Markets of Civilization:
Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria
A Book Talk with Author Muriam Haleh Davis
Moderated by Bassam Haddad
Cosponsored by the GMU Schar School of Policy and Government, Arab Studies Institute, GMU Center for Global Islamic Studies, and GMU Middle East and Islamic Studies Program
This is a conversation with Muriam Haleh Davis about her new book, Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria (Duke University Press, 2022). In this talk, Davis discusses how the framework of racial capitalism might be expanded to reflect on the history of the French empire in North Africa, as well as the porous boundaries between race and religion in colonial (and post-colonial) Algeria.
Speaker
Muriam Haleh Davis is associate professor in the department of History at UC Santa Cruz. She is a scholar of race, development, and the social sciences in North AfricaHer recent book, Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria, was published by Duke University Press in September 2022. She has also co-edited North Africa and the Making of Europe: Governance, Institutions, and Culture, which was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2018. She published in Journal of Modern Intellectual History, Middle East Critique, the Journal of Contemporary History, Lateral, and 20 et 21: Revue d'histoire. She has also authored pieces for Al Jazeera English, Public Books, and Truth Out. She is on the editorial board of MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project) and works with the Maghreb Page for Jadaliyya as a co-editor.
Moderator
Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding the Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
