An der York St. John University findet vom 16.-18. Juni 2016 eine Konferenz zum Thema „Borders and Beyond in the Middle East since 1914: Legacies, Changes, Continuities“ statt. Die Teilnahme ist kostenpflichtig.
Das Programm (von der Website):
Evening of 16 June: presentation and performance of work by playwrights from the Middle East dealing with World War I legacies in the region (Quad South 015)
DAY 1 (17 June)
09.30 – arrival/registration from 9.30 (De Grey Building, Reception)
10.00 -11.00 Plenary session Toby Dodge , Iraq, World War 1 and the Sykes Picot myth
11.00 – 11.30 coffee/tea
11.30 – 13.00 PANEL 1: BORDERS AND STATE MAKING *
[a] M. Kareem The absence of Kurdistan from the Middle East political map (looks at the making and impact of British policy and its marginalisation of Kurdish issues and interests)
[b] H. Hashi & G. Naseroleslami Analysing Middle Eastern boundaries in terms of compliance with human features (examines a number of borderlines in the Middle East and North Africa as forms superimposed on the ethnic, religious and linguistic features of the human populations)
[c] J. Tejel On the social formation of borders during the interwar era: the case of upper Jazira (considers the lack of impact on international border agreements on local populations, and its variation over time and space, as well as in the views of local populations)
13.00 – 14.00 lunch
14.00 – 15.30 PANEL 2: CULTURE AND INTELLECTUALS *
[a] F.Karaman The impact of World War I on Arab intellectuals’ perceptions of the Ottoman Empire (looks at the emergence of various Arab nationalisms out of earlier Arab intellectual involvement in Ottomanism)
[b] E. Chiti After the empire, before the nation: universal disenchantment in Alexandria 1911-1922 (explores the ideas and anxieties expressed in Egyptian writing during a time of transition from late Ottoman to new nationalist politics)
[c] ] B. Gonzalez Fernandez The spiritual border: Arabism and Lebanism before the 1975 civil war (examines the political culture of various Lebanese groups in the period 1968-75)
15.30 – 16.00 tea/coffee
16.00-18.00 PANEL 3: IDEOLOGIES, STATES, AND NATIONS *
[a] B.Cakir The Ottoman call to jihad and its aftermanth: entangled histories in the Middle East (looks at relationships between Islam, ideologies of Turkism and the Ottoman state)
[b] I.Pappe & F. Amoruso Partition and peace in the service of settler colonialism: revisiting the Oslo process (reflects on recent legacies of settler colonialism and Zionism)
[c] M.Rey Allegiance, citizenship and nationality: how people belong to the state (takes the case of Syria since the 1920s to consider the changing bonds between Syrian people and the state)
[d] D. Saber & N. Webber Ideology, history and resistant video games in the Middle East (considers how video games featuring Hezbollah and “ISIS” challenge dominant accounts of the Middle East, but in doing so also reinforce them)
c. 19.00 dinner followed by Middle Eastern musical entertainment
DAY 2 (18 June)
9.30 – 11.00 PANEL 4 : ORAL AND GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVES *
Roger Hardy – The oral history of imperialism: Britain and the Palestine mandate (explores what oral histories can tell us about colonial attitudes and relations between Arabs, Jews, and Britons in the mandate period
Joanna de Groot Who should we be studying? Or, how to think about the legacies of World War I in the Middle East (considers how focussing on people without power or influence might change our stories about, and understanding of, developments in the Middle East since 1914)
11.00 – 11.30 coffee/tea
11.30-13.00 PANEL 5 : ART AND POLITICS *
[a] J.Black ‘Who are these Arabs?’: constructing an idea of the “true Arab” in Eric Kennington’s portrait series for Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (looks at British imaginings and perceptions of Arabs through this visual material and its later influence)
[b] D. Nott Mark Sykes, the Armenians, and the ‘Turkish room’ at Sledmere (examines connections between Sykes, the Armenian genocide and the creation of a room decorated with ‘oriental’ tilework at Sledmere)
[c] J.Wedgbury Different perspectives: archaeology and the Middle East in World War I (discusses a current museum project to present the involvement of the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie and other archaeologists in World War I)
13.00 – 14.00 lunch
14-00-15.30 CHOICE OF TWO ALTERNATIVE PANELS
EITHER PANEL 6a : PUBLIC HISTORY AND THE LEGACIES OF WORLD WAR I *
[a] A. Wrenn Teaching “British values” through the First World War and the Middle East (looks at how teaching about the British Indian Army in the Middle East might or might not be used to promote “British values”, or to engage with “extremist” views)
[b] D.Marchant The East Riding Yeomanry in Egypt and Palestine 1915-18: combat experience and civilian interaction (examines the work of the East Riding Museums Service studying and presenting the rich sources about this regiment and its activities)
[c] J. Hammond A Briton on the Tigris: a diary record of trans porting men and medicine during World War I (explores the experiences of the author’s grandfather who was engaged in this activity)
OR PANEL 6b : INTERNATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES *
[a] G. Kay British policy on oil in the Middle East: laying foundations for security and a strong economic future (considers the key role of oil in British government policy during and after the First World War, linking private enterprise, state interests and concerns with international security)
[b] S. Nutt Dreaming the “world state”: the Balfour Declaration, the mandate for Palestine and the imagined community of the settler revolution (takes a transnational approach to the growth of Zionism, looking at the role of settler experiences in Australia and North America and of international institutions in shaping a new nationalism)
[c] T. Povey Contentious histories of nationalism in the Middle East: considers the importance of transnationalism and internationalism in the work of Middle Eastern political and intellectual movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
15.30 – 16.00 tea / coffee
16.00 -17.30 PANEL 7 : PERSONALITIES AND STATE MAKING *
[a] A. Dokter ‘For its own purposes’: how British policy makers adopted and altered Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s vision of the Middle East (discusses how the orientalist and anti-imperialist Blunt influenced post 1914 British Middle East policy makers and early Arab nationalists)
[b] W.Koehler The construction of the Iraqi state in1921 and its reconstruction after 2003 comparing the roles of Gertrude Bell and Emma Sky (compares the activities and influence of these two women ‘advisors in relation to their respective British and American superiors and to politics in Iraq)
[c] N. Bosanquet & A. Denny Sir Mark Sykes: conflicts of loyalty – politician or Middle East expert ? (examines the varied career of Mark Sykes as MP, imperial trouble-shooter, patriot and landlord)