On The Margins of Middle Eastern Studies: Situating Said’s Orientalism

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-24
Author(s):  
Ella Shohat
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
The U.S

The question of beginnings in relation to Edward Said’s book Orientalism can be narrated in very diverse ways, leading to a potentially productive question: when and where does the critique of Orientalism begin? Here at MESA, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary to Said’s book, it would perhaps be instructive to situate the book in relation to the various geographies, histories and fields of knowledge in which it is embedded. What are the contexts and intertexts of Said’s work? How can we characterize its undergirding conceptual paradigms and disciplinary methodologies? What about the neighboring fields that have impacted Said’s work and that in turn have been impacted by that work—are they relevant to Middle Eastern studies? Since the Saidian critique of Orientalist epistemology has by now been extrapolated to diverse cultural geographies, how can we map these transnational currents in relation to the study of the Middle East? And, finally, what does a book, written by a diasporic Palestinian in the U.S., tell us about the kinds of analytical frames that might illuminate the study of that Middle East which is not simply “over there” but also “back here?”

Introduction: Improving the sustainability of dryland farming systems in the Middle East

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-99
Author(s):  
James F. Parr ◽  
Robert I. Papendick
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Dryland Farming ◽  
The U.S

Six papers in this issue were presented by Middle Eastern authors at the U.S.-Middle East Conference and Workshop on "Dryland Farming Systems and Technologies for a More Sustainable Agriculture," held at Moscow, Idaho on October 18–23, 1993.

The American intelligence breakdown in Iraq and the failure of the strategies of conflict ‘transformation’

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-206
Author(s):  
Ahmad Jamil Azem
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The Social ◽  
War In Iraq ◽  
Post War

This paper shows how the American planning for the war in Iraq of 2003 lacked the use of major academic and scientific disciplines. Some basic theories and principles in the field of nationalism and ethnicity studies as well as the field of Middle Eastern studies were supposed to guide the planning for the post-war era in a better way. The goals of the war were originally very ambitious and included ‘conflict transformation’ which implies facilitating changes in the social and political structure of Iraq and the Middle East, but it has now changed to the more modest goal of ‘conflict management’ which focuses on containing violence.

The Present Situation of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in Korea (South)

1991 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-183
Author(s):  
Joung Yole Rew
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Economic Community ◽  
Korean Economy ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
First Contact ◽  
Academic Interests

Although the first contact between Korea and the Middle East dates back to the ninth or twelfth century, academic interests in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies began in 1965 with the establishment of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.The birth of the Third Republic of Korea in 1961 signaled a new diplomatic move into the non-aligned world, particularly the Arab Middle East as it gained in importance in the international political and economic community. At the same time, the Korean economy began to expand and her trade found markets in the Middle East. These developments are some of the important factors which gave birth to the Department of Arabic Language and Literature.

Britain, the Transatlantic Alliance, and the Arab-Israeli War of 1973

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraint Hughes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
British Policy ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This article analyzes the impact on transatlantic relations of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, focusing on the discrepancy between U.S. and British views of Middle Eastern security before and during the conflict. Despite the institutional factors shaping the U.S.-British “special relationship” and the much greater power of the United States compared to Britain, British policy during the 1973 war was sharply at odds with U.S. policy. This article shows that British policy toward the Middle East was shaped not only by economic concerns (namely the importance of Arab oil to the UK economy) but also by the strategic requirement to undermine Soviet influence in the region and strengthen ties between the Western powers and the Arab states.

Middle East Studies & Subaltern Studies

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabra J. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Latin American ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Cultural Strategies ◽  
Sustained Effort ◽  
Middle East Studies

Despite the physical proximity of the birthplace of Subaltern Studies, South Asia, to the Middle East and despite the convergent, colliding histories of these two regions, scholars of the Middle East attend very little to the Subaltern Studies project or to the work of Subaltern Studies groups. Although certain stances of Fanon and Said, with their focus on cultural strategies of domination and resistance, have a currency in Middle Eastern studies, no literary theorist, folklorist, anthropologist, political scientist or historian in the field of Middle Eastern Studies, so far as I am aware, explicitly draws upon Subaltern Studies with any consistency as an organizing principle for his or her studies. It is the Latin Americanists (and to a lesser degree Africanists) who have been most eager to build on South Asian Subaltern Studies to respond to Latin American (or subsanaran African) circumstances. Perhaps it is time to take a closer look at what Subaltern Studies might contribute to Middle Eastern studies if we were to make a sustained effort to apply and critique that body of literature.

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