A DISSERTATION WORKSHOP, SEPTEMBER
23-26, 2004
THE DYNAMICS OF CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM SOCIETIES
The Center for Middle East Studies invites applications from U.C. Berkeley
doctoral students in the humanities, social sciences, and professional
schools to participate in an interdisciplinary Dissertation Workshop on
The Dynamics of Contemporary Muslim Societies. The workshop—three
days in the serene environs of the Westerbeke Ranch just outside of Sonoma—will
begin the evening of Thursday, September 23, and run through mid-day on
Sunday, September 26, 2004. It will include twelve students and several
faculty from a variety of disciplines. The costs of the workshop, including
related travel, meals, and accommodations, will be covered by a grant
from the Al-Falah Program of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
WORKSHOP STATEMENT
As has become painfully clear in the U.S. media and popular imagination,
9/11, the Taliban, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq,
and the so-called “war on terrorism” have had the effect of
homogenizing and demonizing both Islam and Muslims. Recognition and appreciation
in the U.S. of the great diversity of Islamic thought and practice, politics
and culture, and the vast diversity and complex dynamics of Muslim communities,
societies, and histories is minimal. The distinctive commitments and experience
of Muslims as one moves across the Muslim world from Southeast, South,
and Central Asia, to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America
are barely perceived. Nor in the U.S. today is there cognizance of the
complex residues and implications of the interactions with Western colonial
and contemporary forces. The occupation of Iraq has brought some recognition
that there are differences among Sunni, Shi’a, and Kurds, but few
Westerners understand what they are, or why, or how they are consequential.
Instead, Muslim communities in Iraq, the Middle East, and world-wide,
are stereotyped, conflated, and denigrated as variously medieval, recalcitrant,
anti-modern, anti-western, representative of a “failed civilization,”
and dangerous.
We know these images are false, deeply problematic, and in many cases
reflect ancient Western Judeo-Christian conflicts with Islam and the Muslim
world going back to the Crusades. We also know that within the university
there are numerous doctoral students whose dissertation projects can help
explicate and counter these dynamics. This workshop is intended as an
opportunity to discuss and strengthen their individual research projects,
and thicken the community of scholars working on these issues. If you
are working on or towards a doctoral dissertation that might contribute
to this effort we hope you will apply to attend the workshop.
ELIGIBILITY AND HOW TO APPLY
The workshop is intended for doctoral students in the humanities, social
sciences, and professional schools who are just beginning to work on these
issues, as well as those in the early stages of dissertation writing.
It will involve intensive discussions of their own and each other’s
projects. It will also provide possibilities for continuing networks among
interested students and faculty.
Applicants need not yet have advanced to candidacy but must have at least
drafted a dissertation research proposal and completed serious coursework.
Funds are not available to bring students to California from other locations.
To apply, please provide the following:
1. Two copies of a current curriculum vitae
2. Two copies of a 6 to 9 page double spaced dissertation proposal written
specifically for this workshop. Alternatively, if the project is well
underway, a description—6 to 9 pages double spaced— of the
specific issues being addressed, the intellectual approach, and the materials
being studied.
Please mail or bring application materials to:
Professor Nezar AlSayyad & Dr. David Szanton
2004 Dissertation Workshop
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
340 Stephens Hall, #2314
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2314
APPLICATION DEADLINE: June 15, 2004
Workshop participants will be selected on the content of the submitted
projects, the potential for useful exchanges among them, and the benefits
of including a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches,
intellectual traditions, historical periods, and world areas or cultures.
For further information about the workshop or eligibility, please contact
Amanda Leung at Amandalb@berkeley.edu.
This workshop is sponsored by a grant from the Al-Falah Program of the
Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
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