Past Presentations

• October 10: Inaugural Roundtable: “What I Learned in Grad School: Continuity and Change in the Graduate Experience,” with Professors Na’ama Rokem, Orit Bashkin, Ahmed El Shamsy, and John Woods
• October 24: Joseph Yackley (NELC) on Ottoman bankruptcy negotiations; with Corey Tazzara (Collegiate Assistant Professor in History) as discussant
• Tuesday, October 30: Special joint workshop with LANTBYZ: Michael Jennings (NELC) presents “Archaeology of Jericho, West Bank, in the early Islamic period” (at Cochrane-Woods Art Center, Room 152, 5540 S. Greenwood Ave)
• November 7: Daniel Mahoney (NELC) presents “The Utilized Landscape: Craft Production and Exchange Networks in the Central Highlands of Islamic Period Yemen”; with Tony Lauricella (NELC) as discussant
• November 14: Lotte Fasshauer (Freie Universität Berlin) presents “Lyricism, Performativity and Melancholy in Ghassan Salhab’s Film and Video Works”; with Ali Feser (Anthropology) as discussant
• November 28: Esra Taşdelen (NELC) presents “Ahmet Hikmet Muftuoglu’s ‘Cultural Nationalism’ and His Views on Turkish Language Reform”

Spring Quarter 2011

• March 31: Catherine Bronson: “Imagining the First Woman in Formative Tafsīr”. Discussant: Mehmetcan Apkinar.
• April 1: Larisa Jasarevic: “Three lights on Queen’s face: Ethnography of mêlée”. Co-sponsored with the Anthropology of Europe Workshop. Discussant: Noha Forster.
• April 5: Andrew Newman: “Old and New Sources/Voices in Twelver Shīʿī History”. Co-sponsored with the Shi’ism Discussion Group.
• April 7: Shiraz Hajiani: “Reconstructing Alamut – approaches to Shiʿism in Iran in the Middle Period”. Discussant: Kaveh Hemmat.
• April 12: Rodrigo Adem: “The Silent Imam: Religious Archetype and Historical Memory in the Sectarian Milieu”. Co-sponsored with the Shi’ism Discussion Group.
• April 15: Nabil Matar: “Henry Stubbe and the first use of Christian Arabic sources about Muhammad”. Co-sponsored with the Rensaissance Workshop, the Franke Institute, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
• April 21: Basil Salem: “The Logic of Sacral Sovereignty in the Aftermath of the Ottoman Conquest of Egypt and Syria”. Discussant: Chris Markiewicz.
• April 28: Michael Figueroa: “Whence Israeli Song? The Fragmented Prehistory of Unisonance in Israel”. Co-sponsored with the EthNoise! Ethnomusicology Workshop. Discussant: Orit Bashkin.
• April 29: Rodrigo Adem: “Inheritors of Adam: A Shi’ite Tradition on Prophethood”. Discussant: Alex Muller.
• May 5: Jason Mohaghegh: “Inflictions: The Writing of Violence, East/West”. Co-sponsored with the Literature and Philosophy Workshop.
• May 6: Jason Mohaghegh: “The Chaotic Imagination: Cruelty, Fatality, and the Shadow-Becoming in New Middle Eastern Literature”. Co-sponsored with the Middle East Studies Students’ Association and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
• May 13–14: 26th Annual MEHAT Conference.
• May 19: Emran El-Badawi: “Divine Judgment and the Apocalypse in the Qur’an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions”. Co-sponsored with the LantByz workshop.
• May 25: Dima Orsha: Arabic poetry sung in lied form and operatic style. Co-sponsored with the EthNoise! workshop and the Noontime Concert series.
• May 26: Roy Fischel: “Foreigners in the Deccan: Migration and Politics in South India, 1565-1636”. Discussant: Hani Kafipour.

Winter Quarter 2011

• January 13: Yașar Tolga Cora (NELC): “Looking for the Origins of the Muslim/Turkish Bourgeoisie; The Nemlizades: Rise of a Merchant ‘Dynasty’ of the Black Sea Coast”. Discussant: Hakan Karateke.
• January 27: Elizabeth Urban (NELC): “‘They are Your Brothers in Religion and Your Mawālī’: The Quranic Transformation of the Term Mawlā“. Discussant: Mehmetcan Apkinar.
• January 28: Mandy Terc (University of Michigan): “‘We are Gmail addicted’: Social and Linguistic Responses to Syria’s New Economy”. Discussant: Shayna Silverstein.
• March 2: Mohamad Ballan (MAPH): “Between Castilian Reconquista and Ottoman Jihad: A Reconsideration of the 1501 Hispano-Muslim Qasida to Sultan Bayezid II.” Co-sponsored with the Western Mediterranean Culture Workshop.

Fall Quarter 2010

• October 7: Mapping the Middle East, and other cartographical absurdities: Featuring Orit Bashkin, Roy Fischel, Hasan Karateke, and Metin Yüksel.
• October 15: Chris Markiewicz: “The Esoteric Sciences in the Cosmography of a Sixteenth-century Ottoman Scholar: Wonder and Mystery in the Works of Mehmet es-Su’udi (d. 999/1591).” Discussant: Ahmet Tunç Sen.
• October 28: Ali Feser: “Sects, Law, videotape: Political Fantasy at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.” Discussant: Shayna Silverstein.
• November 4: Christopher Sheklian: “Turkish Secularism and Christian Minorities.” Discussant: Metin Yüksel.
• November 12: Metin Yüksel: “I cry out so that you wake up: Cegerxwîn’s Poetics and Politics of Awakening.” Discussant: Franklin Lewis.
• November 22: Maria Six-Hohenbalken: “Narrations of violence: Tensions between individual and community accounts of the 1988 Halabja massacre.” Discussant: Melissa Bilal.
• November 23: Taufik Dea’dle: “Khan el-Hillu and the city of Lid (Lod) during the Ottoman period: Summarizing three years of excavations.”

Spring Quarter 2010

• April 5: Rumi: The Time of Love: A documentary film by Nuri Aksu, Visiting Student, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
• April 15: The Turbulent Present: religion, politics and society in Iran. A panel discussion with Kaveh Ehsani (Assistant Professor of International Studies, DePaul University), Norma Moruzzi (Associate Professor, Political Science, Gender & Women’s Studies, and History UIC), Arang Keshavarzian (Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, NYU), and Chris Toensing (Editor, Middle East Report).
• April 19: Sara Hirschhorn, PhD Candidate, Department of History: “The New Frontier: Jewish-American Activism within the Israeli Ultra-Nationalist Movement, 1967-1977.”
• May 3: Emran El-Badawi, PhD Candidate, NELC: “Prophetic Tradition in the Late Antique Near East.” (Co-sponsored by the Workshop on Late Antiquity and Byzantium)

Winter Quarter 2010

• January 11: Mun’im Sirry, Divinity School: “The Early Development of the Qur’anic Hanif: An Exegetical Analysis.” Discussant: Emran El-Badawi.
• January 25: Mehmetcan Akpinar, NELC: “The matn-cum-isnad analysis of Bahira anecdotes: The case of Abu Bakr.”
• February 8: Emine Evered, Department of History, Michigan University: “Ottoman Governmentality and Women’s Education.” Discussant: Esra Tasdelen.
• February 23: Rasheed Hosein, NELC: “Coercion and Conflict: Thaqif and Quraysh in the pre-Islamic Period.”

Fall Quarter 2009

• October 5: A discussion with Profs. Orit Bashkin, Fred Donner and Tahera Qutbuddin: “Orientalist canons: why do we study the texts we study?”
• October 26: Abdurrahman Atcil, Ph.D. Candidate, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: “The Restructuring of the Religions Disciplines in Post 11^th Century and Theoretical Jurisprudence.” Discussant: Mehmetcan Akpinar.
• November 5: Joint panel session with Platypus: PANEL EVENT: “30 Years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran: The Tragedy of the Left”; A Discussion with Maziar Behrooz, Chris Cutrone, Kaveh Ehsani, and Danny Postel.
• November 6: Maziar Behrooz, “Iran in Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries”
• November 16: Nell Gabiam, Ph.D Student in Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture: “Politicizing Humanitarianism: Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA and the Right of Return.” Discussant: Sara Hirschhorn
• November 30: Elizabeth Urban, Ph.D Candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: “The Mawali and Early Islamic Discussions of Social Equality.”

Spring Quarter 2009

• April 20: Shayna Silverstein, Dept of Music, University of Chicago: “Engendering Dabke: Popular Dance and Kinship Relations in Contemporary Syria.” Discussant: Erin Glade, History
• May 11: Karen Ellis, Dept. of Political Science, University of Chicago: “Conflicts of Interest: The Significance of Islamic Economics in Contemporary Pakistan.” Discussant: Ahsan Butt, Political Science
• May 26: Rajarshi Ghose, Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago “Conceptualizing the ‘Social’ in Colonial South Asia: The Case of Mid-Nineteenth century Muslim Bengal.” Discussant: Nusrat Chowdhury, Anthropology
• June 1: Jeremy Walton, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Chicago: “Invocations of Tradition, Aspirations to Modernity: The Characteristic Historicities of Turkish Civil Islam.” Discussant: Malika Zeghal, Divinity School

Winter Quarter 2009

• January 5: Pelin Kadercan, University of Rochester: “Transnational Encounters in Music: Edward Zuckmayer and Music Education in Turkey”: Discussant: Melissa Bilal, Music
• January 12: Sabahat Adil, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago: “The Mehrab of Modernity: Religion and History in Turkey’s Earliest Museums” (joint session with Islamic Art and Artifact Workshop)
• February 2: Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, Committe on the History of Culture, University of Chicago: “Cultivating Domesticity in Late Ottoman Beirut.” Discussant: Noha Aboulmagd Forster, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
• February 16: Fatimah Baeshen, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago: “Islamic Banking in the US: Can The Industry Viably Subsist Under Secular Regulation?” Discussant: Joseph Yackley, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
• March 2: Carel Bertram, Associate Professor of Humanities, San Francisco State University and Visiting Scholar, NELC: “Going Home For the First Time: American Armenian Pilgrims to Anatolia.” Discussant: Melissa Bilal, Music
• March 9: Edhem Eldem, Professor of History, Bogazici University: “A Mid-Nineteenth Century Ottoman Livre de Raison: Mehmed Cemal Bey’s Account Book, 1855-1864.” Discussant: Orit Bashkin, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Fall Quarter 2008

• October 22: Erol Ulker, Department of History, University of Chicago: “Workers, Class and Nation: Tramway Workers’ Movement in Istanbul, 1918-1929.” Discussant: Orit Bashkin, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
• October 29: Pinar Ozyurek, Graduate Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago: “The Formation of Children as Recognized Modern Subjects During the Tanzimat Era: The Analyis if the Ottoman Children’s Journalsin Mumeyyiz (1869) and Arkadas (1876).” Discussant: Chihangir Gondogdu, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
• November 6: Jacqueline Rose, Professor of English, Queen Mary, University of London: “On The Myth of Self-Hatred.” Discussant: Sam Brody, Divinity School.
• November 12: Joseph Yackley, NELC, University of Chicago: “Sovereign Bankruptcy in late-19th Century Egypt and Ottoman Turkey: A Proposal and Overview of Research Plans.” Discussant: Kaveh Hemmat, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
• November 19: Avshalom Rubin, Department of History, University of Chicago: “Israel, Jordan, and the Trajectory of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1957-1965.” Discussant: Carl Shook, Center for Middle Eastern Studies.