Doing anthropology everywhere
In August we had posted about anthropologists doing work in dangerous contexts, highlighting the imprisonment of Dr. Homa Hoodfar in Iran. While Hoodfar has been released, her story…
Tag: Middle East
The Conspiracy Theorist’s Conspiracy Theorist?
by Jon Mitchell HyperNormalisation is the new film by Adam Curtis, released on BBC iPlayer on 16th October. As with all his films, it is built around visual…
Review and Interview: Nurturing Masculinities
Nurturing Masculinities: Men, Food and Family in Contemporary Egypt. Nefissa Naguib. University of Texas Press. 2015. Katharina Graf (SOAS, University of London) Nefissa Naguib’s book ‘Nurturing Masc…
Concrete and Livability in Occupied Palestine
By Kali Rubaii, University of California, Santa Cruz § Portland Cement extracts the enduring time of rocks and mobilizes it to build quickly. Through heat, rock[1] is bound with…
#FreeHoma: Anthropologists in dangerous contexts
Anthropology is a discipline that was born out of colonial encounters and systems of power. Anthropologists have historically been complicit in supporting the people, systems and ideas through…
Virtual Roundtable – Mjriam Abu Samra’s response #PoliticalAgency
1. To what extent does the notion of political agency help to understand political change? I should emphasize here that my analysis of political agency is grounded in…
#PoliticalAgency – A Virtual Roundtable
Last May, an international workshop entitled Rethinking political agency in the Middle East: Engaging political anthropology took place in Fiesole at the European University Institute. We published b…
Rethinking Political Agency in the Middle East | Workshop Abstracts
Over the next two days, Allegra will be busy reporting on the international workshop Rethinking political agency in the Middle East: Engaging political anthropology which is taking place…
When It’s Time to Vote, Don’t Boycott Academics – Cut the Purse-strings by Jennifer S. Hirsch
Editor’s note: We received this letter, signed by the authors listed above and by nine anonymous authors, as a reply to our earlier Debate Forum. After far too…
Sensuality and Sexual Topographies in the Middle East and North Africa
Two Lovers by Reza Abbasi, Persian miniaturist 16th century. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons A rich intellectual engagement in matters related to sexuality occupies the histories of the Middle…
Ephemeral Layers: Coffee, Snapchat, and Violence
For decades, ephemeral layers at archaeological sites have been the bane of my existence. The moment I read, hear, or have to confront it at an excavation, my…
God Exists in Yemen, part 2: the Moral Economy of Rizq
This is the second part of a long essay, first part of which was published here. 1.1. The Yemeni Arab Spring: crisis and revolution So how did I…
GOD EXISTS IN YEMEN, part 1: On the meaning of livelihood
If you can rely on God with due reliance, He will provide you with sustenance in such a manner as He provides birds and beasts. (A saying of the…
Rethinking political agency in the Middle East #project
This Allegra focuses on an exciting new feature incorporated into our beloved website a while back: namely Projects! What this feature entails are collaborations – events, even research ventures…
Terror in France and ISIS’ Revolution: Anthropologists try to see the whole picture
(draft, post in progress) More surveillance, more bombs, more border controls, less democracy, less freedom: Europe is reacting hysterically after the deadly terror attacks in Paris one week…
Terror in France and ISIS’ Revolution: Anthropologists try to see the whole picture
(draft, post in progress) More surveillance, more bombs, more border controls, less democracy, less freedom: Europe is reacting hysterically after the deadly terror attacks in Paris one week…
Egypt: Open access to online scientific journals, ebooks and encyclopedias for everybody in the whole country
It does not happen often that there a good news from Egypt where I am still living. This news here, although nearly too good to be true, is…
Egypt: Open access to online scientific journals, ebooks and encyclopedias for everybody in the whole country
It does not happen often that there a good news from Egypt where I am still living. This news here, although nearly too good to be true, is…
Let Your Let Shine #UnitedWeStand #PrayfortheWorld
Let your light shine in the face of terror, hatred, and evil. Only if we stand united in love, will our inner light be able to banish this…
The Paris massacre and the Syrian refugee crisis
Two dramatic events, one unfolding over the last several years, the other a sudden shock, currently eclipse all other issues. Syrians desperate to escape their broken country enter…
Peter Frankopan’s ‘The Silk Roads’ – a talk at Blackwell’s
Yesterday afternoon I went to Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford to see the Byzantinist Peter Frankopan talk about his new book, The Silk Roads, which seems to be…
Peter Frankopan’s ‘The Silk Roads’ – a talk at Blackwell’s
Yesterday afternoon I went to Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford to see the Byzantinist Peter Frankopan talk about his new book, The Silk Roads, which seems to be…
Peter Frankopan’s ‘The Silk Roads’ – a talk at Blackwell’s
Yesterday afternoon I went to Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford to see the Byzantinist Peter Frankopan talk about his new book, The Silk Roads, which seems to be…
18. Political technologists and civil society
By Muzammil M. Hussain This is the eighteenth post in the Freedom technologists series. The following are some passages taken (with permission) from chapter 4 of Hussain, M.…