Arab Studies Journal Announces Spring 2021 Issue: Editors' Note and Table of Contents

Arab Studies Journal Announces Spring 2021 Issue: Editors' Note and Table of Contents

Arab Studies Journal Announces Spring 2021 Issue: Editors' Note and Table of Contents

By : ASJ Editors

Arab Studies Journal

Vol. XXIX, No. 1

Spring 2021


In this issue, we are proud to feature articles that explore the production 
and circulation of knowledge from diverse disciplines and approaches. In “Egyptian Textbooks in Times of Change, 1952–1980,” Farida Makar and Ehaab D. Abdou trace the production and transformation of historical met- anarratives within Egypt’s post-1952 educational bureaucracy. By exploring the bureaucracy as a site of knowledge production, they provide a nuanced portrait of the processes by which changing political contexts inform text- book content. In “Reconceptualizing Algeria in Italy: Amara Lakhous and Leonardo Sciascia,” Claudia Esposito argues that reading these two authors through a transcolonial lens can provide tools to decolonize studies of the Mediterranean. Developing Aldo Moro’s concept of converging parallels, Esposito reveals how Lakhous’s use of the giallo crime novel genre permits new kinds of readings of Algeria and the Maghrib, and new understand- ings of power, corruption, and memory that transcend the national frame. Esposito’s article is the first in a series of articles expounding new approaches to Maghrib studies, assembled by guest editor Brahim El Guabli, which will continue in Arab Studies Journal’s Fall 2021 issue. Finally, in “Arab Critical Culture and Its (Palestinian) Discontents after the Second World War,” Adey Almohsen historicizes the consolidation of a particular understanding of iltizam. By exploring specific Palestinian literary and cultural critics, Almohsen brings to the fore those writers that did not subscribe to that understanding or who otherwise wrote from a different set of concerns they viewed as central to the Palestinian reality. In doing so, Almohsen forces us to rethink the chronologies and categories that have emerged in the historiography to narrate Arab literary and critical output since the Nakba. We are equally proud, as always, to feature a robust and incisive collection of reviews examining the latest contributions to the interdisciplinary study of the Middle East and North Africa.

This Spring 2021 issue marks the third during the COVID-19 pandemic and the second of our co-editorship of Arab Studies Journal. We would like to acknowledge the volunteer labor of the entire editorial team and our network of anonymous reviewers. We are well aware of the burdens, stresses, and dislocations—not to mention physical and emotional toll—the pandemic has inflicted upon our articles, reviews, and administrative sections, both collectively and individually. That our team, external reviewers, and authors have maintained their commitments to Arab Studies Journal and its publication cycle during this difficult time is something we hold dear and do not take for granted. Our success as a journal reflects this joint commitment, even if the responsibility for any shortcomings are our own as co-editors.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Articles


8. Egyptian Textbooks in Times of Change, 1952–1980
Farida Makar and Ehaab D. Abdou

38. Reconceptualizing Algeria in Italy: Amara Lakhous and Leonardo Sciascia
Claudia Esposito

56. Arab Critical Culture and Its (Palestinian) Discontents after the Second World War
Adey Almohsen 

Reviews


84. Spiritual Subjects: Central Asian Pilgrims and the Ottoman Hajj at the End of Empire by Lâle Can
Reviewed by Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky

89. Popular Fiction, Translation and the Nahda in Egypt by Samah Selim
Reviewed by Adéla Provazníková 

94. Feminism and Avant-Garde Aesthetics in the Levantine Novel by Kifah Hanna
Reviewed by Rachel Green

99. Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830-1930 by Judith Surkis
Reviewed by Darcie Fontaine 

104. Mobilizing Memory: The Great War and the Languages of Politics in Colonial Algeria, 1918-39 by Dónal Hassett
Reviewed by Jim House 

109. L’Algérie face à la catastrophe suspendue. Gérer la crise et blâmer le peuple sous Bouteflika (1999–2014) by Thomas Serres
Reviewed by Ratiba Hadj-Moussa

114. The Dynamics of Exclusionary Constitutionalism: Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State by Mazen Masri
Reviewed by Raef Zreik

118. Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation by Fadi A. Bardawil
Reviewed by Nate George

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Now Available at Tadween Publishing in Partnership with Tadamun: "Planning [in] Justice العدالة في التخطيط"

Produced by Tadamun: The Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative, Planning [in] Justice is now available as a single, bilingual report in English and Arabic at Tadween Publishing.

Tadamun launched the Planning [in] Justice project to study and raise awareness about spatial inequality in the distribution of public resources among various urban areas, and to highlight the institutional causes that reinforce the current conditions in Egypt, especially in the GCR. The Planning [in] Justice project compiled publicly-available data, and data available by request, and utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to map a variety of indicators—poverty and education levels, access to healthcare facilities, public schools, population density, among other variables—at the neighborhood level. Whereas previous studies on similar poverty and development measures in the CGR have largely been limited to the district level, Planning [in] Justice captures variations in these indicators at the shiyakha—or neighborhood—level. The project also aims to explore the possibilities for developing urban areas, to analyze the cost and return on public investment in underserved urban areas, and to compare this return with investment in new cities and affluent neighborhoods. We have previously published specific articles and briefs about spatial inequality, but in this document we present a more comprehensive analysis of the topic, drawing from our previous more specific publications. It is our hope that the Planning [in] Justice project will provide decision-makers and the general public with a necessary tool to advocate for, develop, and implement more effective and targeted urban policies and programs.

About TADAMUN: The Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative

The TADAMUN Initiative believes that all citizens have an equal right to their city, as well as a shared responsibility towards it. TADAMUN also believes that solidarity among citizens is the only way to achieve social justice and a decent standard of living, particularly for many who have been ignored for too long. TADAMUN strives to work with all stakeholders as it builds alliances and coalitions to encourage change and introduces realistic alternatives and solutions for existing urban problems. What we need is not more undemocratic and elitist decisions, but for all citizens to claim and demand their urban rights and to devise new urban policies that are more effective, equitable, participatory, and sustainable.

For more on TADAMUN, please visit their website at http://www.tadamun.co/

***

أطلقت مبادرة تضامن مشروع العدالة في التخطيط لدراسة غياب العدالة المكانية من حيث توزيع الموارد العامة بين المناطق العمرانية المخطلفة وللتوعية بهذا الشأن، ولتسليط الضوء على الأسباب المؤسسية التي تكرّس الظروف الحالية في مصر، خصوص خصوصاً في إقليم القاهرة الكبرى. وعمل مشروع العدالة في التخطيط على تجميع بيانات متوفرة للعموم، وبيانات متوفرة عند طلبها، واسخدم المشروع برنامجاً حاسوبياً لنُظم المعلومات الجغرافية لوضع خرائط لمؤشرات متنوع — مستويات الفقر والتعليم، وإمكانية الوصول إلى مرافق الرعاية الصحية، والمدارس الحكومية، والكثافة السكانية، ومتغيرات أخرى — على مستوى الشياخة (وهي أصغر التقسيمات المحلية في النظام الأداري المصري). وفي حين ظلت الدراسات السابقة التي تناولت مقاييس شبيهة للفقر والتنمية في إقليم القاهرة الكبرى محصورة غالباً على مستوع الحي، يتناول مشروع العدالة في التخطيط هذه المؤشرات على مستوع الشياخة (أو المجاورة السكنية). ويهدف المشروع أيضاً إلى تحري إمكانيات تطوير المناطق العمرانية، وتحليل كلفة الاستثمار في المناطق العمرانية غير المخدومة بما يكفي وعوائد هذا الاستثمار، ومقارنة هذه العوائد مع عوائد الاسثمار في المدن الجديدة والأحياء الغنية. وقد نشرنا سابقاً مقالات وإيجازات محددة حول غياب العدالة المكانية، ولكننا نعرض في هذه الوثقية تحليلاً أكثر شمولاَ حول الموضوع، ونستند إلى إصداراتنا السابقة الأكر تحديداً. ونحن نأمل بأن يزود مشروع العدالة في التخطيط صانعي القرارات وعموم الجمهور بالوسائل الضرورية لمناصرة وتطوير وتنفيذ سياسات وبرامج عمرانية أكثر فاعلية.

عن تضامن: مبادرة التضامن العمراني في القاهرة

تؤمن مبادرة تضامن أن لجمية المواطنين حقاً متساوياً في مدينتهم، كذلك مسئولية مشتركة تجاهها، وأث تكاتفهم جميعاً هو السبيل الوحيد لتحقيق العدالة الاجتماعية والحياة الكريمة لسكانها وخاصة الذين طالما تعرضوا للتهميش. وتسعى مبادرة تضامن للعمل مع جميع الأطراف من خلال بناء الشراكات والتحالفات من أجل التغيير، وتقديم بدائل وحلول واقعية لمشاكل عمراننا القائم. فما نحتاجه ليس مزيداً من القرارات التي يتخذها المسئوولون بأساليب تفتقد الحوار والمشاركة، ولكن نحتاج لأن يطالب كل المواطنين بحقوقهم العمرانية وأن يصيغوا معاً سياسات عمرانية جديدة أكثر كفاءة وعدالة واستدامة تضمن إشراكهم بصورة مباشرة في إدارة مدينتهم واتخاذ القرارات المتعلقة به.


            

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