No. 25 The University of Texas at Austin

Mediterranean Crossroads Program

Fall 1999/Spring 2000

The latest exciting initiative suc­cessfully launched by the Center

in Fall 1999 is a program ofcourseworkand summer travel spread over threesemesters titled Mediterranean Cross­roads. Eleven students were chosen toparticipate through a competitive pro­cess. The program involves three se­mesters of work: a semester of prepa­ratory work in Spring 2000, a study­abroad course including five weeks offaculty-led travel in Turkey and Israelduring the first session of Summer2000, and a concluding conferencecourse in Fall 2000. Students will re­ceive 15 total credit hours for coursework in the program. Travel to theMiddle East is being underwritten bythe Dean of Liberal Arts.

Through the combination ofcourse work, travel, and individual

research, students will acquire an in­depth knowledge of a region that oc­cupies a unique place in human his­tory. Students will have an opportu­nity to explore a wide range of issues,from religion and language to spaceand identity, as a way of appreciatingthe forces thathave shaped the region'slandscapes and societies.

All students are required to takethe Mediterranean Crossroads Semi­nar, taught in Spring 2000 by Profes­sor Ian Manners (Geography andMiddle Eastern Studies). The Summerportion of the program is jointly led byDr. Marcus (History and Director ofMiddle Eastern Studies) and Dr. Man­ners.

Course work will encourage stu­dents to think about the region's richheritage and complex realities in abroad comparative and interdiscipli­nary context. This will include read­ing about the crucial role of religion,about the ways in which nomadic,village and urban communities haveinteracted to shape social institutionsand daily practices, about the con­quests and movements of peoples thathave profoundly affected the rhythmsofeconomic, political, and cultural life,and about the contemporary chal­lenges that confront nations and

peoples seeking to define their identi­ties and places in an era of globalinterdependency. At the same time,students will start work on their indi­vidual research projects, a process thatwill involve writing a research pro­posal, identifying sources of informa­tion, establishing contacts with indi­viduals and institutions in the region,as well as learning about and devel­oping appropriate research strategies.In addition to the MediterraneanCrossroads Seminar, students werealso enrolled in two classes duringthe Spring 2000 semester, chosen froma selected list of course offerings.

The group of faculty and studentsleft for Istanbul on May 25, and willconclude the journey in Jerusalem onJune 26, 2000.

Message from theDirector

I am pleased to announce that theCenter's grant proposal to the u.s.

Department of Education (DOE) wassuccessful in the national competitionand that we were awarded an increaseof nearly 10% over the level of fundingfor the previous three-year cycle. Thisis the largest grant we have ever re­ceived under the Department ofEducation's National Resource Cen­ters Program. The award will allow usto continue the promotion of excel­lence in teaching, research, and out­reach on the Middle East at UT.Roughly one third of the Center's totalbudget comes from the us DOE withthe remainder of the budget financedby a combination of State of Texasfunds, including the University's bud­get, and other private granting agen­cies.

I would like to thank all the af­filiated faculty and programs that con­tributed to the preparation of the pro­posal. Special gratitude is due to theCenter's staff and administrative fac­ulty for their dedicated work on whatwas a highly demanding and stressfultask.

The University of Texas atAustin's Middle East instructional pro­gram rests on a comprehensive,multidisciplinary body of courses co­ordinated by the Center, a full comple­ment of degree programs concentrat­ing on the area, and faculty of impres­sive numbers and quality. Every ma­jor field in the social sciences and hu­manities is represented by a set ofcourses on which shldents can drawfor their particular programs of aca­demic work at both the undergradu­ate and graduate levels spread across20 disciplines and fields of study. Ap­proximately 100 instructors teach non­language courses on some aspect ofthe Middle East.

After a busy year of recruitmentI am also pleased to report that fivenew faculty members whose work fo­cuses on the Middle East will be join­ing us in the coming academic year.

They will add strength in a number ofimportant fields and enhance consid­erably our course offerings and sup­port of students' needs.

The Center's initiative to hire ten­ure-track faculty with specializationin the Middle East and North Africa inthe departments of Sociology, Geog­raphy, and Anthropology has con­cluded successfully. Dr. MouniraCharrad, currently a visiting scholarat Georgetown University, will jointhe Department of Sociology in thefall. Ms. Diana Davis, who is complet­ing her doctoral work at Berkeley, willjoin the Department of Geography inSpring 2001. Dr. Kamran Asdar Ali,currently an assistant professor at theUniversity of Rochester, will join theDepartment of Anthropology in Fall2001.

In addition to these three appoint­ments, Dr. Mohammad A. Mohammadof the University of Florida has beenappointed Associate Professor of Ara­bic in the Department of Middle East­ern Languages and Cultures begin­ning next fall. Further, the Depart­ment of History, in cooperation withthe Center, has appointed Dr. JamesGrehan as a visiting lecturer in MiddleEastern history for the coming aca­demic year. Dr. Grehan recently re­ceived his doctoral degree from UT.Finally, the Center has arranged, incollaboration with the Department ofArt and Art History, for the renewal ofthe appointment of Dr. Carel Bertramas a visiting lecturer in Islamic art. Wewelcome all of these faculty, lookingforward to the contributions they willmake to the University and the studyof the Middle East here.

Recruitment on this extraordi­nary scale naturally involves a greatdeal of work. Thanks are due to allthose who served on search commit­tees, hosted candidates, and providedinput. We are especially grateful toRichard Lariviere, Dean of the Collegeof Liberal Arts, for making these ap­pointments possible. Again, theCenter's staf( along with the staff ofeach of the departments involved in ahire, deserves special thanks for help-

ing to coordinate a rapid succession ofcampus visits, job talks, and appoint­ments, and for handling a heavy loadof paperwork. Our program is all thestronger for this team effort.

Next year will mark the 40th an­niversary of the Center for MiddleEastern Studies at the University ofTexas at Austin. The generation of fac­ulty who first set up the program isnow gradually retiring, and each fare­well party occasions personal remi­niscences of a humble beginning thatfew of the younger faculty and none ofthe students can readily imagine. Fromthat early start in 1960, when the Cen­ter occupied one small office and couldclaim a staff of one part-time assistantand a half dozen affiliated faculty, aremarkable journey of growth has oc­curred. Generous university supportalong with nearly four decades of fed­eral funding, have made possible thesteady expansion of facul ty, programs,enrollments, and resources, and thebuilding of a full-fledged and dynamicMiddle East program of national andinternational standing.

Thank you for your support.Regards,

Abraham Marcus

1999 Middle EastSummer Institute

T he Center for Middle EasternStudies at the University of Texas

at Austin, through the WesternConsortium of Centers for MiddleEastern Studies, successfully hostedthe annual Summer Middle EastInstitute in the summer of 1999. Overeighty students attended the Instimtefor an eight-week period, intensivelystudying courses offered in Arabic,Hebrew, Persian, and Turkishlanguages.

A rich program of activities ac­companied the language courses de­voted to the cuisine, music, folk danc­ing, and the architecture of the Middle

(continue on back pagel

The Life and Legacy of Hassan Fathy

Women of the BookConference

C hristian, Islamic, and Jewishscholars gathered at the Univer­

sity on November 9 and 10, 1998, todiscuss the implications of their reli­gion for women. The conference, en­titled "Women of the Book: The Chang­ing Face of Feminism in Judaism,Christianity, and Islam," focused onissues of law, family, and religiouspractices and scriptural readings. Themodified version of the Islamic con­cept "people of the book" was chosenas the motto of the conference becauseit addresses the three monotheistic re­ligions that originated in the MiddleEast, and stresses their similaritiesrather than their differences. The con­ference culminated in an eveningeventthat combined Dr. Virginia Danielsonof Harvard University reading fromherrecentbook, UmmKulthum,A VoiceLike Egypt, the singing ofJamie Schpall,a female cantor from CongregationBeth Israel, and a performance of theSpiritualettes, an all-women gospelgroup.

The conference was organized byElizabeth Fernea, Professor Emeritaof English and Middle Eastern Studiesat the University, and DeniseSpellberg, Associate Professor in His­tory at the University. The Center forMiddle Eastern Studies, the ReligiousStudies and Women's Studies pro­grams were co-sponsors. Conferenceproceedings are expected to be pub­lished in Summer 2000.

Middle East StudiesAssociation (MESA) 1999

The University of Texas at Austinwas out in force for this year's

MESA meeting. Legacy of the MiddleEast, a travelling exhibit organized in20 panels and curated by ProfessorDenise Schmandt-Besserat, was ondisplay at the entrance to the bookexhibit (See page 4).

Papers were given by several UTfaculty, including:

Kamran Scot Aghaie, SymbolicRepresentations of Husayn, Fatimah &Zaynab in Modern Iranian Literature;Carel Bertram, Rural Memory inIstanbul: Drawing My Village Home;Linda Boxberger, Piety, Praise and thePolitics ofHousework: Women's Poetry inHadramawt (Yemen) and Keith Walters,The Changing Nature ofDiglossia in Tu­nisia: Fergy's Prescience.

Two CMES students also gave pa­pers: Steven Hyland, Jr., Silent White­ness of the Page:Abdullah Habib's"Laylamiat"; Peter C. Lyon, Palestine

A n international conference, "TheLife and Legacy of Hassan

Fathy," was held on May 8,1999 in theDean's Conference Room of theArchitecture Building. Organized byAkel Kahera,UT Professor of IslamicStudies, the Conference was sponsoredby Aramco World Magazine, the Centerfor Middle Eastern Studies, the Schoolof Architecture, and the Departmentof Middle Eastern Languages andCultures. The recorded round-tablediscussion was the basis of theNovember / December issue ofAramcoWorld, which was devoted to HassanFathy.

Hassan Fathy, a world-famousarchitect from Egypt, died in 1989. TheConference focused on Fathy'scommitment to the poor and hisextraordinary aesthetic sense. Fathy

and the End of the British Raj in India:'Wars ofElephants Comparable with WarsofMice. ,

Elizabeth W. Fernea served onthe FilmFest selection committee, andalso was a discussant at a SpecialSession panel on Iraq: Assessing aDecadeof Devastation. Other studentsattending the conference includedBrad Bowman, Morris Karam, KristinMonroe, Youngsun Moon, ChrisRose, Avi Santo, and Clay Schouest.CMES staff members in attendencewere Abe Marcus, Annes McCann­Baker and Hillary Hutchinson.

demonstrated during his lifetime thatgraceful mud-brick structures couldbe both economical to build andadmirably suited to hot, dry climates.He is best known in this country forDar ai-Islam, the mosque he designedin Abiquiu, New Mexico. He was thewinner of the Aga Khan Chairman'sAward for Architecture in 1980.

Experts on Fathy, his philosophy,and his methods of building spoke atthe conference and participated in around-table discussion. Invitedspeakers were James Steele,architecture professor, University ofSouthern California; Simone Swan,adobe builder, Presidio, Texas; HassanUddin-Khan, architecture professor,MIT and Berkeley; and Abdel Wahidel-Wakil, architect/professor, Princeof Wales School of Architecture.

Legacy of the Middle East Exhibit

The Center for Middle EasternStudies, through the efforts of

Denise Schmandt-Besserat, collabo­rated with Sami Saleh Nawar, theDirector of the Jeddah Historic Pres­ervation Department in Saudi Arabia,and the Texas Council for the Hu­manities, to create a travelling ex­hibit, entitled Legacy ofthe Middle East.The exhibition consisted of 20 panelscelebrating the heritage of the Arabworld. The images and texts (which

Pilgrimages to Holy Sites

O n November 10, 1999, a sympo­sium was held in the Texas Union

to examine the idea ofpilgrimagefroma variety of perspectives. Sponsoredby the Department of Middle EasternLanguages and Cultures, this was asuccessful interdepartmental sympo­sium. The Center's new Associate Di­rector, Nina Berman, chaired the af­ternoon session. Jonathan Wyrtzen, agraduate student in Middle EasternStudies, spoke on "evangelical tour­ism."

TAMES Meeting at Texas

The Texas Association of MiddleEast Scholars (TAMES) held its

annual interdisciplinary conference atthe University of Texas at Austin onMarch 24-25, 2000. The panels, "WhenWorlds Collide: Confluences of Dis­parate Values," "The Media and theMiddle East," and "Women, Art and

are in Arabic and English) highlightsome of the profound economic andsocial changes, technological inven­tions, and cultural and artistic innova­tions believed to have originated inthe Middle East, such as agriculture,metallurgy and writing. The exhibitwas on display at the annual MiddleEastern Studies Association meetingheld in Washington, DC at the MarriotWardman Park Hotel, November 18th

through November 22nd, 1999.

Culture," addressed a wide range oftopics.

The next TAMES meeting will beheld in Austin in Spring 2001.

Cities in the Middle East

The Centers for Middle EasternStudies at the University of Texas

and Harvard University presented aconference in Austin in March 1999,entitled "New Perspectives: The Cityin the Middle East." The conferencebrought together individuals workingon cities, whose research was groundedin new theoretical approaches in thevarying disciplines of history,geography, art, literature, sociologyand anthropology. Panelists discussedthe dynamics of the new approachesas well as the evolving area of urbanstudies. Organizers were Ian Manners

I (CMES and Geography-UT) and RogerOwen (Middle Eastern Studies­Harvard).

New Joint DegreeProgram

I n the spring of 1999, a proposal bythe Center and the Graduate School

of Library and Information Sciencewas approved by the Dean of LiberalArts for a joint degree program lead­ing to a Master of Library and Infor­mation Science and a Master of Art inMiddle Eastern Studies. Both pro­grams are nationally recognized fortheir excellence. The joint degree willtake approximately three academicyears to earn. The goals of the pro­gram are: 1) to train students for ca­reers in Middle Eastern Studies withmajor responsibilities in informationmanagement; 2) to train students forcareers in information service that mayinclude positions in academic librar­ies or special collections related toMiddle Eastern Studies; and 3) to fos­ter increased collaboration betweenthe faculty and students of the twoprograms.

Library News

The Center for Middle EasternStudies is proud to announce the

acquisition of the 2nd Edition of theIndex Islamicus. The Index is consideredone of the primary research tools forscholars of Middle Eastern Studies,with over 200,000 records (including172,000 articles and 24,000monographs) available in CD-ROMformat. It indexes worldwide literaturein European languages on Islam, theMiddle East and the Muslim worldfrom 1906 to 1997, covering such topicsas the arts, economics, education,history, literature, politics and currentaffairs, and religion, philosophy andscience.

Student and AlumniNews

O n November 5, 1999, the MiddleEastern Studies Graduate Stu­

dents Association voted to elect KristinMonroe and Sarah Fox Ozkan, bothfirst year Master's degree studentsthrough the Center, as co-presidents ofthe association. Please feel free to con­tact them with any ideas for events.They replace Mike Juge and ChrisRose, who served during the 1998-99term.

Peter C. Lyon worked with theUnited Nations Economic and SocialCommission for Western Asia(ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon as anintern from May-August 1999. He alsopresented a paper at the NovemberMESA convention (see page 3).

A World Between: Poems, Short Sto­ries and Essays by Iranian-Americans waspublished in the summer of 1999 byGeorge Braziller, Inc. The book wasedited by Persis M. Karim andMohammed Mehdi Khorrami, whowent on a promotional tour includingAustin during Fall 1999. Persis wasalso interviewed about the book byJacki Lyden of National Public Radio'sWeekend Edition which aired in No­vember 1999.

Recent Graduates

A large group of studentsgraduated with a Masters in

Middle Eastern Studies inSpring 2000:Melissa Bolbecker, Andrea

Christman, Renee Goings, CoytHargus, Steven Hyland, Randa Janar,Michael Juge, Morris Karam, SameenaKarmally, Margaret Luevano, RikaMuhl, and Christopher Rose.

The following students graduatedfrom the joint degree programs:

Brenda Gazzar (MES / Journalism),Marjorie Trace (MES/Business Ad­ministration), Peter Lyon (MES/Pub­lie Affairs), and Curtis Stefferud(MES / Public Affairs).

Congratulations to all of you!!

Student Awards

Ford Foundation

Three grants were given to students through the Ford Foundation in 1999.Amy Mills wagranted support to conduct research in Istanbul for a projecton urban paee. David Lynch and GaIeet J. Dardashti did fieldwork in 'Israeland Morocco for an ethn()musicology project on the Mizrachim of Israel andthe Gnawa of Morocco. Steven Hyland and Jaime-Faye Bean ·gath redmaterial on Pal stinian writers in Israel. The students pIeented theirprelimi­nary findings in October 1999 in the Center's colloquium sefiies.

1999 Dorot Foundation Ti'avel Grants

The recipients for the 1999Dorot Foundation Travel Grants are as follows:Jaime-Faye Bean, M.A.-Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusa­lem; Mark Chess, B.A.-School of Business Adminstration, Mayanot Instituteof Jewish Studies; Galeet Dardashti, Ph.D.-Department of Anthropology,Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Sara Radin, B.A.-College ofLiberal Arts, PlanII, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Sultan Tepe, Ph.D.-Department of Gov­ernment, Tel Aviv University; Robert Torrey M.A.-Biblical Archaeology,Archaeological Excavation in Tel Kedesh; Jonathan Wyrtzen, M.A.-MiddleEastern Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS)Fellowship RecipientsSummer 1999

Galeet Dardashti, Ph.D.-Anthropology, Advanced Hebrew; StevenGalpern-Ph.D.-History, Intermediate Persian; Morris Karam, M.A.,-MiddleEastern Studies, Advanced Arabic; Sameena Karmally, M.A.-Middle East­ern Studies, Elementary Arabic; Sherry Lowrance. Ph.D.-Government, El­ementary Hebrew; Jonathan Wyrtzen, M.A.-Middle Eastern Studies, Ad­vanced Hebrew.

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship Recipients-1999-2000

Receipients for the academic year were as followS: Maria Curtis­Richardson, Ph.D.-Anthropology, Advanced Arabic; Galeet Dardashti,Ph.D.-Anthropology, Advanced Hebrew; Stephanie Ellis, Ph.D.-History,Advanced Arabic; Brenda Gazzar, M.A./M.A.-Middle Eastern Studies andJournalism, Advanced Arabic; Golnaz Ghavami Modarresi, Ph.D.-Linguis­tics, Elementary Turkish; Morris Karam, M.A.-Middle Eastern Studies, Ad­vanced Arabic; Amy Mills, Ph.D.-Geography, Advanced Turkish; John Mor­gao, M.A.-Middle Eastern Studies, Elementary Arabic; Kenneth Potochnic,M.A.-Energy & Mineral Resources, Advanced Turkish

Outreach News UT-MENIC

Summer Workshops

Deborah Littrell, the long-timeOutreach Coordinator, left the

Center in April1999 to take a new postat the Texas State Library. Her contri­butions to the Outreach program andto the national Middle East OutreachCouncil will be missed. In 1999-2000,the Center's Outreach CoordinatorwasDr. Linda Boxberger, whohasconsid­erable background in the Middle East,haVing lived and worked in Kuwaitand Yemen for eight years. She has aMaster's degree in Middle EasternStudies and a PhD. in Middle EasternHistory, both from the University ofTexas at Austin. Her research inter­ests focus on the social and culhlralhistory of Yemen, the Arabian penin­sula, and the Indian Ocean region.

This year, the Outreach program'sactivities also benefited from the ef­forts of the Outreach Assistants, Chris­topher Rose, who graduated in May2000 with an MA in Middle EasternStudies, and Avi Santo, graduate stu­dent in Middle Eastern Studies andRadio-Television-Film Studies.

The Center's Outreach programmakes the resources of the Center forMiddle Eastern Studies available toeducate the community about the cul­tures and peoples of the Middle East.The Outreach program's teaching ma­terials collection includes books, au­dio and video materials, slide packs,and teaching units which are loaned topublic schools in Texas and other states.The availability of these materials ispublicized through Hemispheres, thenewsletter jointly produced by theUniverSity's four area studies centersand through its associated Jist-serve.A new annotated catalogue of theCenter's educational materials is nowavailable on-line on the Outreach pro­gram webpage.

In June 2000, Christopher Rose wasappointed to direct the Outreach pro­gram. He will be assisted by SulafaAbou-Samra, who is currently agraduate student in the Center's MAprogram, and has worked as an Out­reach Assistant since March.

Seven years after its debut, theMiddle East Network Information

Center (UT-MENIC) continues tobreak new ground as the most com­prehensive academic Internet site de­voted to Middle Eastern studies. UT­MENIC receives over 3 million hitsper year, and is frequently updated inresponse to user feedback as well asthe constantly increasing resourcesavailable on-line.

MENIC offers the most compre­hensive directory of on-line informa­tion on the Middle East and NorthAfrica, with hyperlinks to thousandsof sites worldwide, including insti­tutes, libraries, newspapers and me-

!nJune 1999, the Center's Outreachprogram, in conjunction with other

area studies Centers, sponsored twoworkshops for K-12 teachers.Approximately 25 teachers fromaround Texas attended each of theweek-long workshops, "Cities andSocial Change" and "The AncientWorld" (co-sponsored by the TexasCouncil for the Humanities). Eachcenter brought in faculty andgraduate student lecturers toparticipate in thematic panels andsessions designed to illuminate thehistory, politics, culture, and arts oftheir respective regions. Bothworkshops were well received.

dia sources, government databases,and other relevant on-line sources ofinformation. Over the past year, thesite was redesigned, making thecountry and subject categories moreuser-friendly and incorporating aneasier-to-read font.

The MENIC site includes themost comprehensive listing of on­line newspapers and media sourcesfrom the Middle East to be found onthe Internet, and a page of resourcesavailable for K-12 educators that linksto sites that are useful for primaryand secondary teachers and class­rooms.

Significant interest was also generatedfor this year's workshop on "Faith,CultureandIdentity: Teaching AboutReligion Today," which washeldJune5-9,2000.

Several Center graduate studentshave been invited to give presenta­tions at primary and secondaryschools in Central Texas. The Out­reach program has also participatedin K-12 social studies forums inAbilene and San Antonio and partici­pated in the World 2000 (TeachingWorld History and World Geogra­phy) Conference which was held inAustin on February 11-12, 2000.

Publications

The Center is proud to have broughtout three works on North Africa

last year, one in each of its series.First, in the Modern Middle East

Literatures in Translation Series, wasLeila Abouzeid's Return to Childhood:The Memoir of a Modern MoroccanWoman. Abouzeid's earlier novel Yearof the Elephant has sold over 9,000 cop­ies. It has been used extensively incollege and university classrooms. Shefirst published her memoirs in Rabatin 1983 to critical acclaim. The work,translated by Abouzeid into Englishwith the help of Heather Taylor, bringsto life the interlocking dramas of fam­ily ties and political conflict. The mem­oir utilizes multiple voices, especiallythose of women, in a manner reminis­cent of the narrative strategies of theoral tradition in Moroccan culture.Return to Childhood may also be classi­fied as an autobiography, a form onlynow gaining respect as a valid literarygenre in the Middle East. Abouzeid'sown introduction discusses this newdevelopment in Arabic literature. Inher introduction, Elizabeth Ferneasituates the work in its historical con­text.

Arabic-Islamic Philosophy: A Con­temporary Critique came out in theMiddle EastMonograph Series inMay1999. It is an introduction to the ideasof the distinguished Moroccan phi­losopher, Dr. Mohammed 'Abed al­Jabri. AI-Jabri examines the status ofArab thought in the late twentieth cen­tury. He rejects what he calls the cur­rent polarization between an importedmodernism that disregards Arab tra­dition and a fundamentalism thatwould reconstruct the present in the

image of an idealized past. He offersinstead a radical new approach to Arabthought, one in which he finds, espe­cially in the work of Averroes, theroots of an open, critical rationalism,which he sees as emerging in the Arabworld today. Translator of the workfrom French is Dr. Aziz Abbassi, aMoroccan writer and linguist currentlyliving in the United States. Dr. WalidHamarneh, a scholar of Arabic litera­ture, wrote the introduction to thework in English.

Men and Popular Music in Algeria:The Social Significance ofRai" was pub­lished by the University ofTexas Pressin the Center's Modern Middle EastSeries during the summer of 1999. Inhis ground-breaking study, anthro­pologist Marc Schade-Poulsen usesthis popular music genre as a lensthough which he views Algerian soci­ety. He situates ral within Algerianfamily life, moral codes, and broaderpower relations. Ral is the voice ofAlgerian young men caught betweengenerations and classes, in politicalstrife, and in economic inequality.Schade-Poulsen describes the historyof the musical form, which emergedin the late 1970s and spread through­out North Africa at the same time theIslamist movement was growing tobecome the most potent socio-politi­cal force in Algeria. The work studiesthe Islamic as well as the Westernroots of ral music. Schade-Poulsen isExecutive Director of the Euro-Medi­terranean Human Rights Network atthe Danish Centre for Human Rightsin Copenhagen.

All three of the new books areavailable through the University ofTexas Press (800) 252-3206. See alsothe Press Website at: <http:/ /www.utexas.edu/utpress/>

Concerts/Special Events

Latif Bolat Concert

L atif Bolat and the Austin MiddleEastern Ensemble held a concert

in July 1999 featuring traditionalTurkish devotional songs,instrumental pieces andimprovisations. The spiritual songs,with their great trance-like quality,are based on lyrics by the greatmystical poets, including MevlanaJelaluddin Rumi and Yunus Emre.

Latif Bolat is a native of theTurkish Mediterranean town ofMersin. He has performed widely inthe United States. He plays thebaglama (long-necked Turkish folklute). Accompanying LatifBolat wereAbraham Marcus, Director of theCenter, on the ud and lavta, RobertoReggio on the violin, and Erin Foster,percussion.

A Concert of Middle Eastern Music

In March 2000, a concert entitled,"Music of the Middle East," featuredMohsenJamal (Iranian music, violin),Rachel E. Rhodes (Yiddish songs),Faik Gur and Erin Foster (dance tunesfrom Turkey), and the Austin MiddleEastern Ensemble (Tunes from AsiaMinor).

Abe Marcus, performs with the AustinMiddle Eastern Ensemble

New Faculty and Administrators at the Center

A welcome addition to our facultyis Dr. Carel Bertram whose ap­

pointment as a visiting lecturer in Is­lamic art has been renewed for an­other year. Dr. Bertram received herPhD. in Art History from the Univer­sity of California at Los Angeles in1998, where she concentrated on Is­lamic art.

Her dissertation investigated theimage of the Turkish house in the col­lective imagination of Turkey. In thatwork, she used novels to assess themeaning and emotions that these im­ages carried over time. The Univer­sity of California Press has expressedinterest in publishing this study, ex­amining collective memory seenthrough the eyes of art history.

Professor Bertram's newest projectfocuses on modern Turkey. In thisstudy, she looks at how domesticmemories are visualized and imag­ined by the men and women who havemoved to Istanbulfrom rural Anatolia.Initially, informants were asked todraw their childhood home. Later, theywill be asked to describe their apart­mentsand theurbanimagesthatmakeup their contemporary urban picture.

Dr. Bertram has a number of publi­cations to her credit, including:

"The Urban History of Sarajevo inthe Ottoman Period and Into the Pe­riod of the Dual Monarchy," Strategiesfor Rebuilding: Bosnia and Beyond (Knox­ville: University of Tennessee Press,Winter 1998; also published at: <http://solar.cini.utk.edu/bosnia/cb1.html»; "After the Ottomans are

Gone: Imagining the Turkish OttomanHouse," The Ottoman House, proceed­ings of the Amasya Conference, eds. S.Ireland and W. Bechhoefer, (BritishInstitute of Archeology at Ankara,Monograph 26, 1998); "Restructuringthe house, restructuring the self:Gendered meanings of place in themodern Turkish short story," inDeconstructing Images of The TurkishWoman, eds. Zehra Arat and Sibel Erol(St. Martin's Press, 1998).

In addition, she has two forthcom­ing articles that will be published in2000, "Between triumphant Kemalismand a sense of loss: the old woodenhouse," (Yeni Tiirkiye, centenial edi­tion of Ottoman scholars), and "Emo­tional memory, ,the felt real,' and theimage of the Turkish House," Archi­tecture and Memory, ed. Eleni Bastea(University of Minnesota Press).

N ina Berman replaces KateGillespie as Associate Director.

In addition to acting as a soundingboard for Director Abe Marcus, shewill be in charge of the colloquiumseries and other current events. Herresearch focuses on German colonial­ism and orientalism, minority litera­ture, Arabic travel literature and geo­graphical writings, and questions ofmodernization. Dr. Berman is cur­rently working on a monograph aboutGerman engineers, doctors, pilots,soldiers and tourists in Africa.

L inda Boxberger joined the Centeras Outreach Coordinator in May

1999. She received her doctorate inMiddle Eastern History in 1998 fromthe University of Texas at Austin witha dissertation on Hadramawt, Yemen,in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. Dr. Boxberger replacedlongtime Outreach CoordinatorDeborah Littrell. In addition tohandling outreach requests, shefocused on updating the teachingmaterials collections in the Center, andoverseeing the MENIC web page. Hersuccessor is Christopher Rose, whowas appointed Outreach Coordinatorat the beginning of June 2000.

H illary Hutchinson has joined theCenter as the Executive Assis­

tant to the Director, replacing MarjoriePayne who retired after twenty years

of service in August 1999. Ms.Hutchinson received an MA in An­thropology from the University ofTexas in 1982, with a Master's thesisfocusing on issues of gender andequityamong "pink collar" workers.She brings a variety of work experi­ence and a long history of personalconnection with Middle Easternschol­ars to the Center.

Keith Walters is an Associate Pro­fessor in the Linguistics Depart­

ment at the University of Texas. Hespecializes in sociolinguistics of theArab world and has done field work inTunisia and lectured in Morocco andEgypt. Dr. Walters began serving asthe Center's Graduate Advisor in theFall of 1999, a position formerly heldby Nina Berman.

Faculty and Staff News

K amran Aghaie (MELC) wasawarded a Summer Research

Assignment.Nina Berman (Germanic Studies)

received the President's AssociatesTeaching Award in Summer 1999. Sherecently published articles on AlbertSchweitzer and on multiculturalism inGermany.

Elizabeth (B.J.) Fernea (English)was an Exchange Specialist for the USState Department from May 19through May 29, 2000, and gave thekeynote speech at a conference en­titled "Women in the Middle East To­day." The conference was sponsoredby Enek Yezreel University in

Nazareth and AI-Quds University inEast Jerusalem. Her film, The Road toPeace, was shown, and she lecturedwidely over this period to both womenand peace groups in Israel and at AI­Quds University.

Clement Henry (Government)was a Visiting Research Scholar atMacquarie University, Sydney, Aus­tralia for six weeks in July-August,1999, completing a manuscript forCambridge University Press on thePolitics of Globalization in the MiddleEast.

Akel Kahera (MELC) led theTracking Cultures program to Mo­rocco this summer. Kahera was co­convenor for the international archi­tecture conference, The Life and Legacyof Hassan Fathy, last spring.

Deborah Kapchan (Anthropol­ogy) was awarded a Faculty ResearchAssignment for 2000-2001. She wonthe prestigious Guggenheim Fellow­ship, and will be on sabbatical nextyear to work on her book, Poetic Jus­tice: Self and Nation in Morocco. She isalso working on an ethnography onGnawa musicians in Morocco.

Daniel Laufer (Business Admin­istration) presented "Israeli-JordanianJoint Ventures: A Preliminary Analy­sis" at last year's MESA conference.Laufer recently returned from teach­ing his Israeli Business course at BarHan University's International MBAprogram.

Annes McCann-Baker (CMES)presented a paper, entitled "Publica­tion of Translations from theFrancophone World in North Africa,"for the American Literary TranslationAssociation. The annual conferencetook place in New York on October 20­23,1999.

Adam Zachary Newton (English)published Facing Blacks and Jews withCambridge University Press in 1999.His third book, The Fence and the Neigh­bor: Emmanuel Levinas, YeshayahuLeibowitz, and Israel Among the Nationswill be published by SUNY Press nextfall.

Tom Palaima (Classics) presentedan invited paper, "The Palaeography

of Mycenaean Inscribed Sealings fromThebes and Pylos and Their PlaceWithin the Mycenaean Administra­tive System," at the V. InternationalesSiegel-Symposium, Marburg, Ger­many, in September. Palaima was alsoelected a life member of the Philo­sophical Society of Texas.

Esther Raizen (MELC) wasawarded the Liberal Arts CouncilTeaching Award. Her most recent pub­lications include Biblical Hebrew: AnAnalytical Introduction, written withLehmann and Hewitt, published byWings Press, and Modern Hebrew forBeginners, published by the Univer­si ty ofTexas Press. Raizen has receiveda research grant to complete a manu­script on environmental concerns inHebrew literature, and will be spend­ing part of the summer in Israel doingresearch for that project.

Funding from the UT Vision Planfor the web-based Modern HebrewProject under Raizen's directorshipwas renewed for the 1999-2000 aca­demic year. The instructional portionof the site, developed with VaronShemer (MELC) won first place in theUniversity's annual Innovative In­structional Technology competition.The site was voted one of the top tensites by the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat (ArtHistory) published '" Ain GhazalExcavation Reports," in Volume I,Symbols at 'Ain Ghazal, <http:/ /menic.u texas.edu / menic ghazal / >,and "Tokens: The cognitivesignificance," Documenta Prehistorica,Volume XXVI, 1999. Schmandt­Besserat's How Writing Came About(1996) was named one of the Top 100Science Books of the Century by theAmerican Scientist.

Diane Watts (CMES), Artist/ Ad­ministrator, was awarded the Presi­dential Excellence Award inMay 1999.

Seth Wolitz (French & Italian) hasbeen given an honorary Visiting Pro­fessorship at UniverSity College, Lon­don, to do research and offer a seminaron Jewish theater in Eastern Europe,Israel and the New World.

Center's ColloquiumSeries

The Center's Colloquium Seriespresented speakers addressing a

wide range of topics throughout theacademic year.

Seyed Ali Akbar Afjeh, AllamehTabatabaei University, Tehran, "Is­lamic Management"

Kate Gillespie, Marketing, UT Aus­tin, "Arab Markets: What Do Manag­ers Want?"

Safei-Eldin Hamed, Texas Tech,Lubbock, "Sustainable Developmentin the Islamic World"

Deborah Harrold, Government, UTAustin, "Economic interests and po­litical culture:D The informal economyand Islamic mobilization in Algeria,1980-1992"

Jaime-Faye Bean & Steven Hyland,MES, UT Austin, "The New Genera­tion of Palestinian Writers in Israel"

Az-Eddine Khaloufi, Moulay IsmailUniversity, Meknes, "Bilingual or Bi­cultural?1; Where is the Boundary?n TheCase of Moroccan Bilinguals"

Dan Laufer, Business Administra­tion, UT Austin, "Israeli-JordanianJoint Ventures: A Preliminary Analy­sis"

David Lesch,Trinity University, SanAntonio, "Syria and the Middle EastPeace Process"

Peter Lyon, ME5, UT Austin, "Ob­servations on Lebanon in Transition:Working for the U.N. in Beirut, Sum­mer 1999"

Amy Mills, Geography, UT Austin,"New Ways of 'Knowing' Istanbul:The Meaning of Place in Urban Expan­sion"

Malek Salman, Tishreen Univer­sity, Lattakia, "Who dare say

'I': DWriting the Self in the Modern Syr­ian Novel"

Asher Susser, Tel Aviv University,"The Middle East Peace Process: Ori­gins and Destination"

Jonathan Wyrtzen, MES, UT Austin,"Understanding Geulah (Redemp­tion): Messianism & Crisis for JewishSettler in the Territories"

Collaboration on Lecturesand Conferences

The Center also co-sponsoredconferences in collaboration with

other academic units at the Univer­sity.

In October 1999, a panel discus­sion was held, entitled "Religion andState: Defining the Issue." ChristophMuller, Emeritus Professor, Free Uni­verSity, Berlin was the keynotespeaker. Respondents were L. MichaelWhite (Religious Studies, UT), Ben­jamin Gregg (Government, UT), andKamran Aghaie (MELC, UT).

In March 2000, the Center co-spon­sored a conference organized by theDepartment of Middle Eastern Lan­guages on "Judaism and Islam: CrossCurrents. II The panels addressed ques­tions of travel, women in Middle East­ern cultures, issues of philosophy, re­ligion and society, and the Arts.

The following lectures were co­sponsored by the Center.

Kamran Asdar Ali, University ofRochester, "Production of Consent:Reproductive Politics in Egypt"

Walter Armbrust, GeorgetownUniversity, "The Ubiquitous Non­Presence of India in Egyptian PopularCulture"

David Butler, Southwest TexasState, "Lookout Below! LandscapeChange and the Fire Lookouts of Gla­cier National Park, Montana"

Mounira Charrad,OGeorgetownUniversity, "State-Building andWomen's Rights: Tunisia, Algeria,Morocco"

DianaDavis, UC Berkeley, "Over­grazing the Range: The Political Ecol­ogy of Pastoralism in Southern Mo­rocco"

John C. Eisele, Assistant Profes­sor with the Department of ModernLanguages and Literatures at Collegeof William and Mary in Williamsburg,Virginia, presented a lecture on"Myths, Values and Practice in theRepresentation of Arabic"

Esmail Khoi, a leading Iranianpoet who gives a most articulate po­etic voice to the Iranian diaspora, spokeat the University in February 2000. Hislecture was entitled, "A Poet's Life inExile"

Mohammad A. Mohammad, As­sociate Professor of Arabic and Lin­guistics at the University of Florida,who spoke on "The Syntactic Rel­evance of Agreement in Standard(Fusha) and Palestinian Arabic"

Jonathan Owens, Professor ofArabic Linguistics at the University ofBayreuth, Germany, gave a talk en­titled, "Arabic Creole: The Orphan ofAll Orphans"

Helen Rizzo, Ohio State Univer­sity, "Islam, Women's Organizationsand Political Rights for Women"

Aseel Sawalha, Graduate School,City University of New York, "PromFrench Cafe to Funeral Home: TheReconstruction of Space and Historyin Beirut"

Dona Stewart, Georgia StateUniversity, "Cultural Landscape ofCairo: Evolution Across a Millennium"

At the end of March 2000, YaronShemer (MELC) organized a threeevening event centering on the workof Haim Shiran. The film retrospec­tive, "Jewish Life in Morocco, Tuni­sia and Spain,"celebrated the cultureand history of Sephardic Jewry. Mr.Shiran was born in Morocco and im­migrated to Israel in 1965, where hewas among the founders of the IsraelEducational Television Network. Hehas gained international acclaim forhis insightful exploration of the heri­tage, culture, and lifestyles ofSephardic Jewry in his films and TVprograms. Mr. Shiran has earned anumber of prestigious awards both inEurope and Israel. Haim Shiran waspresent at the screenings and avail­able for discussions of his films, Pillarof Salt, The Jews ofMorocco, In Praise ofDavid, The Mimouna, and Embroidery ofStone and Words.

In March 2000, Architecture afMud,was shown. This film by CaterinaBorelli and Pamela Jerome examinesthe vernacular architecture ofHadhramaut, Yemen. It lyrically de­picts the local techniques of mud brickconstruction and unique styles ofdeco­rative embellishment in this long-iso­lated region and shows how they arechanging. The filmmakers werepresent for questions after the screen­ing.

Faik Gur, graduate student inMiddle Eastern Studies, and MiyaseGoktepeli, Ph.D. candidate in the De­partment of Communication, orga­nized a film festival on "RecentTrendsin Turkish Cinema." Screenings in­cluded the films (At) The Horse by AliOzgenturk, Masumiyet (Innocence) byZeki Demirkubuz, Duvar (The Wall) byYilmazGuney, and Eskiya (The Bandit)by Yavuz Yurgul. In addition, a paneldiscussion focused on aspects centralto contemporary Turkish cinema.Speakers were Professor KurtulusKayali, Professor of History at An­kara University and of Sociology atMiddle East Technical University inTurkey, and Miyase Goktepeli.

Spring Film Festivals

talked about the situation of journal­ism in their respective countries, andaddressed some of the key issues, suchas censorship, the role of differentkinds of newspapers, and their viewson the development of new forms ofcommunication, such as the internet.After the statements, the floor wasopen to questions from the audience,and the discussion centered on issuesrelated to the freedom of the press andthe coverage of the Israeli-Palestinianconflict. The event was organizedin collaboration with MortadaMohamad from the Austin Inter­national Hospitality Committee.

The Center sponsored or cospon­sored a number of film festivals

and screenings of individual films.Avi Santo and Randa Jarrar, gradu­

ate students in the MA program at theCenter, with Chris Micklethwait, un­dergraduate student in English, orga­nized a film festival under the rubric"Women, Film and the Middle East."The screenings of Bent Familia by theTunisian filmmaker Nouri Bouzid,Golem Bama'agal by the Israeli AnerPreminger, Samt al-Qusur by the Tuni­sian Moufida Tlatli, Al-Tawaq wal­Iswara by the Egyptian Khairy Beshara,Uridu Hallan by the Egyptian Sa'idMarzuq, and Shirat Hasirenah by theIsraeli EytanFox attracted a large audi­ence of students and faculty.

Levent Soysal, New York Uni­versity, "Secular and Islamic Cultureat DisPlay: Turkish Girls in PublicPlacesDin Berlin"

Nancy Weinberg, 0 DStaniord Uni­versity, "Mass Migration and LaborMarket Incorporation: The Case ofSoviet Jewish Immigrants in Israel"

Kenneth Young, University ofMaryland, "Protected Landscapes inthe Tropical Andes"

Leon Yudkin, Professor of Com­parative Literature and Modern He­brew Studies at University College,London, presented his lecture,"Straining of the Leash: The NewestDirection of Israeli Fiction"

O n February 7, 2000, the Centerinvited students and faculty to a

panel discussion with ten journalistsfrom leading newspapers of the Arabworld, who were visiting the UnitedStates on a tour organized by the StateDepartment. This event presented aunique opportunity to explore issuesrelated to journalism in the MiddleEast and to media coverage of theMiddle East in the United States. Thevisiting journalists represented news­papers from Egypt, Algeria, Jordan,Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tuni­sia, and Israel. The event began withstatements from the journalists who

Middle Eastern Journalism: A Panel Discussion.-----...,....

(continued from page 2)East, a series of Middle Eastern films,and other social and cultural events.Particularly popular was an eveningof classical Sufi music featuring LatifBolat performing traditional Turkishdevotional songs, instrumental piecesand improvisations played on thebaglama (long-necked Turkish folklute). Six films were also presented inconjunction with the Summer Insti­tute, including The Silences ofthe Palace(Tunisia, 1995) and Terrorism and Ke­bab (Egypt, 1993). Students also expe­rienced the"Austin culture": laid backyet sophisticated, ranked among thebest places to live in the U.s., a com­puter literate community home tomore restaurants, bars, bookstores, andmovie theaters per capita than anyother American city. The city's nick­name "The Third Coast" is reflectiveofits identity as "The Live Music Capi­tal of the World."

The Institute is open to under­graduate and graduate students fromall universities as well as to high schoolgraduates and Austin high school stu­dents who have completed their jun­ior year. Each course provides theequivalent of two regular semestersof instruction and credit, at an unusu­ally affordable cost, for both residentand non-resident participants.

The Institute rotates host sitesbetween the following six memberinstitutions:

• University of Arizona• University of California, Berkeley•University of California, Los Angeles• University of Texas at Austin• University of Utah• University of Washington

The Summer Language Institute2000 is hosted by the University ofUtah in Salt Lake City.

The Newsletter is published by the Center forMiddle Eastern Studies at the University ofTexas at Austin.

Abraham MarcusDirector

Hillary HutchinsonExecutive Assistant

Nina Berman, Annes McCann-Baker,Christopher Rose

Etlito I'S

Diane WattsProduction, Design, Photographs

For information on the Center, contact us at:The University of Texas at Austin

Austin, Texas 78712Tel: 512 471-3881Fax: 512471-7834

cmes@menic.utexas.eduhttp://menic.utexas.edu/menic/cmes

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