Center for Middle Eastern Studies

NEWSLETTERNo. 13 The University of Texas at Austin

Center Receives Rockefeller Grant

Fall 1989

Mohammad Arkoun andFedwa Malti-Douglas

The Center has received a four­year grant from the RockefellerFoundation to form theInstitute

for the Study of Literature, Religion,and Society in the ContemporaryMiddle East. The Institute will investi­gate the new relations which have de­veloped between literature, religionand society in the region as a result ofthe current religious revival. Institutescholars,who will be in residence withthe Center,may study the treatment ofreligion and social problems in con­temporary literature; controversiesover the acceptabilityofsecular litera­ture; the new religious literature andreligion; and the material and socialconditions of literary production. Themajor literatures (Arabic, Hebrew,Persian, and Turkish) of the MiddleEast will be considered.

'This first academic year of thegrant period at the University is de­voted to a seriesoflectures to introducethe focus of the study. The visiting lec­turers for the fall semester include Mo­hammad Arkoun (University of Paris,Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Dan Miron

(Hebrew University of Jerusalem andColumbia University). Speakers forthe spring will be Philippe Cardinaland SerifMardin. Also during the firstyear, the Institute will solicit applica­tions for Resident Fellowships for thesecond year.

Each year for three years, twoscholars will begranted residencies topursue researchinassociationwith theCenter. TheCenterwillseekoutstand­ing qualified scholarswho expecttobeable to complete major research andwriting within the area of theInstitute's topic. During the last yearof the grant period, a major confer­ence on the subject will be held.

Chosen fellows will have thefacilities of the University available tothem. In addition to faculty and pro­grams in the major Middle Easternlanguagesand literature, the Universityhas one of the nation's largest generallibraries and outstanding vernacularcollections in Arabic, Hebrew,and Per­sianliterarymaterials. Professor FedwaMalti-Douglas (Arabic) will be the Di­rector of the Institute. Malti-Douglas isalso Associate Director of the Center.

The Rockefeller FoundationsupportsHumanities Fellowships pro­gramsat some twenty-seven host insti­tutions. Thegoal of these programsis tosupport scholars whose research fur­thers understanding of contemporary

social and cultural issues and extendsinternational or intercultural scholar­ship. The host institutionsselect schol­ars to receive Rockefeller Foundationstipends,and subsequentlyencourageinteraction between an institution'spermanent experts and the visitingscholars.

Tel Yin'am Site BecomesArchaeological Park

The Israel Department of An­tiquities has decided to tum theTel Yin'am dig site, visited for

nine years by Harold Liebowitz (He­brew) and students, into an archaeo­logical park. Theexhibition area on thetell will complement a museum to beconstructed in the nearby village ofYavne'el, which will house the collec­tion ofartifacts from Tel Yin'am span­ninga period from 6,000B.c. to around600 A.D.

While in Israel for this pastsummer's trip with students, Liebow­itz also conducted a trial excavation atthe site ofBeit Gan, an early Israelite tolate Islamic site. The site is large, ac­cording to Liebowitz, and has promiseof yielding important remains fromthe 12th century B.C. to the modemperiod.

Afghanistan Conference

AConference called "The Af­ghanistan Legacy" was heldon the University campusOc­

tober 19-21. Cosponsored by the Cen­ters for Asian Studies, Middle EasternStudies and Soviet and East EuropeanStudies, 'the event drew scholars fromaround the world. The Conference wasopened with a speech by Jagat Mehta,VisitingProfessorofPublicAffairsandAsian studies at UT.

Sheila Fitzpatrick,ProfessorofHistory and Soviet and East EuropeanStudies at UT, chaired a panel entitled"Soviet Lessons of 'the Afghan War."Speaker was Jiri Valenta, Professor ofPolitical Science, University of Miami;discussants were au'thor Henry Brad­sher and Robert German, VisitingPro­fessor of Public Affairs at UT.

Thomas Thornton, from theSchool of Advanced InternationalStudies at Johns Hopkins University,spoke on "Afghanistan: As a CaseStudy in Superpower Crisis Manage­ment." Discussants were LawrenceFinkelstein, Professor of Political Sci­ence at Northern Illinois University,and VladimirPlastunfrom 'the Instituteof Oriental Studies in Moscow.

Robert Hardgrave, Jr., Profes­sor of Government and Asian Studiesat UT, chaired a panel, "Afghanistan:The Regional Impact in South Asia."Selig Harrison, Senior Associate of theCarnegieEndowment for InternationalPeace,participated, and the discussantwas Jamsheed Marker, former Paki­stani Ambassador to the U.S.

Another panel, "Anatomy ofan Entanglement: Afghanistan andIran," was chaired by Clement Henry,Professor of Government and MiddleEastern Studies at UT. John Lorentz,Professor of History and InternationalStudies at Willamette Universi ty, par­ticipated, and David Champagne,Senior Middle East Analyst in the U.S.Army, was the discussant.

On the third dayof theConfer­ence, Richard Lariviere, Directorof 'theCenter for Asian Studies, chaired 'thepanel"Afghanistan: State Breakdownand Prospects for Reconstruction."

Speaker was Barnett Rubin, Professorof Political Science at Yale University,and journalist Lawrence Lifschultzwas 'the discussant.

An overview of 'the Confer­ence was conducted by AmbassadorVasiliy Safronchuk (USSR), UnderSecretary General for Political andSecurity Council Affairs of the UnitedNations. The Discussant was RobertPeck, former Deputy Assistant Secre­tary for South Asia in the U.S. Depart­ment of State.

Texas Association ofMiddle East ScholarsMeets in Houston

The 1989 annual meeting ofTAMES was held at Rice Uni­versity on October 20-21. Presi­

dent Tom Thompson opened themeeting by dedicating it to formerpresident M.A. Jazayery (UT-Austin).

A graduate- student panelfrom UT-Austin was chaired byCa'th­erineand Najeeb Ahmad.Nabil Abdel­fattah spoke on "Western WomenMeet Eastern Men: An Analysis ofThree Arabic Novels"; Moira Killoranon "TurkishCypriotIdentityContesta­tion inLiterature";Roberta Micallefon"Hizir: A Cross Cultural Hero of theMiddle East and the Balkans"; andGregNoakeson "TheEmotional Trag­edy of War: Mohammed Dib's WhoRemembers the Sea."

Byran Augustin (Sou'thwestTexas State University) and J. DavidMartin (Midwestern State University)presented slides and a talk on theMarch 1989 Joseph T. Malone FellowsStudy Tour of Saudi Arabia and Bah­rain taken by the Texas Committee ofU.S.-Arab Relations Council. AliEftehkary (UT-Austin) also spoke ofsummer travelin his talkon "Travels inIran, Summer 1989."

On Saturday morning TomThompsonmoderated anopendiscus­sionon religion, politicsand literatureas seen through 'the works of MiddleEastern authors such as NaguibMahfouz, Jalal Al Ahmad, SalmanRushdie, Ali Shariati and others. Dis­cussants were Mehdi Abidi (Rice Uni-

versity), M.A. Jazayery (UT Austin),Abazar Sepehri (UT Austin), and FredVan der Mehden (Rice University).

Panelli was chaired by Eliza­bethFernea. Speakers fromUT-Austinwere Aseel Dyck on "Gertrude Bell:Traveler and King Maker,"; CarolineAttieon"TwoContemporaryLebaneseWomen Writers: Layla Ba'albaki andHanan aI-Shaikh"; Annes McCann­Baker on "Mo'thers, Sons, and Tribal­ism: Religion in Sitt Marie-Rose, Leba­non 1975"; and Elizabeth Fernea on"WritingCulture: The Issue ofGenderin 'the 'Production' of Ethnography."

Panel III was chaired by AnnBragdon. Speakers were Abdalla Al­Kurd (University of Houston) on''Popular Alternative Education in Al­Intifada"; Nada Mardini (RiceUniver­sity) on "Language Modificationamong Arab Studentsat the AmericanUniversity of Beirut"; and SamirAshrawi (Texaco) on "ResistanceThrough Cultural Expression: Pales­tinianMusk Under the Israeli Occupa­tion./I

Newofficersannounced at theBusiness Meeting are President Avra­ham Zilkha (UT-Austin) and CouncilMembers Ann Bragdon (Houston) andRobert Vitalis (UT-Austin).

Visiting Scholars

Abdulaziz Yassin al-Saqqaf,chair of the Department ofEconomics at Sanaa Univer­

sityin 'theYemen ArabRepublic,visitedthe University during September.

Two visiting professors fromEgypt were Thana Aly El Kabani, As­sistant Professor of Accounting atMonufia University; and Anwar AbdelSalama, Professor and Head of theDepartmentofPersonnel Managementat Sadat Academy in Alexandria,Egypt. Bo'th scholars were on campusunder the FacultyEnrichmentSummerProgram of the Binational FulbrightCommission.

TheCenter isglad to have Pro­fessor Cem Taylan here for the aca­demicyear.HeisanAssistantProfessorat Fen-Edebiyat Fakultesi, BogaziciUniversity in Turkey.

Student News

Gwen Okruhlik has been ac­cepted as a Fulbright scholar toresearch private sector busi­

ness in Saudi Arabia dUring the 1989­1990academic year. She will spend themajority of her time inJiddah, butalsohopes to travel fo Riyadh for her re­search. Okruhlik was a State Depart­ment intern for the United Arab Emir­ates during the summer. Heroffice wasin Abu Dhabi. Okruhlik is completingher disserta tion fora degree inGovern­ment.

Anthropology graduate stu­dent Ann Gardner, a Fulbright scholardoing her research in Cairo and Sinai,received a National Science Founda­tion Dissertation Improvement grantto complement her Fulbright. She isstudying the effects on Bedouinwomen of recent sedentarization in theSinai desert, especially in regard towomen's status, women's health, andinformal tribal networks.

Kristen Stilt, honors graduatein Middle Eastern Studies, received aFulbright to study in Kuwait. She isworking at the Language Institute atthe University of Kuwait for the 1989­90 academic year.

Graduate students whoworked or traveled in the Middle Eastduring the summerof1989 were Cath­erine and Najeeb Ahmad, whoworked in Cairo and traveled throughEgypt, the West Bank, and Pakistan;and Moira Killoran, whodid thesis re­search in Cyprus and interviewedCypriot scholars. CASA fellowship re­cipientswhostartedstudyingArabicinCairo during the summer are MariettaMugford, Hosam Aboul-Ela, andMarc Moebius.

Undergraduates were alsobusy last summer pursuing MiddleEastern Studies overseas. Andy Wig­ginton, recipient this year of a Univer­sity Presidential Scholarship, receiveda scholarship from the American Re­search Institute in Turkey to studyTurkishatBosphorusUniversity. ScottJensen worked in Washington as anintern in the House ofRepresentatives.Angela Assed traveled to Druze vil­lages in Syria for research on changing

marital patterns. Scott and Angelareceived credit for their work under thePracticum (Applied Middle EasternStudies)courseoffered by the Centeraspart of its program for majors. AnnBaddour is a State Department internat the Amman desk in Washington,D.C. this fall. RobertFitzpatrick was aState Department intern in Riyadh.

FLAS recipients for the 1989­90 academic year are CatherineAhmad (Arabic), Najeeb Ahmad(Arabic), Linda Boxberger (Arabic),Rebecca Eaton (Arabic), ZjalehHajibashi (Persian and Arabic),Daniel Lefkowitz (Arabic), JamesPaul Tanner (Hebrew), Jenny White(Turkish), and Darrow Zeidenstein(Arabic). 1989 Summer FLAS recipi­ents were Brian Evans (Arabic), CarlaHiggins (Arabic), and Daniel Lefkow­itz (Arabic).

Tim Dickey, 1978 graduate,haswon a Peabody Award for his four­part Christian Science Monitor televi­sion series "Islam in Turmoil." Theseries also won the National Headlin­ers' second place award for "Outstand­ing Documentary bya Television Net­work" and the National EducationAssociation's award for the"Advance­ment of Leaming through Broadcast­ing." Another graduate, recent CMESmasters student Shannon Maher, hasbeen hired by the Department of theArmy at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,where she will be working with herknowledge of Arabic.

John and CarolineWilliams

Center faculty, staff, andstudentshave missed John andCaroline Williams and their

marvelous teaching and lecturingabilities, since the couple's move toVirginia. John and Carolinehad taughtat the University since 1973 withinterspersed periods at the AmericanUniversity in Cairo. John accepted theKenan Professorship in theHumanities at The College of Williamand Mary University in 1989. He hadbeen Professor in Art and Middle

Eastern Studies at the University.Among his publications are Islam(1961); Themes of Islamic Civilization(1971); The Abbasid Revolution, vol.XXVII History of al-Tabari (1985); TheEarly Abbasi Empire (1988). Carolinewas a lecturer in Architecture andMiddle Eastern Studies at theUniversity. She is coauthor of the 3rdedition of The Islamic Monuments ofCairo: A Practical Guide (1985).

Outreach Program

The Middle East ResourceCenter's Teaching MaterialsCatalogue is in print and avail­

ablefree uponrequest. It listsaudiovis­ual as well as printed materials, and isorganized by subject and by country.TheCMES ResourceCenter isalsodis­tributing for the Middle EastOutreachCouncil a Teacher's Supplements forMiddle Eastern Studies, Folder #1. ItCOntains folksongs, folkdances,folktales, proverbs, recipes, a spread­sheet of facts and figures, and a glos­sarydrawnfromlanguagesoftheArabWorld, Israel, Iran and Turkey.

On October 28 the OutreachProgram conducted a teacher's work­shop in Houston at the request of theTexas Committee for the NationalCouncil on U.S.-Arab Relations. Thetitle was "Cultural and Physical Geog­raphy of the Arab Islamic World."

Ou treach Coordina torAnnettePomeroyhasbeenselected forthe Advisory Committee forAMIDEAST's newsletter. She is alsothe Selection Committee Chair forAustin of the Malcolm H. Kerr HighSchool Scholars Program in Arab andIslamic Studies.

Scholarships in Hebrew

Scholarships for Hebrew Studiesare available for upper divisionand graduate students. The

deadlineisNovember20. Applicationsshould be submitted to Hebrew Stud­ies, UNI 116, University of Texas,Austin,78712. (512)471-1365

during May, 1990. The lectures willsummarize her research and forth­coming book on the history ofwomen's education and its relation­ship to social change among IndianMuslims.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat (ArtHistory) had published "The Originsof Visible Language" in Anthropologi­cal Approach to the Origin of HumanLanguage,VoU, the proceedingsoftheNATO Advanced Study Institute atCortona, Italy. She was interviewed inJune for "The Nature of things" byRic h a r d Lon g ley, C ana d ianBroadcasting Corporation Television.Schmandt-Besserat was the coordina­tor of the Fifth Annual Meeting of theLanguage Origins Society, at UTAustin during August, where she or­ganized the panel"The Origin of Vis­ible Language in the New World."

A vraham Zilkha participated inaHebrew proficiencyworkshop in Chi­cago in conjunction with the annualmeetingof the National Association ofProfessors of Hebrew. In August hedelivered a paperentitled "TheUseofthe Dictionary as a Teaching Aid" atthe World Congress of Jewish Studieswhich was held at the Hebrew Univer­sity in Jerusalem. Zilkha's ModernHebrew-English Dictionary was pub­lished this year by Yale UniversityPress and has been nominated by thePress in competition for the NationalBook Awards in the scholarship cate­gory.

Publications Program

Arabian Oasis City, The Trans­fonnation of Unayzah by Sor­aya Altorkiand Donald Cole

is Number 15 in the Center's ModemMiddle East Series. Published in Au­gust, the book is based on extensiveinterviews and participant observa­tion with both men and women in theancient oasis city Unayzah of centralSaudi Arabia. The authors recordedand analyzed the transformation thatoccured in this city during the twenti­eth century: the creationof the presentSaudi Arabianstateand of the newna­tional economy based on the oil boom

and the consequent slump in the indus­try. By demonstrating that the areawas not exclusively dominated bytribalism and Bedouin nomads, thisempirical case study destroys stere­otypic views about Saudi Arabia. Itshows that women, although veiled,played active roles in workoutside thehousehold. Thesocial impactofchangeover theyears is, however, profound­eSpecially the gradual replacement oftheextended familyby thenuclearfam­ily,changingpatternsofhusband-wiferelationships, the impactofself-eamedincomeon thestatusofwomen, and theemergenceofa new middleclassofem­ployees and entrepreneurs. Cole andAI torki, both professors ofanthropol­ogy at the American University inCairo, provide aninterestingcollabora­tion between a Saudi Arabian femalescholarand an American malescholar.

The Center, in conjunctionwith the University ofTexas Press, hasrecently initiated a new series, theModern Middle East Literature inTranslation Series. Early books in theseries were By the Pen by Jalal Al­Ahmad (published by th~Center) andMaze of Justice by Tawfik AI-Hakim(publishedby thePress). ThisNovem­ber brings publication of Year of theElephant, A Moroccan Woman's JourneyToward Independence by LeilaAbouzeid.

In Year of the Elephant, a fic­tional treatment of a Muslim woman'slife, a personal and family crisisimpellsthe heroine to reexamine traditionalcultural attitudes toward women. Castout and divorced by her husband, shefinds herself in a strange new world, asshe actively participates in the strugglefor Moroccan independence fromFrance. Year ofthe Elephant is uniquelyMoroccan. and emerges from NorthAfrican Islamic culture itself. Firstpublished in Arabic in Morocco in 1983,this novel almost immediatelysoldout.Leila Abouzeid is an author, scriptwriter, and journalist. ElizabethFemea(CMESandEnglish-UT Austin) wrotethe Introduction for the book.

Both books may be orderedthrough the University of Texas Press,P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713, (512)471-7233.

Lecturers

The ColloquiumSeriesheld at theCenter'sResourceRoomcontin­ues its Thursday afternoon lec­

tures this year. Ali Ektekhary openedthe series on September 28 with a talk,"Observations on Iran, March-July,1989," resulting from his recent trip toIran. Eftekhary is a doctoral candidatein Foreign Language Education Stud­iesatthe University. OnOctober5RonHouston, Director of the UniversityFolk Dance Society, gave a lecture on"Choreography: The Influence of theOttoman Empire on World Dance."Fedwa Matti-Douglas, Associate Di­rector of the Center, spoke of "Poetryand Patriarchy: The AutobiographyofFadwa Tuqan" on October 19. "TheSoberLogic ofTurkish" wasthe titleofEser Taylan, Lecturer in Turkish, onOctober 26.

Colloquium speakers for No­vember include Makram Copty, doc­toral candidate in Education with arnajorinPoliticsofEducation, speakingon "Education and Domination: TheCase of Palestinian Education in Is­rael." on November 2. New assistantprofessor of Arabic Sherman Jacksonlectures November 9 on ''The Muftiversus Medieval Muslim Society: A­Qarafi's Ten Tips to the Jurisconsult."On November 30 Shifra Epstein, lec­turer in Hebrew, speaks on "Contem­porary Hasidic Pilgrimages to Po­land."

SamuelW. Lewis, PresidentoftheUnitedStatesInstituteofPea~andpast US Ambassador to Israel, willlec­ture as part of a program series spon­sored by the United States Institute ofPeace. The Center is oneof the cospon­sors of this program. This speech willbe held in the Bass Lecture Hall, LB]School ofPublic Affairs, onNovember13 at 4:00 P.M.

Faculty News

John Bordie (Foreign LanguageEducation) worked with theAmerican University of Beirutfaculty on a language teaching

workshop in Cyprus during August.Fulbright has awarded Bordie a two­year sequential research lectureshipatthe UniversitiesofMosuland Baghdadto begin in December.

Shifra Epstein (Hebrew) was aguest editor of a special issue of theJewish Folklore and EthnographyReview, devoted to the study of mate­rial cuIture.

Elizabeth Fernea(CMESand Eng­lish) was promoted from Senior Lec­turer to ProfessorofEnglish during thesununer. She will continue to teachclasses cross-listed in Middle EasternStudies. Fernea waselected to thegov­erning board for the Texas Institute ofLetters. During June she served as ajudge on the Paisano Committee thatawards two residency fellowships forthe arts each year.

Robert Fernea (Anthropology) aschairman of the Ethics Committee ofthe American Anthropology Associa­tiondelivered a final reportonethics inthe profession at the Association'sannual meeting in November.

Kate Gillespie (Marketing) wasawarded the College of BusinessAdministration Foundation AdvisoryCouncilTeaching Award for AssistantProfessors. She published "PoliticalRisk Implications for Exporters, Con­tractors and Foreign Licensors: TheIranian Experience" in ManagementInternational Review, 1989, Vol. II.Gillespie traveled to Cairo during thesununer to explore opportunites forsummer internships for the jointMBAIMA in Middle Eastern Studies andBusiness. She then continued to theWest Bank with Catherine Ahmad tointerview Palestinian industrialists.

Clement Henry (Government) at­tended Tunisia Day in April at theSchool of Advanced InternationalStudies in Washington, D.C, and pre­sented a paperonhisongoingresearch,to appear in a volume edited by Wil­liam Zartman. Henry spent June con-

tinuing field work on comercial bank­ing and political change in the Magh­rib. He is organizing a Conference onTechnology and Social Change, to beheld in Tunis in the sununer of 1990,under the auspices of the Center ofMaghrebinStudiesand supportedbyaFord Foundation grant.

Michael Hillmann (Persian) pre­sented two lectures at Columbia Uni­versity in April. One of them, called"Hedayat's The Blind Owl: An Auto­biographical Nightmare," was laterpublished intheinauguralissueofIran­shenasimagazine. His reviewarticle onEdward Said's Orientalism appeareddUring the sununer in Salem Press'sMasterplots: Nonfiction. OrientalRugRe­view published his"A Cultural Analy­sis ofa Modem Persian Carpet," a dis­cussion of a Persian carpet in theLyndon B. Johnson Museum collec­tion. Hillmann's latest book, called Ira­nian Culture: A Persianist View, is inpress at University Press of America.The Social Science Research Councilawarded Hillmann a grant to conductresearch in Paris and Tehran duringDecemberandJanuary ona biographytentatively called An Iranian Mullah'sSon: The Ufeand Times ofJalalAl-eAhmad(1923-1969). While in Tehran, Hill­mann will also work on materials forcompetency-based Persian instructionat UT Austin.

Roger Louis (History) edited,withRoger Owen,Suez 1956: theCrisisand itsConsequences, which was publishedthis year by the Oxford UniversityPress. The book is the product of twoconferences sponsored by theWoodrow Wilson Center in Washing­ton D.C and the Middle East CentreatSt. Antony's College, Oxford. In Octo­ber1988hegave apaper atthe meetingof the German Historical Associationon the dissolution of the Europeancolonial empires, and participated in aDitchley Conference on political biog­raphy. In January 1989 he visited NewDelhi to help make arrangements for aseries of conferences to be sponsoredby UT Austin, theNehru Memorial li­brary and St. Antony's on "India: theFirst Ten Years of Independence." InMarch 1989 Louis cochaired with

Robert Ferneaa conference on the IraqiRevolution of 1958. In April he lectured.at the University of the South and-theUniversity of Southern California. InJune he presented a paper at a confer­ence at the Hebrew University inJerusalemon "Crossroads in the Pales­tine Problem." At Present, Louis is ona Faculty Research ASSignment and isspending the semester as a VisiitingFellow in the Middle East Program atthe Brookings Institution in Washing­ton, D.C He is to give the ChicheleLectures on "Leo Amery and theMiddle East and India" at All SoulsCollege, Oxford in May 1990.

Fedwa Malti-Douglas published''Mentalites and Marginality: Blind­ness and Mamluk Civilization," in TheIslamic World, eds. CE. Bosworth et aI.Her review essay, "AnEgyptian icono­clast: Nawal el-Saadawi and FeministFiction," appeared in a special issue ofthe American Book Review in Sununer1989. Malti-Douglas delivered publiclecturesat the Universityof California,Berkeley (May 1989) and at Middlebury College (July1989). She wasalsoinvited to speak at the Levi Della VidaAward Conference at UCLA in May.

Ian Manners (Geography) waselected to the Governing Board of theHoly Land Conservation Fund. InOctoberhe visited Turkeyas a lecturerfor the American Geograhical Society,speaking on current developments inthe discipline and on contemporaryissues in environmental resourcemanagement.

Abraham Marcos (History) hadhis book, The Middle East on the Eve ofModernilty: Aleppo in the EighteenthCentury, published by Columbia Uni­versity Press this year.

Gail Minault will attend in De­cember an international conference inNew Delhi to mark the centennial ofMaulana Abul Kalam Azad, the lead­ingIndianMuslimnationalist. She willpresent a paper entitled "The ElusiveMaulana:SomeReflectionsonWritingAzad's Biography." Minault has beeninvited to give a series of seminars atthe Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et del'Asie du Sud of the Ecole des HautesEtudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris

New Faculty and Staff

Sherman Jackson

The Center is very happy towelcomeSheIn\anJackson asanew assistant professor in

Arabic. He comes to the Universityfrom the Center for Arabic StudyAbroad in Cairo, where he wasDirector. Professor Jackson's areas ofexpertise include classical Arabic andinterpretationofIslamic textsand legalmaterials. He is currently a candidatefor the Ph.D. at the University ofPennsylvania. He has previouslytaught at Villanova University,Middlebury College and theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Center for Middle Eastern StudiesThe University of Texas at AustinAustin, Texas 78712

Also welcome is Eser Taylan,Visiting Associate Professor in theDepartment of Oriental and AfricanLanguagesand Literatures, where sheteaches Turkish. Born in Turkey, Pro­fessor Taylan received her Ph.D. atUCLA. She has taught at the Univer­sity of California at Berkeley andBogazici University in Turkey.

Esser and Cern Taylan

The Center's new staff mem­ber is Deborah Littrell, who has beenappointed as Resource CenterCoordi­nator. Sheisresponsible for managingthe Resource Center, reserving booksand films for Middle Eastern Studies

Deborah Littrell

courses,coordinatingtheannual meet­ing of TAMES, and arranging sched­ules for visitors to the campus. Ms.Littrell holdsmastersdegrees in libraryscience and public administration, andhas had more than 12 years of experi­ence in library and administrativepositions.

Editor: Annes McCann-Baker

Production, Design, and Photographs:Diane Watts