Middle East Studies at Brown University presents:
Political Economy and the Economy of Politics: New Directions in Palestinian Studies
Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1, 2014
Joukowsky Forum
Watson Institute for International Studies
111 Thayer Street
Providence, RI 02912
There is now a critical mass of innovative scholars in the US, Europe, and the Middle East who work on Palestine and the Palestinians. The field has grown quantitatively and qualitatively, with new lines of inquiry pushing in several new directions simultaneously. New Directions in Palestinian Studies, a series of annual and thematically organized symposia supported by the Middle East Studies at Brown University in cooperation with other universities and institutes, provides a space for systematic reflection on the fast-paced academic knowledge production on Palestine and the Palestinians. The symposia bring together established and emerging scholars in a low-pressure workshop environment to take stock of research trends, to identify promising new questions and sources, to exchange experiences and insights, and to encourage networking across disciplinary and field boundaries. New Directions in Palestinian Studies, is founded and led by Beshara Doumani.
2014 Theme: Political Economy and Economy of the Political
Palestinian studies has long been shaped by a hot and ongoing conflict and by the special place of the “Holy Land” in the global imaginary. This has resulted in a hyper focus on some areas of research, such as politics and identity; and a general neglect of others, such as political economy and social history. The theme of political economy, broadly construed to include a range of approaches from social history to discursive constructions of “economy,” has been chosen as a focus for the first symposium, because it constitutes an enduring perspective that has recently gained significant traction. Sa’ed Atshan is the coordinator for the 2014 symposium, Molly Ratner is the research assistant, and Barbara Oberkoetter is the program manager.
This year’s symposium is organized and largely funded by Middle East Studies at Brown University. The senior scholars in the program have kindly agreed to pay their own expenses, thus freeing resources for younger scholars. The following institutions also contributed, in a variety of ways, to the realization of this gathering: The Watson Institute, Brown University; the Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University; the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University; Birzeit University; the Institute for Palestine Studies; Muwatin: Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy; Masarat: the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies; and Mada al-Carmel: The Arab Institute for Applied Social Research.
Program
Friday, February 28
8:30–9:00am: Registration
9:00–9:30am: Welcoming Remarks and Introductions
Beshara Doumani, Director, Middle East Studies, Brown University
9:30–11:30am: Critical Reflections on the Political Economy of Palestine
- Jamil Hilal: Palestinian Class Formulation under Settler Colonialism
- Leila Farsakh: The Meaning of Palestinian Economic Development
- Raja Khalidi: Is There a Palestinian Economy?
- Discussant: Sherene Seikaly
11:30am–1:00pm: Infrastructure
- Sophia Stamatopulou-Robbins: Infrastructure and Materiality
- Omar Jabary Salamanca: Hooked on Electricity: The Charged Political Economy of Electrification in the Palestinian West Bank
- Discussant: Mayssun Succarie
1:00–2:30pm: Lunch (for hosts and panelists)
2:30–4:30pm: Land
- Martin Bunton: Frames of reference for the study of land in Palestine
- Munir Fakher el-Din: The Legacy of late Ottoman and British-Mandate land reforms in Palestine, 1858-1948
- Ahmad Amara: Echoes of Legal Pasts: Landed Property Relations in the Negeb, 1858-1948
- Discussant: Jo Guldi
4:30–5:00pm: Coffee Break
5:00–7:00pm: Class
- Mezna Qato: Archives and Class in Exile
- Susynne McElrone: Qaḍā al-Khalil— Commerce, Business, and Livelihoods in the Late-Ottoman Rural Sphere
- Leena Dallasheh: Working for Palestine: Nazareth Labor Mobilization in the 1940s
- Discussant: Zachary Lockman
7:15pm: Dinner (for hosts and panelists)
Saturday, March 1
9:00–9:30am: Registration
9:30–11:30am: The Politics of Economy
Discussant: Beshara Doumani
- Sherene Seikaly: Social Man: Palestinian Capitalists and Economy
- Sreemati Mitter: A History of Money in Palestine: The Case of the Frozen Bank Accounts of 1948
- Samia Botmeh: The Political Economy of Palestinian Women’s Labour Supply: 1920-2010
11:30am–1:00pm: Political Economy of Occupation
- Shir Hever: Privatization of the Occupation: The Core Masked as the Periphery
- Omar Tesdell: Land and the Question of Palestinian Cultivation
- Discussant: Manal Jamal
1:00 – 2:30pm Lunch (for hosts and panelists)
2:30–4:30pm: Political Economy of Peace
- Kareem Rabie: Housing, the Production of the State, and the Day After
- Alaa Tartir: Failing Aid: Towards a Viable Resistance Economy Model
- Mtanes Shihadeh: The Israel Policy towards the “Arab Economy”
- Discussant: Sa`ed Atshan
4:30–5:00pm Coffee Break
5:00pm: End of Formal Program
5:00–6:30pm: Next Steps
Concluding Remarks by Rashid Khalidi, Ilan Pappe, and Beshara Doumani
7:00pm: Dinner (for hosts and panelists)
Special Guests
Nadia Abu El-Haj
Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College
https://barnard.edu/profiles/nadia-abu-el-haj
Lila Abu-Lughod
Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University
http://anthropology.columbia.edu/people/profile/347
Lama Abu-Odeh
Professor of Law, Georgetown University
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/abu-odeh-lama.cfm
Joel Beinin
Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Stanford University
http://history.stanford.edu/beinin_joel
Bassam Haddad
Director of Middle East Studies, George Mason University
http://pia.gmu.edu/people/bhaddad
Elias Khoury
Global Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
http://as.nyu.edu/object/aboutas.globalprofessor.eliaskhoury
Brinkley Messick
Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/faculty/directory/messick.html
Nadim Rouhana
Professor of International Negotiation and Conflict Studies, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Fletcher_Directory/Directory/Faculty%20Profile?personkey=33BCCAC4-D7F6-4D45-A406-95E1A077F864