Suchergebnisse

"We shall have to understand it". - "The regional knowledge now required". - Launching a new field. - Princeton, the ACLS and postwar Near Eastern studies. - A committee for the Near and Middle East. - Field-building in boom times. - "A need for more regular contact". - "The lower parts of Max Weber"

"Zachary Lockman's informed and thoughtful history of European Orientalism and U.S. Middle East studies, the 'clash of civilizations' debate and America's involvement in the region has become a highly recommended and widely used text since its publication in 2004. The second edition of Professor Lockman's book brings his analysis up to date by considering how the study of the Middle East has evolved in the intervening years, in the context of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the 'global war on terror'"--Provided by publisher

"Zachary Lockman's informed and thoughtful history of European Orientalism and U.S. Middle East studies, the 'clash of civilizations' debate and America's involvement in the region has become a highly recommended and widely used text since its publication in 2004. The second edition of Professor Lockman's book brings his analysis up to date by considering how the study of the Middle East has evolved in the intervening years, in the context of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the 'global war on terror'"--Provided by publisher

Our annual meeting this year is distinguished both by its large number of participants and by its intellectual breadth and depth. To me these indicate, as I will be discussing a bit later, that Middle East studies as an academic field, and MESA as the pre-eminent professional organization in that field, are flourishing. But this annual meeting is, I would suggest, also significant because this year, for the first time since 1989, we are meeting outside the United States.

The short answer to the question as posed is, Yes, of course, 9/11 changed the field of Middle East studies. However, the next question we need to ask is, In what ways have the events of 9/11 (and all that they set in motion, in the United States and internationally, including the U.S. invasion of Iraq) actually affected our work as scholars, students, teachers, resource specialists, and so forth, whose primary focus is the Middle East and/or the Muslim world, as well as the institutions, networks, and field(s) with which we are engaged? Space limitations allow me to offer only a few brief thoughts.

During the period of Ottoman rule over the Arab East, from 1516 until the end of the First World War, the term Palestine (Filastin) denoted a geographic region, part of what the Arabs called al-Sham (historic Syria), rather than a specific Ottoman province or administrative district. By contrast, from 1920 to 1948, Palestine existed as a distinct and unified political (and to a considerable extent economic) entity with well-defined boundaries. Ruled by Britain under a so-called mandate granted by the League of Nations, Palestine in that period encompassed an Arab majority and a Jewish minority.