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42. Transforming Futures in Palestine
- Author:
- Steven Keller
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- As a MAAS student in the mid-90s reading Sara Roy’s important book, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development, little could I have imagined that I would one day have the opportunity to spend more than a decade (and counting) leading the Palestine portfolio of the respected education organization AMIDEAST. Nor could I have imagined that the grim picture of Gaza painted by Roy’s comprehensive research would seem so much better in so many ways than the Gaza that I encountered at the start of my tenure here in 2006—or how much worse it has become since then.
- Topic:
- Education, Children, Youth, and Higher Education
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Palestine, and Gaza
43. Celebrating the Cultures of the Excluded
- Author:
- Kristina Bogos
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Amidst the rising anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, Muslim children in the Washington DC area took a stand this spring in an unconventional way: the expression of their cultures through song, poetry, and dance at Arena Stage in the Mead Center for American Theater.
- Topic:
- Culture, Refugees, Immigrants, Trump, and Protests
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and United States of America
44. Partnering for Solutions
- Author:
- Vicki Valosik
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- CCAS, in partnership with the University of Kurdistan, brought together 40+ researchers this spring to discuss durable solutions to forced displacement in Iraq. Iraq has suffered from massive internal displacement for several decades, but with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) the numbers of those displaced have grown drastically. More than three million Iraqis—or ten percent of the country’s population—currently live as internally displaced persons (IDPs). In an effort to address this crisis, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) and the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown recently joined efforts with the University of Kurdistan, Hawler (UKH) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to host the conference “Migration and Displacement in Iraq: Working Towards Durable Solutions.”
- Topic:
- Migration, Islamic State, Displacement, Kurds, and Higher Education
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Middle East, North America, and Kurdistan
45. What Post-WWII Schoolchildren Learned about the World
- Author:
- Susan Douglass
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- A look at the role of textbooks in shaping worldviews, global literacy, and national pride. The middle of the twentieth century was a watershed period in history for many reasons, with one of the most significant being the rise of mass education systems across the world. As Britain shed its colonies, newly independent countries with influential leaders launched efforts to educate their masses—efforts that had been held back under colonial rule. India and Egypt, under Nehru and Abdel Nasser respectively, began using government schools to strive for social integration and mold their citizens’ worldviews to enlist them in national economic development and modernization. Britain, too, launched a much-needed expansion of its secondary education system and revamped its elementary schools to meet the demands of the postwar baby boom.
- Topic:
- Education, Nationalism, History, and Children
- Political Geography:
- Britain, Europe, South Asia, Middle East, India, and Egypt
46. Rapid Response
- Author:
- Azza Altiraifi
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Following the Trump Administration’s “Muslim Ban,” CCAS hosted rapid response town hall meetings to discuss the impact of the Executive Order.
- Topic:
- Immigration, Refugees, Trump, and Higher Education
- Political Geography:
- Syria, North America, and United States of America
47. Digitizing Refugees: The Effect Of Technology On Forced Displacement By Timothy Loh
- Author:
- Timothy Loh
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Recent technological advances have brought with them a swath of benefits for displaced persons fleeing their country of origin. Relatively cheap mobile devices have made it easy for refugees today to keep in touch with each other and with their families over large distances using instant messaging or video-calling services. These capabilities provide refugees with a larger social network, and may prove especially important to those not as well-integrated into their host communities, such as Somali refugees in Jordan. Improved formal wire transfer systems and informal banking systems have also eased the sending of monetary remittances, a crucial aspect of social ties between refugees and their families in the homeland, who use the money for immediate subsistence needs as well as social functions. Transnational social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter have, in some cases, also benefited refugees, often in raising awareness of the refugee crisis.
- Topic:
- Migration, Science and Technology, Refugees, Internet, and Displacement
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and United States of America
48. The Revolution Turns Five: Faculty reflections on the fifth anniversary of the Arab uprisings
- Author:
- Fida Adely, Michael Hudson, Joseph Sassoon, Noureddine Jebnoun, Marwa Daoudy, Emad El-Din Shahin, and Rochelle A. Davis
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- In this fifth year anniversary of the Arab revolts or “Arab Spring,” we might ask ourselves “what has changed in the region?” Given the conflicts raging in the Arab world as we speak, many have concluded that the revolts failed, or that rather than bringing “progress” they have pushed us back—entrenching authoritarianism, displacing millions, exacerbating sectarian differences, etc. But such conclusions reflect a short view of history and a truncated understanding of change. More troublesome, they can fuel a view of the region as unchanging, stagnant, and even backward.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Social Movement, Economy, Arab Spring, Youth, Syrian War, Revolution, and Counterrevolution
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Libya, Arab Countries, Syria, North America, Egypt, and Tunisia
49. The Politics of Reading: CCAS's Qatar Postdoctoral Fellow reflects on the uses of literature as a tool for cultural understanding
- Author:
- Elizabeth Kelley
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Oh, I just loved The Kite Runner,” people in North America sometimes tell me when I explain what my research is about: the translation and circulation of Arabic novels in English. In these cases, the individuals, who are not usually scholars or students of Arabic or the Arab world, go on to explain how much they enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s novel, how they felt it helped them to learn about life in Afghanistan and what it was like to grow up there. In some ways, The Kite Runner is quite far from my research topic, given that the novel was written in English, was not translated from any language, and that the author had been living in the United States for decades prior to writing it. Not to mention that Arabic is not the language of Afghanistan, and although it is part of the Muslim world, Afghanistan is not generally considered part of the Arab world. Thus, linking Afghani literature with literature of the Arab world may rely on collapsing regional, linguistic, and cultural differences under the undifferentiated sign of Islam.
- Topic:
- Research, Literature, Higher Education, and Translation
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Middle East, and Arab Countries
50. How Sectarian Conflicts Overtook the Arab Spring
- Author:
- Alexander Henley
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Reflections on the problem of sectarianism in the wake of the Arab Revolutions from CCAS’ inaugural American Druze Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Why has Sunni-Shi’i sectarianism become the leading issue of debate in Middle East politics over the last few years? Led by rival Sunni and Shi’i theocracies, Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively, the region seems to have fallen into opposing camps in a sectarian cold war. Along the fault-lines in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain, Sunnis and Shi’is are fighting for supremacy, backed and incited by coreligionists across the region. The Middle East is in a lamentable state, but this is not— despite what we are increasingly told by news media and political leaders—its natural state. The Middle East’s problems are not “rooted in conflicts that date back millennia,” the excuse President Obama used to explain away foreign policy failures in his final State of the Union address. Phrases like “ancient conflict” or “deep-rooted hatreds”—heard more and more commonly—do not explain the actions of our contemporaries in the Middle East any more than they do yours or mine. And they certainly don’t explain why sectarianism, which emerged as a central feature of regional politics only in the past decade, is so new.
- Topic:
- Islam, Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, Ethnicity, Arab Spring, and Protests
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arab Countries, and North America