FAMILY HISTORY IN MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES: AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Friday and Saturday, April 7 & 8, 2000 The Heyns Room, The Faculty Club University of California, Berkeley
Despite the constant refrain that the family is the most important institution in Middle Eastern societies, this is the first conference devoted to the newly emerging field of family history in that region. International and multi-disciplinary in scope, this conference explores the variety of approaches to the study of the family. A comparativist perspective and a theoretical dimension are provided by the discussants who are specialists in the history of the family in European, U.S., Latin American and South Asian studies.
Friday, April 7 Registration: 9:00 am Introductory Remarks: 9:30-10:00 am Professor Nezar AlSayyad, Chair, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley Professor Beshara Doumani, History, University of California, Berkeley
Panel One: 10:00am-12:30pm Family, Household, and Gender
"From Warrior Grandees to Domesticated Bourgeoisie: The Transformation of the Elite Egyptian Household into a Western-style Nuclear Family" Mary Ann Fay, History, Sharjah University, UAE "Conjugality and Reproduction in the Ruling House of Nineteenth-Century Egypt: The Transition to Monogamy?" Ken Cuno, History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Syrian Households in Late Ottoman Period: An Introduction" Tomoki Okawara, History, Keio University, Japan "Women's Gold" Shifting Styles of Embodying Family Relations" Annelies Moors, Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands "Immigrant Peasant Families and the Experience of Modernity" Akram Khater, History, North Carolina State University Discussant: David Sabean, History, University of California, Los Angeles
Panel Two: 2:00pm-4:30pm Family and the Economy
"Tribal Family Enterprises and Marriage Issues in Twentieth-Century Iran" Erika Friedl, Anthropology, Western Michigan University "Al-Mahr Zeituna: Production and Family in the Hills Facing Palestine, 1870-1940" Martha Mundy, Anthropology, London School of Economics "Family in Changing Saudi Arabia (I): Substantive Development, ca. 1955-1975" Donald Cole, Anthropology, American University in Cairo "Family in Changing Saudi Arabia (II): The Boom and Afterwards, ca. 1975-2000" Soraya Altorki, Anthropology, American University in Cairo "Elite and Notable Families of Ottoman Hama: Authority, Wealth and Modern 'Tradition'" James Reilly, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto Discussant: Barbara Ramusack, Department of History, University of Cincinnati
Open Reception: 5:00pm-6:30pm Women's Faculty Club Lounge
Saturday April 8 Breakfast: 9:00am Panel Three: 9:30am-12:00pm Family and Islamic Law
"Parents and their Minor Children: Familial Politics in the Middle Maghrib in the Eighth/Fourteenth Century" David Powers, Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University "Text, Court and Family: The Shari`a Court Record and the Discourse of the Family after the Tanzimat" Iris Agmon, Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University, Israel "Adjudicating Family: The Islamic Court and Disputes between Kin in Ottoman Syria" Beshara Doumani, History, University of California, Berkeley "Women in Damascene Families around 1700" Colette Establet, History, IREMAM, MMSH, Aix-en-Provence, France "B-A-S-T-A-R-D Biographies: Inside an Invisible Space" Jamila Bargach, Fellow of the Working Group in Modernity and Islam, Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin Discussant: Linda Lewin, History, University of California, Berkeley
Panel Four: 2:00pm-4:30pm Family as Metaphor
"Celebrating the Nation as a Family: The Mother of the Egyptians" Beth Baron, Visiting Fellow, History, Princeton University "Disciplining Women/Disciplining Men: Family and State in Lebanon" Suad Joseph, Anthropology, University of California, Davis "From al-'ishra bil-ma'rouf" to haqq al-shebab fi-sa'ada: An Exploration of Tunisian Wedding Photographs Across Three Generations" Lilia Labidi, Psychology, University of Tunis "Families, Bodies, Cities: Problems of the Palestinian Family in Bab al-Hutta (Jerusalem)" Martina Rieker, Arab Studies, American University in Cairo "Narratives of Far Away Experiences: Family and Styles of Manhood in an Egyptian Village" Reem Saad, Social Research Center, American University in Cairo Discussant: Carol Stack, Education, University of California, Berkeley