Welcome from the Director

ME/SA Newsletter 1/1 (Spring 2013) Editor: Shyama Kuver ME/SA Studies Program UC Davis One Shields Ave. Davis, CA 95616

Middle East/South Asia Studies Program University of California, Davis

Dear ME/SA community, On behalf of the members of the ME/SA program committee and ME/SA staff, I would like to welcome you to our first newsletter! Let me start by thanking my predecessors, professors Suad Joseph (2004-09), Sudipta Sen (2009-11), and Flagg Miller (2011-12) for leading ME/SA in such an exemplary fashion and making it the great program that it is today! Our program has been busy as ever this academic year, and as the new director in his first year at the job, I had a hard time keeping up with all the events we organized, the new courses we introduced, and the new resources we created for our community with the help of our staff (including our student staff Geetanjali Vij and Sophia Taleghani), students, faculty, and donors. Our highlights this academic year included two new courses on Iranian Studies that were taught by Dr. Wendy DeSouza, the first PARSA CF Visiting Lecturer in Iranian Studies, a $ 100,000 gift from Ms. Bita Daryabari for our Iranian Studies endowment, and a very generous match from Chancellor Katehi that will help us secure the continuation of this visiting lecturership (more details inside). We are grateful to Mr. Javad and Mrs. Shirin Rahimian for their leadership in the Iranian-American community of the Sacramento region, which attracted Ms. Daryabari to support UC Davis, and which continues to support the Suad Joseph Lecture Series in Iranian Studies that hosted (with Professor Ali Anooshahr’s leadership) Professors Dominic Brookshaw from Stanford and Asef Bayat from Illinois, in addition to our own Dr. DeSouza. Dr. DeSouza also initiated the ‘Iranian Studies Circle’ this spring. Thanks to Professor Suad Joseph’s efforts, Mr. Faris Saeed, the leading supporter of our Arab Studies initiative, visited UC Davis to strengthen the ties of cooperation between his Dubai-based business and our campus. We are grateful to him for increasing his support to ME/SA by adding to his continuing commitment a special gift that will support ME/SA students’ activities. It is also thanks

to him that we introduced new courses in Arab Studies, hosted Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco (with Professor Susan Miller’s leadership), Professor Omar Dewachi from American University of Beirut, Professor Bassam Haddad from George Mason, and the great Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim (with Professor Noha Radwan’s leadership). I should also take this opportunity to thank our advisory board member Mr. Hazem Sharif for his continuing support to ME/SA and Arab Studies. Professor Sudipta Sen is leading our efforts in India Studies with the help of our advisory board members Mridula Udayagiri and Prasad Rampalli. After a series of events at Mondavi in 2011-12, we hosted on May 16 Professor Priti Ramamurthy from University of Washington, Seattle. Her lecture will be followed by a series of talks in Indian and South Asian Studies in the coming years. I am working with the newest member of our advisory board, Dr. Kürşad Kızıloğlu, to develop Turkish Studies at UC Davis. We hosted a talk on Turkish immigrants’ use of the internet in Germany by Kübra Gümüşay, a Turkish-German blogger (which was cosponsored by the British Council), a lecture on Ottoman history by Professor Ali Yaycıoğlu from Stanford, and another one on contemporary Turkey by Dr. Ayça Alemdaroğlu, also from Stanford. With the help of Adam Siegel, ME/SA Reference Librarian, we received a $ 5,000 grant from the Institute of Turkish Studies that will enhance the Turkish collection at Shields. Our close cooperation with Religious Studies (RST) came to fruition in a fall event that focused on Sikhism and Sikh Studies and featured Professor Gurinder Mann from UC Santa Barbara. Since then our RST colleague Professor Mark Elmore and I started exploring the ways in which we could build Punjab Studies at UC Davis. We are lucky to have our program coordinator Gurjit Mann helping us in these efforts. ME/SA and RST are also co-hosting Berkeley Professor Asad Ahmed’s talk, ‘Muslim Rationalist Scholarship in the Pre-Modern Period,’ on June 4.

Dr. Baki Tezcan, Director

For our students, the single most important highlight of the year was the creation of a Student Affairs Officer position in ME/SA. Thanks to our students’ advocacy for the last ten years and our Chancellor’s leadership, Ms. Shyama Kuver joined her colleagues in African American/African Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, and Native American Studies programs to expand the services UC Davis offers to all of its students. With Shyama’s help, we are now reaching out to all students of ME/SA background on campus. Regardless of the major they chose for their undergraduate studies, students with an ME/SA heritage should find a warm, welcoming home at ME/SA and benefit from Shyama’s expertise in counseling, as do all others who are lucky enough to be ME/SA majors, minors, and students! Wishing you all the best for the spring, Baki Tezcan Associate Professor of History, and Religious Studies In This Issue:

• Hear about Dr. Susan Miller’s Experience as a Diversity Fellow

• Catch up with our Founding Director, Dr. Suad Joseph

• Get a ME/SA Student’s Perspective • Meet the ME/SA Student Affairs Officer • ME/SA Program, Event, and Faculty Updates • Building Iranian Studies at UC Davis

Student Photos by Rangeena Salim, 1st Year

I spent the Winter quarter as the Diversity Fellow at the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center. It was very rewarding. The only drawback was that my tenure was so very short, by the time I settled in and felt at home, it was time to leave. I met many students and I was struck by the wide variety of students who came to the CCC and their readiness to engage in events and learn about each other. I was also delighted by the friendliness of the CCC staff; every facility was given to me within this very beautiful building. I was able to get a firm grasp on one sector of the CCC program---the question of Muslim-Jewish relations on campus---and from this I think I can extrapolate a reaction to the rest. A particular strength was the responsibility given to students to shape and direct the program. This was especially true in the area of Middle East programming, where Danna Elneil and Natasha Jha, Campus Climate Coordinators at the CCC, were both keenly engaged, well-intentioned, mature, and hardworking. Natasha, with some help from me, planned and executed a very successful evening meeting on the topic of “Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism.” More than 50 students came and the discussion was calm, friendly and productive. Many questions were asked from both Jewish and Muslim students, and the discussion gained momentum as we came close to the end. I suggest a continuation of this activity in the future, following the same format of inviting especially Muslim and Jewish students to participate. It seems a good antidote to some of the clashes we have had on campus.

History Professor Susan Miller Recalls her Appointment as the Diversity Fellow at the Cross Cultural Center

Dr. Suad Joseph Continues to Build

Her Legacy Around the World

As usual, Dr. Suad Joseph (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, and Women and Gender Studies; Founding Director of ME/SA) has been keeping busy around the world. Building relationships, community sustenance, and educational efforts is a legacy she continues this academic year.

In the Fall, Dr. Joseph gave a key note address at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London at a conference in honor of Deniz Kandiyoti.

Dr. Joseph ran a workshop for graduate students and faculty on writing research for media and public outreach, at the Middle East Studies Association meeting in Denver, CO. She also gave a talk entitled, “What We Have Learned about Women and Gender from the Arab Spring,” at the Middle East Studies Association Plenary Current Events panel in Denver in November.

In the Fall and in the Winter Dr. Joseph also ran two workshops training graduate students from Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine on proposal writing and research design. The training was funded by the Ford Foundation. The workshop was held in Cairo by the Arab Families Working Group of which Dr. Joseph is the founder and coordinator. Dr. Joseph has received a new grant from the Ford Foundation for training faculty from Egyptian public universities in proposal writing and research design. She has also been awarded a grant from the Doha International Family Institute for a state of the art volume on Arab families.

● ● ●

The only drawback was that

my tenure was so very short,

by the time I settled in and felt at home,

it was time to leave.

● ● ●

I am a pre-med third year Genetics major, minoring in ME/SA and Art Studio. As a science major, the list of classes I have to take is endless, but I never once considered sacrificing my passions for my career. Since Freshman Fall quarter, I have been taking Arabic and ME/SA has become my college family. ME/SA has given me the opportunity to belong somewhere in this large university and find comfort in this beautiful community as I venture through my science career. Time and time again, counselors have advised me not to take so many classes outside my major, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The memories and relationships I have made while taking at least one ME/SA class a quarter has fueled my drive to succeed in college. Although it will take me an extra year to graduate, I do not regret the decisions I made by joining ME/SA because they are the sole reason I am doing well in academics. I found my inspirers, guiders, and advisors in the ME/SA staff. Shout out to Usthada Shayma Hassouna and Usthada Manar Shatarat for making UC Davis such an amazing experience for me thus far!

UC Davis Student, Isra Uz-Zaman Tells Us Why She Loves Being in the ME/SA Family

Meet Shyama Kuver ME/SA Student Affairs Officer

It’s incredibly exciting to introduce the Student Affairs Officer (SAO) position into both the ME/SA Studies Program and within the community as a whole. The SAO is here to support students academically, personally and culturally. For me, this means creating and nurturing spaces where students, faculty, and staff can thrive and develop – building a deeper sense of self and of community. I am here to help students achieve in their academic and personal lives. Essential to the SAO role is supporting students as holistically. Not just students of the university but complex individuals with varying priorities, value systems and goals. The challenges students face range from concerns within the classroom, goal setting and time management to coping with the stresses that come with everyday life. I’m here to help students gain leadership opportunities, succeed intellectually, stay healthy and make sense of navigating complicated university structures. I look forward to continuing my work with students, faculty, and staff. Getting to know the unique students of UC Davis has been a tremendous blessing.

During Winter Quarter of 2013 the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program had the privilege of hiring Professor Wendy DeSouza as the very first PARSA CF Visiting Lecturer in Iranian Studies at UC Davis. In addition to teaching two courses in Iranian Studies, Professor DeSouza delivered a public lecture entitled ‘Women In Conflict: Female Masculinities in Modern Iranian History.’ The Lecture was held on February 26th, 2013 at the UC Davis ARC Ballroom. Professor DeSouza explored the changing context and meaning of ‘masculinity’ in Modern Iranian History. The lecture was attended by the UC Davis student community as well as the local Iranian community of the Sacramento & Davis areas.

PARSA CF Visiting Lecturer in Iranian Studies: Dr. Wendy DeSouza

The Suad Joseph Lecture Series in Iranian Studies Welcomes Professor Dominic Brookshaw from Stanford

University

As a part of the Suad Joseph Lecture Series in Iranian Studies, Professor Dominic Brookshaw from Stanford University gave a lecture on January 31st entitled ‘The Allusive Poet: Women's Poetry and the Challenges of the Shifting Attribution in Qajar Iran.’ Professor Brookshaw is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Persian Literature at Stanford and focuses his research on the genesis of Persian wine poetry and its relationship to earlier Arabic wine poetry and women poets in the early Qajar period.

Well-attended by students, faculty and community members, the event took place in the ARC Ballroom and began at 6 pm with a reception. Professor Brookshaw challenged the notion that there were no creditable women poets in Qajar Iran (1779-1925) by providing three examples of women writers during this era and discussing the significance of their poems. All three poems reflect similar lines and motifs and each one is thought to be a molding of the previous one. Brookshaw discussed the possible origins of the first poem, thought to have come from a well-known gazal of Hafez or Saadi, and the unique theme encompassed in each of them. During his stay here, Professor Brookshaw also held various meetings with undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and community members.

Iranian Studies is a rapidly growing segment of the Middle East/South Asia Studies here at UC Davis and includes a lecture series and an Iranian Studies Circle which focuses on student engagement and enrichment. For information on Iranian Studies and upcoming programs visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MESAIranianStudies.

The Prince of Morocco Visits

Davis

Prince Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah of Morocco, Consulting Professor at Stanford University, visited UC Davis to give a lecture entitled, ‘Year Three of the Arab Spring: The Winner, The Losers, and Those In Between’ on February 6th, 2013 at the UC Davis Conference Room, Ballroom A. Professor Moulay Hicham explored the aftermath of the Arab Spring in the Middle East and its effects on those who were involved.

Professor Susan Miller (History) is spending the spring term at the Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge, as a Fellow of the Institute and as a Visiting Fellow of St. Edmund's College. At Cambridge, she is working on her new project on rescuing and humanitarian relief in the Western Maghrib during World War II. She gave a lecture at the Middle East Centre at Oxford University on April 30 on ‘Historiography and Human Rights in Morocco,’ and another at University College London on May 2 on the topic ‘Synagogues, Cemeteries and Street Signs: Memorializing the Jewish Quarter in Morocco.’ On May 13-14, she attended a conference on Jewish Studies in the Arab World at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University where she spoke about ‘Jewish Studies in Morocco in the Aftermath of “Truth and Reconciliation.”’ Professor Miller has been awarded the Norman Rabb Foundation Fellowship from the United States Holocaust Memorial Foundation for 2013-2014 for her research project, ‘Passage to Casablanca: Rescuing and Humanitarian Relief in Morocco during World War II.’ Her new book, A History of Modern Morocco, was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2013.

Professor Susan Miller’s Inspiring Spring

Dr. Sudipta Sen (Professor of History) had a busy summer with a research fellowship for archival work in India (July- October, 2012). It was funded by the American Institute of Indian Studies and the National Endowment for the Humanities last summer for his forthcoming book Imperial Justice: Law, Punishment and Society in Early Colonial North India, 1770- 1830. He and Dr. Ali Anooshahr, Associate Professor in History, also secured a grant from the University of California Humanities Research Institute for a Working Group 'Retracing the Medieval'. Dr. Sen gave a keynote address at the South Asia By the Bay Graduate Conference at Stanford University in mid-May. The title of his keynote address was ‘Confessions of an Unfriendly Spleen: Medicine, Murder and the Mysterious Organ of Colonial India.’

Catching up with Dr. Sudipta Sen

Dr. Baki Tezcan spent 2011-12 on sabbatical in Istanbul. He was a visiting scholar at Istanbul Şehir University with a fellowship from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for most of the academic year. His research during the summer of 2011 and August 2012 was supported by a sabbatical grant from the Institute of Turkish Studies. While in Turkey, Tezcan supervised the publication of the Turkish translations of two books he had co-edited in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He also co-edited a new collection of articles with Gottfried Hagen (University of Michigan): Other Places: Ottomans traveling, seeing, writing, drawing the world: Essays in honor of Thomas D. Goodrich. Dr. Tezcan’s contribution to this collection was an article entitled ‘The Many Lives of the First Non-Western History of the Americas: From the New Report to the History of the West Indies.’ In Istanbul, Tezcan continued working on his two book projects, tentatively titled History as Politics: A Selective History of Ottoman Historiography and Imperial Visions: Africans, Americans, Asians, and Europeans in the Early Modern Ottoman World. He shared his work in nine public lectures and two conference presentations (about half of which were in Turkish) in Ankara, Budapest, Istanbul, and London. His 2010 monograph, The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern World, which was reissued by Cambridge University Press in paperback in 2012, was the topic of four of his lectures and a conference session, receiving a lot of attention and also becoming the focus of a history talk show in Turkey. Dr. Tezcan also collaborated with other Turkish and Turkish-American scholars in launching a blog on academic freedom in Turkey (http://gitamerica.blogspot.com/) and in producing a YouTube video that became one of the most powerful statements in protest of Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan’s declarations about ‘raising a religious generation’ – the video was viewed more than 100,000 times in a week, thus becoming the sixth most watched activism video worldwide in the third week of February 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCXa8rfoEI (with captions in English).

Dr. Baki Tezcan’s Sabbatical in Turkey

Dr. Flagg Miller, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has been awarded a 2013-2014 President’s Faculty Research Fellowship in the Humanities. These competitively selected fellowships support what the UC Humanites Network calls ‘the most compelling research projects of faculty and graduate students across the University of California system.’ Dr. Miller will use the fellowship to complete a book on the figuration of al-Qa’ida under Osama Bin Laden’s leadership.

Catherine Chin, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, had a splendid year! She was named one of seven UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellows for 2012-13; she received an Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Education; and she was awarded a 2013-2014 Burkhardt Residential Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for residency at the American Academy in Rome. The fellowship will support Chin’s continued work on her three-volume project examining the force of language in Christian late antiquity.

Dr. Flagg Miller Receives Prestigious Award

Dr. Catherine Chin’s Splendid Year

Building Iranian Studies at UC Davis

Dr. Jocelyn Sharlet’s Work Appears in Translation

Iranian Studies Circle “Persian Literature” with Jocelyn Sharlet Thursday, May 30th

4 – 5:30 pm Student Community Center, Room A

“The Summit was successful because it enabled students

of many ME/SA affiliated

communities to come together and

have an open discussion on the

real issues we face and how to

overcome them collectively.”

-Danna Elneil, 3rd year International

Relations major

ME/SA Community Summit!

The aim of the ME/SA Community Summit was to take steps towards creating a more supportive and cohesive ME/SA community on the UC Davis campus. The theme, “Strengthening the Fabric of our Communities,” refers to the many threads (identities and identity intersections) that make up our diverse community. We are made up of many just like the scarf, dupatta, and kaffiyeh. All of which are beautiful, as well as, meaningful. It was a reminder that our community needs the strength of each of us to be successful. In line with this year’s theme, many of the workshops were centered around focusing on the self while others were concentrated on the community as a whole. This was because it is important for each person to do self-work so that one can truly make a positive impact on the whole. It is important for each of us to focus on our well-being and the collective, so that we can move forward in life as positive and healthy leaders and allies. The workshops were designed for participants’ academic, personal, and spiritual growth. ME/SA Program Committee members, Dr. Omnia El Shakry and Dr. Flagg Miller presented workshops on graduate school, research, and creating a healthy balance between ethnicity and religion. Dr. Wendy DeSouza presented the keynote address and spoke about the importance of ally-ship within any struggle, both political and social.

ME/SA has been working for six years to build an endowment for Iranian/Persianate Studies. In 2010, ME/SA won the PARSA CF endowment which, together with the donations of Javad and Shirin Rahimian built the basis for the endowment to $325,000. In 2013, a donation of $100,000 from Bita Daryabari of the Bay Area brought that base to $425,000. ME/SA is pleased to announce that Chancellor Linda Katehi has matched that amount with a donation of $450,000 to bring the endowment for Iranian/Persianate studies to $875,000. While ME/SA will continue to build the endowment, the current base will allow ME/SA to annually hire a visiting lecturer/professor to teach four courses a year in Iranian/Persianate studies, in perpetuity. This builds the conditions for the Minor in Iranian/Persianate studies which ME/SA will submit for College review later this spring.

Dr. Sharlet’s (Associate Professor of Comparative Literature) invited contribution to an international conference in Istanbul, ‘Patrons and Other Commitments in Kasides by al-Sanawbari and Kushajim for the Family of the Prophet Muhammad,’ was translated by Michael Douglas Sheridan and appeared in Turkish as ‘Hâmîler ve başka bağlılıklar: el-Sanevberî, Küşacim ve Ehl-i Beyt için yazdıkları kasîdeler,’ in Kasideye Medhiye: Biçime, İşleve ve Muhtevaya Dair Tespitler [Eski Türk Edebiyatı Çalışmaları – VIII], eds. Hatice Aynur, Müjgan Çakır, Hanife Koncu, Selim Kuru, and Ali Emre Özyıldırım (Istanbul: Klasik, 2013).

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Faris Saeed Honors in Middle Eastern and South Asian Literary Non-Fiction

The Faris Saeed Honors have been awarded to the best two essays dealing with any aspect of Middle Eastern and South Asian communities. They were evaluated on the basis of originality of research and conceptualization, cogency of argument and

clarity of writing. Each winner will receive $200 and a Certificate of Achievement.

Our Winners Are: Natasha Qabazard

Considering the Element of Secrecy in Iran’s Rhinoplasty Trend Saliem Shehadeh

The Loss of the Arab Jew

Our Honorable Mentions Include: Mariam Aejaz

Trevor Ceci Werdah Kaiser Brielle Mansell Kira Rienecker

Melissa Stratton Isra E. Uz-Zaman