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ANNUAL REPORT:

KING FAHD CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST & ISLAMIC STUDIES

MIDDLE EAST STUDIES PROGRAM

Submitted by Joel Gordon, Professor of History and Director of Middle East &

Islamic Studies

July 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview Curriculum King Fahd Center Activities – AY 2010-11 King Fahd Center Activities/Projects -- Ongoing Budget/Expenditures Graduate Student Support Undergraduate Student Support Faculty News Faculty Outreach Graduate Student News Undergraduate Student News Alumni News Looking Ahead OVERVIEW The King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies is an interdisciplinary program in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, dedicated to the study of the Middle East and the geo-cultural area in which Islamic civilization prospered, and continues to shape world history. Faculty members associated with the Center are rooted in degree-granting departments in Fulbright College and the broader University of Arkansas. We specialize in history and politics, literature and popular culture, religious and secular practice and interpretation,

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human engagement with the environment and ecosystem in contemporary times and antiquity. We work in diverse media: poetry and fiction, public archives, film and music, television and oratory, curricular instruction and cartography, the detritus of the past and the cultural production, classical and colloquial, artistic and vulgar, of the present. The Center offers an undergraduate co-major linked to regional language study and supports the best of our undergrads with scholarships. Many of our undergraduates go on to graduate study in area studies programs and related professional work in public and private spheres. At the graduate level the Center supports students working in key disciplines towards the MA and PhD. Our graduate students have received highly competitive fellowships to support research and foreign language study, and have presented their work at annual professional meetings and specialized academic conferences. Many are now teaching at academic institutions here and abroad – ‘research one’ universities, metropolitan universities and liberal arts colleges – and are affiliated with research institutes or government agencies. The current academic year was marked by a number of transitions and achievements that promise to represent watersheds in the Center’s growth. In July 2010 the Center hired Mahfuza Akhtar, previously Administrative Specialist II, to replace Suz Wall (retired) as Administrative Support Supervisor, and Laila Taraghi, a Masters student in Political Science to serve as Program Assistant. At the urging of Fulbright College, we consolidated our administrative offices in Old Main 202. We retained an office in Old Main 104 for visitors; Old Main 105, the prior office of the Administrative Support Supervisor, was delegated to the History and Political Science departments for graduate teaching assistants working in primary or secondary fields in Middle East studies. In January 2011 – in between blizzards and amidst the growing surge of revolutionary politics in the Middle East – the King Fahd Center hosted a major convocation of scholars of contemporary Syria to discuss the legacies of the decade since the death of Hafez al-Asad and the succession of his son Bashar. The gathering of internationally prominent scholars and human rights activists, co-sponsored by the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a US-based NGO, consisted of a public forum and a private workshop. Organizers hope to pursue a major edited volume. The Center also hosted a distinguished visiting scholar in residence for the Spring 2011 semester. Kenneth L Brown (see below) participated in Center-sponsored events, including the Syria convocation, a number of public forums, and offered a topics course on Mediterranean Cities for undergraduates. At the curricular level, the Center moved to more actively pursue the creative use of advanced graduate students to teach topics courses in their areas of specialization, freeing up core faculty for other courses and providing the opportunity for students to teach beyond general department requirements. In one case, the Center was able to sponsor a course – in modern Iranian literature – that had never been offered and that greatly enhanced the curricular spread of the program at both graduate and undergraduate levels.

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The Center maintained a vigorous program of guest speakers across disciplines and Center faculty participated in forums on campus and took their expertise off campus to local/regional, national, and international forums. With the sudden emergence of the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, especially, MEST faculty assumed an even larger than usual role in public outreach – in addition to teaching and ongoing research agendas. The upsurge of revolutionary politics in the region led to the cancellation or redefinition of some Center-sponsored projects, and the re-routing of some undergraduate and graduate study/research plans, sometimes pushing deadlines for recruitment and reasonable airfare. Overall, however, the changes in the Middle East, as well as the ongoing development of curricular programming at the University, made for an exciting, productive year. Much of this will be treated below. As a capstone to the academic year the Center launched its web site. In accord with general University and Fulbright College guidelines, yet with its own unique look, this site should hopefully serve as a valuable reference for faculty and students, prospective and current, and others who seek information about our program, people, and profile. CURRICULUM MEST Core Faculty Core MEST Faculty members are full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty members whose salaries are paid in full or in part by the King Fahd Center, plus several full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty members and a full-time instructor who make substantial contributions to the MEST curriculum/program through teaching and mentoring students. The Center is pleased to add Nikolai Antov, the new tenure-track hire in History, to its list. Nikolai Antov (Assistant Professor of History): Pre-Modern/Classical Middle East/Islamic History, Ottoman History Jesse Casana (Associate Professor of Anthropology): Archaeology of the Ancient Orient and Medieval Near East, Cultural Heritage Preservation Mounir Farah (Professor of Curriculum and Instruction): Pedagogy and Curriculum Development, Educational Reform, Social Sciences, US-Middle East Relations Najib Ghadbian (Associate Professor of Political Science): Arab World Politics and International Relations, Islamic Movements Joel Gordon (Professor of History, Director King Fahd Center): History of the Modern Middle East, Popular Culture, Film and Media Adnan Haydar (Professor of Foreign Languages): Arabic Language Pedagogy, Comparative Literature, Middle East Literature, Arab Poetics, Translation Theory

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Paula Haydar (Instructor of Foreign Languages): Arabic Language Pedagogy, Comparative Literature, Translation Theory, Modern Arabic Literature Mohja Kahf (Associate Professor of English): Comparative Literature, Pre-modern Islamicate Literature, Modern Arab/Islamic/Diaspora Literature Thomas Paradise (Professor of Geography): Cultural and Physical Geography of the Middle East and North Africa, Cartography, Natural/Cultural Resource and Architectural Management/Preservation Jerome Rose (Professor of Anthropology): Biological Anthropology, Bio-Archaeology, Forensic Archaeology Ted Swedenburg (Professor of Anthropology): Cultural Anthropology of the Middle East/Islamic World, Popular Culture, Social and Critical Theory Courses Taught AY 2009-10 Faculty members are currently able to teach approximately fifteen undergraduate and combined undergraduate-graduate courses across the core disciplines per semester. Summer course offerings have been minimal, although we have been fortunate to have steady offerings in colloquial Arabic. Those numbers will rise with the addition of Nikolai Antov, the new historian of Islamic history. Professor Antov will be teaching two MEST core courses in the coming Fall semester. The number of MEST courses offered has also been supplemented by a more creative approach to utilizing advanced graduate students and, in Spring 2011, by the visiting appointment of a distinguished guest scholar, Kenneth Brown, who taught a course on Mediterranean Cities, cross-listed with Anthropology and History. The following courses were offered between Summer 2010 and Summer 2011 Summer 2010: ANTH 4256 (Casana), PLSC 3523 (Ghadbian), WLLC 398V (P Haydar), WLIT 3893 (Kahf) Fall 2010: ARAB 1016 (2 sections/P Haydar), ARAB 3016 (A Haydar), ARAB 4023 (A Haydar), ARAB 470V (A Haydar), ANTH 3033 (Chapman), ANTH 4123 (Casana), ANTH 4913 (Swedenburg), HIST 5213 (Gordon), MEST 2013 (Kahf), PLSC 4593 (Ghadbian), WLIT 3983 (Kahf) Spring 2011: ARAB 2016 (2 sections/P Haydar), ARAB 4016 (A Haydar), ARAB 4033 (A Haydar), ARAB 470V (A Haydar), ANTH 3033 (Chapman), ANTH 3903/HIST 3983 (Brown), ANTH 4533 (Swedenburg), HIST 4433 (Gordon), MEST 4003/H (Kahf), PLSC 3523 (Ghadbian), PLSC 5513 (Ghadbian), WLIT 3983 (Bassiri), WLIT 3983 (Natour) Summer 2011: ARAB/WLLC 398V

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Fall 2011: ARAB 1016 (2 sections/P Haydar), ARAB 3016 (A Haydar), ARAB 4023 (A Haydar), ARAB 470V (A Haydar), ANTH 3033 (Chapman), ANTH 3923H/4193 (Swedenburg), GEOG 4033 (Paradise), HIST 3033 (Antov), HIST 3043 (Akturk), HIST 3983 (Antov), HIST 4983 (Gordon), MEST 2013 (Ghadbian), PLSC 400V (Kapur), PLSC 4843 (Ghadbian), WLIT 3983 (Bassiri), WLIT 3983 (Kahf), Major/Minor Requirements and Courses University-wide curriculum changes created in 2004 and implemented in 2005 were added to the Catalog of Studies in 2007-08. For MEST undergraduate co-majors the key changes were the addition of Islamic Civilization (HIST 3003) and Geography of the Middle East/North Africa (GEOG 4033) as options, along with MEST 2013 (renamed Introduction to Islamic Studies), for fulfilling major requirements. MEST co-majors are required to complete 30 hours of course work. This includes at least one from the following courses – MEST 2013, HIST 3003, GEOS 4033 – plus 6 hours of Arabic beyond the Fulbright College language requirement, plus 9 hours in one MEST-related discipline (as listed in the Catalog of Studies), plus 9 hours in additional MEST core courses, plus the MEST Colloquium (MEST 4003). MEST minors are required to complete 18 hours of course work. This includes the MEST Colloquium (MEST 4003), 6 hours of Arabic beyond the Fulbright College language requirement, plus 9 hours of MEST courses in one or more disciplines. The list of MEST-affiliated courses at this time follows: ANTH 3033 Egyptology ANTH 4123 Ancient Middle East ANTH 4256 Archaeological Field Session ANTH 4533 Middle East Cultures ANTH 4913 Topics in the Middle East GEOG 2003 World Regional Geography GEOG 4033/4033H Geography of the Middle East and North Africa GEOG 410V Special Problems: Middle East and North Africa HIST 3033 Islamic Civilizations HIST 3043 History of the Modern Middle East HIST 3473 Modern Palestine/Israel HIST 3923 Honors Colloquium (approved special topics) HIST 4353 Middle East 600-1500 HIST 4373 Mongols and Mamluks HIST 4393 Ottoman Empire and Iran 1300-1722 HIST 4363 Middle East since 1914 HIST 4413 New Women in the Middle East HIST 4433 Social and Cultural History of the Modern Middle East

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HIST 4443 Modern Islamic Thought HUMN 2213 Introduction to World Religions HUMN 425V Colloquium (approved topics) MEST 2003 Islam in Theory and Practice MEST 2013 Introduction to Islamic Studies MEST 4003/H MEST Colloquium MEST 410V Special Topics PLSC 3523 Politics of the Middle East PLSC 3813 International Law PLSC 4583 Political Economy of the Middle East PLSC 4593 Islam and Politics PLSC 4843 Middle East in World Affairs WLIT 3983/603V Special Studies (approved topics) Arabic Courses Offered are: ARAB 1016 Intensive I ARAB 2016 Intensive II ARAB 3016 Intensive III ARAB 4016 Intensive IV ARAB 4023 Advanced I ARAB 4033 Advanced II ARAB 4053 Readings ARAB 470V Special Topics Notes 1) MEST 2013, Introduction to Middle East Studies, was formally renamed (from Gateways to the Middle East) during AY 09-10 to keep in line with other area studies offerings on campus. The course will be offered by faculty members on rotation and occasionally by advanced graduate students who are particularly well versed in interdisciplinary approaches to area studies. 2) MEST 4003, designed as a capstone colloquium for all undergraduate majors is offered every Spring semester, taught by a member of the MEST faculty who offers a topics course that matches area/research specialization. During AY 09-10, Professor Najib Ghadbian offered a course on Government and Politics in Syria. In Spring 2011, Professor Mohja Kahf offered a course on Gender and Religion in the Middle East. 3) Arabic Program: The relationship between the King Fahd Center and the Arabic program housed in the World Languages, Literatures and Cultures department remains critical at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Arabic courses are currently taught by two faculty members: Adnan Haydar, Professor of Foreign Languages, and Paula Haydar, Instructor of Foreign languages, who is hired by the Center. Adnan Haydar teaches 9 credit hours per semester (in addition, he supervised four independent studies, one

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graduate teaching assistant, one undergraduate honors thesis, and served on one dissertation committee in Comparative Literature. Paula Haydar teaches 12 hours per semester. This year 179 students took Arabic at various levels: 9 in Summer 2010, 98 in Fall 2010, and 72 in Spring 2011 (AY 2009-10 numbers were similar: 10/96/77 for a total of 173). Together, they advise students on study abroad options and have been increasingly successful in preparing both graduate and undergraduates to compete successfully for outside funding for Arabic study, especially for the Critical Languages Program sponsored by the US State Department. They also organize an annual Arabic Speech Contest, held in conjunction with other language programs at the University of Arkansas, an event the King Fahd Center co-sponsors. During the summer of 2009 they developed a course in Lebanese Colloquial Arabic, a course designed to supplement the Modern Standard coursework for students with at least one year of language study. The course was offered in Summer 2010 and is being offered again in Summer 2011. 4) History Search: In November 2009 the History Department was authorized to open a search for an historian of the pre-modern Middle East and Islamic World. The position was not filled during the first go-around, but was reauthorized and filled during AY 2010-11. Nikolay Antov (PhD Chicago 2011) is a specialist in Ottoman social history with a current research focus on religious conversion in the Balkans during the 16th Century. During AY 2010-11 he taught Islamic/Middle East history at Tulane University as a visiting instructor. During the coming Fall semester he will offer two courses, Islamic Civilization (HI 3033), a core requirement for MEST co-majors, and Ottoman History (HI 3983). 5) Enhanced Offerings: The King Fahd Center has undertaken a new initiative to promote special topics courses or faculty-replacement courses offered by advanced graduate students with particular research interests and teaching ability. In Fall 2009 Yulia Uryadova (HIST) offered Islamic Civilization (HIST 3033). In Spring 2011 Manal al-Natour (CLCS) taught Modern Arabic Literature (WLIT 3983) and Kaveh Bassiri (MFA) taught Modern Iranian Literature (WLIT 3983). This coming Fall 2011 Bassiri will offer Classical Persian Literature (WLIT 3983) and Ahmet Akturk (HIST) will teach the Modern History of the Middle East (HIST 3043). It is anticipated the Akturk will offer this course again in the Spring 2012 and Bassiri will teach a topics course on Iranian Exile Literature (WLIT 3983). Faculty members affiliated with the Center supervise courses taught by advanced graduate students. KING FAHD CENTER ACTIVITIES – AY 2010-11 Visiting Speakers, Screenings and Special Events The following lectures and screenings were held in Fayetteville, both on campus and at community venues. Further details and promotional information may be accessed on the Center website:

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September 19: ‘Islam and America: Conflict or Coexistance’ – Fayetteville Public Library – speakers: Joel Gordon (HIST) and Najib Ghadbian (PLSC) – an open public forum initiated by former Fayetteville mayor Dan Coody September 30: ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ (dir John Hanon 2010) – public screening – co-sponsored by Omni Center for Peace, Social Justice and Equality October 28: ‘How to Think about Class and Status Markers in Morocco’ – lecture by David McMurray, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Oregon State University November 3: ‘Jerusalem Women Speak’ – tour sponsored by Partners for Peace and Council for the National Interest – presentations on campus and at St Paul’s Episcopal Church December 2: ‘The Pistachio Seller’ – readings by Reem Bassiouney, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University and Author of the 2010 Arkansas Translation Award winner, on campus and at Nightbird Books January 27: ‘Middle East Update 2011: Syria and its Neighbors,’ – public forum featuring Najib Ghadbian (PLSC), Joshua Landes (Associate Professor of International Studies, University of Oklahoma), and Fred Lawson (Professor of Government, Mills College Syria) held in conjunction with the conference on ‘Asad’s Syria: Continuity and Change in the First Ten Years’ – co-sponsored by Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies February 7: ‘The British, the Sunnis and the Shi’is: Social Hierarchies of Identity under the British Mandate in Iraq’ – lecture by Peter Sluglett, Professor of History, University of Utah – co-sponsored by MESGA February 8: ‘Tunisia, Egypt … Beyond?’ – public forum featuring Kenneth Brown (MEST-visiting), Najib Ghadbian (PLSC), Joel Gordon (HIST), Peter Sluglett (U Utah) March 16: ‘Middle East in Revolution: An Update,’ – public forum featuring Kenneth Brown (MEST-visiting), Mohja Kahf (ENGL), Moez Limayem (Walton College of Business), Gwen Okruhlik (independent), Ted Swedenburg (ANTH) – co-sponsored by the Walton College of Business March 28: ‘Budrus’ (Julia Bacha 2009) – public screening April 1: ‘Deterioration of Architecture in Petra, Jordan’ – public lecture by Tom Paradise (GEOS) April 5: ‘Out of Cordoba: Averroes and Maimonides in Their Time and Ours’ (Jacob Bender 2009) – public screening and discussion led by director at Global Campus – co-sponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

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April 18: ‘Democracy Rising in the Middle East’ – public lecture by Radwan Masmoodi, Director, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy – co-sponsored by MESGA Lebanese Zajal Performances In conjunction with Professors Adnan and Paula Haydar, the King Fahd Center underwrote the costs of bringing renowned Lebanese ‘zajal’ poets, Henry Zoghaib, Antoine Saadeh, and Elias Khalil to perform at the annual conference of Vis Musicae held July 28-31 in Calabria, Italy. The poets engaged in improvisational ‘competition’ backed by chorus responders, who sat with tambourines behind the poets to repeat their last lines and bring them back to the musical melody from which they strayed. Adnan and Paula Haydar introduced the poets and their genre, translated the poetry into English and explained the nature of the wordplay in which the ‘duelists’ engage. The performance was for MEST and university archives. This coming August the King Fahd Center will underwrite the costs of a full-fledged duel/performance to be held in Broumana, Lebanon that is being organized by Adnan and Paula Haydar and that will feature Antoine Saadeh and Danny Sfeir. Syria Conference In January 2011 the King Fahd Center – in collaboration with the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies – sponsored an academic conference on ‘Asad’s Syria: Continuity and Change in the First Ten Years.’ A gathering of leading scholars based in the United States and abroad, the conference featured panels on topics ranging from domestic and foreign politics to human rights and economic development. Participants included: Samer Abboud, Assistant Professor of International Studies, Arcadia University; Najib Ghadbian, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas; Murhaf Jouejati, Professor of Middle East Studies, National Defense University; Osama Kadi, President, Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies; Joshua Landes, Associate Professor of International Studies, University of Oklahoma; Fred Lawson, Professor of Government, Mills College; David Lesch, Professor of History, Trinity University (San Antonio); Ausama Monajed, Director, Strategic Research and Communication Center (London); Andrew Tabler, Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Radwan Ziadeh, Visiting Scholar, George Washington University. Arkansas faculty members affiliated with the King Fahd Center served as panel chairs and discussants (see program in appendix). Students and other faculty members with particular interests in Syria and the contemporary Middle East were invited to observe and participate in discussions. The conference was opened on January 27 with an

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evening forum open to the general public, ‘Middle East Update 2011: Syria and its Neighbors,’ at which Professors Landes, Lawson, and Ghadbian spoke. KING FAHD CENTER SUPPORTED ACTIVITIES/PROJECTS -- ONGOING Ann Rhea Collection in Near East Antiquities In 2005 the King Fahd Center was woffered a large donation worth approximately $100,000 of Near Eastern antiquities from Ann Rhea of Atlanta, Georgia. The fit wa formalized and the materials handd over to the Univeristy in 2005 and 2006. Materials collected by Ms Rhea during her twelve-year residence in Saudi Arabia (1960-72) date from the Paleotlithic period through the medieval Islamic era and were gathered from archaeological sites in Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon. Processing of the collection continues. Once all accessions have been cataloged a formal announcement will follow, making the artifacts available for scholarly analysis. Arabic Speech Contest The Center helped sponsor the annual WLLC Speech Contest, held in April 2011. Twelve undergraduate and graduate students participated at Elementary (4), Intermediate (5) and Advanced levels (3). Winners and runners-up were: Josh Drury/Peter VonGroote (Elementary), Joshua Moore/Seth Billingsley (Intermediate), and Saba Naseem/ Mohamed Boudhoum (Advanced). Judges were Mounir Farah, Professor of Curriculum Instruction, and Badr Yassin, a doctoral student in Education. Arabic Study Abroad During AY 2010-11 three undergraduates pursued Arabic study abroad, all in Jordan funded with grants from the Council for International Educational Exchange: Clayton Clark (JOUR/MEST, ARAB minor), Alexa Naumovich (IR/MEST, ARAB minor), and Samuel Roberts (IR). During Summer 2010 two undergraduates and two graduate students won Critical Languages fellowships sponsored by the US Department of State to study Arabic. Undergraduates Joshua Moore (ANTH/MEST) and Andrew Walchuk (IREL/PLSC/EUST/SPAN, MEST/ARAB/ECON minor) studied in Jordan and Morocco respectively. Graduate student Ethan Morton-Jerome (ANTH) studied in Oman. Matt Parnell (HIST) declined an award to study in Oman so that he could attach language study in Egypt to his Fulbright award. This year two undergraduates and one graduate students won Critical Languages fellowships funded by the US Department of State to study Arabic abroad. Undergraduates Rachel Calandro (IREL/MEST) and Saba Naseem (JOUR/MEST) and will study in Jordan and Morocco, and graduate student Vera DeBerg (PLSC) will study in Tunisia. Rachel Calandro will stay on in Jordan for AY 2011-12. In addition, two undergraduates, Joshua Moore (ANTH/MEST) and Brittany Williams (IREL/MEST) will

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study this summer, in Morocco and Jordan, with support from the King Fahd Center. Two graduate students will also study Arabic abroad with Center support. Seth Billingsley (PLSC) will be in Jordan and Ethan Morton-Jerome will study in Palestine. Arabic Table The King Fahd Center helped organize, in conjunction with Arabic professors Adnan and Paula Haydar, a regular noontime gathering of Arabic students to pursue guided informal discussion. Meetings were held in the Arkansas Unions on Wednesdays with refreshments provided from Center funds. Archaeology Field schools The King Fahd Center supports financially the operation of two archaeological field schools organized/supervised by Center-affiliated faculty. Both were impacted by events in the region this past Academic Year. Professor Rose cancelled his Bioarchaeology field school in Upper Egypt and Professor Casana cancelled his dig in Northern Syria. When the situation in Egypt stabilized, Professor Rose proposed taking a field expedition of faculty and advanced graduate students to analyze bones collected during last year’s season. The situation in Syria remains volatile and Professor Casana deemed it wise to cancel any fieldwork outright. The Center looks forward to its continued commitment to these ventures under more stable political conditions. Arkansas Arabic Translation Award This prestigious award, announced in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association every November, carries a $5000 prize for both the translator and author (if living). Submissions are solicited for works of fiction, poetry or prose, and non-fiction works in the literary tradition. The winning translation is published by Syracuse University Press (with full reference to the King Fahd Center), one of the leading academic publishers of Arabic fiction in the world. The 2009 winner was The Pistachio Seller by Reem Bassiouney (Cairo 2006), Associate Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Georgetown University. The Pistachio Seller is her fourth of five novels, the most acclaimed and first to be translated into English. The prize-winning translator is Osman Nusairi, a London-based theater director. The 2010 winner is The World through the Eyes of Angels (Cairo 2006) by Iraqi writer Mahmoud Saeed (pen name), author in residence at DePaul University. The winning translators are Samuel Salter, Zahra Jishi, and Rafah Abuinnab.

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Friends of Nekhen Since 2003 the King Fahd Center was the US home of the Friends of Nekhen, a privately funded organization that supports the archaeological work in Hierakonpolis, the largest pre-dynastic site in Egypt (Nekhen is the ancient Egyptian name for the site). Renee Freidman, Heagy Research Curator at the British Museum, directs the expedition and edits the newsletter, the Nekhen News. Jerome Rose, Professor of Anthropology, headed the bioarchaeology excavations for several years, assisted by Dr Melissa Zabecki (PhD Arkansas 2009), at the time one of his graduate students. At the outset of AY 2010-11, Professor Friedmann requested that the collection of donations for the Friends of Nekhen be handled in the future by the American Friends of the British Museum. Consequently, the King Fahd Center worked with Professor Friedman to close out the account. Professor Rose, as well as current and former students will continue to benefit from the artifacts uncovered and analyzed during those expeditions. Journal of Islamic Law and Culture JILC is an ongoing venture operating out of the Lefflar Law School under the supervision of Professor Steven Sheppard, a specialist in international law. Although the King Fahd Center no longer subsidizes the journal, which is now published by Routledge Press and is finding its niche amidst a variety of other academic reviews, the Center has renewed its commitment to working with the Law School students and to bringing them into closer contact with fellow graduate students working more directly in Middle East and Islamic Studies, and with Center programming and activities in general. Middle East Studies Graduate Association (MESGA) Four years ago a group of graduate students organized a Registered Student Organization (RSO) to promote Middle East Studies. In addition to social events, MESGA has hosted speakers, provided a forum for students to present their work (including test runs of conference papers), and to discuss academic work of mutual interest. MESGA members have begun to collaborate with other related RSOs in order to cost share for funded events, and have begun to discuss ways to redefine themselves as a broader collective of graduate students working in Middle East Studies and MEST undergraduates. During AY 2010-11 MESGA sponsored a series of public events: on February 7, Peter Sluglett, Professor of History at the University of Utah, spoke on ‘The British, the Sunnis and the Shi’is: Social Hierarchies of Identity under the British Mandate in Iraq’; on April 18, Radwan Masmoodi, Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy spoke on ‘Democracy Rising in the Middle East.’ Several speaking events are already in the works for AY 2011-12.

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Model Arab League Nearly every spring Professor Najib Ghadbian leads a delegation of Arkansas undergraduate and graduate students to participate/compete in the National University Model Arab League (NUMAL), sponsored by the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUAR) and held annually in Washington, DC. The King Fahd Center helps underwrite the costs of travel and lodging for students and Professor Ghadbian. Each participating university – some 22 universities and over 300 students participate – is assigned to represent a League delegation and role-play as a collective and as representatives on various subcommittees. Awards are given at the end of the three-day session for outstanding delegates. Recent rule-changes mandate that delegations first attend a regional meeting. So the King Fahd Center 2011 delegation attended the Southwest University MAL, held in Little Rock and hosted by UALR. Because of scheduling difficulties, Arkansas students were unable to attend the national meeting. This year ten University of Arkansas undergraduates represented the Palestine delegation and, as in previous years, continued to reap awards. Best Delegation Awards this year went to Kelly O’Conner and Jacob White (Palestinian Affiars) and Heba Abdelaal and Saba Naseem (Social Affairs). Honorable Mention went to Morgan Byttner and Andrew Walchuck (Environmental Affairs).

Mullins Library The King Fahd Center has over the years allocated $20,000 for library expenditures, including books, journal subscriptions, and audiovisual materials. For several years the Center has not met this budget, resulting in a significant surplus that will allow the collection to grow substantially over the next few years. Faculty are encouraged to purchase materials that will further the general collection, reflecting a the type of broad-based holdings that would support student and faculty research by purchasing in the following general areas: Middle East and Islamic History; Middle East Politics and International Relations; Culture and Society; Religion; Literature, Art and Criticism; Human and Cultural Geography/Landscape. Journal subscriptions constitute a significant part of any library budget and in an internet-driven age, in which academic libraries subscribe to wide-ranging periodical services, have increasingly proven to be cost inefficient. During AY 2009-10 MEST faculty members, in consultation with staff of Mullins Library, approved a major downscaling of individual hard-copy journal subscriptions based on usage and electronic availability. In the case of organizational publications, the King Fahd Center agreed to deposit hard copies of journals received into the Mullins collection, which constitutes a significant savings and avoids what essentially proved to be ‘double’ payments. The Center dropped subscriptions to 24 journals at a savings of $7442, retained 13 and added 1, which leaves

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journal expenditures at $2023. Because several of the dropped journals had already been paid for, full savings were not reflected until AY 2010-11. Organizational Affiliation The King Fahd Center maintains active involvement in a variety of international scholarly organizations and supports others through annual subscription/membership dues. Affiliation is vital to the ongoing endeavors of these research centers and institutes, and nets the Center valuable information pertaining to research funding opportunities for faculty and advanced students, advisory roles on governing boards, participation at annual meetings, and important journals for the University of Arkansas library collection. Currently the Center maintains membership in the following organizations: American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIS), American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Palestine American Research Center (PARC). Visiting Scholar-in-Residence The King Fahd Center was pleased to host Kenneth L Brown during the Spring semester 2011 as a visiting scholar in residence. Kenneth Brown (PhD UCLA 1969) was Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester and has taught in visiting positions at the University of Chicago, UC-Berkeley, University of Dakar, University of Utah, and the CNRS and EHESS in Paris. He is the author of over fifty articles and several books, including the classic People of Salé : The Social History of a Moroccan City, 1830-1930 (1976), Journey Through a Labyrinth: Israel/Palestine – a Photographic Essay with Jean Mohr (1981), and L’Iraq de la crise au chaos: Chroniques d’une invasion (2004). In 2002 the King Fahd Center purchased Professor Brown’s library for the University of Arkansas. Professor Brown returned to Fayetteville to work in his prior collection. He taught an undergraduate special topics course on Mediterranean Cities that was cross-listed between the Anthropology and History departments. He participated in public forums sponsored by the King Fahd Center and chaired a panel at the Syria conference in January 2011. King Fahd Center Web Site In May 2011 the King Fahd Center unveiled a new web site, the culmination of a long-standing and long-delayed project. Designed by Laila Taraghi, a Masters student in Political Science and Center Program Assistant, with creative input from Golsa Yaghoobi (MFA Arkansas), a former Center student, the site presents up-to-date data on Center

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students, faculty, policies, opportunities, news and events, as well as crucial links to academic resources. The web site will be an ongoing project, reflecting the changing nature of Center activities and the achievements of faculty, students, and alumni. BUDGET/EXPENDITURES The opening paragraphs of this section from last year’s report seem worth restating almost verbatim, with updated figures added: The original endowment continues to suffer from the downturn in the stock market, a fact that has necessitated a more conservative approach to budgetary allocations. Whereas the original $20 million dollar endowment had grown to more than $30 million by 2007-08, this number plunged dramatically thereafter. The projected earnings from the endowment were $1,159,003 for AY 08-09, $1,094,352 for AY 09-10. Due to conservative expenditures for several years the projected income for AY 2010-11 was $1,004, 725, however with savings that figure was projected as $1,526,30. Throughout this downturn, fixed budgetary commitments, primarily faculty/staff salaries and benefits, continue to climb (albeit not as much as they might have in a healthier economy). The Center budgeted $540,295 ($434,963 salaries/105,332 benefits) in AY 08-09, $561,502 (453,001/108,491) in AY 09-10, and $556,502 (448,011/108,491) in AY 10-11 for these expenditures. This represents nearly half of the operating budget. The figure for the coming AY 2011-12 is much the same. Nonetheless, without reducing funding opportunities or the amounts allocated to graduate and undergraduate students, the Center was able to increase faculty development allotments to Core MEST faculty from $3000 in AY 08-09 to $3500 in AY 09-10 and $4000 in AY 10-11. This amount should remain consistent in the coming year. Savings were incurred with the promotion of Mahfuza Akhtar into the lead Administrative position, replacing Suz Wall. With the hiring of Laila Taraghi as program assistant this did not even out – the Center is still ‘saving’ money in this respect – but the incremental differences have become smaller. The budget for AY 2010-11 included the following categories (matched with prior year allotments). Income Generated from Endowment = 1,619,507 (projected income + carry-over surplus) Faculty/Staff Salaries – 448,011 Faculty/Staff Benefits – 108,491 Miscellaneous Salary Adjustments – 5000 Wages/Benefits – 17,413 Faculty R&D Funds – 40,000 Graduate Assistant Salaries/Benefits – 192,000 Undergraduate Scholarships – 43,200 Archaeological Field Schools – 12,631

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Study Abroad (Undergraduate) – 3700 Graduate Research/Travel Awards – 11,100 Speakers/Films/Events – 4750 Syria Conference – 7278 Scholar-in-Residence – 20,150 Vis Musicae – 8000 Model Arab League – 2704 Translation Prize – 10,000 Yarmouk Publication – 2000 Arabic Speech Contest – 409 Arabic Table – 216 Library Purchases – 8850 Organizational Memberships – 4000 Supplies – 500 (approx) Post – 1000 Total Expenditures: 943,003 (approximate) Some of these figures (salaries/benefits, scholarships, graduate assistantships) are ‘harder’ than others, but this is a close approximation of total expenses. The total is placed against projected income (between two cost centers) of $1,004,352 plus surpluses of $235, 984 ($216,211 and $19,773). This will leave a projected surplus from AY 2010-11 of $693,917. Notes 1) Cost Centers – in AY 2010-11 the decision was made to simplify Center accounting by reconfiguring the two cost centers. Foundation account 31-000238 is now related to the primary endowment and account 31-000239 is the much smaller account relating to translation and literary endeavors. This has made budgeting expenditures much easier since funds are taken from accounts that most closely approximate academic directions 2) Faculty salaries/benefits include salaries for Paula Haydar and Mahfuza Akthar. Wages/benefits are for Laila Taraghi. 3) Graduate Assistant numbers reflect $12,000 per student (stipend of $11,600 + approximate tuition waivers) x 15 students full year plus two students half year. 3) Undergraduate numbers reflect $6000 per student x 5 students + $240000 x 2 students 4) Archaeological field school numbers reflect support for the expedition led by Jerry Rose. As noted below, the field school in Egypt was cancelled due to uncertainties regarding security, but the Center did support a research team. The dig in Syria was cancelled outright due to continued instability in that country.

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5) Library purchases have generally been allocated at $20,000 per year. Since there was a substantial surplus left over from previous years, only $10,000 was projected for this past AY, and of that slightly less was spent. Summary Final projected readings as of 6/22/2010 show a surplus of $305, 373.23, which will provide the King Fahd Center with a significant surplus to utilize for more aggressive programming, as well as a comfortable cushion to protect against what remains a dangerous, volatile market. Projected Expenditures for AY 2011-12: The projected numbers for AY 2011-12, without surplus, are: $1,014,163 (920,763 + 93,400). Faculty/Staff salaries – 395,019 Faculty/Staff benefits – 107,051 Miscellaneous Salary Adjustments – 5000 Wages/Benefits – 18,000 Faculty R&D funds – 44,000 (11 x 4000) Graduate Assistant Salaries/Benefits – 180,000 (15 x 12,000) Undergraduate Scholarships – 21,600 (3 x 6000 and 1 x 3600) Archaeological Field Schools – 24,000 Study Abroad – 3000 Graduate Research/Travel Awards – 10,000 Speakers/Events – 12,000 Translation Prize – 10,000 Writers’ Festival – 6000 Arabic Speech Contest – 400 Arabic Table – 250 Model Arab League – 5000 Library Purchases – 15,000 Fulbright/MEST Apartment -- 6000 Organizational Memberships – 4000 Supplies -- 1000 UPS – 1000 Total: $867,820 GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT

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During AY 2010-11 the Center supported seventeen graduate assistants at the 50% assistantship level with stipends of $11,600 (one student relinquished her assistantship mid-year; another received a half year of research support). Of these, one student graduated during AY 09-10 (two others plan to graduate after the summer session). Two formerly funded students continued thesis research abroad with prestigious national awards (Fulbright to Cairo, ACCELS to Moscow). In AY 2011-12 the Center will fund fifteen students; six are newly funded and, of these, two are brand new to the University. Graduate assistantships are spread among affiliated departments as follows: Anthropology (5); Comparative Literature/Cultural Studies (3); Environmental Dynamics (1); Geosciences (2); History (5); Political Science (2); Public Policy (1). The graduate student pool is, of course, much larger. Not all MEST-affiliated students are funded through the King Fahd Center. Some are funded by their home departments; some international students are funded through their governments or bi-national Fulbright foundations in their home country. MEST graduate students are increasingly scoring prestigious national and international grants (Fulbright, IREX, ACCELS, AAUW) to fund study abroad and/or thesis write-up. Academic departments with graduate students working on Middle East topics have been supportive in providing instructorships to advanced students who have completed their funding cycle through MEST. There are currently approximately forty graduate students working on Middle East-related topics and affiliated with the Middle East Students Graduate Association. One PhD student and three MA students completed their degrees and several others are due for completion by the end of this summer. Two PhD students passed qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy and a number of others are on target for taking their exams in the Fall 2011 semester. Graduate Students funded for AY 2010-11 were: Ahmet Akturk (HIST), Chris Angel (ENDY), Kaveh Basiri (MFA/Tran), Seth Billingsley (PLSC), Sarah Chapman (ANTH), Ryan Cochran (GEOS), Travis Curtice (PLSC), Banan al-Daraiseh (CLCS), Lama Hamoudi (CLCS), Sarah Hudson (CLCS), Sonia Kapur (PUPB), Amy Karoll (ANTH) Ethan Morton-Jerome (ANTH), Taylor Montgomery (ANTH), Tricia Nellessen (ANTH, 1 semester), Anna Weiser (ANTH), Golsa Yaghoobi-Rahmatabadi (HIST, 1 semester) Of these, the PhD/MA breakdown was ten PhD students (Akturk, Angel, Chapman, al-Daraiseh, Hamoudi, Kapur, Morton-Jerome, Montgomery, Nellessen, Yaghoobi-Rahmatabadi) and seven MA students (Bassiri, Billingsley, Cochran, Curtice, Hudson, Weiser) students. Graduate Student Research Awards – AY 2010-11

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Chris Angel (ENDY), thesis research in Jordan ($3000 for summer 2011) Seth Billingsley (PLSC), Arabic language study in Jordan ($3000 for summer 2011) Ryan Cochran (GEOS), thesis research in Jordan ($2500 for summer 2011) Rasha Elendary (ANTH), field school in Syria ($1500 for summer 2011/cancelled due to situation in Syria) Ethan Morton-Jerome (ANTH), Arabic language study in Palestine ($2500 for summer 2011) The PhD/MA breakdown is three PhD students (Angel, Elendary, Morton-Jerome) and two MA students (Billingsley, Cochran). Graduate Student Research Awards AY 2009-10 Ahmet Akturk (HIST), PhD research in Turkey ($3000 for AY 2009-10) Chris Angel (ENDY), Arabic in Morocco ($3000 for summer 2010) Amy Karoll (ANTH), archaeological field school in Syria ($1000 for Summer 2010) Matt Parnell (HIST), Arabic in Egypt ($6000 for Fall 2009) Laila Taraghi (PLSC), Arabic in Lebanon ($3000 for Summer 2010) Anna Weiser (ANTH), archaeological field school in Syria ($1000 for Summer 2010) The PhD/MA breakdown is 3 PhD (Akturk, Angel, Parnell) and 3 MA (Karoll, Taraghi, Weiser) students. In addition, the King Fahd Center supported travel to the Midwest Modern Language Association in 2010 for Banan al-Daraiseh and Asaad al-Saleh (CLIT), both PhD students who were presenting papers. Graduate Students to be funded in AY 2011-12 are: Chris Angel (ENDY), Kaveh Bassiri (MFA/Trans), Seth Billingsley (PLSC), Allison Browning (ANTH), Sarah Chapman (ANTH), Travis Curtice (PLSC), Sanket Desai (HIST), Andi Duplantis (GEOS), Lama Hamoudi (CLCS), Grace Henderson (GEOS), Elise Jakoby (ANTH), Sonia Kapur (PBPL), Ethan Morton-Jerome (ANTH), Taylor Montgomery (ANTH), Wawan Yulianto (CLCS) The PhD/MA breakdown is eight PhD (Angel, Chapman, Desai, Hamoudi, Kapur, Morton-Jerome, Montgomery, Yulianto) and 7 MA (Basiri, Billingsley, Browning, Curtice, Duplantis, Henderson, Jakoby) students. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT

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During AY 2010-11 the program counted approximately forty-four undergraduate co-majors and eighteen minors (students continue to register on a rolling basis throughout the semester and some have recently graduated). These numbers demonstrate steady growth over recent years. We had fifty co-majors in AY 09-10, up from forty-one in AY 2008-09, thirty-six in AY 07-08, and twenty-eight in 06-07. The number of minors remained steady, but still shows slight growth over time: thirteen in AY 09-10, fifteen in AY 08-09, twelve in AY 07-08, ten in AY 06-07, and only five the previous year. MEST graduated nine co-majors in and three minors in AY 10-11; the previous year numbers were ten co-majors and one minor. The same can be reported for student grade point average, which has been climbing as well. Newly admitted MEST majors carry a GPA between 3.7 and 4.0, whereas in previous years the numbers were generally between 3.1 and 3.5. The cohort in AY 08-09 carried a mean GPA of 3.5, up from 3.3 in the previous year. The number of co-majors who are Honors students has also been increasing, from 10 in AY 07-08 to 15 in AY 08-09. During AY 2010-11 the Center supported seven undergraduate students with fellowships of $6000 per year. The Center supported an additional two students with scholarships of $3600, both of whom had received ‘full’ funding for two prior years, but who were deemed worthy of additional partial support by the Center faculty in order to see them through to graduation. Five of these funded students graduated in May 2011; one student will be carried over for the coming AY with partial funding; one student did not meet GPA standards for continued funding and was discontinued. Students funded during AY 2010-11 Stewart Bailey (IR/MEST), Andie Duplantis (GEOS/MEST), Grace Henderson (GEOS/MEST), Robert Hintz (HIST/MEST), Lynnsey Molinaro (ANTH/MEST), Gary Noel (IR/MEST), Bilal Ziada (ANTH/MEST). Duplantis, Henderson, Hintz, Molinaro, and Noel all graduated. Students funded for summer research/study 2011 Partial funding was provided for the following students to pursue Arabic language study abroad during the current summer: Rachel Calandro (Jordan), Joshua Moore (Morocco), Brittany Williams (Jordan) In addition to these students, two undergraduates affiliated with the MEST and Arabic programs received Critical Language Scholarships from the US Department of State to study Arabic abroad (Jordan and Morocco). These students will be listed in greater detail in sections below. Students funded for summer study 2010

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Lynnsey Molinaro (archaeological field school, Syria) Bilal Ziada (archaeological field school, Syria) In addition to these students, two undergraduates affiliated with the MEST and Arabic programs received Critical Language Scholarships from the US State Department and three from the Council of International Educational Exchange (CIEE) to study Arabic in the Middle East Students being funded for AY 2011-12 Stewart Bailey (IR/MEST, partial), Morgan Byttner (IREL/MEST), Andrew Newell (IREL/MEST) FACULTY NEWS Jesse Casana (Associate Professor of Anthropology) In July 2010, Professor Casana received a $250,000 grant from the NEH to fund the ���creation of a pre- and postdoctoral program for archaeologists, ���enabling up to five junior scholars to come to campus each semester as ���visiting fellows. Fellows are given a stipend, housing and tuition ���allowing them to enroll in up to three courses in archaeological��� geomatics. They also pursue individual research projects using CAST ��� facilities and with the support of a dedicated CAST staff member. Professor Casana is involved in the recruitment of prospective fellows, and the admission and settling of those accepted, and oversees all ���other aspects of the program, from curricular advising to organizing bi-weekly ���colloquia. In July 2010, he also received a $308,000 three-year grant (2010-2013) entitled ���’Settlement Systems and Environmental Change in the Northern Fertile ���Crescent; from the National Space and Aeronautics Administration���(NASA) Space Archaeology program. The project, in collaboration with ���Jackson Cothren (CAST) and Jason Tullis (GEOS) is exploring the��� history of settlement and land use across a large region in Iraq,��� Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.��� Professor Casana published one article,’ Settlement History and Urban Planning at Zincirli Höyük, Southern Turkey,’ in the Journal of Mediterranean ���Archaeology 23 (1) 2010. The article is co-authored by one of his graduate students (and a former MEST-funded student), Jason Hermann. He has three articles forthcoming: ‘Settlement, Territory and the Political ���Landscape of Late Bronze Age Polities in the Northern Levant,’ in Parker Van Valkenburgh and James Osborne (eds.), Home Turf:��� Archaeology, Territoriality, and Politics (Archaeological Papers of ��� the American Anthropological Association; ‘Tell Qarqur Expedition: Report of the 2010���Season of Excavations,’ in Studia Orontica; and ‘The ASOR Excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria,’ in the ���American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter. Professor Casana presented papers at the annual meetings of the American Schools of ��� Oriental Research, held in Atlanta in November 2010, and the ������ American Oriental Society, held in Chicago in March 2011. He organized a session at the ASOR meeting.

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He served as a referee for start-up grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and chaired the American Schools of Oriental Research Damascus Committee. He is a member of the ASOR Committee on Archaeological Policy. His students continued to move upward and onward in their fields. Two MEST-funded students, Amy Karoll defended her MA thesis and Anna Weiser will do this summer. Both are moving on to PhD programs with full funding at leading institutions (UCLA and Kansas). James Wesolowski, another MA student, will graduate in July and then begin the ENDY PhD program at Arkansas with full funding. Professor Casana is advising two other MA students, one of whom, Rasha Elendary, a Fulbright student from Syria had to turn down a Center travel award to return home for research this summer. Jason Hermann and Eric Jensen, both former MEST-funded students are advancing toward their PhDs; Hermann co-authored the essay with Professor Casana that was published in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. Tuna Kalayci, who helped organize last year’s Center-sponsored Palestine-Israel film festival, is spending the summer in southeast Turkey gathering field data for his dissertation. Professor Casana continues to co-direct excavations and the regional survey project at Tell Qarqur in the Orontes Valley of western Syria. In the summer of 2009 and again 2010 he directed a five-week excavation and field school, at which five University of Arkansas students (3 grads/2 undergrads) attended, four of whom were sponsored by the King Fahd Center. This summer events in Syria forced cancellation of the program. He is also director of the Dubai Desert Survey, a project focusing on the history of settlement in the inland desert regions of Dubai, UAE. This past academic year the primary focus of the project entailed working with Emirati officials to create a museum to house finds from sites under excavation. Mounir Farah (Professor of Curriculum and Instruction) In June-July 2010 Professor Farah traveled to Jordan, UAE, and Syria to investigate the status of private higher education, a growing trend in the region encompassing both American universities (primarily in the Gulf) and local profit-driven initiatives (Jordan and Syria). Professor Farah’s visit included the University of Madaba in Jordan, a Catholic school which plans to begin enrollment this year and offer a curriculum focusing on the sciences, engineering, technology, and business, with humanities and social sciences offered only as part of general education requirements. Professor Farah also visited K-12 private schools in Jordan and Syria. Professor Farah remains active in recruiting students from the Middle East to the School of Education, and serves as academic advisor for many of them. The School presently has twelve PhD candidates from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen, and Egypt. Two of his students, from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, received their PhDs from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for research related to education in the Middle East. The School is currently communicating with the School of Education at al-Azhar University in Gaza for collaborative work on teacher education. The process is complicated due to regional politics, but Professor Farah and his colleagues remain hopeful.

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Professor Farah continues to play a leading role in American curricular development, particularly regarding world history, multiculturalism and social science instruction. He participated in a session on education in the Middle East at the annual meeting of the International Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies and attended the Middle East Studies Association annual meeting, both in November 2010. On campus he served on the International Education Committee of the College of Education and Health Profession and he received the Annual Career Award from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He served as a judge for the Arabic Speech Contest, sponsored by the Department or World Languages and Cultures in April 2011, an annual service, and spoke on events in Egypt for the American Association of University Women. Professor Farah continues work on his manuscript on diplomatic relations between Ottoman Syria to the United States in the 19th Century. He is General Editor of Civilizations of the Middle East and Southwest Asia (ME Sharpe) and the four-volume Lifelines in World History series (ME Sharpe 2009).

Najib Ghadbian (Associate Professor of Political Science) Professor Ghadbian had an extremely busy year on the Outreach front. In October 2010 he joined Joel Gordon for a public forum on Islam/Muslims in America at the Fayetteville Public Library that was attended by over 100 community members. In recent months he has given, by his count, some 200 interviews to national and international media, particularly, during recent months in Europe (see Outreach). He spoke to the European Council of Foreign Relations and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London. On campus he organized the conference on ‘Asad’s Syria: Continuity and Change in the First Ten Years,’ the first major conference sponsored by the King Fahd Center. He participated in the public forum that inaugurated the conference and delivered a paper as part of a panel on the politics of continuity under Bashar al-Asad. In February he joined visiting scholars and Center faculty for another on-campus forum on political developments in the Arab world. He continues to supervise two Center-funded MA students along with several other students, one of them Kelly Haller, successfully defended her thesis in early May. He continues to serve as faculty advisor to the Center delegation to the Model Arab League – and those delegations continue to reap honors (see MAL below). Professor Ghadbian is preparing several articles for publication and is preparing a proposal for an edited volume based on the ‘Asad’s Syria’ conference.

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Joel Gordon (Professor of History and Director, King Fahd Center) Professor Gordon assumed directorship of the King Fahd Center in July 2009. He also serves on the History Department Graduate committee, served on the search committee for an Islamic historian, and is affiliated with the program in Cultural Studies. His chapter on ‘Egypt since 1919’ appeared in the New Cambridge History of Islam (2010). An essay, ‘Broken Heart of the City: Youssef Chahine’s Bab al-Hadid,’ was accepted (and revised) for publication in a special double issue of the Journal of Cultural Production (forthcoming 2012). He revised thirteen entries, ranging from political figures to film and music icons, for the forthcoming Oxford University Press Dictionary of African Biography and published book reviews in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and Mediterraneans. He is currently finalizing a proposal for an edited volume on Gamal Abd al-Nasser that has been solicited by Cambridge University Press for its ‘Critical Introduction’ series (Nasser would be the third volume). He is currently preparing a paper for the upcoming Middle East Studies Association meetings and reading a series of book on contemporary Egypt for a review to appear in the journal Bustan. He also serves as a primary consultant for a proposed documentary on Nasser that has been submitted for an NEH grant by filmmaker Michal Goldman. Off campus, he spoke on events in Egypt and the Middle East at Huntsville High School and John Brown University locally, and at Sandia Prep and Congregation Nahalat Shalom in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In Fayetteville he co-organized a forum on Islam/Muslims in America with former Fayetteville mayor Dan Coody and Rev Lowell Grisham, Rector of St Paul’s Episcopal Church, and led a group of colleagues who spoke before the City Council of Bella Vista, Arkansas on Sharia Law. On campus he continues to host Nadi Cinema, the Middle East Film Club that screens films bi-weekly throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. Professor Gordon participated in three tenure/promotion reviews for universities in the United States, Canada, and Israel. He reviewed article manuscripts for five journals and book manuscripts for two university presses and one trade press. Professor Gordon currently supervises three graduate students working towards the PhD in History and one PhD student in Cultural Studies. He serves on the Graduate Advisory Committees for 4 other History PhD students, and is on the thesis committee for two students in Comparative Literature and one student in English (and additional Comp Lit student defended her thesis in Spring 2011). He served on one History and one Political Science MA thesis committee. He will take on one new PhD student and one MA student in History in the Fall. Professor Gordon’s PhD students continued to reap prestigious awards. Ahmet Akturk, winner of last year’s Hudson Doctoral Dissertation Award from the University of Arkansas Graduate College, had an article published in Middle Eastern Studies and presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. Akturk has co-organized a panel for the upcoming MESA meeting that has been accepted. Matt

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Parnell was granted a Fulbright fellowship to carry out dissertation research and further language study in Egypt (and declined a US State Department Critical Language Award). Parnell will be returning to Fayetteville to begin writing his thesis and will present a paper at MESA as part of Akturk’s organized panel. Yulia Uryadova, winner of last year’s Fulbright College Dissertation award, took an ACCESL-Title VIII fellowship to Russia for dissertation research and won an IREX fellowship to Uzbekistan that she unfortunately had to decline due to visa issues. Adnan Haydar (Professor of Foreign Languages) Professor Haydar continued work, in collaboration with Paula Haydar, on a textbook and audio-visual supporting materials for Eastern Arabic (Lebanese) dialect, to be published by Georgetown University Press as a companion volume to al-Kitab, the leading text for Modern Standard Arabic. Materials were developed in conjunction with a course taught by Paula Haydar during Summer 2010 and 2011 (WLLC 398V) and the SCALE (Study Colloquial Arabic in Lebanon) program, which Professor Haydar directed during Summer 2010. Students came from a variety of American universities, including Georgetown, Virginian Commonwealth, Portland State, and UC-Berkeley. A formal proposal to Georgetown University Press was accepted after follow-up meetings at the Middle East Studies Association meeting in November 2010. Professor Haydar translated a ‘lost’ article by the esteemed Lebanese writer Jibran Khalil Jibran, ‘The Future of the Arabic Language,’ that was published in Reza Aslan (ed), Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (Norton 2010). He co-translated a selection of poetry by Adonis for the video project ‘Certezza deell’ombra’ conceived by artist Kalli Jones. He organized and provided spontaneous translation of a verbal duel by renowned Lebanese ‘zajal’ poets and lectured on the genre at Vis Musicae 2010 in Calabria, Italy in late July and early August 2010, a program sponsored by the King Fahd Center. Professor Haydar is currently finalizing an academic article on ‘Khalil Hawi’s Position in Modern Arabic Literature’ for al-Abhaath, the literary journal of the American University in Beirut, and is working on translations of three poems (one by the Egyptian Abd al-Munim Ramadan and two by Libyan Leila Neihoun) for Words Without Borders. He is also consultant for a documentary film on poetry of the Mediterranean. As director of the Arkansas Prize for Arabic Translation, he oversaw the publication of the 2009 winner, Reem Bassiouny’s The Pistachio Seller, the awarding of the 2010 prize for Mahmoud Saeed’s The World Through the Eyes of Angels. He continues to serve as co-editor of the Syracuse University Press Middle East Literature in Translation series and refereed manuscripts of English-language translations for Simon & Schuster and a scholarly article for the Middle East Journal. He serves on the governing council for the Center for Arabic Study Abroad. At the University of Arkansas Professor Haydar directs the Arabic program and serves on the Comparative Literature Committee. This past year he served on one dissertation

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committee in Comparative Literature and directed six independent study students and advised eight undergraduate and graduate students pursuing Arabic study abroad. He co-organized (along with Paula) the Arabic section of the annual World Languages and Literature Speech Contest held in April 2011, and facilitated a weekly ‘Arabic Table’ – an informal, voluntary gathering to further informal conversation skills – sponsored by the King Fahd Center. Paula Haydar (Instructor of Foreign Languages) Professor Haydar completed and submitted for publication her translation (with Nadine Sinno) of Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep (Tstifil Meryl Streep) by Lebanese novelist Rashid al-Daif. The translation will be forthcoming with Syracuse University Press. Her translation of the novella Touch (Masaas) by Adania Shibli (Clockroot/Interlink 2010) was selected for the Three Percent 2011 Best Translated Book Awards fiction long-list. She also published a translator’s afterward, ‘Love Spelled Backward,’ to Touch on 2 and 2: Blog for Clockroot Books. In February 2011 she signed an agreement with the Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation for a translation into English of June Rain (Matar Haziran) by Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy, which she expects to complete by early 2012. She continues studies toward the PhD in Comparative Literature by collecting and transcribing Lebanese verbal duels. She assisted Adnan Haydar at the Vis Musicae conference on ‘Oral Poetry of the Mediterranean’ held in Calabria, Italy in July 2010. She taped the poetic duels in Calabria, as well as duels in Lebanon and Cleveland for further analysis. Paula Haydar is also collaborating with Adnan Haydar on the development of a textbook for Lebanese Colloquial Arabic. She advises numerous MEST majors and Arabic minors, co-organized the Arabic section of the annual World Languages and Literature Speech Contest held in April 2011, and co-facilitated the ‘Arabic Table’ for informal conversation sponsored by the King Fahd Center. Mohja Kahf (Associate Professor of English) Professor Kahf published a critical essay, ‘The Pity Committee and the Careful Reader: How Not to Buy Stereotypes about Muslim Women,’ in Rabib Abdal-Hadi et al (eds), Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence and Belonging (Syracuse 2010); a book review essay on Lisa Suhair Majaj, Geographies of Light and Sharif Elmusa, Flawed Landscapes in Banipal 38 (2010); two creative non-fiction essays, ‘The Damascene Horse Dealer’s Daughter, Or How I Came to America,’ Arkansas Times, December 9, 2010, and ‘Three Drama Queens Fuel Family Feud,’ The Morning News (Springdale), January 29, 2011. She published three poems: ‘Brenda Unbound’ in Banipal 38 (2010); ‘Most Wanted’ in Geroge Dardess/Peggy Rosenthal (eds), Reclaiming Beauty for the Good of the World: Muslim & Christian Creativity (Fons Vitae 2010); and ‘Ghazal for Iranians Who Don’t Hate Arabs’ in Monthly Review (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010).

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Another poem, ‘Asiya’s Aberrance’ appeared on the cd ‘Peace From the Hills’ (Operation Awareness) in December 2010. One article, ‘Purple Ihram and the Feminine Beatitudes of Hajj,’ will appear in New Geographies 3, February 2011, and a short story, ‘The Girl from Mecca,’ slated for Feminist Studies, are forthcoming. An essay on ‘Literature of Syria,’ has been accepted for a volume on Syria that is being compiled by Fred Lawson of Mills College. Forthcoming projects include a book-length translation of all the extant poems of the 6th Century Arab poet, Safia bint Tha’labah, which has been commissioned and was accepted by the Modern Language Association in December 2010. Professor Kahf presented ‘I am the Bloodgushing Javelin: Unearthing a Pagan Arab Woman Poet of Arab Independence’ at the Arkansas Philological Association meeting in October 2010. She read poetry/fiction at the University of Southern California, Claremont-McKenna College, and the Levantine Cultural Center (Laguna Beach CA). She served as judge for the Muslim American Poetry Contest and is a consultant for W W Norton for the upcoming revision of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Professor Kahf has supervised two recent dissertations to completion. Asaad al-Saleh defended his thesis in Spring 2010 and accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Utah. Ghadir Zannoun defended her thesis in Spring 2011 and accepted a visiting position at the University of Kentucky. Manal al-Natour, who is completing her thesis, accepted a tenure-track position at Fayetteville State University. Professor Kahf is currently directing five Masters students and one additional PhD student currently ABD and writing her thesis. She worked closely with two advanced graduate students who taught 3000-level courses on Modern Arabic Literature (Manal al-Natour) and Modern Iranian Literature (Kaveh Bassiri). She will be directing a new PhD student in Fall 2011. Tom Paradise (Professor of Geosciences) Professor Paradise was on OCDA for the fall semester 2010 in Italy and Jordan, continuing his research on the deterioration of architecture across the Mediterranean. While in Rome, he worked with Vatican officials on the assessment of the Great Colonnade of Bernini at Saint Peter’s Square in Rome (Vatican City). Professor Paradise conducted extensive research for the Vatican on the decay of the travertine columns constructed by Gianlorenzo Bernini between 1656-1667. Considered one of the masterpieces of the Baroque Era, the 284 columns and 88 pillars have been slowly decaying since their construction, so he investigated the condition and recession of the colonnade before they underwent their first restoration in 350 years. His findings were instrumental in the $25,000,000 restoration project currently underway, and are under review in stone weathering, historic preservation and baroque architecture publications. While working off campus, Professor Paradise also spent time in Petra, Jordan conducting research on the deterioration of its famous Nabataean structures (c. 2000 years old), in tandem with new projects through UNESCO and the World Monuments Fund. Professor Paradise returned to Petra in June 2011, along with two of his graduate

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students, Chris Angel and Ryan Cochran, who are engaged in PhD and Masters thesis research respectively. He will be supervising two new Center-funded MA students in the coming AY. Professor Paradise also published a number of articles and chapters on architectural deterioration, and stone weathering (tafoni) for Reed-Elsevier’s new book series on Our Planet, Earth, the Journal of Architectural Conservation (UK), and the Zeitscrift für Geomorphologie (Germany). He has two chapters in the forthcoming edited collection Architectural Heritage and Management in Petra, Jordan: Driver to Destruction or Development (UN-UNESCO 2011): ‘Architectural Deterioration and Cultural Heritage Management in Petra’ and ‘Conservation, Restoration and Consolidation Procedures in Petra’s Nabataen, Roman and Byzantine Architecture.’ Chris Angel, one of his PhD students, also has an article in this forthcoming volume. Professor Paradise continues to serve as a frequent consultant for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, The Learning Channel, National Geographic, PBS, NHK (Japan), France 5, and NDR (Germany) networks on aspects of Middle East/North Africa geography, classical and vernacular architecture, and natural and cultural resources across the Mediterranean basin. Jerome Rose (Professor of Anthropology) Professor Rose continues to carry out research in Upper Egypt, this year in the face of a tenuous political situation. In Summer 2010 he supervised ten undergraduates from ten different universities and one graduate student from the University of Arkansas at his Biarchaeology Field School at Tell el-Amarna. This year, in consultation with the King Fahd Center and University officials, he decided to cancel the field school. Instead, with Center support, he led a research expedition consisting of faculty colleagues and advanced graduate students. The team analyzed the skeletons excavated from the Amarna cemetery during the 2010 season. Professor Rose co-authored the following chapter/articles based on his research: ‘Geology and Anthropology: A Case Study from Jordan’ (with A al-Shorman and N Turshan), Anthropologie 46 (2008); ‘Bioarchaeology of Tell Ibrahim Awad’ (with DL Phillips and WM van Haarlem), Egypt and the Levant 19 (2010); ‘Paleodiet Reconstruction of Human Remains from the Archaeological Site of Naftieh, Northern Jordan’ (with K al-Bashaireh, A al-Shorman, AJT Jull, and G Hodgins), Radiocarbon 52 (2010); ‘Human Bones from the South Tombs Cemetery’ (with M Zabecki), The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 96 (2010); ‘The Commoners of Tell el-Amarna’ (with M Zabecki) in S Ikram/A Dodson (eds) Beyond the Horizon: Studies in Egyptian Art, Archaeology and History in Honour of Barry J Kemp (Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities); ‘Trade and the Acquisition of Wealth in Rural Late Antique North Jordan’ (with M El-Najjar and DL Burke) in Mahmoud El-Najjar (ed) Yamun: An Archaeological Site in Northern Jordan (Yarmouk U 2010); ‘Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Acitivity from the Late Paleolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile

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Valley’ (with JT Stock, MC O’Neill, CB Ruff, M Zabecki, and M Shackelford) in Ron Pinhasi and Jay T Stock (eds), Human Bioarchaeology of the Transition to Agriculture (Wiley-Blackwell 2011). Professor Rose played a lead role in preparing the final report of seven years of the bioarcheology field school at Yamun, Jordan (M El-Najjar, Yamun 2011, cited above). This leaves only two years of excavations in Jordan unpublished for the entire time of the field school. This volume incorporated three honors theses (Jason Kizzia, Matthew Cox, and Melinda Loyd) and one Masters thesis (Jade Barnes). These students are included as coauthors of the pertinent chapters. The King Fahd Center helped subsidize the costs of publication. Professor Rose was co-presenter for two poster sessions in which he collaborated with present and former students: ‘Exploring Catastrophic Mortality during the Amarna Period in Ancient Egypt (BC 1351-1334)’ with Taylor Montgomery at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists; and ‘Pigs and People at Amarna – Punishment or Ritual (1352-1336 BCE)?’ with Melissa Zabecki at the Paleopathology Association. He also spoke on ‘Akhenaten’s People Speak,’ an invited lecture at the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, University of Memphis in November 2010. Ted Swedenburg (Professor of Anthropology) Professor Swedenburg’s article, ‘Fun^Da^Mental’s Jihad Rap,’ appeared in Assef Bayat/ Linda Herrera (eds), Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford 2010). His 1992 article, ‘Homies in the Hood: Commodification of Insubordination,’ was reprinted in Chris Rojek (ed), Popular Music (Sage 2011). An entry on ‘Arab Revolt, 1936-39’ appeared in Cheryl Rubenberg (ed), Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Lynne Reiner 2010). He also published two essays, ‘Troubadors of Revolt,’ Middle East Report 258 (2011) and ‘Khaled and the myth of rai’ on the online Middle East Channel/Foreign Policy.com in September 2010. Professor Swedenburg delivered lectures at New York University, UC-Berkeley, and the University of Louisville. He was discussant for a session on ‘Secularism/Religion/ Nationalism Reconfigured: African and Middle Eastern Perspectives at the American Anthropological Association meeting in November 2010. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Middle East Journal for Culture and Communication and is on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report. He is co-editor of a series on Public Cultures of the Middle East & North Africa published by Indiana University Press. Professor Swedenburg is currently supervising two PhD students in cultural anthropology and will be supervising an additional Masters student in Fall 2011. William Tucker (Associate Professor of History, retired)

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Professor Tucker is no longer formally affiliated with the University in any capacity, but he has recommendation letters on file for a number of History graduate students who pursued fields in pre-modern Middle East/Islamic history under his guidance. In Spring 2011 Cambridge University Press released a paperback edition of Mahdis and Millenarians: Shiite Extremists in Early Muslim Iraq (2008). FACULTY OUTREACH Faculty members affiliated with the King Fahd Center continue to maintain strong relations with local, national and international media. This has been particularly accentuated by developments in the Middle East since late 2010, the ‘Arab Spring.’ Najib Ghadbian has been a regular commentator on al-Jazeera (English and Arabic) and other Arab satellite television channels and has had English and Arabic commentaries published in a variety of venues, such as the Lebanese English-language Daily Star (September 17, 2010). He appeared recently on al-Jazeera English program ‘Inside Story’ on April 26 and May 18, 2011 and BBC ‘Hard Talk’ in early June (broadcast on BBC World on June 9 and BBC News on June 10). Mohja Kahf published a column, ‘Syria’s Revolution of Love,’ on CNN Opinion (May 13, 2011). Joel Gordon was cited in articles in the Christian Science Monitor (February 20, 2011), the Chronicle of Higher Education (March 20, 2011), and the Harvard Political Review (May 2011). Professors Kahf and Gordon were also featured prominently in a documentary, ‘Temple of Peace,’ produced and directed by Hayot Tuchiev, an instructor in the Communications Department, that is getting increased visibility nationwide. Faculty members regularly review national and international grant applications for Fulbright, the International Institute of Education, the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council and other leading funding agencies. They review manuscripts for leading academic journals and academic/trade publishers, serve on literary and academic prize committees, consult on documentary films and print anthologies, and are called upon by American and international colleges and universities to evaluate tenure/promotion cases and serve as outside readers on graduate theses. Closer to home, Center affiliated faculty have been generous with their time and expertise in supporting adult education programs such as Great Decisions, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Elderhostel programs, which are administered by the University of Arkansas Global Campus. Senior graduate students and recent graduates have also been encouraged to participate in such events. Faculty have also appeared on local Cable Access television in programs sponsored by the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. Many of us are contacted with regularity by journalists, authors, and filmmakers – in addition to colleagues at other institutions, and their undergraduate and graduate students -- who seek information and advice regarding ongoing or germinating projects. GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

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Graduate Students supported by the Middle East Center and working on advanced degrees with MEST faculty – along with recent graduates from affiliated departments – have compiled an increasingly impressive list of academic achievements over the past few years. Annual meetings Attended This past year graduate students attended annual meetings of the Middle East Studies Association, American Anthropological Association, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, American Comparative Literature Association, American Research Center in Egypt, American Schools of Oriental Research, Arkansas Philological Association, Arkansas Political Science Association, Association of American Geographers, Geological Society of America, Midwest Political Science Association, Northeast Modern Languages Association, Society of American Archaeology Awards/National-International Kaveh Bassiri (MFA), Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency, Santa Fe Art Institute, December 2010-January 2011 -----. NEH Grant to participate at Poets House, ‘Illuminated Verses: Poetries of the Islamic World,’ New York, May 2011 -----. Willis Barnstone Translation Prize (finalist), 2010 Matt Parnell (HIST), FulbrightUS Student Research Grant and Critical Language Enhancement Award, US Department of State/IIE) -----. Critical Language Scholarship, US Department of State (declined) Yulia Uryadova (HIST), ACCESL-Title VIII, Russia, Summer-Fall 2010 -----. IREX, Uzbekistan, Spring 2011 (declined due to visa issues) Anna Weiser (ANTH), American Schools of Oriental Research, Travel Grant for Annual Meeting -----. Geological Society of America, Travel Grant for Annual Meeting Awards/University Ahmet Akturk (HIST), George Billingsley Award (History Department) Ethan Morton-Jerome (ANTH), James H Yowell Award (Fulbright College) Anna Weiser (ANTH), Travel Grant (Anthropology Department)

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Conference Papers Presented Increasingly our students are presenting papers, and first year students are regularly taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the Graduate School to attend an annual meeting in the first year without having to present a paper. The following students presented papers at major meetings and conferences in AY 2010-11: Ahmet Akturk (HIST), ‘Good but Ignorant: Kurdish Self-View under French Mandatory Rule,’ Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010 Chris Angel (ENDY), ‘Umm Sayhoun: Evolution and Morphology of a Bedouin Town above Petra, Jordan,’ Association of American Geographers, Seattle, April 2011 Kaveh Bassiri (MFA), ‘Iranian Writers’ Responses to the Iran-Iraq War,’ Northeast Modern Languages Association, New Brunswick NJ, April 2011 Travis Curtice (PLSC), ‘Blood Tears of Acholiland: Ethnic Plurality and Intrastate Conflict in Uganda,’ Arkansas Political Science Association, Little Rock, March 2011 Banan al-Daraiseh (CLCS), ‘The Journey Narrative: Tropes of Travel in Soueif’s The Map of Love and In the Eye of the Sun, American Comparative Literature Association, Vancouver, April 2011 Lama Hamoudi (CLCS), ‘The Gendered Aesthetic of Loss in Aisha Taymur’s Elegy for her Daughter,’ Arkansas Philological Association Fayetteville AR, October 2010 -----. ‘The Pro-Worker Sentiment in the Movies of Charlie Chaplin,’ International Charlie Chaplin Conference, Zanesville OH, October 2010 Tuna Kalayci (ANTH), ‘CORONA Archaeological Atals of the Middle East: An Early Bronze Age Case Study from the Atlas, Association of American Geographers, Seattle, April 2011 Amy Karoll (ANTH), ‘Reconsidering the End of the Early Bronze Age in Western Syria,’ Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento CA, April 2011 R Taylor Montgomery, ‘The Social and Cultural Implications of Violence at Qasr Hallabat,’ American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Albuquerque, April 2011 Sanaa Riaz (ANTH), ‘Digital Education, Circulation and the Urban Landscape: Urban Pakistani Experiences,’ American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 2010 -----. ‘Modern Configurations of a Historical Process: The al-Huda Women and Islamization in Pakistan,’ Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010

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Anna Weiser (ANTH), ‘Geoarchaeology of a Seasonal Marshland Surrounding Tell Qarqur, Syria,’ Association of American Geographers, Seattle, April 2011 -----. ‘Geoarchaeology of Former Marshland in the Lower Orontes River Valley, Syria,’ Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA, April 2011 Ghadir Zannoun (CLCS), ‘Feminizing the Palestine Nationalist Narrative in Zeina B Ghandour’s The Honey,’ Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010 The following students have already had papers accepted for the coming academic year: all for the Middle East Studies Association: Ahmet Akturk, Matthew Parnell, Sanaa Riaz. Sanaa Riaz has also had a paper accepted for the University of Wisconsin Annual Conference on South Asia and the American Anthropological Association. Conference Posters Presented Anna Weiser (ANTH), ‘Geoarchaeology of the Floodplain Surrounding Tell Qarqur, Syria,’ Geological Society of America, Denver, November 2010 Courses Taught Off Campus (College/University) Sanaa Riaz (ANTH), Mt St Mary’s College (NY), The Middle East, Fall 2010 Ghadir Zannoun (CLCS), Arab Women Writers, Southern Illinois University Degree Completed – MA Kelly Haller (PLSC), ‘Muslim Women and the West: Faith, Feminism, and the Quest for Gender Equality,’ Summer 2011 (N Ghadbian) Lama Hamoudi (CLCS), ‘The Aesthetic of Loss in A'isha Taymur's Elegy for her Daughter,’ Fall 2010 (M Kahf) Amy Karoll (ANTH), ‘The Early Bronze Age IV to Middle Bronze Age I Transition in the Orontes Valley: A Veiw from Tell Qarqur, Spring 2011 (J Casana) Degree Completed – PHD Ghadir Zannoun (CLCS), ‘Postmodern Subjects and the Nation: Contemporary Arab Women Writers’ Reconfigurations of Home and Belonging,’ Spring 2011 (M Kahf) Candidacy Attained Chris Angel (ENDY), Banan al-Daraiseh (CLCS)

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Grants Submitted Chris Angel (ENDY), ‘Assessment of the Spatial Relationships, Arrangements, and Alignments of Nabataen Architercure and City Form in Petra, ’ National Science Foundation ($11,800) Kaveh Bassiri (MFA), proposals submitted for residency at Yaddo and MacDowell Colony writer/artist workshops (waitlisted at Yaddo) Matt Parnell (HIST), ‘The Emergence of Youth Political Activism and Youth Culture in Egypt,’ American Research Center in Egypt ($12,000) Professional Service Sonia Kapur (PBPL) is Assistant Editor, Journal of Comparative Social Welfare (Routledge) Publications – Articles/Chapters (Accepted/Published) Ahmet Akturk (HIST), ‘Arabs in Kemalist Historiography,’ Middle Eastern Studies 46 (5) 2010, 633-53 Chris Angel (ENDY), ‘Historical Assessment and Urban Morphology of Umm Sayhoun – the Bedouin Village above Petra, Jordan,’ in UNESCO-ICOMOS, Architectural Heritage and Management in Petra, Jordan: Driver to Destruction or Development (forthcoming) R Taylor Montgomery (ANTH), ‘The Social and Cultural Implications of Violence at Qasr Hallabat,’ in D Martin/R Harrod, The Bioarchaeology of Violence (forthcoming) Jason T Hermann (ANTH/co-authored w/Jesse Casana), ‘Settlement History and Urban��� Planning at Zincirli Höyük, Southern Turkey,’ Journal of Mediterranean ���Archaeology 23 (1) 2010, 55-80 Sanaa Riaz (ANTH), ‘Women’s Religious Education—Pakistan,’ Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (forthcoming) ----- ‘Globalization,’ India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic (forthcoming) Publications – Book Reviews Ahmet Akturk (HIST), Deniz Balgamis/Kemal Karpat (eds), Turkish Migration to the United States (University of Wisconsin Press 2008), International Journal of Middle East Studies 42 (3) 2010, 507-08 -----. Nevzat Bingol, Suriye’nin Kimliksizleri Kurtler (Syria’s Undocumented Kurds) (Elma 2004), in Syrian Studies Association Newsletter 15 (3) 2010

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Sonia Kapur (PBPL), Cristina Solera, Women In and Out of Paid Work: Changes across Generations in Italy and Britain (Policy Press 2009); United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural change, Social Policy and Politics (United Naitons 2011); Bent Greve (ed), Happiness and Social Policy in Europe (E Elger 2010); Jonathan Bradshaw (ed), Social Security, Happiness and Well-Being (Intersentia 2008); Nalini J Negi/Rich Furman, Transnational Social Work Practice (Columbia UP 2010), in Journal of Comparative Social Welfare 27 (3) 2011 Sanaa Riaz (ANTH), Judith Cochran, Educational Roots of Political Crisis in Egypt (Lexington 2008), in International Journal of Middle East Studies 43 (1) 2011, 185-86 -----. N Ali/VS Kalra/S Sayyid (eds), A Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain (Columbia 2008), in Journal of South Asian Development 6 (2011), 121-24 Publications – Poems/Fiction Kaveh Bassiri (MFA), ‘How to Build a Bomb,’ and translations of Roya Zarrin, ‘It was the End of the Sixth Day’ and ‘Should I have Known,’ in Virginia Quarterly Review 2010, 54-56 -----. ‘Serendipity,’ ‘Check,’ ‘Everyone was Invited,’ in Drunken Boat #12 (2010) Teaching Positions – New Manal al-Natour (ABD CLCS) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages at Fayetteville State University Ghadir Zannoun (PhD CLCS 2011) has accepted a position as Lecturer at the University of Kentucky UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS Rachel Calandro (IREL/MEST) will spend AY 2011-12 studying in Jordan with support from the Council on International Educational Exchange, the Honors College and King Fahd Center. Clayton Clark (JOUR/MEST, ARAB minor) studied Arabic in Jordan during AY 2010-11 on a Council on International Education fellowship. He graduated and will work in Jordan during Summer 2011 on a Tourist Agency internship. Andie Duplantis (GEOG/MEST), a MEST undergraduate scholarship recipient, graduated and was accepted into the MA program in Geosciences at the University of Arkansas with a MEST graduate assistantship. Sarah Ervin (MATH, ARAB minor) graduated Cum Laude and completed an Honors thesis on ‘Is Bridges NP-Complete.’

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Nadia Haydar (APST) studied Colloquial Arabic at the SCALE Program in Lebanon, during Summer 2010. Grace Henderson (GEOG/MEST), a MEST undergraduate scholarship recipient, graduated and was accepted into the MA program in Geosciences at the University of Arkansas with a MEST graduate assistantship. Robert Hintz (HIST/MEST), a MEST undergraduate scholarship recipient and delegate to the 2011 Model Arab League, graduated and was accepted into the program in International Studies at the University of Denver. Lynnsey Molinaro (ANTH/MEST), a MEST undergraduate scholarship recipient, graduated and was accepted into the graduate program in Curriculum Instruction at the University of Arkansas. She participated in the archaeology field school at Tell Qarqur, Syria in June 2010 with support from the King Fahd Center. Joshua Moore (ANTH/MEST) studied Arabic in Jordan in Summer 2010 on a Critical Language Scholarship. In summer 2011 he will continue his Arabic study in Morocco with support from MEST. Saba Naseem (JOUR/MEST, ARAB minor) studied French in France in Summer 2010 with financial support from the Honors College and received a Critical Languages Scholarship to study Arabic in Morocco in Summer 2011. She was chosen as Executive Editor of The Traveler, the University of Arkansas student newspaper, in Spring 2011 and was a delegate to the Model Arab League. Alexa Naumovich IREL/MEST, ARAB minor) studied Arabic in Jordan during AY 2010-11 on a Council on International Educational Exchange fellowship and graduated in May 2011. Gary Noel (GEOG/MEST), recipient of two years of MEST scholarship support, graduated Cum Laude and completed his Departmental Honors thesis on ‘The Fight for Self-Determination: A Comparative Assessment of the Conflict in Northern Ireland and Western Sahara.’ Samuel Roberts (IR) studied Arabic in Jordan during AY 2010-11 on a Council for International Educational Exchange fellowship. Andrew Walchuck (IR/PLSC/EUST/SPAN, ARAB/ECON/MEST minor), an Arabic minor and delegate to the 2011 Model Arab League, graduated Summa Cum Laude and completed an Honors thesis on ‘Immigration and the Extreme Right: an Analysis of Recent Voting Trends in Western Europe.’ He studied Arabic in Morocco in Summer 2010 on a Critical Language Scholarship and plans to study Spanish in Spain during Summer 2011.

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Jacob White (IREL, HIST/ARAB minor) a outstanding delegate to the 2010 and 2011 Model Arab League, graduated Summa Cum Laude and completed an Honors thesis on ‘International Governance of the Commons: Property Rights in Outer Space.’ Brittany Williams (IR/MEST) received a Gilman Scholarship and funding from the King Fahd Center to support Arabic study in Jordan in Summer 2011. ALUMNI NEWS MEST alumni continue to contribute to the field in academic ventures and to carry their expertise into governmental and non-governmental service and organizations. Academic Positions At present there are nine recent PhDs in tenure track teaching positions in the United States and abroad: Charles Argo (2004) is Assistant Professor of History, Ball State University; Basri (2008) is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, State Islamic University of Malang, Indonesia; Michael Bracy (2005) is Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University; Clea Lutz Bunch (2004) is Assistant Professor of History, University of Arkansas-Little Rock; Ali Khwaileh (2009) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Jordan; Nawaf al-Madkhli (2007) is Assistant Professor of History, King Fahd University of Petroleum, Saudi Arabia; Asaad al-Saleh (2010) is Assistant Professor of Languages and Literature, University of Utah; Farid al-Salim (2008) is Assistant Professor of History, Kansas State University; Nadine Sinno (2009) is Assistant Professor of Arabic, Georgia State University. Other recent PhDs are teaching in visiting positions: Melissa Zabecki (2009) has been teaching cultural anthropology at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith; Ghadir Zannoun has accepted a visiting Lecturer position in Arabic at the University of Kentucky. Robert Moore (BA 1996, MA 2002) is Instructor of History at John Brown University. Alumni publications/productions Charles Argo (PhD 2004), Assistant Professor of History at Ball State University will publish Stolen Boys of the Ottoman Empire: The Child Levy as Public Spectacle and Political Instrument (I B Taurus, forthcoming 2012). Michael Bracy (PhD 2005), Assistant Professor of History at Oklahoma State University published Printing Class: `Isa al-`Isa, Filastin, and the Textual Construction of National Identity (U Press America 2011). Farid al-Salim (PhD 2008), Assistant Professor of History at Kansas State University has just received a contract for his manuscript Palestine and the Decline of the Ottoman Empire: Modernisation and the Birth of the Palestinian State with I B Taurus.

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Asaad Al-Saleh (PhD 2010), Assistant Professor of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah, published ‘Displaced Autobiography in Edward Said’s Out of Place and Fawaz Turki’s The Disinherited’ in Arab Studies Quarterly 33 (2) 2011. He has essays forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Cultural Sociology in the Middle East, Asia and Africa (Sage); the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies; and a book review forthcoming in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association.

Nadine Sinno (PhD 2009), Assistant Professor of Arabic at Georgia State University, co-translated Rashid al-Daif’s novel Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep (Tstifil Meryl Streep) with Paula Haydar and submitted it to Syracuse University Press. Melissa Zabecki (PhD 2009) co-authored three publications (with Jerry Rose and others): ‘Human Bones from the South Tombs Cemetery, ’ The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 96 (2010); ‘The Commoners of Tell el-Amarna’ in S Ikram/A Dodson (eds) Beyond the Horizon: Studies in Egyptian Art, Archaeology and History in Honour of Barry J Kemp (Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities); ‘Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Acitivity from the Late Paleolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile Valley’ in Ron Pinhasi and Jay T Stock (eds), Human Bioarchaeology of the Transition to Agriculture (Wiley-Blackwell 2011). Conference Presentations Michael Bracy (PhD 2005), Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University, presented ‘Diplomatic Imperialism: Egypt’s Plans for the Invasion of Algeria, 1827-30’ at the Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010. Suncem Kocer (MA 2005), currently a PhD student at the University of Indiana, presented ‘An Ambivalent Relationship to Modernity: Transnational Screening Contexts of a Kurdish Documentary’ at the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 2010. The paper dealt with a The Last Season: Shawaks (2009, dir Kazim Oz), an ethnographic documentary she co-produced in Turkey. Robert Moore (BA 1996, MA 2002), Instructor of History at John Brown University, presented ‘Confusion or Consistency: The Appointment of Chief Judges under the Fatimid Caliph Mustansir (1036-1094)’ at the American Center for Research in Egypt, Chicago, April 2011. Asaad al-Saleh (Phd 2010), Assistant Professor of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah, presented ‘Ibtisam Barakat: A Palestinian Childhood Left Behind’ at the Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2011. The paper was part of a panel that he organized on ‘Palestinian Women and Autobiography: Voicing the Unvoiced.’ Farid al-Salim (PhD 2008), Assistant Professor of History at Kansas State University, presented ‘The Social and Economic History of Central Palestine before the Ottoman

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Tanzimat: A Case Study of Tulkarm, 1516-1856’ at the Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010. Nadine Sinno (PhD 2009), Assistant Professor of Arabic at Georgia State University, presented ‘Family Sagas and Checkpoint Dramas: Tragedy, Humor and Family Dynamics in Suad Amiry’s Sharon and My Mother-in-Law’ at the Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, November 2010. Melissa Zabecki (PhD 2009), presented – in conjunction with Jerry Rose and Tony Legge (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research) – ‘Torture among the Talatat?’ at the American Research Center in Egypt, Chicago, April 2011. She also presented ‘Pigs and People at Amarna – Punishment or Ritual?’ at the Paleopathology Association, Minneapolis, April 2011. Other Alumni News/Doings Cory Ellis (IR/MEST; minor ARAB 2010) began graduate study in International Studies at George Washington University. Safiya Ghori (IR/MEST 2002; JD 2005; MA PLSC 2006) is South Asia Policy Analyst for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Robert Moore (MA HIST 2002) completed his PhD in Religion at Emory University on ‘The Role of the Madrasah and the Structure of Islamic Legal Education in Mamluke Egypt, 1250-1517’ and is currently Instructor in History at John Brown University. LOOKING AHEAD The King Fahd Center hopes to build upon the Academic Year that has just concluded by pursuing an ever-more vigorous programming schedule, continuing to further curricular development, and matching, if not expanding, public outreach. Discussions are underway to bring another distinguished visiting scholar to campus for the coming Spring term, either fully or for part of the term. MESGA, the graduate student organization has submitted proposals for visiting speakers. The Center will co-sponsor a Writers’ Festival with the Translation and Creative Writing Program, helping to underwrite the costs of bringing a three internationally recognized authors to campus over a long weekend for a series of readings and talks. Staffing remains key to furthering the Center’s mission and academic goals. The Center is well served by the new (promoted) Administrative Assistant, Mahfuza Akhtar, who has in many respects streamlined the work that was accomplished for many years by two people. Our program assistant, Laila Taraghi, has aided and abetted administration and creative output of the Center, helping with student affairs, undergraduate and graduate student programming, and community outreach, not least to local media outlets and university public relations. This second administrative arm of the Center remains an

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hourly position. One of the primary goals for the upcoming AY will be exploring options to turn this into a full-time salaried position. Achieving this would not only help us retain Ms Taraghi for the immediate future, recruit talented replacements with strong curricular background in the Middle East/Islamic world should the need occur and, indeed, widen the scope of potential activities. As noted at the outset (and throughout this document), events in the Arab world have had a profound impact on the direction in which the Center moved in AY 2010-11. As participants in the conference on Syria watched events unfold in Tunisia, Egypt and beyond, they/we realized that this is a time to look both forward and backward. As Tunisians, Egyptians and others re-assess their history and chart their future, we as students and scholars of the region look on – from afar and close at hand – with apprehension, awe, and anticipation. We had to reconsider the viability of two sponsored summer ‘programs’ and re-direct students who had chosen to study in locations that, for the immediate present at least, seemed to not be safe destinations. Yet our work remains ongoing. An expedition has recently returned from Egypt under the direction of Jerry Rose. Tom Paradise writes from Jordan, where is engaged in research alongside two graduate students. Matt Parnell, a Fulbright scholar in Egypt, was ordered home in February, but returned with his stipend reinstated within the month. Rasha Elendary, a Fulbrighter from Syria, returned home over spring break with Center support to re-negotiate accommodations for the Tell Qarqur expedition, which the Center will support again in AY 2011-12 These are momentous times for all of us, whether we work in the distant past, immediate present, or ‘sites’ in between.