Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation and Critique 1

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation and CritiqueFebruary 14-15, 2019 | MSU Union, Lake Huron Room

HOSTED BY:

Global Urban Studies Program

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation and Critique 1

Keynote Speakers

Harvey MolotchEmeritus Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis and Sociology, New York University

Harvey Molotch is well known for his research and writing on cities, including the book on city development, Urban Fortunes (co-authored with John Logan). Other writings have been concerned with

architecture and industrial design, local and national security, racial segregation, mass media, and public toilets. His most recent project is resulting in the edited book (with Davide Ponzini), The New Arab Urban: Gulf Cities of Wealth, Ambition, and Distress. He is Emeritus Professor NYU and UCSB, with prior appointments as Centennial Professor, London School of Economics and Visiting professorships at Lund, Northwestern, and Essex universities.

Mona FawazProfessor of Architecture and Design, Faculty of Engineering and Design, American University of Beirut

Mona Fawaz is Professor in Urban Studies and Planning, the Coordinator of the Masters Program in Urban Planning, Policy and Design, and Director of the Social

Justice and the City Research Program at the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy at the American University of Beirut. Professor Fawaz’s scholarly interests reflect the imperative to make cities more inclusive. Her research spans across urban history and historiography, social and spatial justice, informality and the law, property and space, as well as planning practice, theory and pedagogy. She is the author of over 40 scholarly articles, book sections, and reports in Arabic, French and English and has edited several collections of essays on these issues. In addition, in her capacity as a public intellectual, Dr. Fawaz is deeply involved in professional and public debates concerning Beirut’s contemporary transformations, and she advocates for upgrading informal settlements, protecting the urban commons, improving livability, adopting inclusive planning standards, and defending the right to the city.

2 AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Program

Thursday, February 14, 20199:00 - 9:15 am OPENING

Rachel Croson, Dean, College of Social Science and MSU Foundation Professor of Economics Igor Vojnovic, Interim Director and Professor, Global Urban Studies Program Najib Hourani, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Urban Studies Program

9:15 - 10:45 am PANEL I – PROJECTSChair: Camelia Suleiman, Arabic Language Program, Michigan State University

Mega-event Planning in the Arab World: A Case Study of Dubai’s 2020 World Exposition Eva Kassens-Noor and Linda Nubani, Urban Planning, Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Kuwait’s New Urbanism: Palace Projects and the Erosion of the Public Farah al-Nakib, History, California Polytechnic State University

Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi Gökçe Günel, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona

10:45 - 11:00 am BREAK

11 am - 12 pm KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Extreme but not Exceptional: Gulf Cities as Harbingers of Urban Futures Harvey Molotch, Professor Emeritus, Sociology, New York University and University of California, Santa Barbara

12:00 - 1:00 pm LUNCH

1:00 - 2:45 pm PANEL II – COMMUNITIES Chair: Salah Hassan, English, Michigan State University

Women, Art and War Aseel Sawalha, Anthropology, Fordham University

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation and Critique 3

Thursday, February 14, 20191:00 - 2:45 pm “We Don’t Speak the Same Language as the

Bureaucrats:” The Maspero Triangle, Urban Redevelopment, and Alternative Models of Democracy in Post-2011 Cairo Claire Panetta, Anthropology, City University of New York

An Arab-Jewish City at the Dawn of Empire: Oran, 1831 Joshua Schreier, History, Vassar College

Water Sabils as Neighborly Practice in Cairo, Egypt Tessa Farmer, Middle East and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Virginia

2:45 - 3:00 pm BREAK

3:00 - 4:45 pm PANEL III – POLICING AND EVASIONSChair: Najib Hourani, Anthropology, Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Policing the Arab Carceral City Bruce Stanley, International Relations, Richmond American International University in London

Coloring the City: The Materiality of Street Art in Amman, Jordan Kyle Craig, Anthropology, Northwestern University

Mapping Amman: A 21st Century CityBetty S. Anderson, History, Boston University

Interstitial Space and the Urban Landscape in Doha, QatarAndrew Gardner, Anthropology, University of Puget Sound

5:15 pm CONFERENCE DINNER

7:00 pm FILM SCREENING – MSU Library, Green Room

In the Last Days of the City (al-Said, 2016) Followed by a discussion with MSU Film Maker Rola NashefPresented in conjunction with the MSU Library Film Series

4 AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Program

Friday, February 15, 20199:00 - 10:45 am PANEL IV – SUSTAINABILITIES

Chair: Najib Hourani, Anthropology and Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Ecologies and Methodologies: Fashioning Hybrid Approaches to Climate Change in Middle Eastern Cities Laurie King, Anthropology, Georgetown University

A Framework for Measuring Urban Sustainability in Emerging Region: The City of Duhok as a Case Study Azad Hassan and Zeenat Kotval-Karamchandani, Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University

Confronting Scarcity: The Political Ecology of the Everyday Lives of Intermittent Domestic Water Supply in Palestinian Communities Stephen Gasteyer, Sociology, Michigan State University

Hydropolitics and Water Scarcity in Urban Jordan Rami Narte, Nordic Agency for Sustainable Impact, Stockholm, Sweden

10:45 - 11:00 am BREAK

11 am - 12 pm KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Urban Citizenship and the Politics of Presence in the Age of Forced Population DisplacementMona Fawaz, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Department of Architecture and Design, American University of Beirut

12:00 - 1:00 pm LUNCH

1:00 - 2:45 pm PANEL V – GLOBALITIES Chair: Edward L. Murphy, History, Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Prophetic ‘Hoods: Detroit’s Muslim Developers, Dreamers, and Entrepreneurs’Sally Howell, History, Director of the Arab American Studies Program, University of Michigan, Dearborn

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation and Critique 5

Friday, February 15, 20191:00 - 2:45 pm Urban Fallaheen: Palestinian-American Rootedness

and the City Randa Serhan, Sociology, American University

Arab Space in Post-Colonial French Cité Chantal Tetreault, Anthropology, Michigan State University

From Beit Jala to Patronato: Transregional Identities and Culinary ConnectionsNicholas Bascuñan-Wiley, Sociology, Northwestern University

2:45 - 3:00 pm BREAK

3:00 – 4:45 pm PANEL VI – RECONSTRUCTIONS Chair: Laurie King, Anthropology, Georgetown University

Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Neoliberal Urbanism in the Arab World Najib Hourani, Anthropology, Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Who Owns the Old City? The Right to Aleppo’s Heritage for Residents of the Old vs New Districts Al-Hakam Shaar, The Aleppo Project, Central European University

Restitution, Redistribution, and the Right of Return Andy Clarno, Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago

Images of Before/After in Beirut’s Post-Civil War Construction Economy Hatem el-Hibri, Film and Media Studies, George Mason University

SponsorsGlobal Urban Studies ProgramDepartment of AnthropologyCollege of Social ScienceMuslim Studies ProgramCenter for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan

Additional sponsorsSchool of Planning, Design and ConstructionVice President for Research and Graduate StudiesAfrican Studies CenterCenter for Advanced Study of International DevelopmentResidential College in the Arts and HumanitiesDepartment of HistoryGlobal Studies in the Arts and Humanities