Arab Uprisings and Middle East Studies: Roundtable with Beshara Doumani, Charles Hirschkind, Saba Mahmood, and Stefania Pandolfo

This is an audio recording of an informal roundtable on how the recent popular uprisings in the Arab world have impacted research and teaching on the Middle East in the various disciplines.   The roundtable was held on May 2 at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) as part of the Luncheon Seminar, a monthly gathering of faculty and graduate students at UCB who work on the Middle East and North Africa and Islam-related topics.  This roundtable capped five meetings of the Luncheon Seminar during the Spring 2011 Semester, all of which were focused on the impact of the Arab Uprisings on our work and understanding of this region.

Beshara Doumani, Stefania Pandolfo, Charles Hirschkind, and Saba Mahmood, (in that order) spoke for ten minutes each, followed by an open discussion among the faculty and graduate students who attended the Luncheon Seminar on that day (about 30 individuals).  Malihe Razazan, Co-Producer of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (KPFA, Berkeley), and of Your Call (KALW, San Francisco) recorded and edited the event.

It is our hope that these informal and tentative interventions about how we can best understand, study, and teach this region in light of this historical rupture –will be of some use to the listeners.  Comments welcome.

Part 1:

Arab Uprisings and Middle East Studies: A UCB Roundtable (Part 1) by Jadaliyya

Part 2:

Arab Uprisings and Middle East Studies: A UCB Roundtable (Part 2) by Jadaliyya