Mapping the Production of Knowledge on the Arab World: Institutions, Paradigms and the Construction
2-4 July, 2007 (Cairo)
Project coordinator: Hoda Elsadda, Co-Director of CASAW
This international conference, organised in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Culture in Egypt, brought together some prominent researchers from the UK, US and the Arab world to conduct an initial mapping of the production of knowledge on the Arab world.
Delegates looked specifically at dominant paradigms, institutions and the various media for the creation of objects of study. The conference convened at the Supreme Council of Culture in Cairo. Participants included academics and researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Edinburgh, Durham and Oxford in the UK, Cairo, Ain Shams, and AUC in Egypt, the Lebanese University, NYU and the Social Science Research Council in the US. 33 speakers gave presentations that addressed issues in the fields of literature, history, Sufism, sociology, feminism, politics, art, cinema, translation and media.
In addition to speakers, the conference was also attended by approximately another 30 participants who took part in the discussion. All abstracts of presentations were made available to conference participants in English and Arabic prior to the meeting. Presentations were delivered in either English or Arabic and simultaneous translation from English into Arabic and vice versa was provided throughout.
The Proceedings of the conference will be published in Arabic by the Supreme Council of Culture.
Programme
Monday 2 July 2007
11:00- 11:30 Opening session
Chair of the Organizing Committee: Gaber Asfour
Director of CASAW: Robert Hillenbrand
Conference Coordinator and Co-Director of CASAW: Hoda Elsadda
11:30 -12:30 Reception
12:30-2:30 Session I
Chair: Hoda Elsadda
Gaber Asfour: “Trends in the Study of Literature in the Arab World”
Clive Holes: “Translation Contexts and the Translation of Literature”
Paul Starkey: “Western Perspectives on Arabic Literature”
Madiha Doss: “Reflections on Linguistic Thought and Research in Egypt”
2:30-5:00 Break
5:00-7:30 Session II
Chair: Fawwaz Traboulsi
Raouf Abbas: “Rethinking Ottoman History of Egypt: Egyptian Historiography versus Dominant Paradigms of Orientalism”
Tewfik Aclimandos: “Egyptian History about the End of the Monarchy and Nasserism”
Khaled Fahmi: “The Egyptian Historical School: Dominant Themes and Curious Blind Spots”
Qassem Abdou Qassem: “Historical Knowledge in the Arab World: Production or Consumption?”
Emad Abou Ghazi: “Studies of Arab Documents and the Reproduction of Knowledge on the Arab World”
Tuesday 3 July 2007
10:00-12:00 Session III
Chair: Madiha Doss
Nahawand Al Kaderi: “A Reading of Dominant Research Trends on Women and the Media in the Arab World”
Malak Rouchdy: “Rethinking Gender Studies in Egypt: The Exploration of “Masculinities” in the Context of Changing Gender relations”
Katherine Prescott: “Degrees of “Otherness”: Contested Approaches for the Presentations of Arab Women”.
Hoda Al Saadi: “Shifting Paradigm: From Women in Islam to Women of Islam”
12:00-12:30 Break
12:30-2:30 Session IV
Chair: Sahar Sobhi
Zeinab Al Khodeiry: “Contesting Dominant Epistemological Paradigms Through a Historicization of Concepts, Dialogue and Criticism.”
Robert Hillenbrand: “The Teaching of Islamic Art Today: Perspectives and Challenges”
Ayman Shihadeh: “The Current State of the Study of Medieval Islamic Intellectual History”
Hala Fuad: “The State of the Art of Sufi Studies in the Arab World.”
2:30-5:00 Break
5:00-6:30 Session V
Chair: Clive Holes
Mona Baker: “Narrating the Arab World ‘Accurate’ Translations, Suspicious Frames”
Sahar Sobhy: “Travel Literature and Cross-Cultural Communication”
Kamran Rastegar: “Challenges to the Study of the Cinemas of the Arab World”
Wednesday 4 July 2007
10:30-12:00 Session VI
Chair: Khaled Fahmi
Seteney Shami: Studying the Arab World in the United States: Conceptual Frameworks and Institutional Landscapes after 9/11
Maha Abdel Rahman: “Civil Society and the Death of Social Theory”
Mustafa Kamel Al Sayyid: “Building Human Capital in Egypt: The Case of Social Science Research.”
12:00-12:30 Break
12:30-2:30 Session VII
Chair: Mustafa Kamel Al Sayyid
Anthony Gorman: “Minorities: Objects or Subjects of Study?”
Hoda Elsadda: “The “Arab Woman” as an Object of Study: A Critical Analysis of the AHDR 2005”
Fawwaz Traboulsi: “Production of Knowledge: The Case of the Alexandria Charter (2004)”
Reem Saad: “Coping, Resistance and Agency: Stereotyping and Glorification in the Study of Egyptian Peasants”
5:00-7:30 Panel Discussion: New Research on the Arab World in the UKChair: Robert Hillenbrand
Ewan Stein
Fatima Patel
Thomas Aplin
Paul Anderson
Michelle Obeid
Giovanni Bochi
