polychrome Literature in Black and White: Iranian Studies Group, MIT, 2015) and “Birinci Dünya Savaşı Uluslararası Kongresi: 100. 19th Century Ottoman Society April 17; and “The Failure of Osmanlı Devleti’ni Parçalamak Yılında I. Dünya Savaşı ve and Print Culture.” Visiting the Khwarazmian Dynasty İçin mi Yapıldı? Savaşın Çıkış Mirası, Bildiriler, cilt 1 (2015). Fellow Cumhur Bekar (1202−1231) in Conquering Sebeplerine Osmanlı Devleti He also delivered a talk in delivered a paper entitled and Western Iran,” Bağlamında Yeniden Bir Bakış,” April 2015 for CMES’s Sohbet-i “Remembering Violence, MEHAT Conference, May. Savaş Tarihi Araştırmaları Osmani lecture series. Forgetting Consultation: The Post-doctoral Fellow Lorenzo Image of Murad IV in Şehen- Kamel has two publications Şeh-Name-i Muradi (c. 1638),” forthcoming: Imperial AT THE CENTER in May 2015 at the 30th Annual Perceptions of Palestine: British Middle East History and Theory Influence and Power in Late CMES WELCOMES NEW STAFF (MEHAT) Conference at the Ottoman Times (I.B.Tauris) and CMES welcomed two new staff members in December 2014: University of Chicago. Post- Arab Spring and Peripheries (a our new Staff Assistant, helping to provide administrative and doctoral Fellow Alexander special issue of Mediterranean academic support at the Center, is Carol Ann Litster. Carol Ann, Henley spent the Spring 2015 Politics [Routledge]). In who has a BS in Sociology and Social Studies Teaching and an MA semester on joint fellowship November 2014, he presented in Teacher Education from Brigham Young University, joins CMES at the Brookings Doha Center “Redrawing Borders? The after having spent the last few years as a classroom instructor. and Qatar University. In Fall Middle East Between Past and While at BYU she studied and traveled in Israel, Egypt, and 2015 he will start a post- Present” at CMES’s Middle East Jordan, and supplemented a deep doctoral research fellowship at Forum. He chaired the session Carol Ann Litster interest in Middle Eastern studies Georgetown University’s Center on “The Arab Uprisings and with courses such as Middle East for Contemporary Arab Studies. Changing Migration Patterns geography and Arabic 101. Karen Post-doctoral Fellow Maryam in the Mediterranean” at the Daley, the Center’s new Financial Kamali gave three talks in OSCE, New-Med Research Associate, is a seasoned professional Spring 2015: “The Mongol Network conference, April 2015. accountant with a BS in Business Invasion, Challenging the Visiting Scholar Bayram Soy Administration from Salem State Religion and Legal System of published two articles in March Karen Daley College. She returns to Harvard after the Islamic Society,” Alwaleed 2015: “1877–1878 Osmanlı-Rus a hiatus of many years, and brings Islamic Studies Program, Savaşı’ndan NATO Üyeliğine: with her a perspective gained from Harvard University, March Boğazlar Sorunu ve Türkiye’nin nearly twenty years of accounting, 11; “History as a Science in Batı ile ‘İttifakı’,” Karadeniz payroll, accounts payable, accounts the Iranian Medieval Time,” Araştırmaları, XII.45 (Bahar receivable, and budgeting experience.

11 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

FEBRUARY 2015 Clea McNeely, University of American Sniper’s Cultural Tennessee; The Challenge of Moment: A Student-veteran Public Opinion Survey Data: Roundtable Discussion: Lessons from Muslim Americans Laura Nasrallah and Jason Ur Reactions to the film, its wider and Palestine, Karam Dana, reception, and reflections University of Washington; by several CMES student- Conducting Field Research veterans: AM students John in the Middle East: Lessons Hambley, Max Korzen, and Recommendations, Rima George Kraehe, and Andrew Rassi, American University of Watkins, and PhD student Beirut; Surveying in Difficult Bethany Kibler. Moderated by Environments: The Case of Afarin Vafa, Forough Steven C. Caton, Harvard. Lebanon, Royce Hutson, Boise Dadban, and Cumrun Vafa Abbas Milani State University. Conducting Research in the Middle East: A one-day MARCH 2015 methodology workshop for The Middle East at War advanced graduate students, – 1914–1922: A roundtable sponsored by CMES and the organized by Professors Roger Boston Consortium for Arab Owen and Cemal Kafadar Region Studies (BCARS), to address the centenary of and organized by Sara Roy, the Ottoman Declaration Sahand Moarefy (’10, JD ’16) and Ava Nasrollahzadeh (’16) CMES, and Denis Sullivan, of War against Britain, BCARS and Northeastern France, and Italy. Invited University. Student participants scholars included M. Talha Ancient Christian APRIL 2015 came from Boston College, Cicek, İstanbul Medeniyet Communities and Current The First Annual Iranian Boston University, Brown University; Hasan Kayalı, Events: A panel discussion Gala: Preserving the Past, University, Harvard University, UC San Diego; Tilman Lüdke, sponsored by CMES and the Building for the Future: A NYU New School, Pompeu Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut Harvard Divinity School (HDS) fundraiser to support Iranian Fabra University (Spain), für kulturwissenschaftliche, Center for the Study of World Studies at Harvard organized Princeton University, and Freiburg; and Elizabeth Religions, featuring Sargon by CMES, the Harvard College Tufts University. Thompson, University of Donabed, Roger Williams Iranian Association, and the Virginia. A second centenary University; Charles Stang, HDS; Harvard Middle East Law Presenters: Opportunities and event on the Ottoman Laura Nasrallah, HDS; and Students Association. Featuring Challenges Conducting Research victory at Gallipoli will be Jason Ur, Harvard. Moderated keynote speaker Abbas Milani in Palestine: The PAL Study, held in October 2015. by Susan Kahn, CMES. of Stanford University and

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 12 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS special honorees Bahram Beyzai, Maryam Eskandari, Roy P. Mottahedeh, Pardis Sabeti, and Cumrun Vafa.

The Thousand and One Nights: Sources, Transformations, and Relationship with Literature, the Arts and the Sciences: A conference organized by William Granara and Sandra Delio Proverbio Sandra Naddaff David Commins Naddaff, Harvard, and Aboubakr Chraibi, Institut National des Langues et and “L’affaire du tome VIII” Evanghelia Stead, Freiburg Michel Ocelot, Ilaria Vitali, Civilisations Orientales in the History of Les Mille Institute of Advanced University of Bologna. (INALCO), Paris. Co-sponsored et une nuits, Arafat Abdur Studies; Psychological by the CMES Working Group Razzaque, Harvard; The Realism and The 1001 Nights: Three Apples Fell from on Middle East Literature in Arabian Nights and the The Dreams’ of Abû al-Hasan, Heaven: An Exploration of Transition: New Frontiers in Ottoman Imperial Harem, Henry M. Bowles, Harvard; Armenian Identities in the the 21st Century and INALCO. Daria Kovaleva, Harvard; The 1001 Days in Alt-Muslim Ottoman and Post-Ottoman ■■ Panel I: Chair: William “Sleeper” and Christopher Fantasy: G. Willow Wilson’s World: A commemoration Granara; Les premiers lecteurs Sly: Shakespeare and the Alif the Unseen, Margaret of the 100th anniversary of des premiers manuscrits des early-modern circulation of Litvin, Boston University. the Armenian Genocide: Mille et une nuits, Ibrahim Nights tales, Paulo Horta, ■■ Panel IV: Chair: Roy P. A 17th-century Armenian Akel, INALCO; Fables in the NYU-Abu Dhabi; Harun Mottahedeh, Harvard; (Dis)Placement: Deacon Mikayel 1001 Nights, Ulrich Marzolph, al-Rashid: Modernity and Demons and Fish Bones: of Kaffa (d.c. 1670) and his Göttingen Academy; The Kingship on the Arabic Towards a history of illness Armenian and Turkish Texts, Arabian Nights transmission Stage, 1850s–1890s, Adam in Alf Layla, Ahmed Ragab, Rachel Goshgarian, Lafayette in Turkish tradition: an Mestyan, Harvard; Jaqueline Harvard; Healing by College; Sources of Ownership, overview, Delio Proverbio, Kahanoff on the margins ofA exempla: political therapy Forces of Dispossession: Vatican Library; The Thousand and One Nights, in the Nights’ hypertext, The Memoir of Hovhannes dimension of the Nights— Daniel Behar, Harvard. Dominique Jullien, UCSB; Cherishian of Marash (1886– Texts of the Arabian Nights ■■ Panel III: Chair: Sandra Flowers as Pharmacy: 1967), Nora Lessersohn, genre addressing the Christian Naddaff; Eugénie et les deux Engendering Subjectivities Harvard; Speaking Feminist Arabic audiences, Francesca rêveurs, Abdelfattah Kilito, in The Thousand and while Armenian in Post- Bellino, University of Turin. University of Mohammed V, One Nights, Anny Gaul, Genocide Turkey: Hayganush ■■ Panel II: Chair: Sandra Rabat; Modern Irony, Creative Georgetown University; Mark (1885–1966), Lerna Naddaff; Genie in a Book: Writing and Inefficient L’héritage des Mille et Ekmekcioglu, MIT. Moderated Print Culture, Authorship Arabian Nights Tales, une nuits dans l’oeuvre de by Cemal Kafadar, Harvard.

13 CMESNEWS | SPRING 2015 Wahhabism: From the Seljuqs to the Mongol Hossein Kamaly, Barnard Kingdom Localized, Daniel Provincial Heresy to Invasion, Juergen Paul, College; An Arabized Exile’s Zakrzewski, Martin- Arabian Hegemony: The Martin-Luther-Universität Perspective on Intellectual Luther-Universität Halle- inaugural CMES Lecture on Halle-Wittenburg; Kashan, Life in Seljuq Isfahan, Lutz Wittenberg; The Writing Arabian Peninsula Studies, by A Crossroad of Knowledge, Richter-Bernburg, Eberhard Culture of Nishapur in David Commins, Professor of Mehrdad Amanat, University Karls Universität, Tübingen; the 11th Century, Sarah History, Dickinson College of California, Santa Barbara. The Shiraz of Hafez: A Most Savant, The Aga Khan (see page 2 for more about ■■ Day 2: Isfahan under Learned, Poetic, and Violent University, London and this new series). Turko-Mongol Rule (11th–15th Place, John Limbert, U.S. Maxim Romanov, The centuries), David Durand- Naval Academy; Tabriz Perseus Digital Library, MAY 2015 Guédy, Institut Française Before, Under and After Tufts University; A Tale of Iranian Cities from the de Recherche en Iran, Mongol Rule (6th/12th–9th/15th Three Cities: Nishapur, Tus, Arab Conquest to the Tehran; Early Sufis of centuries): From the City Jurjan, Richard Bulliet, Early Modern Period: Isfahan: A Forgotten Path, Turning Imperial to the Columbia University. A conference organized by Roy P. Mottahedeh, Harvard, and funded by Sarah Bowen Savant CMES’s new Neekeyfar Fund for Iranian Studies. ■■ Day 1: “From Shahristan to Medina” Revisited, Donald Whitcomb, University of Chicago; Inherited Landscapes in Muslim Bactra, Etienne de la Vaissière, CETOBAC, EHESS, Paris; Iranian Cities: Settlements and Water Management

between Antiquity and Ambassador John W. Limbert and Roy P. Mottahedeh the Islamic Period, Rocco Rante, Musée du Louvre; Early Islamic Marv: From the Islamic Conquest to the Ghaznavid Era, Deborah Tor, University of Notre Dame; What is Really Known about Ancient and Medieval Yazd? Jamsheed K. Donald Whitcomb presents an aerial photo at Iranian Cities as Choksy, Indiana University, Roy P. Mottahedeh looks on Bloomington; Balkh from

SPRING 2015 | CMESNEWS 14 Detail of The Conquest of Balkh

Efe Murat Balikcioglu and Cemal Kafadar celebrate Imprint Press’s first publication, Defense Against the Night

Susan Kahn at Dudley House AT A GLANCE

ARABIAN PENINSULA STUDIES LECTURE SERIES FACULTY NEWS IN MEMORIAM: EDWARD L. KEENAN STUDENT NEWS CMES STUDENT PROFILES CONGRATULATIONS AM GRADUATES UNDERGRADUATE PHOTO CONTEST ALUMNI NEWS IN MEMORIAM: IRENE A. BIERMAN-MCKINNEY VISITING RESEARCHER NEWS NEW CMES STAFF