Center for Middle Eastern Studies

NEWSLETTERNo. 14 The University of Texas at Austin

Center Receives Fulbright-Hays Grant forSummer Program in Turkey

Spring 1990

Ian Manners, Project Director

Through the collaborative effortsof the Centerand the College ofEducation, and Bogazici Uni­

versity in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 socialstudies teachers from Texas will travelto Turkey for a six-week seminar andcurriculum development project thissummer. Participants will be selectedon the basis of their leadershipin social-studies curriculumdevelop­ment. They will spend the first threeweeks inresidenceat Bogazici and thesecond three weeks traveling through­outthe country to sites selected to illus­trate Turkey's historic, cultural andgeographic diversity.

The project is designed toimprove the quality of instruction inthe social studiesby providingpartici­pating teachers the opportunity toexperience a Middle Eastern culturefirsthand. Participants will share whattheyhave learned bymaking presenta­tions at district, regional and nationalworkshops and professional meet­ings. To help with their efforts, partici­pants will design an instructionalcur­riculum trunk focusing on the history,culture, economy and education sys­ternofTurkey. Toearngraduatecredit,participants win also enroll in twoseminars offered through the Centerand the CoUegeofEducationaspartofthe study program.

ProjectDirector for the seminarin Turkey is Director of the Center IanManners (Geography). ProfessorMan­ners travelled to BogaziciinJuneof1988to begin advanced planning for theproject and to meet personnel. Cur­riculum Directorof the Project isJoAnnSweeney (AssistantDeanof theCollegeof Education). Project Coordinator isJenny White. Ms. White is a graduatestudent inAnthropologyatThe Univer­sity of Texas who has studied andtaught inTurkey for a total oHiveyears.The three University personnel willwork closely with Bogazici facultymembers Sumru Ozsoy and OmurAkyuz.

A total of 22 finalists will beselected and invited to attend the firstorientation session in Austin, at whichtime theSelectionCommittee will havethe opportunity to meet and conductinterviews with prospective partici­pants. TheCommittee will then make afinal decision about participants andalternates. The final applicationdate forinterested teachers was March 9.

The Center was provided$55,000 by the U.S. Department ofEducation under the Fulbright-HaysGroup Projects Abroad. The Federalgrant will finance56% of the total costofthe Project. The remaining 44% ofproject costs will be provided by theCenter, fees from the participants, andcontributions from private donors.

The Project further enhancesthe existing relationship and educa­tional ties between the Center andBogazici University. As partial resultof Professor Manner's trips to Turkey,theCenterwelcomed in Augustof1989two Bogazici faculty members to theUniversity. Dr. Eser Taylan is VisitingAssociate ProfessorofTurkishand Dr.Cern Taylan is Visiting Scholar in theCenter. Bothhave provided assistancein expediting communications andplanningbetween the two universitiesinvolved in the project.

1990 MESA inSan Antonio

The Center will host the 1990annual meeting of the Middle

. Eastern Studies Association(MESA) in San Antonio on November11-13. The meeting will be held at theSan Antonio Convention Center andthe Marriott Riverwalk Hotel.

November 10 will be devotedto affiliated associations meetings andanoutreach workshop focusing on lit­eratures of the Middle East. An open­ing session and welcoming addresswill occur Sunday morning, Novem­ber 11. Panels, the film program, thebookexhibit, andother exhibits will beongoing Sunday through Tuesday.

RaoufAbbas Hamed, Chairofthe Department of History at the Uni­versity of Cairo, will be MESA's 1990Visiting Scholar in the Humanities.MESA will also sponsor a lecture tourin the U.S. for Dr. Hamed in the fall.

Sunday night a reception andbuffetat the InstituteofTexanCultureswill feature foods and entertainment

from Texas cultures, suchasbarbecue,Mexican food, and mariachi players.ThePresidential Addressand the Busi­ness Meeting will take place Monday,and Monday night will feature agalaofMiddle Eastern popular cultures.

San Antonio is well-knownforits riverwalk through the heart of thecity, Spanish missions, Mexican mar­ket, fine museums and general diver­sity of cultures.

Conferences andLectures

The Center cosponsored a one­day symposium entitled StatePowerand SocialForces:Domi­

nation and Transformation on Febru­ary 9. Other cosponsors were the De­partment of Government, the Centerfor Asian Studies, and the Social Sci­ence Research Council.

SpeakerswereNaomi Chazan(PoliticalScience)Tel Aviv University;Akhil Gupta (Anthropology) StanfordUniversity; Frances Hagopian (Gov­ernment) Harvard University; AtulKohli (PoliticalScience)PrincetonUni­versity; Joel Migdal (InternationalStudies) University of Washington;and Vivienne Shue (Government)Cornell University.

Other members of the work­ing group were Catherine Boone(Government) UT Austin; MichaelBratton (Political Science and AfricanStudies)MichiganStateUniversity;Re­satKasaba (International Studies) Uni­versityofWashington; ElizabethPerry(International Studies) University ofWashington; and Robert Vitalis (Gov­ernment) UT Austin.

Various VisitingProfessors atthe University and visitors to the cam­pus have presented a wide rangingseries of lectures during the semester.OnFebruary9,RogerOwen (Fellow St.Antony'sCollege,Oxford,and VisitingProfessor of Middle Eastern History)spokeat theFacultySeminaronBritishStudies. His topic was ''Reflections onthe First Ten Years of Thatcherism."Edna Ann Russmann (Brooklyn Mu­seum) lectured on February 8 on

''Egyptian Sculpture in the Early andLate Old Kingdom." On February 19,Jonathan Berkey (History, Princeton)presented "Tearing Down the Wall:Islamic Religious Education and theBreaching of Cultural Boundaries."Denise Spellberg (Women's Studiesand History,HarvardDivinitySchool)gave a talk entitled "The Politics ofPraise: Shadija, Fatima, and Aisha inEarly Muslim Historiography" onFebruary 22. "Transformations in Is­lamic Art During the Sunni Revival,11th and 12th Centuries" was the titleof the lecture of Yasser Tabbaa (Uni­versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor) onMarch 1.

The Center continues with itsColloquium Series on Thursday after­noons at 3:30 in the Resource Center.Former faculty member Caroline Wil­liams (Architecture) returned to theUniversity on January 18 to speak on"Islamic Decoration: Spiritual Dimen­sions." Abraham Marcus (History)discussed "Middle East Programs atAix-Marseille III" on February 1. OnFebruary 8, Resat Kasaba (Interna­tionalStudies)lecturedon"ATimeanda Place for the Non-State: SocialChange intheOttomanEmpireDuringtheNineteenth Century." OnMarch1,the Center cosponsored the Collo­quium with the Center for Soviet andEast European Studies. The speakerwas Guliz Kuruoglu (on leave fromTurkish), who discussed "ChangesObserved on a Recent Trip to Kazanand Soviet Central Asia."

Center PublishesKanafani Novella

May is the publication date ofthe Ghassan Kanafani no­vella previously unpub­

lished in the English world,MaTabaqqala-kum, translated AllThat's Left to You.Thevolumeiscompleted with tenshortstories by Kanafani and an introduc­tion by Roger Allen. The novella andshort stories were translated by MayJayyusi and Jeremy Reed under thedirection of Salma Jayyusi, Director ofthe Project for the TranslationofArabic(PROTA).

The late Kanafani is consid­ered a leading novelist in the Arabworldand oneof the foremost contem­porary Palestinian writers in prose. Apolitically active journalist in Beirutduring the I%Os, Kanafani was killedin the explosion of his booby-trappedcar in July, 1972.

The novella All That's Left toYou deals with the tragic consequencesfor individuals of alienation and geo­graphical isolation. In this vividstoryoftwenty-four hours in the real andremembered livesofa brother and sis­ter living in Gaza and separated fromtheir family, the desert and timeemerge as characters. The Palestinianattachment to land and family and thesorrow over their loss are symbolizedby theyoung man'sunremittingangerand shame over his sister's sexual dis­grace.

Kanafani experiments withpoint of view, speaking through thedesert, the brother, and the sister tobuild the powerful rhythm of the nar­rative. The short stories that completethiscollectionalso showstylistic fresh­ness in their use of time and frame ofreference.

All That's Left to You may bepurchased for $8.95 through the Uni­versity of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819,Austin, TX 78713.

AllThat's Left to You and Year oftheElephant, published lastNovember,are theCenter'ssecond and third booksin the new ModemMiddleEastLitera­tureinTranslationSeries,sponsoredbythe Center and the University ofTexasPress.

G1as!al Ka1af!rli

Student News

On April 19-21, the 1990 South­west Model League of ArabStates will be held at the Joe c.

Thompson conference Center at theUniversity.The League ofArab States,comprised of 22 member states, wasfounded in 1945 for the purpose offostering cooperation and discussionwithin the Arab world. During theModel League of Arab States, univer­sity delegations from throughout theSouthwest will represent membercountries of the organization, in a fo­rumthat will provide participantswithanopportunity to study the role, struc­ture, and performance of the Leagueand to gain experience in parliamen­tary procedure and forensic skills.Interested students should contactGreg Noakes (474-4374) or NajeebAhmad (346-4065).

Carla Higgins, Graduate Re­search Assistant in the Middle EastResource Center, is developinga smallcollection of information concerningjob placement, funding for graduateand undergraduatestudyanda varietyof academic programs such as studyabroad and intensive language insti­tutes. TheResourceCenterhopeseven­tually to provide current announce­ments of career opportunities in bothpublic and private sectors, to dissemi­nate information onsourcesoffundingrelevant to particular areas of interest,and to provide informationoncurrentprograms available in the U.S. andabroad. Anysuggestionsfrom faculty,staff, or students are welcome.

Ph.D. candidate in Anthropol­ogy Jenny White has been offered aSocialScienceResearchCouncil (SSRC)post-doctoral grant for advanced Ger­man and European studies at the FreeUniversity of Berlin. Ms. White spenttwo years in Turkey completing herresearch for her dissertation on smallcommodity production in urban Tur­key. She also taught at Marmara Uni­versity while in Turkey.

MoiraKilloran, graduatestu­dent in Anthropology, delivered apaper for the Project for the HistoricalConstruction of Identities, a projectongoing at Rutgers for 1989-1991. The

title of the paper was "The HistoricalConstruction and Denial of a TurkishCypriot Identity."

NabilAbdelfattah (Ph.D. can­didate in FLEC and Assistant Instruc­tor in Arabic) was awarded certifica­tion asanoralproficiency tester inAra­bic by the American Council on theTeaching of Foreign Languages. Mr.Abdelfattah is now one of only sevencertified testers for Arabic in the UnitedStates.

Former student Peter Dutz,who received a B.A. in Persian with aminor in Middle Eastern Studies fromthe University in 1982, has completedan M.A. in Oriental Studies from theUniversity of Pennsylvania and a lawdegree from Temple University. He iscurrently a law clerk in the UnitedStates Court of International Trade inNew York City.

Academic ExchangeBetween UT andAix-Marseille III

Abraham Marcus (History)visited the University of Aix­Marseille III campus in De­

cember to participate in a conference,and while there met with facultyconcerning possible future exchangeprograms with the Center. TheUniversity of Texas last year enteredinto an agreement with Aix-MarseilleIII, which anticipated various forms ofacademic collaboration, includingstudentand faculty exchanges.Withinthis general framework, ProfessorMarcus explored the possibility ofcollaboration between the Center andthe Institut de Recherche et d'Etudessur Ie Monde Arabe et Musulman(IREMAM).

ProfessorMarcusreported at aFebruary meeting of the ColloquiumSeries that the Institut has an excellentNorth Africancollection, amongotherthings. It is anticipated that the firstfaculty exchangeswillbe for short term(perhaps two weeks) purposessuch asworkshops, seminars, and colloquia,and that student exchange might startin 1992. Marcus described the MastersProgram in History and Modern

Middle Eastern Studies offered by theInstitute d'Etude Politique, abranchofthe Aix-Marseille III similiar to theUniversity's College of Liberal Arts.IREMAM is solelya research institute.

Tel Yin'am Expedition

The Tel Yin'am Intern Programin Israel will be takingplace thissummer from June 2D-July 30.

For the fourteenth year HaroldLiebowitz (Hebrew) will lead studentsto work side-by-side with archaeolo­gists in studying and reconstructingfinds from Tel Yin'am, nearTiberias inthe eastern Lower Galilee. The site ofTel Yin'am was continually occupiedfor approximately7,000 years from theNeolithic Period to the Byzantine Pe­riod. The students this year will behoused in a youth hostel in Jerusalem,where most of the materials to be stud­ied havebeen stored.T~ematerialsarethe result of previous digs.

Participantsareeligibleforupto six hours' undergraduate or gradu­ate credit from the Department of Ori­ental and African Languages and Lit­eratures. Applications should be sentto Professor Liebowitz, OOALL, Uni­versity of Texas, Austin, TX 78712.Applications should be accompaniedbya $10non-refundable fee which willgo toward paymentof the participationfees. For information, phone (512)471­1365.

Elementary Persianfor Iranian!AmericanStudents

An elementary Persian course(First-yearPersian2) hasbeendesigned specifically for Ira­

nian and Iranian-Americancollege stu­dentsfamiliar withspokenPersian,butnot able to read and write Persian. Thecourse (PRS f507) will be offered May28-July 12. Participationin this specialsummer course requires prior consul­tation with the instructor. For that andfurther information, contact MichaelHillmann, OOALL, UNI 222, Univer­sity of Texas, Austin, TX 78712. Phone(512)471-1365.

Institute for the Study ofLiterature, Religion & Society

Paul Vieille

on "Religion, Popular Discourse, andDereliction in Islamic Iran." Dr. Vieilleis Directeur de Rechercheat theCNRS,Editor of Peuples Mediterraneens, andauthor of numerous books on theMiddle East. The last speaker of theyear will be Serif Mardin (AmericanUniverSityand BogaziciUniversity, Is­tanbul) on April 30. Mardin will pres­enta lecture on "Necip Fazil Kisakurekand Turkish Society."

A panel of speakers will meeton AprilS to discuss ''Literatureand theReligious Revival in the Middle East".The panelists are Roy Mottahedeh,Director of the Center for Middle East­ern Studies at Harvard; JaroslavStetkevych, Professor of Arabic at theUniversity of Chicago; and FedwaMalti-Douglas, Professor of Arabic atthe Universityand DirectoroftheInsti­tute.

The two Rockefeller fellowswho will take up residency at the Uni­versity during theacademic year 1990­91 will bechosenand announced by theInstitute late in the spring.

Rached Gannouchi

Dan Miron

spoke inFebruaryon "HumanRights inIslam." Mr. Ghannouchi, an intellectualand political activist, is headofthe MTI,the leading Islamic movement inTuni­sia. Also inFebruary,PaulVieille spoke

The Institute, sponsored by afour-year grant from theRockefeller Foundation, is fin­

ishing its first year, which saw a seriesof five lectures. Mohammad Arkoun(University of Paris, Sorbonne Nou­velle) spoke in the fall. In December,Dan Miron (Hebrew University of

Jerusalem and Columbia) delivered alecture on "Uterature, Religion and

I Faith in Israel." Rached Ghannouchi

Autobiography ofShaykhKishk," at aspecial conferenceonCulturalTransi­tions: The Articulation of Secular andReligious Discourses in the MiddleEast, held in December at the Ameri­canUniversity. Alsoat thatconference,shewasoneofthree featured panelistsaddressing the issueof ''MuslimIntel­lectuals Today." In January, 1990, shewasinvited to participate inameetingof academics, policy and foundationspecialistson"EasingComrnunicationacross Cultures through the Arts andHumanities" at the Rockefeller Foun­dation. Professor Malti-Douglas hasbeenelected to the DelegateAssemblyof the Modem Language Associationfor a three-year term.Shehasalsobeenappointed to the Board of Trustees ofthe Institute of Semitic Studies and tothe Ad Hoc Committee on the State ofthe Art in Middle East Studies.

Edgar Polome (DOALL)traveled to the Free University of Ber­lin on February 26 to present a lectureon the "Present State and Future ofBantu Studies." On February 27 hespokeon "Indo-EuropeanCulture andReligion," andonFebruary 28-March3 he attended a symposium at theWerner Reimer Foundation at BadHomburg,on theSourcesofGermanicReligion, where he presented a paperon "The Validity of the Statements ofAncient Writers on Germanic Reli­gion." In Decemberhis volume Essayson GermanicReligion was publishedbythe Institute for the Study of Man.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat(Artand CMES) published "Countingand Accounting in the PrehistoricMiddle East," in Sandro Salvatori,Studies and Documents, IV, Errizzo,Venezia, Italy. She has also publishedjointly with UaneJacob-Rost "Tokensfrom the Sanctuaryof Eanna atUruk,"in Forschungen und Berichte, StaatlicheMuseen zu Berlin, Vol. 27; and ''TwoPrecursors of Writing in OneReckoning Device," in W.M. Senner,ed.,Sign, Symbol, Script, UniverSity ofNebraska.

RobertVitalis (Government)will beon leavefrom theUniversity forthe next academic year, and will be aVisiting Professor at Princeton.

Faculty News

Aman Attieh (Arabic) con­eluded work on a projectfunded jointly by the U.S. De­

partmentofEducationandTheSchoolof Arabic at Middlebury College todevelop proficiency-based materialsfor teaching Arabic. Under the Project,for which Dr. Attieh served as Coordi­nator and Peter Abboud as Director,some 600 authentic texts for readingcomprehension and listeningcompre­hensionwere selected, and instructionsheets containing questions on eachtext were designed. Inaddition, a largenumber of communicative situationsfor speaking were designed for fourlevels of instruction in Arabic. In No­vember, Dr. Attieh was invited to be agroup leaderon the American Associa­tion ofTeachersofArabic panel, heldatthe MESA annual meeting inToronto.Dr. Attieh was invited in December todeliver a paper entitled ''New Direc­tions in Materials Development forPromotingProficiency" ata conferenceon innovative proficiency-basedmate­rials sponsored by the Center forMiddle Eastern Studies at HarvardUniversity.

Former visiting faculty mem­ber Hamid Dabashi (Sociology) hashad his book, Authority in Islam: Fromthe Rise of Muhammad to the Establish­ment ofthe Umayyads, named the mostoutstanding book in philosophy andreligion in the FourteenthAnnual Pro­fessional and Scholarly Book Awardssponsored by the Association ofAmerican Publishers.

Allen Douglas (French) trav­eled to Paris during January for re­search. He had a paper delivered inabsentia for him at the meeting of theMiddleEasternLiteraturesSeminarinMarch at Duke. The title of the paperwas "Imperialism and Its Contradic­tions: Maurice Barres' Enqueteauxpaysdu levant."

Elizabeth Fernea (Englishand CMES) was the diScussion leaderat a conference on Women and War inthe Middle East at Princeton onMarch24. On March 27, she gave a lectureentitled "Palestinian Question: IsThere a Solution?" as part of the Great

DecisionsProgramat the UniversityofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shespoke again at a seminaratChapel Hillon "Cross Cultural Women's Studies:Possibilities and Impossibilities." TheJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthurFoundation has awarded ProfessorFernea a grant of $50,000 to plan andresearch her proposed educationalproject, ''Perspectives on Peace: TheMiddle East." The Foundation alsooffered a matching grant of $150,000,which will become effective when anequal amount has been raised fromother sources and foundations. Thepurpose of the film is to informseveralaudiences in the U.S. andabroad aboutsome ofthevisionsand possibilities forpeace that exist in the area today. Thegrant will be administered throughMoira Productions, Berkeley,California.

Robert Fernea (Anthropol­ogy), chairman of the Council ofAmerican OverseasResearch Centers,Washington, D.C., was speaker at theCouncil's first meeting with Europeandirectors of overseas research centers,held March 7-8 at the American Acad­emy in Rome. Professor Fernea spokeon the historical bases for researchfunding in Americanacademic institu­tions. The meeting was attended byrepresentatives from France, Italy,Gennany, Austria, Britain and Swe­den.

Kate Gillespie (Marketing)hasbeenpromoted to Associate Profes-­sor with tenure. In the Winter 1990issue of The Middle East Journal, shepublished "U.S. Corporations and Iranat the Hague."

Clem Henry (Government)participated ina symposium onNorthAfrican Economic Integration spon­sored by CEMAT in Tunis on January5. He presented a paperon ''Banks andInfonnation" at a symposium spon­sored in Casablanca, Morocco, by theCredit Populaire Bank on January 22­23. Professor Henry inaugurated alectureseriesoftheAmerican-TunisianFriendship Society in Washington,D.C. witha lectureon February 2, 1990,on "ThePoliticsofAdjustmentand theAdjustment of Politics." On March

15-16, he attended a symposium onTurkeysponsoredbythe CERIinParis,where he presented. a paper on"Arab­Turkish Financial Relationships."

Michael Hillmann (Persian),while in Iran on a Social Science Re­searchCouncilgrant to researchthelifeof the late author Jalal Al-e Ahmad,presented a lecture in Persian at thePhilosophical Society inTehran on thestateofPersianStudiesinNorth Amer­ica. Professor Hillman continued. hisresearch on Al-e Ahmad in Gottingenand Paris. At the University of Gottin­gen, he gave a lecture in Persian on thecomtemporary literary scene inTehran. Salem Press recently pub­lished. ProfessorHillmann's articlesonShah Abbas the Great and RuhollahKhomeini in Great Lives from History.Hiscollaborativebibliographical essaywith Roger Allenon "ArabicLiteraturein English Translation" appeared inLiterature East & West 25 this spring.ProfessorHillmann is planningaJanu­ary 1991 conference at the Universityon Sadeq Hedayat and Persian Litera­ture.

Guliz Kuruoglu (Turkish), onleave for the year, was elected to theExecutive Committee of the TurkishStudies Association for the comingyear.

Fedwa Matti-Douglas (Ara­bic) has been promoted to Professor,effective September I, 1990. She editedCritical Pilgrimages: Studies in the ArabicLiteraryTradition, which hasappearedas volume 25 of Literature East & West.Her/ study, ''Blindness and Sexuality:Traditional Mentalities in Yusuf Idris''HouseofFlesh/// was published in thatvolume. In November, 1989, ProfessorMalti-Douglas delivered an invitedpaper, ''TheFutureof the PastinArabicCulture," for a conference in Cairocommemoratingthe l00thanniversaryof the birth of Taha Husayn. Also inNovember, she was invited. to partici­pate in a conference on Medieval andRenaissance Humanism, held at theBellagioConferenceCenter, where shedelivered a paper on "The Sacred andthe Profane in Adab Discourse." Pro­fessor Malti-Douglasalso spoke on "ALiterature of Islamic Revival?: Th

Roger OwenVisiting ProfessorFrom Oxford

T he Centeris proud to haveRogerOwen as a Visiting Professorduring the springsemester with

joint appointments in the Center andthe Departments of Economics andHistory. Professor Owen is teaching

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

an undergraduate course and agraduateseminaronEconomicHistoryof the Middle East. A well-knowneconomic historian of the Middle Eastin Britain, hehas written extensivelyonthe integration ofEgypt into the worldeconomy during the nineteenthcentury. Subsequent books, notablyThe Middle East in the World Economyand The Sociology ofDevelopingSocieties:The Middle East, have extended hisanalysis to the regional level. He hasserved three terms as Director of theMiddle East Centre at St. Antony'sCollege,Oxford. Since1964he hasbeenLecturerinRecentEconomic Historyofthe Middle East at Oxford. Since 1987,he has been General Editor of theCambridge University Press ModernMiddle Eastern Library.

Outreach News

O n February 1, Deborah Littrellbecame the new Outreach Co­ordinator. She had been with

the Center part-time as the Resource

Center Coordinator, and took over re­sponsibility for the outreach programwhen Annette Pomeroy resigned.

The Center will sponsor fourfilms from Turkey during the spring.Cem Taylan,Visiting Scholar fromTurkey, will introduce each of thefilms, which will be shown from7-9:45 p.m. in Room 344 of theAcademic Center. The films are IronEarth, Copper Sky directed by ZulfuLivaneli (March 27);Muhsin Bey byYavuzTurgul (April 3); Hotel Anayurtby Omer Kavur (April 10); and 40Square Metres of Germany by TevfikBaser(Aprill7). These films are beingshown in connection with MES 301L,butareopen to the public atnocharge.For additional informationcontact theCenter at 471-3881.

Editor: Annes McCann-Baker

Production, Design, and Photographs:Diane Watts

EA SF DP 866DEBORAH LITTRELLCMESSSB 3.122CAMPUS, UT 13400