london middle east institute at soas

London Middle EastInstitute at SOASAnnual Report 2016/2017and Financial Report 2015/2016

Director: Dr Hassan HakimianExecutive Officer and Company Secretary: Ms Louise HoskingEvents and Magazine Coordinator: Mr Vincenzo PaciAdministrative Assistant: Mr Aki ElborziCoordinating Editor (Middle East in London Magazine): Ms Megan WangDesigner (Middle East in London Magazine): Ms Shahla Geramipour

LMEI ORGANISATION AND MEMBERSHIP

Staff of the London Middle East Institute

Lady Barbara Judge (Chair)Professor Muhammad Abdel-Haleem, SOASHE Mr Khaled al-Duwaisan GCVO, Ambassador, Embassy of the State of KuwaitMrs Haifa Al Kaylani, Arab International Women’s ForumDr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, President, University College of BahrainProfessor Tony Allan, King’s College and SOASDr Alanoud Alsharekh, Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Mr Farad Azima, NetScientific PlcDr Noel Brehony, MENAS Associates LtdProfessor Magdy Ishak Hanna, British Egyptian SocietyHE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud, Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of JordanMr Paul Smith, Chairman, Eversheds International

LMEI Advisory Council

LMEI Board of Trustees

Dr Alanoud Al-SharekhDr Hamid KeshmirshekanDr George JofféMs Helen LacknerDr Corinna MullinDr Hamid PouranProfessor Tom SelwynProfessor Sami ZubaidaProfessor John Waterbury

LMEI Research Associates

Donations, Sponsorship and AffiliationsFounding Patron and Donor of the LMEISheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, MBI Al Jaber Foundation

Institutional AffiliatesBonyad Jaleh EsfahaniBritish Association for Turkish Studies (BATAS)The British-Yemeni SocietyForum IranGingkoLSE Middle East CentrePetroleum InstitutePoetry and Music Chamber of Iranians in the UK

Corporate Sponsorship is £1,500 per year. Benefits include those enjoyed by Institutional Affiliates, please see below, together with up to two tailored private briefings per year, free copies of LMEI occasional papers, and special advertising rates with the LMEI.

Institutional Affiliation is £250 per year. Institutional Affiliates are entitled to the same benefits as Individual Affiliates, please see below, along with the free use of a room at SOAS for an event lasting up to two hours, and up to four copies of each edition of the magazine. They will also be acknowledged in LMEI publicity material, including the website: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/.

Individual Affiliates pay £30 per year, £20 concessions and £10 for students, for which they receive an annual subscription to ‘The Middle East in London’ magazine, inclusion on e-mail and mailing lists for notification of upcoming events, and special rates for LMEI conferences and publications.

Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair), Director, SOASProfessor Richard Black, SOASDr John Curtis, Iran Heritage FoundationDr Nelida Fuccaro, SOASDr Dina Matar, SOASDr Hanan Morsy, European Bank for Reconstruction and DevelopmentProfessor Scott Redford, SOASDr Barbara Zollner, Birkbeck, University of London

The aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with those who have special interest in the region.

In this task it will build on two essential assets. First, it is based in London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Middle East: political, social, cultural, commercial, scientific and educational. Secondly, the LMEI is at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide training and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today.

Director’s Letter------------------------------------------------------Event Highlights------------------------------------------------------Calendar of Events------------------------------------------------------Centre for Iranian Studies------------------------------------------------------Centre for Palestine Studies------------------------------------------------------Publications------------------------------------------------------Research Associates------------------------------------------------------Summer School------------------------------------------------------PhD Theses on the Middle East------------------------------------------------------Acknowledgements------------------------------------------------------Financial Statement------------------------------------------------------Directory of Academic Members------------------------------------------------------

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Contents

LMEI ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 4

Director’s Letter


The Middle East region continues to face unprecedented change which brings both opportunities and challenges. Falling oil revenues, persistent inequality and unemployment (especially among its youth), climate change, intensified conflict, sectarianism, civil war and failed states continue to cast a long shadow over the region. This is in marked contrast to the region’s rich natural resources and the promises for democratic transition that were sparked by the popular uprisings in the Arab countries a few years ago.

2016/17 was another eventful year for the London Middle East Institute. Our mission to promote understanding of the MENA region was this time intertwined with a special occasion in the history of SOAS as the School celebrated the centenaries of its establishment in 1916 and its first student intake in 1917.

Although the London Middle East Institute was not founded until 2002, Middle East studies have deep roots and a long history at SOAS: they have always been at the heart of SOAS academic offerings and its regional perspective on world affairs. It was therefore apt for LMEI to organise a series of key events and activities in 2016/17, thereby recognising SOAS’s long-standing relationship with our region.


The first event took place at SOAS in October 2016: a two-day conference entitled ‘Environmental Challenges in the MENA Region: The Long Road from Conflict to Cooperation’. Generously sponsored by the Arab ambassadors in London, a rare combination of climate and natural scientists and environmental engineers, together with social scientists and policy-makers, were invited to SOAS to take a close look at environmental issues in the Middle East, noting that recurrent environmental setbacks and a rapid depletion of the region’s natural resources will, unless resolutely checked, threaten its long-term economic, political and social stability.

LMEI’s bimonthly magazine, The Middle East in London, played its part in celebrating SOAS’s centenary: its October/November 2016 issue was entitled The Middle East at SOAS, focusing on how the study of the Middle East has changed in the last 100 years, both at SOAS and more broadly, examining how the past impacts the present over a wide range of topics in the region: nationalism and borders, gender studies, international trade, cultural and religious identities and the environment.

The Institute also held a series of three cultural celebrations during the course of the academic year, one in each term, to demonstrate the key role that SOAS plays in reaching out to different communities in London, providing a forum for analysis, politial debate and cultural spectacle. In the autumn term the focus was Egypt and in the spring and summer terms Palestine and Iran, drawing on the resources of LMEI’s Centres for Palestine and Iranian Studies, respectively.

As we look back at last year to prepare this Annual Report the new academic year has already begun. Our well-established programme of Tuesday evening lectures has started, we are busy supporting our SOAS colleagues to deliver conferences and research projects and fine tuning the very many other events we hope to deliver in 2017/18.

I am confident that my next Annual Report will be at least as full and varied as this.


Event Highlights

LMEI ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 7 LMEI ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 7

During the 2016/17 academic year many parts of SOAS were inspired to celebrate the centenary of the School’s establishment in 1917. LMEI made sure it played its part too, first with a two-day conference at the beginning of the year in October which reviewed the current ‘Environmental Challenges in the MENA Region’ and subsequently with one multifaceted Saturday event each term devoted to individual countries and communities: Egypt in November, Palestine in February and Iran in May. The conference addressed LMEI’s academic constituency while the cultural days reached out to the Institute’s loyal audiences who are always keen to benefit from LMEI’s connections with the Middle Eastern communities across London.

The October conference pulled no punches in examining regional-wide themes such as climate change, pollution, sustainable energy and management of sparse water resources while it also sought to highlight initiatives that are developing in response to these difficulties – in the words of the conference subtitle: journeying along ‘the long road from conflict to cooperation’. The conference was generously supported by the Arab Ambassadors Group in London, which enabled the conveners to invite academics and practitioners from around the world. Keynote speeches were given by Iyad Abumoghli (Director and Regional Representative of the UN Environment Programme, West Asia & Bahrain) on the ‘Global Environment Outlook for West Asia’ and Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith (Director of Energy Research, University of Oxford and President of the SESAME Council) on ‘Science and Hope in the MENA: the SESAME Project’. With an eye to the future the conference included a poster session of young academics working on environmental topics in MENA and the conference proceedings are to be published in 2017/18 when they can be read by an even wider body of practitioners.

The first of LMEI’s celebrations of Middle Eastern culture and community took place on the 19th November and was devoted to Egypt. There was a wide variety of activities in the Brunei Suite from 2pm onwards with publishers, a tattoo artist and a master calligrapher jostling for attention as the formal programme began in the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre with a discussion on the changing political landscape in contemporary Egypt with panellists Omar Ashour (University of Exeter), Mohamed Elmeshad (SOAS) and Moataz El Fegiery (Front Line Defenders) chaired by Hassan Hakimian. In the late afternoon Seif El Rashidi spoke on ‘Historic Cairo: Reflections on Recent Change and Continuity’ and Nada Dahab on Egypt’s visual iconography before a screening of the 1969 classic film Al-Mummia directed by Chadi Abdel Salem. The day ended with a rousing concert by Joseph Tawadros, the leading Australian oud virtuoso.

On Saturday, 25th February 2017 the Institute turned its attention to celebrating Palestinian culture and community in London. Key to the celebration was an academic discussion on the current political situation in Palestine entitled ‘Where is Palestine Going?’ introduced by Hassan Hakimian and presided over by Gilbert Achcar, (Chair of SOAS’s Centre for Palestine Studies) with Adam Hanieh (SOAS), Karma Nabulsi (University of Oxford) and Sir Vincent Fean (former UK Consul-General in Jerusalem) contributing to the debate. The day’s programme also

included cultural activities: it hosted a special Palestine Day ‘mini market’ in the Brunei Suite featuring stalls manned by booksellers and several small independent businesses exhibiting and selling various Palestinian products such as oils, fabrics, jewellery and art. The day had begun with the screening of one film, Speed Sisters (2015), a documentary following the first all-women motor racing team in the Middle East and later in the afternoon, LMEI was delighted to co-host the London premiere of another film, Rough Stage (2015), together with the Frontline Club. The screening of the second film was followed by a question-and-answer session with the film’s director, Toomas Järvet (from Estonia), which was chaired by Julianne Rooney of the Frontline Club. Following the film screening, British-Palestinian comedian Jenan Younis entertained visitors with a short stand-up comedy routine and the event was then concluded with an energetic and lively concert by internationally acclaimed singer, musician and musicologist, Reem Kelani, who was accompanied by Bruno Heinen on the keyboard. It was a resounding finale to a successful day.

The Iran centenary event was on the 3rd June: a day celebrating Iranian cinema entitled ‘Youth, Cinema and War in Iran’. Its programme, convened by SOAS postgraduate student Roya Arab, focussed on the work of contemporary award-winning Iranian filmmakers, the majority of whom were young at the times of the revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1987. A selection of short films triggered by the conflicts began the day, followed by a discussion of the ‘Sacred Defence’ genre. A recorded message from the director Kiumars Pouahmad introduced a screening of his film Night Bus and the day concluded with a discussion between the filmmaker Kaveh Abbasian and the lecturer and author Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad.

In addition to these Centenary events, LMEI has continued to support its colleagues in SOAS in other ways, key among them being the administrative support it has leant to two important projects: the EU-sponsored research project ‘Gender and Generation in the Aftermath of the Uprisings: Political Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today’ led by Ruba Salih, Lynn Welchmann and Elena Zambelli and the ongoing ESRC-sponsored research into ‘Female Employment and Dynamics of Gender Inequality in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Southern Europe’ project led by Principal Investigator Massoud Karshenas with collaboration from Co-Investigators, Hannah Bargawi, Hassan Hakimian, Naila Kabeer, Valentina Moghadem and Ravi Strivastava. The second project’s first workshop was in June 2017 with two follow-up workshops planned for the 2017/18 academic year.

The activities mentioned above are in addition to many other LMEI activities. You will get a full picture of their frequency and range by looking at the list of events overleaf.


Calendar of Events


The following is a list of the broad range of events organised by the LMEI, either solely or in partnership with other institutions, in the 2016/17 academic year.

Tuesday Lectures on the Contemporary Middle East (Organised by the London Middle East Institute, SOAS)

04 Oct What Happened to the ‘Arab Spring’? Gilbert Achcar (SOAS)Chair: Salwa Ismail (SOAS)

18 Oct Palestinians in Syria: Nakba Memories of Shattered CommunitiesAnaheed Al-Hardan (American University of Beirut) and Nur Masalha (Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies)Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies

25 Oct The Emergence of the Gulf StatesJ.E. Peterson, Michael Crawford, Hala Fattah and Steffen HertogChair: Charles Tripp (SOAS)

01 Nov Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban LifeFarah Al-Nakib (American University of Kuwait)Chair: Nelida Fuccaro (SOAS)Organised jointly with the Near & Middle East History Seminar

15 Nov Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab WorldAtef Alshaer (University of Westminster), Caroline Rooney (University of Kent), Dina Matar (SOAS)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)

22 Nov Holy Lands - How to Revive Pluralism in the Middle East?Nicolas Pelham (The Economist)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)

29 Nov Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle EastJohn Chalcraft (LSE)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)

06 Dec Iranian Cinema Uncensored: Contemporary Film-Makers Since the Islamic Revolution Shiva RahbaranChair: Roya Arab (musician, archaeologist and curator)Organised jointly with the Centre for Iranian Studies

10 Jan Turkey’s Attempted Coup d’État and its AftermathWilliam Hale (SOAS)Chair: Gamon McLellan (SOAS)

17 Jan The Poisoned Well: Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle East Roger Hardy (formerly BBC World Service)Chair: Sami Zubaida (Birkbeck)

24 Jan The Invention of Palestinian Citizenship, 1918-1947 Lauren Banko (University of Manchester), Nelida Fuccaro (SOAS)Chair: Dina Matar (SOAS)Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies and the Near & Middle East History Seminar

31 Jan Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God Joseph Daher (Lausanne University,Switzerland)Chair: Adam Hanieh (SOAS)

7 Feb Inter-Ethnic Marriages in a Divided Society: Palestinian-Jewish Families in IsraelMaha Karkabi-Sabbah (Tel-Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University)Chair: Sharri Plonski (SOAS)Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies

21 Feb The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present Bashir Abu-Manneh (University of Kent)Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies and SOAS Palestine Society. Sponsored by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP)

28 Feb The Importance of Marmaduke Pickthall Peter Clark, formerly British CouncilChair: Stefan Sperl, SOAS

07 Mar Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran Orkideh Behrouzan (King’s College London)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)Organised jointly with the Centre for Iranian Studies

14 Mar One and a Half Coup D’états: Politics of Fear in Erdogan’s Turkey Mehmet Kurt (International State Crime Initiative [ISCI], Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Nadje Al-Ali (SOAS)

25 Apr Hadhramaut and its Diaspora: YemeniPolitics, Identity and Migration Muhammad Bin-Dohry, Noel Brehony, Thanos Petouris, Helen Lackner and James SpencerChair: William Clarence-Smith (SOAS)Organised jointly with the Hadhramaut Research Centre (HRC)

02 May The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence 1914-1948 Laila Parsons (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)Chair: Charles Tripp (SOAS)


03 Nov Caliphate: An Idea through HistoryHugh Kennedy (SOAS)Chair: Yuri Stoyanov (SOAS) Organised by the London Middle East Institute

28 Nov Inside the Muslim Brotherhood: Religion, Identity and PoliticsKhalil al-Anani (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI) Organised by the London Middle East Institute

07 Dec Yemen’s Other Civil War - Tribes, Technocrats and Revolutionaries 1962-1970Joshua Rogers (SOAS)Organised by The British-Yemeni Society in association with the London Middle East Institute

12 Jan Abu Nasr Parsa’s Tomb: Reconfiguring Sacred LegaciesRobert McChesney (New York University)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian ArtConvener: Scott Redford (SOAS)Organised by SOAS and the London Middle East Institute. Sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation (New York)

13 Jan The Rawza of ‘Ali at Mazar-i Sharif: Centring a CityRobert McChesney (New York University)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian ArtConvener: Scott Redford (SOAS)Organised by SOAS and the London Middle East Institute. Sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation (New York)

16 Jan Tamerlane’s Tomb: Conjuring a Greater GloryRobert McChesney (New York University)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian ArtConvener: Scott Redford (SOAS)Organised by SOAS and the London Middle East Institute. Sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation (New York)

17 Jan Kandahar’s Mantle of the Prophet: Sanctifying FibreRobert McChesney (New York University)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian ArtConvener: Scott Redford (SOAS)Organised by SOAS and the London Middle East Institute. Sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation (New York)

23 Jan Tribal Landscapes in Palestinian, Jordanian & Syrian Women’s Embroidered GarmentsHRH Princess Wijdan Al HashemiOrganised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari) and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

OCCASIONAL LECTURES 30 Jan The Wandering Pastoralists of the Lower Indus DeltaJohn GillowOrganised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari) and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

08 Feb Architecture as Archive: Indian and Islamic Connections in Medieval Ethiopian MonumentsFinbarr Barry Flood (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York)The Hadassah and Daniel Khalili Memorial Lecture in Islamic Art and CultureOrganised by SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

13 Feb The Golden Road to Samarkand: Silk Road Cities (Samarkand & Bukhara)Diana Driscoll (British Museum)Organised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari) and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

15 Feb After the Revolutions: Arab Memory and BewildermentHisham MatarThe British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Annual LectureOrganised by BRISMES in association with the London Middle East Institute

22 Feb Turquoise Tiles & Arabesque CurvesSussan Babaie (The Courtauld Institute of Art)Organised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari) and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

08 Mar The Afghani, Kohistani and Swati Embroidered TalesGillian Vogelsang-EastwoodOrganised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari), and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

14 Mar Timurid Influences on Art and Conceptual Designs Across Central Asia and IndiaSaqib BaburiOrganised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari), and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

22 Mar The Phulkari Baghs of the DoabArjmand AzizOrganised by Marian Chanduray (Bhukari), and the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in conjunction with the London Middle East Institute

08 Jun Baghdad Dreaming: Architecture, Memory, and the Modernist ProjectHadani Ditmars Chair: Charles Tripp (SOAS)Part of the London Festival of Architecture. Organised by the London Middle East Institute


CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA

09-10 Dec Gender and Generation in the Aftermath of the Uprisings. Political Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today Conveners: Ruba Salih (SOAS), Lynn Welchman (SOAS) and Elena Zambelli (Institute of Development Studies and SOAS)Organised by the London Middle East Institute and the Centre for Gender Studies in partnership with the Istituto Affari Internazionali. Sponsored by Power2Youth

Master calligrapher and artist from Egypt, Moustafa Hassan, SOAS Centenary Event - Celebrating Egyptian Culture & Community in London, 19 November 2016

SPECIAL SOAS CENTENARY EVENTS

12-13 Oct Environmental Challenges in the MENA Region: The Long Road from Conflict to CooperationTwo-day SOAS centenary conference Organised by the London Middle East Institute under Special SOAS Centenary Events

19 Nov SOAS Centenary Event - Celebrating Egyptian Culture & Community in LondonPanel discussion on the Changing Political Landscape in Contemporary Egypt with Omar Ashour (University of Exeter), Mohamed Elmeshad (SOAS) and Moataz El Fegiery (Front Line Defenders). Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI). Presentations by Seif El Rashidi on Historic Cairo: Reflections on Recent Change and Continuity and by Nada Dahab on Egypt: Visual Iconography, screening of the film Al-Mummia (The Night of Counting the Years) along with calligraphy and henna stalls and a concert by oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros. Organised by the London Middle East Institute

25 Feb SOAS Centenary Event - Celebrating Palestinian Culture & Community in LondonA day of cultural events including a Palestine

market with stalls selling Palestinian products; film screening of Speed Sisters and Rough Stage; panel discussion on Where is Palestine Going? with Adam Hanieh (SOAS), Karma Nabulsi (Oxford) and Sir Vincent Fean (former UK Consul-General in Jerusalem), chair: Gilbert Achcar (SOAS); stand-up comedy from Jenan Younis; and Reem Kelani live in concert.Organised by the Centre for Palestine Studies. Sponsored by the Frotline Club

03 Jun SOAS Centenary Event - Youth, Cinema and War in IranShort film screenings followed by Shahin Parvizi (filmmaker and PhD student) in discussion with Roya Arab (musician, archaeologist, curator and PhD candidate) and Q&A; screening of Otobus-e Shab (The Night Bus) followed by Kaveh Abbasian (filmmaker, visiting lecturer and PhD student) in discussion with Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad (SOAS) and Q&A. Book fair selling Persian and English books.Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies and Roya Arab

BOOK LAUNCHES

11 Nov Book Launch: ‘Women, Culture and the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution’ Dalia Mustafa, Caroline Rooney, Philip MarfleetChair: Dina Matar (SOAS)Organised by Centre for Media Studies, School of Arts and London Middle East Institute

16 Mar Hannes Baumann Book Launch: ‘Citizen Hariri - Lebanon’s Neoliberal Reconstruction’Hannes Baumann (University of Liverpool)Chair: Charles Tripp, SOASOrganised by Department of Politics and International Studies and the London Middle East Institute

Iyad Abumoghli (UN), Environmental Challenges in the MENA Region: The Long Road from Conflict to Cooperation, 12 - 13 October 2016


08 Sep Yemen Crisis Update Briefing Peter Oborne (Daily Mail and Middle East Eye)Organised by The British-Yemeni Society in association with the London Middle East Institute

11 Jan Screening of ‘After Spring’Organised by Centre for Media Studies, School of Arts and London Middle East Institute

27 Feb Democratic Transitions in the Arab WorldSamir Makdisi (American University of Beirut), Ibrahim El-Badawi (The Economic Research Forum for the Arab World, Iran & Turkey), Noha El-Mikawy (Ford Foundation). Panel discussion to mark the publication of Democratic Transitions in the Arab World (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)Organised by the London Middle East Institute

06 May The 2017 British Association for Turkish Area Studies (BATAS) Spring SymposiumUluç Gürkan (Former Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly), Scott Redford (SOAS), Ziya Meral (British Army’s Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research) and Rachel Harris (SOAS)Organised by BATAS in association with the London Middle East Institute

27 Jul Naguib Mahfouz: Between Fiction and HistorySamia Mehrez (AUC)Organised by Gingko with the support of the British Council in association with The Arab British Centre and the London Middle East Institute

OTHER EVENTS LMEI Seminars on Turkey

21 Oct Turkish Literature in English: Ten Years OnAlev AdilOrganised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank

04 Nov Ottoman Governance of the Arab BeduinTalha Çicek (SOAS and Medeniyet University, Istanbul)Organised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank

25 Nov Transnational Perspectives on Kurdish Politics in the Middle EastZeynep Kaya (Middle East Centre, LSE)Organised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank

20 Jan Coming Home to the Other: A Greek, a Turk and Stories of a Shared PastPelin Turgut and Stella Kassimati (International School of Storytelling, Emerson College, East Sussex)Organised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank

03 Feb A Familiar Tune? State of Emergency in Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire after the So-called ‘31 March Uprising’ (1909)Noémi Levy (Birkbeck & Boğaziçi University)Organised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank

10 Mar Turkey: The Land of Conspiracies and the ‘Enemy Within’Corry Guttstadt (Independent Researcher, Hamburg)Organised by SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme (London Middle East Institute). Sponsored by Nurol Bank


25-29 Jul The Middle East and North Africa Today: Crises, Mobilities and Paths to the FutureFive-day summer school at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais in Lisbon organised by the Instituto de Ciências Sociais with the support of the LMEI, ZMO-Berlin and CEI-IUL Lisbon

07-09 Sep Briefing for UNICEF Representative, Middle East Headquarters

16 Jan- Persian Calligraphy, Nasta’liq Script27 Mar

13-15 Feb Briefing for UNICEF MENA Humanitarian Affairs Chief

14-16 Feb Briefing for UNICEF Representative in Yemen

12 Apr Briefing on Iran for Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) plc

24 Apr- Persian Calligraphy, Nasta’liq Script26 Jun

28 Feb- Briefing for UNICEF Regional Security 02 Mar Adviser

22 May Briefing for Bank of China

23-25 May Briefing for UNICEF Representative in Djibouti

09-10 Jun ESRC Global Challenges Research Fund: Workshop on Dynamics of Gender Inequality in MENA and South Asia

BRIEFINGS/COURSES

19 Jun- Intensive five-week summer school 20 Jul programme

LMEI MIDDLE EAST SUMMER SCHOOL

THE MIDDLE EAST IN LONDON

October – November, Vol. 12, No. 5 SOAS Centenary Special Issue ,The Middle East at SOAS

December – January, Vol. 13, No. 1 Film

February – March, Vol. 13, No. 2 Environment

April – May, Vol. 13, No. 3 Youth Precarity in MENA

June – July, Vol. 13, No. 4 Turkey


Centre for Iranian Studies


Soon after the beginning of the autumn term LMEI hosted the first in a new biennial Ehsan Yarshater Series of Lectures on Persian Literature, a programme that is generously supported by a $50,000 Deed of Gift agreement between the SOAS and the Persian Heritage Foundation that was announced in June 2016. SOAS Director Valerie Amos had welcomed the part it would play in helping to ‘ensure that Persian culture can be discussed and debated by our students for years to come’. Hassan Hakimian, Director of the LMEI, was equally enthusiastic, saying ‘We see the lectures as an important opportunity to promote the profile of Iranian Studies at SOAS, which has a long tradition. We also hope that this will assist us in the long term to seek support for an endowed chair in Persian Studies’. The first academic invited to SOAS to give the lectures was Farzaneh Milani of the University of Virginia who took as her theme the author Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967), a daring, often irreverent trespasser of sacrosanct boundaries and explorer of taboo topics.

This academic year LMEI hosted the latest in the Yarshater Series of Lectures, a programme that has long been managed by the Institute. In January 2017 Robert D. McChesney, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University gave four lectures entitled ‘Four Central Asian Shrines: Islamic Architecture in Society’, examining how individual shrines have responded to society’s needs and have in turn left different cultural and spiritual legacies.

Now that LMEI is able to support prestigious lecture series on both Persian art and Persian literature it has been decided to devote the annual Kamran Djam lecture programme to Iranian history, rather than to Iranian culture in general. As a consequence Professor Abbas Amanat, Professor of History and International Studies at Yale University and Director of Yale’s Program in Iranian Studies was invited to speak at SOAS in March 2017 on the fundamental topic of Shi’ism. In his first lecture he examined why the Safavid state decided to declare Shi’ism as the state creed and patronise a Shi’i establishment.

He also conjectured why, in the four centuries since the rise of the Shi’i state, Iran has endured despite pressures on its vulnerable borders, volatile nomadic powers in its periphery, meagre economic resources, popular dissent and inconsistencies within the structure of the state. In his second lecture he looked at why from the early nineteenth century onwards various historical processes slowly unravelled the old imperial arrangement and exposed defects in the Iranian state.

It addition to these formal lecture programmes, LMEI demonstrated its commitment to encouraging Iranian studies in SOAS by hosting occasional evening lectures throughout the year. A wide range of topics concerning Iran were addressed, from a lecture on cuisine by Sami Zubaida describing the histories, geographies and vocabularies of food in the regions of Anatolia, Iran and the Arab Levant - showing that food cultures and innovations owe much to geography and communication and less to ethnicity and nationality - to the seminar given by Pooneh Ghoddoosi, of BBC’s World Service in December 2016, looking forward to Iran-US relations and the future of the JCPOA under the new US President Trump. LMEI was also able to encourage studies in Persian language: in 2016 it had offered lessons in Beginners Persian in its summer school while 2017 saw Persian being offered at two levels. It has also offered evening classes in Persian calligraphy by the master calligrapher Keramat Fathinia which have proved very popular with Persians and non-Persians alike. Another course is already planned for the 2017/18 academic year.

Professor Farzaneh Milani, University of Virginia, Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian Literature, 20, 21, 24 & 25 October 2016


30 Nov Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War Roham AlvandiOrganised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

07 Dec Iran-US Relations and the Future of the JCPOA Under the New Amercian President Pooneh Ghoddoosi (BBC World Service)Organised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

14 Dec Literary Awards in Iran - A Tool for the Control of Culture Alireza AbizOrganised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

24 Feb Iran After RafsanjaniRamin Jahanbegloo (Jindal Global University, India)Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

11 Mar Razor’s Edge: The Legacy of Iranian ActressesFilm screening followed by discussion and Q&A with director, Bahman Maghsoudlou. Chair: Roya ArabOrganised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

13 Mar Kamran Djam Annual Lecture at SOAS: Managing the Guarded Domains Abbas Amanat, Yale UniversityFirst of two lectures by Abbas Amanat entitled ‘In Search of Modern Iran’.Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

14 Mar Kamran Djam Annual Lecture at SOAS: Paragons and Demons of ModernityAbbas Amanat (Yale University)Second of two lectures by Abbas Amanat entitled ‘In Search of Modern Iran’.Chair: Hassan Hakimian (LMEI)Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

27 Apr Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Times of Ahmad Fardid Ali Mirsepassi (New York University)Book launch and film screening. Discussants: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (SOAS) and Hamed Yousefi.Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS) Events 19 Oct Iran-GCC Relations after the 2015 JCPOA

Dina Esfandiary (King’s College London)Organised by: Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

20 Oct ‘I Cannot Lie’: The Literary Biography and Unpublished Letters of Forugh FarrokhzadFarzaneh Milani (University of Virginia)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian LiteratureOrganised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

21 Oct ‘Remember Flight’: Forugh Farrokhzad, the Iranian IcarusFarzaneh Milani (University of Virginia)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian LiteratureOrganised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

24 Oct ‘The House Is Black’: A Model Life Narrative by Forugh FarrokhzadFarzaneh Milani (University of Virginia)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian LiteratureOrganised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

25 Oct ‘I Feel Sorry for the Garden’: Democratizing the FamilyFarzaneh Milani (University of Virginia)Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian LiteratureOrganised by the Centre for Iranian Studies

26 Oct Me, Myself and I: Self-Perception and Threat Perception in International Politics, the Case of IranRouzbeh Parsi (Lund University, Sweden)Organised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

02 Nov Honour and Rights: Gender and Democracy in IranZiba Mir-Hosseini (SOAS)Organised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

16 Nov Middle Eastern Foodscapes: Iran and the Post-Ottoman World Sami Zubaida (Birkbeck)Organised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies

23 Nov Beacon of Diversity: Ayandegan and the Spring of Freedom of 1979 Siavush Randjbar-Daemi (University of Manchester)Organised by the Department of Near and Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Iranian Studies


Centre for Palestine Studies


When the Centre was first established in 2012 its Advisory Committee resolved to stimulate Palestine studies at SOAS in various ways. Perhaps the most prominent of these are the Centre’s prestigious annual lectures. The fourth in the series was held in March 2017 when the Palestinian Raja Shehadeh, West Bank-based human-rights lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, asked the question: ‘Does Israel Fear Peace?’, reflecting on the failures of international law and human rights with regard to Palestine and wondering where Palestinians can find hope in the future. Given the importance of the topic the lecture was included in the series of high-profile lectures given at the School to mark its centenary. 2017, as well as being SOAS’s centenary, is the 50-year anniversary of the Six Day War in the Middle East. By the end of these hostilities the Israeli army had occupied former Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza and displaced approximately 300,000 Palestinian citizens, adding to the refugees who were displaced in 1948. Since a resolution to the Palestine dilemma appears no closer after half a century of devastating regional conflicts, Raja Shehadeh was prompted to ask what Israel has to fear from a lasting peace.

In addition to staging such high-profile events, throughout 2016/17 the Centre has continued to work on other well-established elements of its programme. As a consequence, the first two peer-reviewed volumes in the series of SOAS Palestine Studies with the publishers IB Tauris appeared this year: Toufic Haddad’s Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory and Joseph Farag’s The Palestinian Short Story in Exile: Gender, Aesthetics, Resistance. The third book in the series, Sharri Plonski’s Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Power, Resistance and the Struggle for Space will be published shortly and additional volumes are already in the pipeline. Authors working on Palestine are welcome to submit their manuscripts for publication in the series. All manuscripts are subject to international standards of peer review.

Although the Centre did not organise a conference in 2016/17, a further CPS Annual Research Seminar was held on the 10th February 2017. It was organised by Dina

Matar and Mai abu Moghli of UCL and provided a forum for academics working on Palestine in the UK to present their current research and benefit from the feedback of fellow academics. Academics and postgraduates from Exeter, Oxford and Sussex universities joined others from King’s College London, LSE, SOAS and UCL to speak in panels chaired by Lauren Banko (Edinburgh University), Dina Matar and Atef AlShaer (Westminster University).

Since its foundation SOAS’s Centre for Palestine Studies has gained a well-deserved reputation as a forum for research and debate on Palestinian issues. To uphold this reputation CPS continues to host a wide variety of evening lectures and book launches on Palestine which are open to the public. Some were political in nature, examples include a lecture by Ella Shohat of New York University on ‘The Question of the Arab-Jew and Judeo-Arabic: Nation, Partition, and the Linguistic Imaginary’ when she launched her book, On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings or the lecture given by Anaheed Al-Hardan of the American University of Beirut and Nur Masalha of the Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies on the subject of ‘Palestinians in Syria: Nakba Memories of Shattered Communities’. Yet other lectures addressed the complications of life in Israeli and Palestine such as that given by Maha Karkabi-Sabbah of Tel-Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University on ‘Inter-Ethnic Marriages in a Divided Society: Palestinian-Jewish families in Israel’.


Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) Events

05 Jun The Global Settler Colonial PresentLorenzo Veracini (Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne), in conversation with Magid Shihade.Organised by the Centre for Palestine Studies and the London Middle East Institute

19 Jun Unpacking Israel’s Public Media Relations in the USJohn Pilger (independent journalist and filmmaker), Dina Matar (SOAS), Sut Jhally (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)Screening of The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States and panel discussion. Organised by the Centre for Media Studies and the Centre for Palestine Studies

26 Jun Book Launch: Tamim Al-Barghouti’s Poetry Collection ‘In Jerusalem’Tamim Al-Barghouti (poet) Organised by Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East and the Centre for Palestine Studies

28 Jun The Question of the Arab-Jew and Judeo-Arabic: Nation, Partition and the Linguistic ImaginaryElla Shohat (New York University)Organised by: Centre for Palestine Studies and Centre for Jewish Studies

01 Dec 1967 Bypassing 1948: A Critique of Occupation Studies in Israeli Critical Theory Amal Jamal (Tel Aviv University)Chair: Gilbert Achcar (SOAS)Organised by the Centre for Palestine Studies

23 Jan Book Launch: Palestine Ltd. Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied TerritoryToufic HaddadChair: Gilbert Achcar (SOAS)Organised by the Centre for Palestine Studies

09 Feb Testimonies on The First Century of PalestineElias Nasrallah (Author) in conversation with Dina Matar (SOAS)Organised by the Centre for Palestine Studies and the SOAS Palestine Society

10 Feb Annual Palestine Research SeminarOrganised by the Centre for Palestine Studies and Centre for Media Studies, School of Arts

09 Mar Centre for Palestine Studies Annual Lecture: Does Israel Fear Peace? Reflections on the Failures of International Law and Human Rights, and on Sources of HopeRaja Shehadeh

SEP stall at the SOAS Centenary Event - Celebrating Palestinian Culture & Community in London, 25 February 2017


Publications


The Middle East in London – the LMEI’s bimonthly magazine – began 2017 with an issue focussed on Middle Eastern films, film festivals and emerging trends in genre and cinematography. This was followed by the third instalment of our issues focussed on the environment; its topics ranged from a general overview of the environment in the Middle East (the Global Environment Outlook) to ‘virtual water’ in Palestine to Yemen’s deepening environmental crises to the feasibility of sustainable, green alternatives to oil and gas. The next issue on Youth Precarity in MENA was guest edited by Maria Cristina Paciello and Daniela Pioppi, coordinators of the Power2Youth project. The definition of youth and aspects of youth exclusion and empowerment were some of the topics the issue sought to address. For the months of June and July the magazine published a timely issue on Turkey, outlining Turkey’s woes and the increasing powers President Erdogan now commands. An issue on Secularism is planned for the autumn months.

As usual, the covers of the issues mentioned above pay homage to the art of the region. The year 2017 featured striking works by Ahmed Morsi, Ibrahim El Dessouki, Hani Zurob and Irfan Onurmen.

PDF versions of past issues of the magazine are regularly uploaded to our webpages and are free to access and download: https://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/meil/

Currently, the magazine’s fifth annual photo competition is underway. In keeping with past precedent the winners will likely be announced in the December 2017/January 2018 issue.

The Middle East in London (MEL)

THIS ISSUETHIS ISSUE:: FilmFilm

Volume 13 - Number 1December 2016 – January 2017

£4

Volume 13 - Number 2February – March 2017

£4

THIS ISSUETHIS ISSUE:: EnvironmentEnvironment


The SOAS Palestine Studies Book Series with I.B. Tauris

The first book in the SOAS Palestine Studies Series with I.B. Tauris, Palestine Ltd. Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory by Toufic Haddad, was published in the summer of 2016. Haddad explores how neoliberal frameworks have shaped and informed the common understandings of international, Israeli and Palestinian interactions throughout the Oslo peace process. Drawing upon more than 20 years of policy literature, field-based interviews and recently declassified or leaked documents, he details how these frameworks have led to struggles over influencing Palestinian political and economic behaviour, and attempts to mould the class character of Palestinian society and its leadership. A dystopian vision of Palestine emerges as the by-product of this complex asymmetrical interaction, where nationalism, neo-colonialism and `disaster capitalism’ both intersect and diverge.

Palestinian Literature in Exile: Gender, Aesthetics and Resistance in the Short Story by Joseph Farag, the second book in the Series, was published in autumn 2016 and is the first English-language study to explore this unique genre, the Palestinian short story, which stands

Editorial Board of The Middle East in London

Prof. Nadje Al-Ali, SOASDr Hadi Enayat, Aga Khan University (International) Institute for the Study of Muslim CivilisationsMs Narguess Farzad, SOASMs Nevsal Hughes, Association of European Journalists

Dr George Joffé, Cambridge UniversityMs Janet Rady, Janet Rady Fine ArtMr Barnaby RogersonDr Sarah Stewart, SOASDr Shelagh WeirProf. Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck College

Volume 13 - Number 3April – May 2017

£4

THIS ISSUE: YOUTH PRECARITY IN MENA

Volume 13 - Number 4June – July 2017

£4

THIS ISSUETHIS ISSUE:: TURKEYTURKEY


The Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Series

Series Editor: Hassan Hakimian, LMEIPublished by Routledge

Launched in 2003, the Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Series is devoted to widening in-depth analysis and understanding of the economic and political dynamics of the region. It has been established as a respected source of academic research and publication for MENA students and scholars who are keen to disseminate their latest research.

The aim of the series is to publish both specialist and more general titles pertaining to the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa region – broadly defined as including countries from Morocco to Iran. The series

is overseen by an international Editorial Board (see list below) whose members possess a broad range of expertises and areas of specialism.

Submissions from prospective authors are welcomed, and should be sent in the first instance to the series editor ([email protected]). The series is open to single-authored books as well as edited volumes and textbooks. All manuscripts are subject to international standards of peer review.

Editorial Board of The Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa

Prof. David Cobham, Heriot Watt UniversityProf. Nu’man Kanafani, University of CopenhagenProf. Massoud Karshenas, SOAS Prof. Jeffrey B. Nugent, University of Southern CaliforniaProf. Jennifer Olmsted, Drew University, New Jersey Prof. Karen Pfeifer, Smith College, Northampton, MassachusettsProf. Wassim Shahin, Lebanese American University (LAU)Prof. Sübidey Togan, Centre for International Economics at Bilkent UniversityProf. Jackline Wahba, University of Southampton

www.routledge.com/Routledge-Political-Economy-of-the-Middle-East-and-North-Africa/book-series/SE0387

out for its unique interplay between literary texts and the political and historical contexts from which they emerge. Farag employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine the political function of literary texts and the manner in which cultural production responds to crucial moments in Palestinian history. Drawing from the works of Samira Azzam, Ghassan Kanafani and Ibrahim Nasrallah, Farag traces developments in the short story as they relate to the pivotal events of what the Palestinians call the Nakba (‘catastrophe’), Naksa (‘defeat’) and first Intifada (‘uprising’). In analysing several as yet un-translated works, Farag makes an original contribution to the subject of exilic identity and subjectivity in Palestinian literature.

The third book in the series Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Power, Resistance and the Struggle for Space by Sharri Plonski is due to be published shortly.

www.ibtauris.com/series/soas%20palestine%20studies

Research Associates


Alanoud Al-Sharekh

George Joffé

London Middle East Institute

Alanoud Al-Sharekh conducts research on socio-political, cultural and security issues in the Arabian Gulf, and is a board member of several academic and non-governmental organisations, as well as directing the Abolish153 campaign to end honour killing legislation in Kuwait and the GCC, and the ‘Friends who Care’ project for young girls (under 21) at risk within Kuwait’s social care system. She has been Consultant Researcher on gender and citizenship at the Supreme Council for Development and Planning in Kuwait, Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Senior Political Analyst at the Kuwait National Security Bureau and a gender politics consultant for UNIFEM, Freedom House and the UNDP on academic and social outreach projects in Kuwait and the GCC. She has published several books and articles on gender and kinship policies in the GCC and her work won the Arab Prize for best publication in a foreign journal for 2013-2014 and the Voices of Success Kuwait Award in 2012.

George Joffé teaches at the University of Cambridge on the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa and on political theory and North Africa at King’s College London. Dr Joffé has been engaged in research and teaching on these regions since 1978 and has published widely on them in academic journals and books as well as editing six books on these and similar subjects. He provides briefings on states in the region for the LMEI and is a member of the Editorial Board of the LMEI’s The Middle East in London magazine. He was formerly deputy director and acting director of the Royal Institute of Interntaional Affairs (Chatham House).

Hamid Keshmirshekan

Hamid Keshmirshekan is an art historian, critic and Senior Lecturer at the Advanced Research Institute of Art (ARIA), Iranian Academy of Arts. From 2004 to 2012, he was the Associate Fellow at the KRC, Faculty of Oriental Studies and History of Art Department at Oxford University. His interests are twentieth and twentieth-first century art from the Middle East, with particular attention to the recent developments in art practice. His latest publications include Koorosh Shishegaran: The Art of Altruism (2017), ‘Standardisation and the Question of Identity: On the Dominant Discourses on Contemporary Middle Eastern Art’ (2015), Contemporary Art from the Middle East: Regional Interactions with Global Art Discourses (ed.) (2015), Hunar-i mu’asir-i iran, risheh-ha va nazar-gah-hay-i nuvin (2015), Contemporary Iranian Art: New Perspectives (2013), ‘Reclaiming Cultural Space: Artist’s Performativity versus State’s Expectations in Contemporary Iran’ (2013).


Corinna Mullin

Dr Corinna Mullin has been based for the past five years at the University of Tunis, as a Visiting Assistant Professor in International Politics. In the autumn of 2017, she will be joining the Political Science Department at John Jay College, The City University of New York. Her research interests include genealogies and political economy of ‘national security’, anti-/post-/de-colonial theories and struggles, empire, knowledge production and critical race theory, with a focus on North Africa and West Asia. Prior to moving to Tunisia, Dr. Mullin was a lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East at SOAS. She is a Research Associate at the LMEI, where she has taught the Government and Politics of the Middle East component of the LMEI summer school for the past five years.

Hamid Pouran

Before joining the LMEI as a research associate, Hamid Pouran was Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) Visiting Fellow in Iran’s Environmental Sustainability at the LMEI’s Centre for Iranian Studies and senior research associate at Lancaster University. He was part of the Transatlantic Initiative for Nanotechnology and the Environment (TINE), an international scientific consortium of UK and US universities to better understand the behaviour of nanomaterials in the environment. Hamid was the convener of SOAS Centenary conference, Environmental Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa. He was also scientific consultant for a BBC World documentary called Dust Storms. This documentary had major inputs from NASA, USGS and UNEP. He was also a guest visiting scholar at Princeton University in 2017.

Helen Lackner

Helen Lackner worked as a consultant in social aspects of rural development for four decades in over 30 countries, mostly in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. She has been involved in Yemen since the early 1970s where she lived in all three Yemeni states for over 15 years. She now focuses on analysis and writing, trying to promote commitment to equitable development and peace in Yemen. Her most recent publications include Yemen’s Peaceful Transition from Autocracy: could it have succeeded? (International IDEA 2016) and Understanding the Yemeni Crisis: the transformation of tribal roles in recent decades (Durham, Luce Fellowship Paper 17, 2016). She is currently working on Yemen in Crisis: the role of neoliberalism and autocracy to be published by Saqi in 2017.


Sami ZubaidaTom Selwyn

Tom Selwyn is a Professorial Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology and the London Middle East Institute. He was awarded an Emeritus Professorial Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Foundation in 2014. He has published widely in the field of the anthropology of tourism/pilgrimage with regional interests in Palestine/Israel and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He directed/co-directed four major research and development projects in Palestine and Bosnia-Herzegovina for the European Commission between 1995 and 2005; founded the MA in the Anthropology of Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage at SOAS in 2010; and was awarded the Lucy Mair medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2009. Recent publications include ‘The Future of Palestinian Tourism’ in R. Isaac CM Hall, F. Higgins-Desbiolles (eds), 2016, Power and Politics of Tourism in Palestine, London, Routledge; ‘Tourism and Sight Prevention’ in H. Andrews (ed) 2016, Tourism and Violence, London, Routledge; ‘The Rise and Fall of Orientalism in Travel, Tourism, and Pilgrimage: Report from Palestine/Israel’, Tourism, Culture, and Communication, 17, 2017.’

Sami Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London and has held visiting positions in Cairo, Istanbul, Beirut, Aix-en-Provence, Berkeley CA, Paris and New York. His research interests include Middle East Politics, Religion and Law, Nationalism, Food and Culture. Professor Zubaida is a regular contributor to the LMEI’s The Middle East in London magazine and has published extensively on the Middle East, most recently an article in openDemocracy on Islam and reform. He is also a Professorial Research Associate of the Food Studies Centre, SOAS and has published widely on food and culinary cultures including ‘Drink, Meals and Social Boundaries’, in Jakob A. Klein and Anne Murcott (eds), Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. with Richard Tapper, Tauris Parke, 2001).

Professorial Research Associates

John Waterbury

John Waterbury became the 14th President of the American University of Beirut in January 1998 and retired from the presidency in July 2008. Before joining AUB, Dr Waterbury was, for 20 years, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Dr Waterbury has published widely on the political economy of the MENA region, most recently in The Political Economy of the Middle East, co-authored with Alan Richards. He has also focused since the 1970s on issues of transboundary water resources and the collective action problems that they entail. In 1979 Syracuse University Press published his The Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley, and in 2003 Yale University Press published its sequel, The Nile Basin: National Determinants of Collective Action.


Summer School


The LMEI held its fifth Middle East Summer School in 2017 which included courses in Beginners Persian Language, Beginners Arabic Language (at either introductory or intermediate levels), ‘Government and Politics of the Middle East’ and ‘Culture and Society in the Middle East’.

This year’s Summer School followed on from last year’s success with nineteen students from both the UK and overseas taking part in the programme.

Comments from students included:

‘Excellent! Better than I expected. The subjects were exactly what I was looking for.’

‘I would rate the overall organisation, course content and quality of teaching as second to-none.’

‘10 out of 10. SS has been an excellent experience.’


PHD Theses on the Middle East


PHD Theses on the Middle East Completed at SOAS in 2016/2017

NAME THESIS RESEARCH AREA

MPHIL/PHD NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

(FT)

Hearts Shrouded in Darkness: Spirituality in Modern Arabic Prison Poetry

ABDULRAHMAN AL-FARHAN

TALAL AL-RASHOUD Modern Education and Arab Nationalism in Kuwait, 1911-1961

HISTORY

MAHA BAHAA ELDIN ABDELMEGEED

Khayali Textuality as Historical Urgency: Al-Muwaylihi’s Hadith Isa Ibn Hisham

and the Long 1890s

NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

SASAN AGHLANI-ASL The Nuclear Policies of Iran: Islam and Strategic Thinking in the Islamic Republic

MPHIL/PHD POLITICS AND

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (FT)

LINGUISTICSA Lexical-Semantic Analysis of the English Prepositions At, On and In and their Conceptual

Mapping onto Arabic: A Comparative Investigation

ANWAR FARIS SA’AD F ALMUOSEB

LEA BOU KHATER MPHIL/PHD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (FT)

Labour Relations in Lebanon: Trials and Tribulations of the Labour Movement

HAE WON JEONG Rethinking State Autonomy in Rentier State Theory (RST): A Case Study of Kuwait

MPHIL/PHD POLITICS AND


MEDIA STUDIESThe Articulation of Hegemonic Power through Television: Islamic Republic’s Discourses

Regarding Iranian Everyday Life

SEYED MOHAMMAD MAHDI KHOEI

HUSAM AL-MALLAK Thus Spake Ibn al-’Arabi: The Death of God and the Overcoming of Nihilism,

an Islamic Perspective

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

KATHARINA GRAF Food In The Making: Food Preparation, Material and Social Change in Urban Morocco

ANTHROPOLOGY RESEARCH

POLITICSDiaspora 2.0: Mapping Sikh, Tamil and Palestinian Online Identity Politics

PRIYA KUMAR

SHAM ARUN-QAYYUM LAWPeople, Not Only Societies, are Multicultural: An Interdisciplinary Study Examining how Muslims in Britain are Negotiating Overlapping (Legal)

Norms, Identities and Traditions

POLITICSLocating Muslim Women: Consumption, Activism and Contention in Turkey

MERVE KUTUK


MPHIL/PHD CULTURAL,

LITERARY AND POSTCOLONIAL

STUDIES (FT)

Managing Dissent: Censorship, Patronage, and ‘Breathing Space’ in Contemporary

Tunisian Cultural Production

NATHANAEL MANNONE

CHARLES GRAHAM EDWARD MARQUES

Rebel Diplomacy as ‘Rebelcraft’: Libya 2011 MPHIL/PHD POLITICS AND


ILIAS MALEVITIS The Formation of Byzantine Views on Muslims During the ‘Dark Century’ (ca. 650-ca. 750)

HISTORY

NAME THESIS RESEARCH AREA

MPHIL/PHD CULTURAL,

LITERARY AND POSTCOLONIAL

STUDIES (FT)

Creaturely Encounters: Animals in the Libyan Literary Imaginary

CHARIS EILEEN OLSZOK

SERAP SARITAS ORAN Financialisation and Turkish Pension Reform MPHIL/PHD ECONOMICS (FT)

JACQUES RENE ROUYER GUILLET

Aspects of Architecture and Advertising in Jaffa/Tel Aviv, 1909-1969: Myth and Ideology

HISTORY

GOKTUG SONMEZ The Interplay between International and Domestic Factors in Turkey’s Grand Strategy-Making: Activism, Disappointment and Readjustment

POLITICS

CRISTIANA STRAVA Everyday Struggles and the Production of Livelihoods on the Margins of

Casablanca, Morocco

MPHIL/PHD ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

(FT)

LAWThe Islamic Marriage Conundrum: Register or Recognize? The Legal Consequences

of the Nikah in England and Wales

VISHAL VORA

CANER YELBASI Civil War, Violence and Nationality from Empire to Nation State;The Circassians in Turkey (1918-1938)

MPHIL/PHD HISTORY (FT)

BIRGUL YILMAZ Learning ‘My’ Language: Moments of Languages and Identities among Kurds in the UK

LINGUISTICS

RIMA MERHI News Framing in Times of Crisis: Media Representations of Palestinian Refugees

in Nahr el-Bared Battle,2007

MEDIA STUDIES


Acknowledgements


In 2016/17, as in previous years, LMEI entertained ambitious plans for a wide variety of events, academic and cultural. It would have been impossible for the Institute’s small staff to have succeeded in staging all of these without the assistance of many helpers. Thanks must go to all the SOAS staff who have supported the LMEI over the year: the Conference Office, the Caterers, the AV and IT departments, SOAS photographer Glenn Ratcliffe, the Print Room, Post Room and Estates Department. Particular thanks are due to Jane Wood for her assistance with the Institute’s finances.


Financial Statement


Income

Donations Income from charitable activities: Grant income Training programmes and professional servicesConferences, events and publicationsAffiliations Income from other trading activities: Advertising Interest receivable Total Income Expenditure Expenditure on charitable activities:Training programmes and professional services Conferences, events and publications Affiliations Research Total Expenditure Net income/(expenditure) Transfers Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward

Total funds carried forward

The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities.

Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account)for the year ended 31 July 2016

TotalFunds2015

£

262,056

-45,54617,46213,800

1,863

33

340,760

82,440204,001

24,377

19,046

329,864

10,896

-

10,896

162,179

173,075

TotalFunds2016

£

225,997

3,29563,10313,64916,063

713

33

322,853

85,701189,505

22,895

9,817

307,918

14,935

-

14,935

173,075

188,010

RestrictedFunds

£

66,347

3,295---

-

-

69,642

8,29441,681

3,318

9,817

63,110

6,532

(15,000)

(8,468)

18,468

10,000

UnrestrictedFunds

£

159,650

-63,10313,64916,063

713

33

253,211

77,407147,824

19,577

-

244,808

8,403

15,000

23,403

154,607

178,010

Balance Sheet as at 31 July 2016

Current AssetsDebtorsShort term depositsCash at bank and in hand

Creditors: Amounts Falling Due within One Year

Net Current Assets

Total funds of the charityUnrestricted income fundsRestricted income funds

Total charity funds

TotalFunds2015

£

26,70210,860

185,726

223,288

50,213

173,075

154,60718,468

173,075

TotalFunds2016

£

20,75810,873

232,423

264,054

76,044

188,010

178,01010,000

188,010

RestrictedFunds

£

--

10,000

10,000

-

10,000

-10,000

10,000

UnrestrictedFunds

£

20,75810,873

222,423

254,054

76,044

178,010

178,010-

178,010

The trustees have prepared group accounts in accordance with section 398 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 138 of the Charities Act 2011. These accounts are prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act relating to small companies and constitute the annual accounts required by the Companies Act 2006 and are for circulation to members of the company.

Approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:

Baroness Valerie Amos 22 February 2017 Chair of Board of Trustees


Directory of Academic Members


Department of Anthropology and Sociology

Dr Lori Allen, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology

Dr Katharina Graf, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Dr Caroline Osella, Reader in Anthropology with reference to South Asia Dr Gabriele vom Bruck, Senior Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of the Middle East

Brunei Gallery

Mr John Hollingworth MBE, Exhibitions/Galleries Manager

Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of ArtsProfessor Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Emeritus Professor

Professor Anna Contadini, Professor of the History of Islamic Art

Dr Heather Elgood, MBE, Course Director of the Diploma in Asian Art

Dr Simon O’Meara, Lecturer in the History of Architecture & Archaeology of the Islamic Middle East

Professor Scott Redford, Nasser D Khalili Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology

Dr Tanja Tolar, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Tania Tribe, Senior Lecturer in Art History

Department of Economics

Dr Randa Alami, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Hannah Bargawi, Lecturer in Economics

Dr Hassan Hakimian, MBI Al Jaber Reader in Economics with reference to the Middle East

Professor Jane Harrigan, Professor of Economics

Professor Masood Karshenas, Professor of Economics

Ramin Nassehi, Senior Teaching Fellow

School of Finance and Management

Dr Ibrahim Abosag, Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Professor Tony Allan, Professorial Research Associate

Dr Senija Causevic, Lecturer in Marketing

Professor Bassam Fattouh, Professor in Finance and Management for the Middle East

Mr Adel Hamaizia, Senior Teaching Fellow

Sahar Rad, Lecturer in International Management (MENA)

Centre for Gender Studies

Professor Nadje Al-Ali, Professor of Gender Studies

Dr Ruba Salih, Research Admissions & PhD Tutor

Department of Development Studies

Professor Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations

Dr Adam Hanieh, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies

Professor Deniz Kandiyoti, Emeritus Professor in Development Studies

Dr Thomas Marois, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies

Dr Farooq Suhleria, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Veli Yadirgi, Teaching Fellow

Dr Tahir Zaman, Senior Teaching Fellow

Department of History

Dr Teresa Bernheimer, Senior Lecturer in the History of the Near and Middle East

Dr Michael Brett, Emeritus Reader

Professor William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Professor of the Economic History of Asia and Africa

Dr Nelida Fuccaro, Reader in the Modern History of the Middle East

Professor G R Hawting, Emeritus Professor

Dr Ceyda Karamursel, Lecturer in the Department of History

Dr George Lane, Senior Teaching Fellow in the History of the Middle East and Central Asia

Dr Derek Mancini-Lander, Lecturer in the History of Iran

Dr Marina Pyrovolaki, Senior Teaching Fellow


Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East

Professor Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem, OBE, King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies

Ms Ayse Berna Akca, Teaching Fellow in Turkish

Mr Ahmad Alkhashem, Senior Lector in Arabic

Professor Abdul Hakim Ibrahim Al-Matroudi, Visting Professor in Arabic (Islamic Law)

Dr Keya Anjaria, Senior Teaching Fellow in Turkish

Dr Helen Blatherwick, Teaching Fellow in Arabic

Ms Maha Collinson, Senior Lector in Arabic

Dr Yorgos Dedes, Senior Lecturer in Turkish

Dr Tamar Drukker, Senior Lector in Hebrew

Ms Sorour Dundon, Teaching Fellow in Persian

Dr Ayman El-Desouky, Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Comparative Literature

Dr Nada Elzeer, Senior Lector in Arabic

Dr Hannah Erlwein, Senior Teaching Fellow

Ms Narguess Farzad, Senior Fellow in Persian

Professor Andrew R George, Professor of Babylonian

Ms Mona Hammad, Senior Lector in Arabic

Dr Marlé Hammond, Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture

Professor Hugh N Kennedy, Professor of Arabic

Dr Karima Laachir, Senior Lecturer in Literary & Cultural Studies

Mr Fadi Bassam Mansour, Senior Teaching Fellow

Mr Gamon McLellan, Teaching Fellow in Turkish

Dr Nima Mina, Senior Lecturer in Persian and Iranian Studies

Ms Shabnam Mirafzali, Teaching Fellow in Persian

Mr Wael Odeh, Senior Teaching Fellow in Arabic

Professor Wen-chin Ouyang, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature

Mr Mohamed I Said, Principal Lector in Arabic

Mr Muaadh Salih, Principal Teaching Fellow and Arabic Project Co-ordinator

Dr Mustafa Shah, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies

Dr Ayman Shihadeh, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies

Professor Colin Shindler, Pears Senior Research Fellow in Israel Studies

Ms Savitri Sperl, Teaching Fellow in Arabic

Dr Stefan Sperl, Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies

Dr Yair Wallach, Pears Lecturer in Israeli Studies

Dr Mark Weeden, Senior Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern Studies

Dr Katherine Zebiri, Senior Lecturer in Arabic

School of Law

Professor Mashood Baderin, Professor of Law

Dr Brenna Bhandar, Senior Lecturer in Law

Mr Ian D Edge, Lecturer in Law

Dr Jonathan Ercanbrack, Lecturer in the Law of Islamic Finance

Mr Nicholas H D Foster, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law

Dr Vanja Hamzic, Senior Lecturer in Legal History and Legal Anthropology

Professor Martin W Lau, Professor of South Asian Law

Dr Makeen F Makeen, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law

Dr Scott Newton, Lecturer in Laws of Central Asia

Dr Nimer Sultany, Senior Lecturer in Law

Professor Lynn Welchman, Professor of Law with particular reference to the Middle East and North Africa

Dr Amrita Shodhan, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Philipp Wirtz, Senior Teaching Fellow

Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD)Dr Dan Plesch, Director of CISD and Reader

SOAS Language CentreSaliha Fellache, Lecturer in Arabic


Library and Information Services (LIS)

Ms Dominique Akhoun-Schwarb, Subject Librarian (Middle East & Central Asia)

Mr Burzine K Waghmar, Senior Library Assistant (Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services)

Department of Linguistics

Professor Peter Austin, Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics

Dr Monik Charette, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics

Professor Bruce Ingham, Emeritus Professor of Arabic Dialect Studies

Dr Christopher Lucas, Senior Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics

Dr Kirsty Rowan, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur, Director, Endangered Languages Documentation Programme

Centre for Media StudiesDr Massimiliano Fusari, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Dina Matar, Senior Lecturer in Arab Media and Political Communication

Professor Annabelle Sreberny, Emeritus Professor

Dr Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, Senior Teaching Fellow

Department of Music

Dr Ilana Webster-Kogen, Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music

Professor Owen Wright, Emeritus Professor of Musicology of the Middle East

Department of Politics and International Studies

Department of Religions and Philosophies

Professor Catherine Hezser, Professor of Jewish Studies

Professor Almut Hintze, Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism

Dr Erica Hunter, Senior Lecturer in Eastern Christianity

Dr Mikael Oez, Senior Teaching Fellow

Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams, Emeritus Professor of Iranian and Central Asian Studies

Dr Sarah Stewart, Lecturer in Zoroastrianism

Dr Cosimo Zene, Reader in the Study of Religions

Dr Reem Abou-El-Fadl, Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East

Dr Fiona Adamson, Senior Lecturer in International Relations

Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, Professor of Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies

Dr Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, Teaching Fellow

Dr Bhavna Davé, Senior Lecturer in Politics of Central Asia

Professor William Hale, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies

Professor Stephen Hopgood, Professor of International Relations

Professor Salwa Ismail, Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East

Professor Laleh Khalili, Professor of Middle East Politics

Dr Hagar Kotef, Senior Lecturer of Political Theory and Comparative Politics

Dr Mark Laffey, Senior Lecturer in International Politics

Dr Matthew J Nelson, Reader in Politics

Dr Kerem Nisancioglu, Lecturer in International Relations

Dr Ian Sanjay Patel, Senior Teaching Fellow

Dr Moriel Ram, Teaching Fellow

Dr Dara Salam, Teaching Fellow

Dr Shirin Shafaie, Teaching Fellow

Professor Charles Tripp, Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Senior Lecturer in International Relations

Dr Rafeef Ziadah, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

CENTRE FOR IRANIAN STUDIES – SCHOLARSHIPSSOAS, University of London, is pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships in its Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS).

The Centre, established in 2010, draws upon the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including Languages and Literature, the Study of Religions, History, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Music, Art and Media and Film Studies. It aims to build close relations with likeminded institutions and to showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent in art and culture.

MA in Iranian Studies

CISlaunc interdisciplinary MA in Iranian Studies, which will be off ered

Thanks to the generosity of the Fereydoun Djam Charitable Trust, a number of Kamran Djam scholarships are available for BA, MA and MPhil/PhD studies.

For further details, please contact:

Scholarships Offi cer E: [email protected]: +44 (0)20 7074 5091/ 5094W: www.soas.ac.uk/scholarships

Centre for Iranian StudiesDr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Chair) E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4747 W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis

MA in Iranian StudiesDr Nima Mina (Department of the Languages and Culture of the Middle East) E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4315 W: www.soas.ac.uk/nme/programmes/ma-in-iranian-studies

Student RecruitmentT: +44(0)20 7898 4034E: [email protected]

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For details of the Institute’s activities, including lecture programmes, conferences andpublications, and information on how to become an affiliate of the LMEI please contact:

London Middle East Institute, SOAS, University of London,MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA

Tel: 020 7898 4330 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

london middle east institute at soas

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