Review: Making Levantine Cuisine
Anny Gaul, Graham Ajman Pitts, Vichi Valosik, eds. Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean. University of Texas Press. Austin: 2021. ISBN: 9781477324585 Noha Fik…
Tag: Middle East
Ep # 92 Emergency Contraceptives & Hymenoplasty: Lisa Wynn on Sexual & Reproductive Health Tech
The Familiar Strange · Ep # 92 Emergency Contraceptives & Hymenoplasty: Lisa Wynn on Sexual & Reproductive Health Tech This podcast contains themes or topics that may be…
Not “just tools”: The framework of equivalence and cochlear implants in Jordan by Timothy Y. Loh
“Should all deaf children learn sign language?” This seemingly innocuous question was the theme of a roundtable article published in the influential journal Pediatrics in 2015, which compiled…
A different perspective on “child marriages” among Syrian refugees in Jordan
By Marina de Regt For years, humanitarian organisations in Jordan and Lebanon have been concerned about the increasing number of “child marriages” among Syrian refugees. While early marriages…
More dangerous research: Anthropologist detained, beaten, forcibly disappeared in Egypt
(Latest update 3.3.2021 – check Amnesty campaign, and PEN America statement – new page Free Ahmed more updates at the end of this post) Not only in Iran…
When research becomes dangerous: Anthropologist facing jail smuggles himself out over snowy mountains
Kareem Ahmady: “I just simply left”. Photo: Ahmady’s website One month ago I have written about anthropologist Kareem Ahmady, who has researched child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM)…
New anthropology show in Arabic: "Anthropology helps us to understand who exploits us – and who we exploit"
Mai Amer: “I really hope the show encourages viewers to reflecting on and critique certain things they think”. Screenshot from her Facebook page How can we better understand…
(updated) Iran jails anthropologist for "subversive research", "seeking cultural changes" and "promoting homosexuality"
Kameel Ahmady. Photo: Kameel Ahmady, Wikipedia 14 years ago I wrote about his website: Visual ethnography and Kurdish anthropology by Kameel Ahmady and Photography as research tool: More…
No Country for Anthropologists?
The conference No Country for Anthropologists? Ethnographic Research in the Contemporary Middle East, which we co-organized and hosted at the University of Zurich in November 2018, addressed major…
The Egyptian Red Crescent in the Twentieth Century #MUHUM
The Egyptian Red Crescent was founded in 1912 by Sheikh Ali Yussuf with a clear Panislamic and anticolonial agenda. In the following decades, however, the organization turned more…
development by Christine Sargent
Umm Adnan,[i] like many women I met during my research on Down Syndrome and kinship in Jordan, was extremely protective of her son Adnan. The youngest of four,…
Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability by Dina Omar
The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability Jasbir Puar Duke University Press, 2017. 296 pages. Jasbir Puar’s second book, The Right to Maim, examines the relationship between life,…
Famine and War in Yemen
By Helen Lackner. The Geneva ‘consultations’ on 6 September between the two Yemeni warring parties failed to happen. According to the media, it was because the Huthis failed…
Reclaiming “Allahu Akbar” from Semantic Pejoration
Allāhu akbar, the Arabic phrase meaning “God is the greatest,” has gained connotations in US public discourse that differ vastly from its meaning among Muslims. Understanding this process…
Omar Dewachi’s Ungovernable Life: Mandatory Medicine and Statecraft in Iraq by Anna Zogas
Ungovernable Life: Mandatory Medicine and Statecraft in Iraq Omar Dewachi Stanford University Press, 2017. 239 pp. Every year, tens of thousands of Iraqi patients leave their country…
Sherine Hamdy and Coleman Nye’s Lissa by Juliet McMullin
Lissa: A Story About Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution Written by Sherine Hamdy and Coleman Nye Illustrated by Sarula Bao and Caroline Brewer Lettering by Marc Parenteau University…
Island by Pamila Gupta
Island. They are meditative, graspable and productive to think with. On the one hand, they are often conceptualized as the beginning of the world, sites of existential and…
Axel Rudi: Independence from Whom? The Aftermath of the Kurdish Referendum
In the future, people will say, “On the 16th of October, it happened again.” The Kurds were once again betrayed by the international community. Afraid of losing their…
Orkideh Behrouzan’s Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran by Dina Omar
Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran Orkideh Behrouzan Stanford University Press, 2016, 328 pages Orkideh Behrouzan’s first ethnographic endeavor, Prozak Diaries (2016), e…
The Refugee in Anthropological Perspective
Over the past decade, we have witnessed new and ongoing crises around the world that have forced many people to uproot their lives in order to seek refuge…
Women in the Middle East Take a Stand
The 2016 edition of the Arab Human Development Report by the UNDP highlighted the challenges of reporting on young women in the region. The report’s authors encountered objections…
‘Ungoverned Spaces’?
by Magnus Marsden **Previously published at Hurst’s blog.** In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Manchester, the term ‘ungoverned spaces’ has returned to the forefront of public debate ab…
John Gledhill: It’s Corbyn’s critics who need the history lesson
This post is part of a feature on the 2017 UK elections, moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (University of Bern). In his very carefully argued speech of…
Trump Echoes Bush in Middle East Visit
President Introduces New Term into Counterterrorism Lexicon President Trump embarked on his first international trip since moving into the White House after a special counsel was appointed to…