07.07.21

Editorial Note

The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) is currently holding its annual conference. BRISMES was founded in 1973 to provide a forum for educators and researchers in Middle East Studies.

The annual conference is taking place between 5-9 July 2021 on Zoom. One person who helped the organizers is Prof. Neve Gordon, a former Ben Gurion University scholar who called for the boycott of Israel on the pages of the Los Angeles Times in 2009, currently at Queen Mary University of London. BRISMES, as can be seen from its homepage, is mainly concerned with Israel/Palestine.

There are several sessions at the current BRISMES annual conference dealing with Israel and Palestine: “Settler colonialism, power and resistance in Israel-Palestine”; “The Politics of Childhood in Palestine/Israel”; “Forms and Dynamics of Violence and Justice in Israel-Palestine.” And then, session 11 on July 7, is titled “BRISMES Campaigns: Middle East Studies in Practice and Anti-Colonial Education,” with one speaker, Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and another speaker is Marcy Newman from the Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

Neve Gordon chairs a session titled “Geographies of war-care.” Gordon also presents a paper, “Legal Exceptions and the Killability of the Wounded Body.” Revital Madar presenting a paper titled “Repression and Repetition: The Construction of Palestinian Death(s) as an Exceptional Repetition in Israeli Military Courts.”

BRISMES is also highly active in PR.  Three notices on its front page are indicative in this respect.

The first notice states that on June 9, 2021, the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom sent a letter to Professor Daniel Chamovitz, President of Ben-Gurion University, expressing deep concerns about the events on May 11, 2021, on and near the University campus in Beer Sheva. These events, as detailed in the letter, “appear to demonstrate a hostile and discriminatory environment for Palestinian and Arab students, and that on May 11, the University was unable and/or unwilling to provide them with safety and security.” As proof of their allegations, the BRISMES letter cited a Haaretz article on this topic.

However, BRISMES neglected to include the Ben Gurion University response in the Haaretz article, stating: “The incident described occurred outside the university and the dorms. We regret the incident deteriorated into violence, due to people who are not part of the university community, on both sides.” A review of guards’ conduct did not find any suspicion of misdeeds. ‘The security staff of the university acted, while putting themselves at risk, to protect the students by bringing them into the dormitory compound. Everyone who identified as a student was let in, and non-students were prevented from entering,’ said the university. As for the student arrested at the protest, he was brought onto campus by security staff for his own protection. The police later instructed he be released. ‘The university has acted tirelessly to preserve students’ safety and sense of security. We are now in difficult times in all of Israel, but there is zero tolerance for violence, from any side, while we allow for opinions to be exchanged openly and safely.’ The university said it will hold activities to help heal the rifts.”

The second notice states that on May 26, 2021, the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom sent a letter to Michelle Donelan MP, the UK Minister of State for Universities, to express deep concerns about the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. Their letter urged the Minister to reconsider the Government’s policy of imposing the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism onto universities. BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom demands “full and unequivocal support for academic freedom and the autonomy of universities.” In other words, anti-Semitic behavior should be considered part of academic freedom, according to the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom.

The third notice stated that the BRISMES Council published a statement on the latest escalation in Israel/Palestine viewing with grave concern the latest escalation, noting that yet again, “Palestinians are paying a disproportionate price.” As educators, we are acutely aware of the “long history of Palestinian dispossession.” BRISMES added a link to the online petition “Palestine and Praxis: Open Letter and Call to Action,” which begins by expressing support for the Palestinians by stating:

“As scholars, we affirm the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state. The pitched battle in Sheikh Jarrah is the most recent flashpoint in the ongoing Nakba that is the Palestinian condition. Israel has expanded and entrenched its settler sovereignty through warfare, expulsion, tenuous residency rights, and discriminatory planning policies. The ostensible peace process has perpetuated its land grabs and violent displacement under the fictions of temporality and military necessity. Together these policies constitute apartheid, bolstered by a brute force that enshrines territorial theft and the racial supremacy of Jewish-Zionist nationals. And now, as has been the case for over a century, Palestinians continue to resist their removal and erasure.”

As for the last escalation between Israel and Gaza on May 10-21, 2021, BRISMES does not mention that during the Operation Guardian of the Walls, the Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip launched 4,360 rockets at Israel. Some 680 of the rockets fell inside the Gaza Strip, killing Gazans. An analysis report published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center on June 22, 2021, found that of the 236 published names of Palestinian killed in the attacks, at least 114 of them belonged to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Mujahedeen Brigades and Popular Resistance Committees.

BRISMES then moves on to remind its members that a resolution passed at the BRISMES Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 2019, which “expressed support for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in occupation and settler colonialism.”

BRISMES also notes that the 2020 BRISMES AGM resolved to establish the “BRISMES Campaigns Limited” advocating for the “boycott of Israeli academic institutions.” This Campaign is being held during the BRISMES Annual Conference on July 7, 2021.

Clearly, the BRISMES organization has been hijacked by Palestinians and their supporters.  This position reflects a more general trend in Middle East Studies, singularly focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a pro-Palestinian perspective. For instance, the American-based Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has hosted endless panels on the subject.

The study of the Middle East is highly complex and essential.  The Middle East is the home to repressive regimes and hosts brutal Islamist terror groups.  Scholars and students should profit from BRISMES research into these and other urgent issues.

www.brismes.ac.uk/component/content/article/1-home/1-home

About BRISMES

Founded in 1973, BRISMES provides a forum for educators and researchers in Middle East Studies. Membership is open to all regardless of nationality or country of residence. We work to promote interest in Middle East Studies and to raise awareness of the region and how it is connected to other parts of the world, including the UK. Middle East Studies is a diverse field, which encompasses all the humanities and social sciences and reaches from the present back to classical antiquity. …Read more

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Brismes Conference 2021

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BRISMES 2021

The Programme
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About Kent
Solidarity Fund

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Please find the final programme here:

BRISMES 2021 Conference Download

Minor changes may be made to the programme – for example we will be announcing several exciting events hosted by publishers over the coming weeks!

________________________________

BRISMES expresses its huge gratitude to the following individuals for their service to the Conference Programme Committee for the 2021 conference:
1. Reem Abou-El-Fadl
2. Mo Afshary
3. Nadje Al-Ali
4. Feras Alkabani
5. Orit Bashkin
6. Kirsty Bennett
7. Marianna Charountaki
8. Katerina Dalacoura
9. James Dickins
10. Hoda Elsadda
11. Pascale Ghazaleh
12. Neve Gordon
13. Anthony Gorman
14. Sarah Irving
15. Islah Jad
16. Laleh Khalili
17. Diane King
18. Nesreen Hussein
19. Michelle Obeid
20. Nicola Pratt
21. Dina Rezk
22. Sophie Richter-Devroe
23. Sara Salem
24. Afshin Shahi
25. Nimer Sultany
26. Adam Talib
27. Zahra Tizro
28. Yaniv Voller
29. Rafeef Ziadah

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The Programme Keynote Speakers Publishers’ Exhibition Registration 2021 About Kent Solidarity Fund

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BRISMES 2021

The Programme
Keynote Speakers
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Registration 2021
About Kent
Solidarity Fund

KNOWLEDGE,
POWER AND
MIDDLE EASTERN
STUDIES
BRISMES CONFERENCE 2021
5 JULY – 9 JULY 2021
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WELCOME 3
ABOUT BRISMES 4
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES 6
LIST OF PANELS 7
DAY 1, MONDAY 5TH JULY 7
DAY 2, TUESDAY 6TH JULY 8
DAY 3, WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY 10
DAY 4, THURSDAY 8TH JULY 12
DAY 5, FRIDAY, 9TH JULY 13
PANEL DETAILS 16
DAY 1, MONDAY 5TH JULY 16
DAY 2, TUESDAY 6TH JULY 25
DAY 3, WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY 37
DAY 4, THURSDAY 8TH JULY 48
DAY 5, FRIDAY, 9TH JULY 55
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
3
WELCOME
The 2021 BRISMES Annual Conference: Knowledge, Power and
Middle Eastern Studies
With great pleasure, BRISMES warmly welcomes you to the annual conference of the
British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), which, for the first time, is being
held on-line due to COVID-19 restrictions. The annual BRISMES conference is the largest
and most prestigious annual UK gathering of scholars and practitioners focussed on the
Middle East and North Africa region. We are grateful to the University of Kent for cohosting
this virtual conference and to Ms Louisa Harvey (Senior Events Coordinator), Dr
Yaniv Voller (School of Politics and International Relations) and Dr Mohammad Afshary
(Law School) for their assistance in organising the event.
With this change of setting in mind, we have created an expansive programme containing
speakers situated across the world. This year’s conference theme encourages
participants to engage with the implications of global calls for decolonizing academia,
including the field of Middle East studies. In addition, we have dozens of panels and
presentations representing the full range of subjects and disciplines making up
the field. We are also honoured to welcome eminent keynote speakers, Pinar Bilgin
(Bilkent University, Ankara), Caroline Rooney (University of Kent, Canterbury) and amina
wadud (National Islamic University in Jogjakarta), a plenary roundtable addressing the
conference theme and a graduate section mentoring event. With events hosted by the
newly-launched BRISMES Campaigns and the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom,
we also invite you to see behind the scenes at some of the projects BRISMES teams
are working on and encourage you to get more involved. As well as attending some book
launches, be sure to visit the curated exhibition hall to discover more about some of the
leading publishers across academic fields.
Finally, and particularly in these challenging times, we thank all participants for
contributing and for making the BRISMES conference the stimulating event that it always
is.
Enjoy!
Nicola Pratt, BRISMES Vice President
Bronwen Mehta, BRISMES Conference Coordinator
Kirsty Bennett, BRISMES Conference Coordinator
On behalf of the BRISMES Council
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
4
ABOUT BRISMES
Founded in 1973, BRISMES provides a forum for educators and researchers in Middle East
Studies. Membership is open to all regardless of nationality or country of residence. We
currently have more than 400 members drawn from all over the world and are governed
by a Council of trustees elected from the membership. We work to promote interest in
Middle East Studies and to raise awareness of the region and how it is connected to
other parts of the world, including the UK. Middle Eastern Studies is a diverse field, which
encompasses all the humanities and social sciences and reaches from the present back
to classical antiquity.
The long history of our field of study has made us particularly aware of the connections
between knowledge and power. We see connections between research, education,
teaching and fundamental questions of social change. We do not believe that research
and education should be divorced from the wider social and political context nor that
it should exist to serve elites. We believe that a commitment to promote research and
education in Middle Eastern Studies involves a duty to consider the conditions under
which knowledge is produced and disseminated, and if necessary, to speak out against
power structures and interests that prevent the flourishing of research and education in
our field.
Database of Academic Expertise
We are continuing to expand our interactive database of academic expertise worldwide.
Our aim is to offer a one-stop shop for access to other sites of interest, information on
courses, job opportunities, new publications and forthcoming events.
Publications
Since 1974, we have published the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies – now
issuing 5 editions a year through Taylor and Francis – which is free to members.
Scholarships and Awards
We offer a number of funding opportunities and prizes to support and recognize the best
research, to which all BRISMES members are eligible to apply.
Events
We also organise public annual lectures and the BRISMES Annual Conference, which
draws participants from all over the world and attracts the latest research on all aspects
of Middle East Studies in Britain and beyond. Members enjoy a reduced attendance rate
here, too.
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
5
ABOUT BRISMES (CONT)
Graduate Section
The BRISMES Graduate Section is a hub for students and early career researchers to
have an active voice in the organisation. The BRISMES Graduate Section provides support
and advice to current and prospective graduate students; hosts events and workshops;
raises awareness of academic resources, funding opportunities and career opportunities;
and plays a vital role in making BRISMES more representative and better equipped to
promote Middle Eastern studies.
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN
STUDIES
The colonial origins of the term Middle East and the historical imbrications of area studies
with the exercise of colonial and imperialist power were highlighted many decades ago
in the work of Edward Said, amongst others. More recently, the Arab uprisings provoked
calls among some scholars and activists to fundamentally rethink prevalent approaches,
derived from so-called universal paradigms, particularly in the social sciences. We
have asked participants to reflect on the concept of decoloniality and practice of
decolonization of knowledge and pedagogy in relation to the study and teaching of the
Middle East.
Within this conference, we are particularly interested in providing space for scholars
to reflect on their experiences and challenges of writing about the Middle East while
adhering to the disciplinary/academic/institutional requirements of their universities.
The movement to decolonize academia also raises questions around the boundaries
between activism and scholarship. Hence, BRISMES 2021 provides an opportunity to
discuss the ethics and practicalities of professional and political solidarity and activism
and their relevance to academic work. In this light, we ask:
• In what ways can activism inform the study and teaching of the Middle East and vice
versa?
• What are the relationships between decolonization as a political project and as an
intellectual project?
• What are the possible dangers of linking activism and scholarship?
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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7
DAY 1, MONDAY 5TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
1A) Decolonising Methodology: Rethinking Approach, Tools and Technique
1B) Theological institutions and actors: Roles and Reforms
1C) The British Influence in the Gulf: Production, Protection, Partnership
1D) Narrating Upheaval in North Africa
1E) Roundtable: The city and al madina: A bilingual conversation
SESSION 1
10am – 12pm
2A) Plenary Keynote – Professor Caroline Rooney: ‘The Revolution is a Woman’: From
Woke Culture to the Arab Awakening
SESSION 2
1pm – 3pm
3A) The role of Academia in Activism and Critical Pedagogy
3B) Exclusion, Sectarianism and Marginalisation
3C) Settler colonialism, power and resistance in Israel-Palestine
3D) Decolonizing Middle Eastern Film and Media Studies
3E) Recovering Radical Knowledge Session 1: Revolutionary Pasts and
Revolutionary Presents
SESSION 3
3:15pm – 5:15pm
4A) Cultural Imaginings: Narrating through novels
4B) BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom
4C) Islam Calling: Muslim minorities and da’wa
4D) Reflecting on constitution-making: Looking at North Africa after 2011
SESSION 4
5:30pm – 7:30pm
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
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DAY 2, TUESDAY 6TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
5A) Statelessness, self-determination and the struggle for sovereignty
5B) Islamic networks and Islamist movements
5C) The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: To thrive, or merely survive, that is the
question
5D) Memory and National(ist) Pasts in Turkey: Reflections Through Oral History
5E) Roundtable: Unlearning/Re-learning Middle East Studies: Challenging
Exclusions Through Ally-ship, Connection and Collaboration
SESSION 5
10am-12pm
SESSION 6
1pm – 3pm
6A) Creating dissenting narratives through Film and Art
6B) Colonial legacies: Borders and Institutions
6C) Decentralization under Neopatrimonialism: Comparative Perspectives from the
Arab World
6D) On Arab Urbanism Session 1
6E) Book Launch: The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Art, Faith and Empire in Early
Islam by Alain George
SESSION 7
3:15pm-5:15pm
7A) Plenary Roundtable: Disrupting, Refusing and Transgressing Knowledge
Production in Middle East Studies
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
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DAY 2, TUESDAY 6TH JULY (CONTINUED)
LIST OF PANELS
SESSION 8
5:30pm-7:30pm
8A) Questioning the Decolonisation of Middle Eastern Studies
8B) New Frontiers of Political Struggle: Popular Culture and Media
8C) Challenging the domestic/international dichotomy
8D) In the shadow of border control. Reconsidering humanitarianism as
containment in the Middle East and North Africa
8E) Feminist politics in revolutionary times: past struggles and radical futurities
8F) The Politics of Childhood in Palestine/Israel
8G) Roundtable: Perils of our field: discrimination, censorship, and intimidation
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
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DAY 3, WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
9A) Plenary Keynote – Dr amina wadud: Islamic Feminism: What’s in a Name?
SESSION 9
10am-12pm
SESSION 10
1pm – 3pm
10A) Exploring Memory through Art and Popular Culture
10B) Conceptualising Revolution
10C) Colonial legacies in education: historic and present
10D) Cultural Interactions in Arab Diasporic and Globalized Spaces
10E) Roundtable: Decolonising heritage in the Middle East
SESSION 11
3:15pm-5:15pm
11A) Decolonizing Feminism: Knowledge and Activism
11B) Rethinking militaries, militias and non-state armed actors in politics
11C) “The Century of Camps” – Imagining Encampment and Containment in the
Middle East
11D) Historiography and the Politics of Memory: Jews from the Muslim World
between Assimilation and Self-determination
11E) BRISMES Campaigns: Middle East Studies in Practice and Anti-Colonial
Education
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
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DAY 3, WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY (CONTINUED)
LIST OF PANELS
SESSION 12
5:30pm-7:30pm
12A) Academic Freedom and Knowledge Production: The relationship between
state and scholarship
12B) Identities and narratives of the displaced and the diaspora
12C) New Perspectives on an Elusive Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the
Conflict in Yemen
12D) Sufism and Modernity: Alternative Takes on the 19th and 20th Century in
Muslim Thought
12E) Geographies of war-care
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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DAY 4, THURSDAY 8TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
13A) Rethinking Gender and Islam: Comparative Perspectives
13B) Conserving heritage and constructing histories
13C) Decolonial critique and the limits of international law
13D) How to get published panel
13E) Roundtable: Decolonizing Islamicate Manuscript Studies
SESSION 13
10am-12pm
14A) Plenary Student Section Session: Writing within and beyond academia
SESSION 14
1pm-3pm
15A) Modes, considerations and consequences of International Intervention
15B) “What is to be done?”: The Arab New Left in the ‘long 1960s’ – Session 1:
Counter-hegemony and Legacies for a radical critique of the present
15C) On Arab Urbanism Session 2
15D) Analysing activism, resistance and resilience in the everyday
15E) Roundtable: Innovating and decolonising Arabic language teaching the UK
higher education sector
SESSION 15
3:15pm – 5:15pm
16A) Deconstructing orientalism through Queer and Feminist theories
16B) The Politics of Economic Reform, Resource Management and Financial
Governance
16C) Mechanics of Authoritarian Coercion
16D) Matters of space in the Middle East
16E) Roundtable: Decolonising Arabic Literary Studies
SESSION 16
5:30pm – 7:30pm
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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DAY 5, FRIDAY 9TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
17A) Self-determination and the (re)formation of national identity
17B) Forms and Dynamics of Violence and Justice in Israel-Palestine
17C) Beyond oil fields and the desert: orientalism, decoloniality and the Gulf
17D) Recovering Radical Knowledge Session 2: Radical Knowledge Cultivation
across Space and Time
17E: Balancing power: challenges to the Middle East regional system past and
present
SESSION 17
10am-12pm
18A) Diversifying Research on the Arab World: Multi-local Perspectives on Twelver
Shi’ism in Iraq
18B) The Politics of Translation: Understanding Gender and Sexuality in Arabicspeaking
Countries – Language, Power and Hegemony (Session conducted in
Arabic)
18C) Reinterpretations of the Gulf: Time for a decolonization of Gulf studies?
18D) Challenging Western-Centrism, Orientalism and Colonial Narratives
SESSION 18
1pm – 3pm
SESSION 19
3:15pm – 5:15pm
19A) Plenary Keynote – Professor Pinar Bilgin: Nowhere to run? Decolonising the
study of the Middle East between Area Studies and International Relations
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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DAY 5, FRIDAY 9TH JULY
LIST OF PANELS
20A) A journey through literary history
20B) Women’s movements and agency across time and space
20C) Critical perspectives on Palestine, Western Sahara and the International
Community
20D) Palestine through the lens of decolonial epistemologies
20E) Power, Knowledge and “Oriental” Studies in Europe. Interrogating National
Traditions of Middle East Studies
20F) “What is to be done?” – The Arab New Left in the ‘long 1960s’ – Session 2:
Investigating Transnational Entanglements
SESSION 20
5:30pm-7:30pm
End of Conference
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BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
16
SESSION 1 (MON 5TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
1A) Decolonising Methodology: Rethinking Approach, Tools
and Technique
Chaired by Mohamed Gamal-Eldin, New Jersey Institute of Technology/Rutgers –
Newark
Interviewing outside the “interview-society”. Limits and challenges of the Westernborn
qualitative approach – Odetta Pizzingrilli, Luiss Guido Carli
Knowledge production about Iran and Iranians: beyond inclusion as exclusion – M.
Stella Morgana, Leiden University
Co-production and co-analysis: the value of academic-artistic collaboration with
young people in Lebanon and Jordan – Zoe Jordan, Oxford Brookes; Alexandra Kassir,
Centre for Lebanese Studies; Oroub El-Abed, Centre for Lebanese Studies, Jordan
Decolonising Inquiry: Knowledge Production and the Pursuit of “Arab Public Opinion”
– Kiran Phull, King’s College London
Radical pedagogy and transformative tools for researchers and educators – Kanwal
Tareq Hameed Abdulhameed, Exeter University; Amal Khalaf, Serpentine Gallery;
Katie Natanel, Exeter University
1B) Theological institutions and actors: Roles and Reforms
Chaired by Irwan Saidin, National University of Malaysia
Brothers Behind Bars: Examining the History of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Prison
Ordeals, 1948-75 – Mathias Ghyoot, University of Copenhagen
An Informal Political Actor: The Influence of Ayatollah Sistani In Contemporary Iraq –
Yousif Al-Hilli, University of Birmingham
The Battle of the Grand Imam and the President: The Right to Islamic Legitimacy in
Contemporary Egypt – Andreas Nabil Younan, University of Copenhagen
The Islamic Face of a Pro-western Arab Monarchy, Jordan: An Analysis of Works of
Its Royal Hashemite Family – Fukiko Ikehata, Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science
Al-Shawkānī debates on Christian-Muslim relationships: Accounts, interfaith
dialogue and lawful existence of Christians – Awad Nahee, Najran University – Saudi
Arabia
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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SESSION 1 (MON 5TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
1D) Narrating Upheaval in North Africa
Chaired by Hana Natour, Freie Universität Berlin
Romancing Autocracy: Tunisian Women Writers Yearning for the Dictator – Douja
Mamelouk, Le Moyne College
On the Vernacular (Re)turn: The Poetics and Politics of Writing al-Dārija in Tunisia,
2010-2020 – Ben Koerber, Rutgers University
Narrating the Past: Tunisian Prose and the Uprisings of 2010/11 – Hanan Natour,
Freie Universität Berlin
Upheavals of Self and Centre: Rethinking Animal Studies through Libya, and World
Literature through Animals – Charis Olszok, University of Cambridge
Renewing the Left’s project through Culture: Leftist Poetics, Memory and
Mobilisation in Moroccan literature – Karima Laachir, Australian National University
1C) The British Influence in the Gulf: Production, Protection,
Partnership
Chaired by Abdullah Baabood, Waseda University
Gulf History and Colonial Archives: The Case of Britain and India – James Onley,
Qatar National Library
The British, the Advisers and the Institutional Foundations of the State of Kuwait –
Claire Beaugrand, University of Exeter
The ‘Scripts’ of the British Diplomat in the Gulf: Human Agency and National
Interests – Clemens Chay
Orientalism and The Myth of the Reforming Monarch – David Wearing, SOAS
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
PAGE
18
SESSION 1 (MON 5TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
1E) Roundtable: The city and al madina: A bilingual conversation
Chaired by Aya Nassar, Durham University
Noura Wahby, University of Cambridge
Nadi Abusaada, University of Cambridge
Omar Jabary Salamanca, Ghent University
Deen Sharp, London School of Economics
BRISMES 2021 CONFERENCE
KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
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SESSION 2 (MON 5TH JULY: 1PM-3PM)
PANEL DETAILS
2A) Plenary Keynote: Professor Caroline Rooney
‘The Revolution is a Woman’: From Woke Culture to the
Arab Wakening
This presentation will begin with a consideration of the manifesto
launched last year by French scholars that makes the case
that woke culture is responsible for extremist terror and that
postcolonial studies is responsible for this in its promotion
of identity politics. What will be maintained is that extremism
and revolutionary radicalism are different formations, and the
presentation will further clarify key differences between woke
culture and the awakening of the Arab uprisings, particularly with
respect to how women were at the forefront of these uprisings,
hence the slogan: ‘The revolution is a woman.’
Biography
Caroline Rooney is Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University
of Kent. She was born in Zimbabwe and studied at the University of Cape Town before
taking up a Beit Fellowship to undertake doctoral research at the University of Oxford.
She works and publishes mainly in the areas of postcolonial studies and Arab cultural
studies, focusing on the cultural expression of liberation struggles and their aftermaths
in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. She is the author of African
Literature, Animism and Politics (2000), Decolonising Gender: Literature and a Poetics
of the Real (2007), and Creative Radicalism in the Middle East: Culture and the Arab Left
After the Uprisings (2020). Her co-edited publications include: ‘Egyptian Literary Culture
and Egyptian Modernity’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 7:4 (2011) and The Ethics of
Representation in Literature, Art and Journalism: Transnational Responses to the Siege
of Beirut (2013). Her research by practice includes theatre productions and documentary
films. From 2009-12 she was a Global Uncertainties Fellow with a programme entitled
‘Radical Distrust: A Cultural Analysis of the Emotional, Psychological and Linguistic
Formations of Political and Religious Extremism.’ From 2012-2015, she held a PaCCS
Leadership Fellowship with a programme entitled ‘Imagining the Common Ground: Utopian
Thinking and the Overcoming of Resentment and Distrust’. She acted as UK PI of ‘Egypt’s
Living Heritage’ (Newton, 2016), and is currently the Co-I of ‘The Crime-Terror Nexus
from Below: Criminal and Extremist Practices, Networks and Narratives in Deprived
Neighbourhoods of Tripoli’ (ESRC).
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SESSION 3 (MON 5TH JULY: 3:15PM-5:15PM)
PANEL DETAILS
3A) The role of Academia in Activism and Critical Pedagogy
Chaired by Denis V. Volkov, National Research University Higher School of
Economics
Reflections on conducting research with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon – Perla
Issa, Institute for Palestine studies
Are there boundaries between academia and activism in the Arab region? – Sara
Jeffar, University of Milan; Amel Hammami, College of Europe-Natolin; Malaka
Shwaikh, University of St Andrews
Public Pedagogy in Egypt as Postcolonial Practice – Alaa Badr, European University
Institute
Mizrahi Scholar Activism and the Global Middle East: An Asian Americanist Critique –
Nancy Ko, Columbia University
3B) Exclusion, Sectarianism and Marginalisation
Chaired by M. Stella Morgana, Leiden University
Football and the Contestation of Iranian Identity – Ehsan Kashfi, University of
Alberta
Hezbollah’s challenged Leadership over Baalbek: Independents’ Political Contest
facing the ‘Resistance’ since the 2016 Municipal Elections – Jean-Baptiste
Allegrini, University College London
Itineraries of Opposition. The National Pact and Maronite Opinion in Lebanon (1943-
1976) – Borja Wladimiro González Fernández, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
How are the young voting in Tunisia? An approach to the electoral disaffection
of the youth in the 2018 Municipal elections – Bosco Govante Pablo de Olavide
University; Miguel Hernando de Larramendi, Castilla La Mancha University
Security Vetting and Disposable Citizenship in Turkey – Seckin Sertdemir Ozdemir,
University of Turku
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SESSION 3 (MON 5TH JULY: 3:15PM-5:15PM)
PANEL DETAILS
3C) Settler Colonialism, power and resistance in Israel-
Palestine
Chaired by Alice Panepinto, Queen’s University BelfastEconomics
The Functioning of Law in Israeli Settler Colonialism – Michael Samuel, Emory
University
Narratives of Human Rights in Israel Palestine: The Construction of Truth – Ibrahim
Saïd, Centre on Conflict Development and Peace-building, the Graduate Institute,
Geneva
Bringing Class into Indigeneity: Palestine, Rawabi, and the Politics of Recognition –
Francesco Amoruso, University of Exeter
The Long 1960s and the Contemporary Palestinian Discourse: The Local versus the
Global – Manar Makhoul, Tel-Aviv University
Under Ah Al Ard eyes[i]: settler colonialism and decolonisation in Palestine – Maisa
Shquier
3D) Decolonizing Middle Eastern Film and Media Studies
Chaired by Terri Ginsberg, The American University in Cairo
Governing through Documentary in the Middle East: Binational University & USIA
Contracts during the Early Cold War: The Case of Syracuse Audio-Visual Center –
Hadi Gharabaghi, Drew University
Legacies of USIA Information Centers within Contemporary Spaces for Cultural
Diplomacy in the Middle East – Bret Vukoder, University of Delaware
Towards a Petro-economy of Arab Film Studies – Terri Ginsberg, The American
University in Cairo
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SESSION 3 (MON 5TH JULY: 3:15PM-5:15PM)
PANEL DETAILS
3E) Recovering Radical Knowledge Session 1: Revolutionary
Pasts and Revolutionary Presents
Chaired by Sara Salem, London School of Economics
‘Impossible People’ in an Impossible Revolution: When Nonviolent and Radical
Politics Is Met with Violence – Birgit Poopuu, Aberystwyth University
Decolonial memories, colonial circulations? – Omar Al-Ghazzi, London School of
Economics
Cuban-Palestinian Women’s Entanglements – Sorcha Thomson, Roskilde University
Anticolonialism, Third Worldism, and the Cold War: Writing Transnational Decolonial
Histories from Dhufar to Tehran – Marral Shamshiri-Fard, London School of
Economics
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SESSION 4 (MON 5TH JULY: 5:30PM-7:30PM)
PANEL DETAILS
4A) Cultural Imaginings: Narrating through novels
Chaired by Feras Alkabani, University of Sussex
Islamism in modern Arabic literature: a neglected history – Alessandro Columbu, The
University of Westminster
Unsettling Stories: The Worldiness of Horror in Post-2003 Iraqi Fiction – Tasnim
Qutait, SOAS
Amman in the “post-Arab spring” novel in Jordan – Ismael Abder-rahman Gil, Ca’
Foscari University of Venice
Female Narratives and (Im)mobilities in English – Modern Literature from the Arab
Gulf – Alice Königstetter, University of Vienna
The Complexity of Arab Identity in Fiction and Theory: A look through the Lens of
Immigrants’ Education and Activism – Eman Alamri, University of Manchester
4B) BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom
Chaired by Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick
Lewis Turner, Newcastle University
John Chalcraft, London School of Economics
Matthew Hedges, Durham University
Zahra Tizro, University of East London
Stephen Wordsworth, Cara (Council for At-Risk Academics)
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SESSION 4 (MON 5TH JULY: 5:30PM-7:30PM)
PANEL DETAILS
4C) Islam Calling – Muslim minorities and da’wa
Chaired by Antonella Straface, University of Naples “L’Orientale”
When the minority is responsible for the majority: the duty of da’wa in Europe –
Chiara Anna Cascino, University of Naples “L’Orientale”
Migration Aimed at da’wa in Salafi Juridical Thought – Carlo De Angelo, University of
Naples “L’Orientale”
Da’wa as Contention. The Islamic Invitation among the Moroccans Abroad – Nicola
Di Mauro, University of Naples “L’Orientale”
Proselytism and caution: the da’wa in the Ismaili context – Antonella Straface,
University of Naples “L’Orientale”
4D) Reflecting on constitution-making: Looking at North
Africa after 2011
Chaired by Tereza Jermanová, Charles University
The constitution as the battleground for Sudan’s unfinished revolution – Sara
Abbas, Freie Universität Berlin
The Constitutional Question at the Heart of Algeria’s Political Crisis – Rayane Anser,
University of Warwick
There was no alternative: Explaining the cross-partisan constitutional agreement in
Tunisia after the 2010/11 uprising – Tereza Jermanová, Charles University
Democracy by ‘undemocratic’ means? Assessing the role of guiding principles in
Tunisia’s and Egypt’s constitutional processes – Nedra Cherif, European University
Institute
Is constitution-making necessarily about regime change? Egypt 2012 Constitution
and alternatives to democratization theory – Alexis Blouët, University of Edinburgh
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SESSION 5 (TUE 6TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
5A) Statelessness, self-determination and the struggle for
sovereignty
Chaired by Irene Fernandez-Molina, University of Exeter
A Tale of Two Regions: What explains the great divergence between Iraq and the
KRG? – Shwan Azeez, University of Kent; Josh P Hill, Montana State University
Billings
Bargaining Statehood: Unrecognised States and The Question of Sovereignty –
Dilara Ozbek, University of Kent
Syria’s Changing Statelessness Landscape: From Protracted Situations to “Ticking
time bombs” – Thomas McGee, University of Melbourne
“Decontestation of the essentially contestable”: Biopolitics, Ideology and Fantasy
in Kurdish Conflict – Recep Onursal, University of Kent
Syria’s Assyrian Identity and the Political Discourse of Constructing ‘Rojava’ –
Madonna Kalousian, Lancaster University
5B) Islamic networks and Islamist movements
Chaired by Zeina Dowidar, University of Cambridge
The Arab Uprisings and Malaysia’s Islamist Movements: Influence, Impact and
Lesson – Irwan Saidin, National University of Malaysia
British Salafism and the Middle Eastern Connection: Past, Present, and Future –
Iman Dawood, London School of Economics and Political Science
Framing Identities, Shifting the Tactics: Exploring shared perceptions and tactical
decisions by the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine during the Second Intifada
(2000-2005) – Antonella Acinapura, Queen’s University of Belfast
Sufi orders and their political commitment in contemporary Turkey – Angelo
Francesco Carlucci, İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim Üniversitesi
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SESSION 5 (TUES 6TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
5C) The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: To thrive, or merely
survive, that is the question
Chaired by Rana Sweis, Wishbox Media
Missed Opportunities for Reform and Development in Jordan – Rana Sweis, Wishbox
Media
Jordan’s Decentralization After 2015: Central control under weak intermediaries –
Shun Watanabe, University of Oxford
The Limits of Selective Reformism: Economic neoliberalism and public dissent in
Jordan – Imad El-Anis, Nottingham Trent University
Moral Economy, Social Control and Popular Protest in Modern Jordan – Tariq Tell,
American University of Beirut
5D) Memory and National(ist) Pasts in Turkey: Reflections
Through Oral History
Chaired by Roger Deal, University of South Carolina Aiken
Menemen, 1930: Event, History, Memory – Hale Yilmaz, Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale
Thinking about the Past, Belonging, and the Armenian Citizens of Turkey – Yesim
Bayar, St. Lawrence University
Taş Plak Memories: Reconsidering Social His tory in a Turkish Jewish Community –
Maureen Barbara Jackson, Independent scholar
Oral History as a Way of Understanding Reactions to the Reforms in Hatay – Esra
Demirci, Bilkent University
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SESSION 5 (TUE 6TH JULY: 10AM-12PM)
PANEL DETAILS
5E) Roundtable: Unlearning/Re-learning Middle East Studies:
Challenging Exclusions Through Ally-ship, Connection and
Collaboration
Chaired by: Lewis Turner, Newcastle University
Sharri Plonski, Queen Mary, University of London
Akanksha Mehta, Goldsmiths, University of London
Elian Weizman, London South Bank University
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SESSION 6 (TUE 6TH JULY: 1PM-3PM)
PANEL DETAILS
6A) Creating dissenting narratives through Film and Art
Chaired by Thomas Richard, ESPOL, Université Catholique de Lille
The City in Alternative Arab Film – Nadia Yaqub, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Nationalism after Decolonization in Egyptian Cinema – Mariam Waheed, Faculty of
Economics and Political Science, Cairo University
Queer Heavens: Articulating Gender Fluidity Through Garden Imagery in
Contemporary Middle Eastern Art – Charlotte Bank, Independent scholar
Queer Cinema in the Arab World-Changing Trends – Iris Fruchter-Ronen, University of
Haifa
Resisting (neo)colonialism in Egyptian cinema – Claire Begbie, AUC
6B) Colonial legacies: Borders and Institutions
Chaired by Yasmine Zarhloule, University of Oxford
The construction of smallness in the British discourse regarding the Gulf region and
its effects on state identity – Máté Szalai, Corvinus University of Budapest
Towards a Decolonial History of Islamic Law in the Arabian Peninsula – Alexandre
Caeiro, Hamad Bin Khalifa University
“No Mines, No Borders”: The Experience of the Nakba in South Lebanese Frontier
Communities – Susann Kassem, University of Oxford
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SESSION 6 (TUE 6TH JULY: 1PM-3PM)
PANEL DETAILS
6C) Decentralization under Neopatrimonialism: Comparative
Perspectives from the Arab World
Chaired by Thomas Demmelhuber, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-
Nürnberg
Formal participation vs informal leverage? Situating institutional petitions in the
politics of local Morocco – Francesco Colin, International Institute of Social Studies,
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Decentralization under Neopatrimonialism: Conceptual Reflections – Thomas
Demmelhuber, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, (Co-authored by
Roland Strum)
The role of elite networks in decentralization: a comparative perspective – Miriam
Bohn, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Decentralization and fiscal policy: a comparative perspective – Erik Vollmann,
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Discussant: Irene Fernandez-Molina, University of Exeter
6D) On Arab Urbanism Session 1
Chaired by: Nadi Abusaada, University of Cambridge
Architecture, the State and the Capital City: Investigating the Muqata’a and
Arafat’s memorial site in Ramallah, Palestine – Anwar Jaber, University of Waterloo
Reasserting Regionalism: The Arab Exhibition in Mandate Jerusalem, 1931- 33 –
Nadi Abusaada, University of Cambridge
An ‘Arab Urbanism’? On regional categories and the articulation of Local Knowledge
– Ibrahim Abdou, University of Cambridge
The Increasing Urbanization of Egypt’s Nile Delta villages and the Shifting Social
Value of Land – Nada El-Kouny, Rutgers University
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SESSION 6 (TUE 6TH JULY: 1PM-3PM)
PANEL DETAILS
6E) Book Launch: The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Art,
Faith and Empire in Early Islam by Alain George
Author Alain George in conversation with Series Editor Melanie Gibson
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SESSION 7 (TUE 6TH JULY: 3:15PM-5:15PM)
PANEL DETAILS
7A) Plenary Roundtable: Disrupting, Refusing and
Transgressing Knowledge Production in Middle East Studies
Chaired by Sara Salem, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
As scholars of the ‘Middle East,’ living in a colonial metropole, working in
neoliberalised universities, we must confront difficult, challenging, and oftentimes
personal questions about our responsibilities and positionalities as producers
and disseminators of knowledge. How do we produce scholarship that is neither
extractive, nor ordered or disciplined by colonial concepts and categories (including
the concept of ‘the Middle East’)? How do we produce knowledge that is faithful,
relevant and accountable to lived experiences of people in the region and to all
those we teach? How do we navigate neoliberalised structures of research funding,
fieldwork, and academic hierarchies to produce knowledge that is relevant for
struggles for liberation and justice? And how do we mobilise and be(come) political
– in our classrooms, our universities, our ‘field sites’, and the wider world. Building
on Steven Salaita, how then do we research, write, and teach in these conditions of
exploitation?
This roundtable will ask participants to critically reflect on their scholarship and
professional practice, as shaped by global and political forces, and to do so in
conversation with, and learning from, experts in other disciplines and fields. Aimed
at a radical rethinking/redoing of knowledge production in our field(s), it poses
questions and challenges for BRISMES members, and BRISMES as an institution.
How can we learn and improve when we think through coloniality, racialised
capitalisms and other structures and practices of domination, as well as the
struggles that challenge the silencing, erasure and replacement of indigenous and
racialised others.
Kelly-Jo Bluen, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Jasmine Gani, University of St Andrews
Akanksha Mehta, Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action
Olivia U. Rutazibwa, University of Portsmouth
Goldie Osuri, University of Warwick
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SESSION 8 (TUE 6TH JULY: 5:30PM-7:30PM)
PANEL DETAILS
8A) Questioning the Decolonisation of Middle Eastern Studies
Chaired by Kiran Phull, LSE
Decolonising the library, its implications and the role of Middle East librarians –
Waseem Farooq, Aga Khan Library
The Rise of the “Global” and Return of Eurocentrism – Mohamed Gamal-Eldin, New
Jersey Institute of Technology/ Rutgers – Newark
Knowledge Production and International Relations in the Arab Middle East – Mekia
Nedjar, Mohamed Benahmed Oran 2 University
Knowledge Decolonization or Critical Epistemology: A Comparative Perspective
between Development Studies in the Middle East and Latin America – Shimaa
Hatab, Cairo University
Pious Agency: Post-Secularist Approaches to Decolonising Middle Eastern Studies
– Suraina Pasha, University of Sydney
8B) New Frontiers of Political Struggle: Popular Culture and
Media
Chaired by Claire Begbie, AUC
Hegemonic Masculinities and Political Authoritarianism in Turkish Popular Culture –
Deniz Zorlu, Izmir University of Economics
Al-Akhbar as a Platform for Interaction between Secularity and Religion: The
Resistance as a Synthesis – Abed Kanaaneh, Tel Aviv University
Techno-Isl