Past Events
Choose an academic year
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September 13, 2021 Andrea Wright (College of William and Mary),
“The Dream of Dubai: Indian Labor Migration to the UAE”October 13, 2021 Rachel Schine, (NYUAD Humanities Research Fellow 21-22)
“The Black Nights of Arabic Epic: Race and Premodern Literature”November 9, 2021 Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Moderated by Erin Pettigrew, Associate Professor of History and Arab Crossroads Studies
“Guantanamo and After: Prison and Reconciliation"November 15, 2021 Amélie Le Renard; Neha Vora; Ahmed Kanna
Moderated by Laure Assaf, Assistant Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies and Anthropology
“Beyond Exception: New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula”November 24, 2021 Samuli Schiekle (Researcher at the ZMO, Berlin)
The Dream of Stability: Migrations, Homes, Growth"December 5, 2021 Rano Turaeva (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
“Islam and Politics in Russia: the Transformation of Muslim Spaces in Moscow” -
September 11, 2019 Clio Chaveneau (Sorbonne Abu Dhabi),
International migrants in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: privileges, constraint mobilities and political engagementsSeptember 23, 2019 Elena Vezzadini, (Paris 1, Institut des Mondes Africains)
Creating a trade union culture: the left-wing press, workers' clubs and literacy in the Sudan of the 1950sOctober 2, 2019 Rim-Sarah Alouane (University Toulouse-Capitole),
Liberty, Equality, Identity: the Clash between the French Republic and French Muslims.October 27, 2019 Anke Reichenbach (ZU Dubai)
Embracing Transience. Argentine Tango Dancing in DubaiNovember 11, 2019 Omar Bortolazzi
The Making of a Shiite Middle Class in Lebanon: Education, Diaspora, Remittances
November 27, 2019 Zahra Babar (Georgetown-Qatar)
Two Hard Places at Once: Pakistani Labour Migrants in the GulfDecember 5, 2019 Gareth Doherty (Harvard)
Paradoxes of Green in the Arabian Peninsula.December 10, 2019 Marie Vannetzel (Sciences Po)
The Politics of « Khayr » in Egypt: Changing Patterns? -
September 11, 2019 Clio Chaveneau (Sorbonne Abu Dhabi),
International migrants in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: privileges, constraint mobilities and political engagementsSeptember 23, 2019 Elena Vezzadini, (Paris 1, Institut des Mondes Africains)
Creating a trade union culture: the left-wing press, workers' clubs and literacy in the Sudan of the 1950sOctober 2, 2019 Rim-Sarah Alouane (University Toulouse-Capitole),
Liberty, Equality, Identity: the Clash between the French Republic and French Muslims.October 27, 2019 Anke Reichenbach (ZU Dubai)
Embracing Transience. Argentine Tango Dancing in DubaiNovember 11, 2019 Omar Bortolazzi
The Making of a Shiite Middle Class in Lebanon: Education, Diaspora, Remittances
November 27, 2019 Zahra Babar (Georgetown-Qatar)
Two Hard Places at Once: Pakistani Labour Migrants in the GulfDecember 5, 2019 Gareth Doherty (Harvard)
Paradoxes of Green in the Arabian Peninsula.December 10, 2019 Marie Vannetzel (Sciences Po)
The Politics of « Khayr » in Egypt: Changing Patterns? -
- Fall 2018
- Spring 2019
September 5, 2018 John Burt
The Coral Masonry of Historic Jazirat al-Hamra, UAE
September 20, 2018 Sami Hermez
War is Coming: Between Past and Future Violence in Lebanon
October 2, 2018 John Thabiti Willis
Pearling as a Rite of Passage in the History and Memory of the Pre-Oil GulfOctober 16, 2018 Mohammed Rustom
Ayn Al-Qudat and the Politics of Execution
October 30, 2018 Justin Stearns
Revealed Science: Islamic Thought and the Natural World in the Early Modern Maghreb
November 22, 2018 Ata Anzali
"Mysticism" in Iran: The Safavid Roots of a Medieval Concept
November 27, 2018 Murat Dagli
Empire's Questions: Writing the Ottoman Past in Turkey Today
December 11, 2018 Jana Jabbour
Turkey's influence in a changing Middle East: from "strategic depth" to strategic abyss?
February 11, 2019 Robert Carter (UCL Qatar)
Archaeological and Historical Investigations into Urbanism and Globalisation in the Gulf Before OilFebruary 15, 2019 Rustin Zarkar (NYU Dissertation Fellow)
Dubai on the Caspian?: Beautification and Visions of Urban Space in BakuMarch 7, 2019 Ulrike Freitag (ZMO)
Slavery in Jeddah in the 19th and 20th centuriesMarch 18, 2019 Angie Heo (U. Chicago)
The Political Lives of SaintApril 3, 2019 Maya Kesrouany (NYUAD)
Prophetic Translation: The Making of Modern Egyptian LiteratureApril 17, 2019 Isa Blumi (Stockholm University)
Imperial Hinterlands: The Commodification of Borderland Nature in the Adriatic and Red Seas, 1878- 1920April 23, 2019 Alnoor Dhanani (Harvard University)
Fakhr al-din al-Razi's novel arguments in defense of kalam atomismApril 29, 2019 Philippe Pétriat (Sorbonne-Paris)
Was there even an Arab oil revolution?May 1, 2019 Deina Rabie (UT Austin)
Worlding English: Emirati women's negotiations of language and gendered mobilities
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Fall 2016
September 5
Koray Caliskan (Bogazici University), "Civil-Military Relations in Turkey and the Reasons behind the Coup Attempt and its Failure."September 19
Rebecca Gould (University of Bristol), "The Obligation to Migrate and the Stimulus to Narrate: Forced Migration from the Caucasus to the Ottoman Lands in Historical Memory and the Soviet Literary Imagination.”September 29
Raymond Farrin (American University of Kuwait), "The Composition of Medinan Suras and the Writing of the Qur’an”October 13
Fahed Al-Sumait (Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait), "Prospects and Pitfalls of Intercultural Communication in the GCC"October 26
Abaas Yunas (Tabah Foundation, Abu Dhabi), "Contemporary Islam’s Debates, Challenges and Future Prospects"October 27 (in collaboration with the History and Literature and Creative Writing Programs) [A6-117 from 5:30-7pm]
Mahnaz Yousefzadeh (Clinical Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies, NYU Department of Italian Studies), "Bahr-i Omān: Ferdinand I, G.B. Vecchietti, and the Armour of Shah Abbas."November 15
Samer Frangie (AUB), "The “Garbage Uprising” in Lebanon: Looking for Political Agency in Trash"December 13
Matthew Melvin-Koushki (University of South Carolina), ""Picturing Islamic OntogrammatologySpring 2017
January 31
Talal al-Rashoud (SOAS/Kuwait University), “Modern Education and Arab Nationalism in Kuwait, 1911-1961”February 7
Leonardo Schiocchet (Institute for Social Anthropology, Vienna), "The Austro-Palestinian Encounter: “Cause” and “Struggle” in the making of Palestinian nationhood and Post-national Activism in Austria"February 16
Matthew Gordon (Miami University), ""Abbasid Cities and their Slave Markets."February 22
Michael Cooperson (LAL Fellow/UCLA), "But they can't be translated" wrestling with the "rhetorical assemblies" of al-Hariri"March 7
Abdullah Baaboud (QU – Gulf Studies Program) , "US-GCC relations under the new US administration"March 14
Abdullah Hamidaddin (Dorba Center for Societal Transformation), "Zaydism: from Social Category to Social Identity".March 27
David Segall (NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights), "A Flawed Model: The GCC Construction Sector and Migrant Recruitment Fees"April 4
Joseph Lowry (LAL Fellow/UPenn), "Laws, Legal Language and Literary Structures in the Qur'an"April 18
Hebah Fisher and Razan Alzayani (founders of the Kerning Cultures podcast), "Middle East Media and its Role in Shaping our Perceptions"May 4
Tanya Habjouqa (Independent Photographer, NOOR IMAGES), "Challenging established hegemonies: Photography as creative Non-fiction and Nuanced Political Storytelling." -
Fall 2015
September 13 (from 2-3:30pm)
Abdulnabi Alekry (independent journalist), "Civil Society in The Gulf, Potential and Limitations"September 21
Marcel Kurpershoek (NYUAD Humanities Research Fellow), "Syria: Geopolitics and Identity following the Nuclear Accord"September 28
Benny Hary (NYU Tel Aviv), "Judeo-Arabic: The Language of Arabic-Speaking Jews"October 8
Taneli Kukkonen (NYUAD), "Al-Ghazali on Ethics"October 12
Joshua Landis (U of Oklahoma), "Syria, What's Next?"October 14
Laura Kasinof (author/journalist), "Yemen Before the War: An American Journalist in Change Square"October 22
Dale Eickelman (Dartmouth College), “The Modern Face of Identity in Oman.”October 28
Waleed Hazbun (AUB), "The Eclipse of the US ‘Empire of the Air’ and the Challenge of Gulf Airlines"November 5
Daniel Varisco (QU, Director of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies), "Beyond the Failed State: What might the future of Yemen look like"November 11
Fawzia Gilani-Williams (author), "Western Islamic Children’s Literature: Religious-Cultural Hybridization and Empowerment"November 15 (2-3:30pm)
Bader Ibrahim (journalist)," متطلبات التحول الديمقراطي في العالم العربي"November 24
Ahmed al Mukhaini (chairman, SASLO Legal Training Center), ""Evolution of Oman's National Identity, Prospects of post-Qaboos Mutations"December 9
Alexandre Caeiro (Hamid Bin Khalifa University), "Moral Knowledge in Abnormal Times: Islamic law, Social Science, and the Demands of Realism"Spring 2016
February 1
Joseph Lumbard (AUS), “Towards a Transnational Quranic Studies”February 4
Bassam Haddad (George Mason University), “Causes and Implications of the Russian Intervention in Syria”February 11
Moshe Maoz (Hebrew University (Emeritus)) , "Nationalist and Religious Radicalization in the Middle East:the Case of the Temple Mount/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem"February 18
William Gallois (Exeter University), “The New History of Algeria”February 22
Deborah Kapchan (NYU New York), "Slow Ethnography, Slow Activism: Listening, Witnessing, and the Longue Durée"February 24
Najwa Adra (independent scholar), “What Does it Mean to Identify as Tribal in Yemen?”March 8
Timothy Power (ZU Abu Dhabi), “A Newly Discovered Abbasid Site in Buraimi: The 'Lost City' of Tuwam?”March 15
Wendy Pearlman (Northwestern), “Meanings of Protest in Syria”March 28
Edith Szanto (American University of Iraq), "Victims, Hero(in)es, and Pawns: Imagining the Syrian Uprising."April 13
Hanan Al Fardan (al-Ramsa), “Teaching Arabic language to non-Arabic Speakers in the UAE: the Al-Ramsa Institute Experience”April 18
Giuliano Garavini (NYUAD Humanities Research Fellow), "When Oil Prices Fall: the 1986 "Countershock" and its Lessons for Today"April 27
Gaar Adams (Independent Journalist), "Cultural and Environmental Reporting in the Middle East & South Asia" -
Fall 2014
September 18
Rogaia Abusharaf (Georgetown-Qatar), “Migration in Pre-Oil Qatar”September 23
Elizabeth Dickinson (Independent Journalist), “Humanitarian Aid in Syria”October 23
Tariq al-Jamil (Swarthmore College), “Bodily Transactions: The Economy of Marriage, Slavery, and Divorce in Shi’i and Sunni Law”October 28
Ali Alraouf (University of Qatar), “Doha is not Dubai: From Dubaization to Dohaization, A Critical Narrative of Gulf Urbanity”November 5
Helga Tawil-Souri (NYU New York), “Digital Occupation”November 11
Sabrina Joseph (Zayed University), “Law, Society, and the Management of Land and Water Resources in 17th and 18th Century Syria)November 18
Michele Bambling (Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation), “ “Lest we Forget”: Structures of Memory in the UAE”November 25
Mona Abaza (AUC), “The Cotton Plantation Remembered: An Egyptian Family Story”December 4
Mark Cohen (Princeton Emeritus/NYUAD), “Maimonides, Commercial Law, and the Jewish Maghribi Merchants as Portrayed in the Eleventh and Twelfth-Century Documents from the Cairo Geniza”December 11
Najam Haider (Barnard College), “Variations of Resistance: Musa al-Kazim and the Role of Rhetoric in Shii Historiography”Spring 2015
February 4 (A6 1159)
Justin Stearns (NYUAD), "Rational Sciences in Islamic Thought: “Science” in the work of Sufis, Jurists, and Theologians in 17th Century Morocco"February 8 (Institute Lecture)
Valerie Hoffman (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), "Ibadi Islam: Its origins and place in Islamic Thought)February 9 (A6 1159)
Valerie Hoffman (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), "Ibadism and Mysticism: Thought, Practice and Controversy in Modern Oman”February 11 (A6 1159)
Tareq al-Rabei (SOAS), "The Cameleers of the National Spirit: Bidun (stateless) poets and Kuwaiti Literary History."February 26 (A6 1159)
Zachary Valentine Wright (Northwestern University in Qatar), "The Tariqa Muhammadiyya in the 18th Century Islamic World" (co-sponsored by Africana Studies)March 9 (A6 1159)
Ghazi al-Mulaifi (New York University), "Al-Kout and the Sea: An inquiry into the Production of Kuwaiti Maritime Heritage"April 2 (A6 008)
Sultan Al Qassemi (Barjeel Foundation), "Politics in Modern Arab Art"April 9 (A6 1159)
Judith Tucker (Georgetown University in Qatar), "Mediterranean Pirates, Rule Breakers or Makers?"April 15 (A6 1159)
Bill Spindle (The Wall Street Journal), "From 9-11 to ISIS: A personal reporting journey through the Middle East"April 22 (A6 1159)
Feras Hamza (Wollongong University in Dubai)- "Anti-Sectarianism in the Early Muslim Community"April 23 (A6 1159)
Ella Shohat (NYU New York), "The Question of Judeo-Arabic(s)'"April 29 (A6 1159)
Rosemary Admiral (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), "Dramatizing Divorce: Gendered Approaches to the Dissolution of Marriage in Marinid Morocco"May 6 (A6 1159)
Matt Maclean (New York University), "A Spatial History of the UAE: Flows, Infrastructures, and the Emergence of a National Identity"May 11 (Institute Public Lecture)
Toby Matthiesen (Cambridge University), "The Politics of Sectarianism in the Middle East"May 12 (A6 1159)
Toby Matthiesen (Cambridge University), "The Gulf in the Global Cold War: The History of Arab Nationalists and Leftists in the Gulf States". -
Fall 2014
September 16 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Maurice Pomerantz (NYUAD): The Verbal Trade: Maqāmāt, Arabic Literature, and the New ComparatismSeptember 30 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Ilana Webster-Kogen (NYUAD): Music in the Wake of the "Arab Spring": a Politics of PrudenceOctober 8 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Karen Young (AUS): The Emerging Interventionists of the GCCOctober 10
Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Translating Akhbar al-Sin wa-l-Hind (in conjunction with NYUAD Institute)October 22
Akbar Keshodkar (ZU-Dubai): The fight for civilization: Tourism and Islamic Discourse in ZanzibarOctober 28 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Margaret Scott (NYU Wagner, Freelance Journalist): "Islam and Democracy: A Tale of Two Countries."October 29
Research Seminar, "Why is the UAE a Federation?" (Frauke Heard-Bey, Abu Dhabi) (In conjunction with the History Program)November 11 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Justin Stearns (NYUAD), "Plague treatises, Public Health, and Contagion in the pre-modern Muslim Middle East."November 26 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Neha Vora: Branch Campuses in the GulfNovember 26
Neha Vora, "Impossible Citizens: Dubai's Indian Diaspora" (in conjunction with the NYUAD Institute)November 27
Opening of the "Shadows and Skyscrapers" Exhibition on Migrant Labor in Doha, Qatar.
Roundtable discussion with exhibition organizers anthropologist Andrew Gardner and documentary photographer Kristin GiordanoSpring 2015
December 3 [Brown Bag Lunch]
Mohammad Masad (ZU-Dubai): Between Magic and Divination: 'Ilm al-Huruf in Medieval Islamic LiteratureFebruary 3 [Luncheon Lecture]
Nahyan Fancy (DePauw University) : Scientific and Religious Discussions of Generation during the Mamluk periodFebruary 4 [History Program Research Seminar]
Masha Kirasirova (NYUAD): "Arab Communists, Stalinist Subjects: Student Life in Moscow, 1922-33"February 9 (In conjunction with the NYUAD Institute)
Ahmed Kanna (University of the Pacific): "Gulf Urbanism: The Semantic Field of a Category of Space"February 10 [Luncheon Lecture]
Ahmed Kanna (University of the Pacific): "The Imperial Encounter and the Production of Everyday Space in Dubai"February 18 [Luncheon Lecture]
Steve Caton (Harvard University): Oasis, Coast, and Highland: anthropology of water sustainability in the UAE and OmanFebruary 25 [Luncheon Lecture]
Tim Power (ZU - Abu Dhabi): "Qattara Oasis: La Longue Durée in al-Ain, UAE."March 4 [History Department Research Seminar]
S. Irfan Habib (National University of Educational Planning and Education, New Delhi): "Jihad or Ijtihad: Religious Orthodoxy and Modern Science in Contemporary Islam."March 10 [Luncheon Lecture]
Gokce Gunel (Columbia University): “Learning from Masdar City: The Global Horizons of Abu Dhabi’s Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Projects”March 12 [Luncheon Lecture]
Roger Allen (University of Pennsylvania): Muwaylihi, Author of an early 20th Century Arabic ClassicMarch 13 [Institute Event]
Roger Allen in conversation with the Moroccan novelist Bensalem Himmich about the latter's more recent novel A Muslim SuicideMarch 31 [Luncheon Lecture]
Richard Gauvain (American University in Dubai): “'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion': preliminary observations on the nature of Muslim-Christian encounters in Dubai."April 1 [History Department Research Seminar]
Lansine Kaba (Carnagie Mellon University, Doha): 1591 and 2013: The Trans-Saharan Invasions of the Western SudanApril 7 [Luncheon Lecture]
Eric Staples (Director of Maritime Heritage Projects at The Sultanate of Oman): "Preserving Maritime Heritage in Oman"April 22 (Tuesday) [Luncheon Lecture]
Jim Toth (NYUAD): Sayyid QutbApril 28 [Luncheon Lecture]
Jane Bristol Rhys (ZU - Abu Dhabi): Too Close for Comfort? Stereotyping Tales of Sorcery, Seduction, and Secrecy in Abu Dhabi.May 5 [Luncheon Lecture]
Karen Exell (UCL-Qatar): "Museums, memory and modernity in the GCC"