MESA 2008 Volunteer Panel Chairs

The MESA Secretariat invites members to volunteer their services as chairs of put-together panels (the panels that were assembled from individual paper submissions). If you are interested in participating as a panel chair, complete review the list of available panels and submit the form below.

Current MESA membership and annual meeting pre-registration are required to participate in the annual meeting and be listed in the program. Only persons meeting those requirements will be assigned chair positions.

Once assigned a chair position, you will receive via email a formal letter of invitation along with the abstracts of the papers that comprise the panel. A little closer to the meeting, we will contact the panelists on your panel to introduce you as chair and to ask them to send you a courtesy copy of their paper.

Positions are available on a first-come, first-served basis, although we do give priority to persons not already appearing on the program elsewhere.

Chair responsibilities: The chair is responsible for introducing each of the panelists, monitoring the time for their presentations, and insuring that the panel ends promptly at the scheduled time. The chair is asked to facilitate the discussion session, not by providing commentary about the papers, but rather by opening the floor to questions for the panelists. Each presenter will be expected to give a 15-20 minute presentation (depending upon how many papers there are on a panel), and each session will last for a maximum of two hours. Because "put-together" panels sometimes include papers on disparate topics that would be difficult to synthesize, MESA does not assign discussants to them.

Requirements for program participation:  Please remember, participation in the MESA annual meeting is restricted to MESA members. Current MESA membership and annual meeting pre-registration are required to participate.

Please volunteer only if you are certain that you will be able to participate. It is difficult to reassign chair positions as the meeting approaches, and it is a disservice to panelists when a chair cancels at the last minute.

Please direct panel chair questions to Mark Lowder at mlowder@u.arizona.edu. MESA greatly appreciates the services of volunteer chairs!

Session III
Sunday, November 23
11:00am-1:00pm

(NP33) Middle East Economics and Finance

Robert Olson, U of Kentucky–Turkey’s Relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), 2003-2007: A New Paradigm
Sema Kalaycioglu, Isik U– GCC and the Turkish Economy
Akli Khenous, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor–Evaluating the 1980s Algerian Economic Reforms and Their Impact on Unemployment and Economic Growth
Brian Mann, U of Texas at Austin–Arab Tribes and Persian Communists: The Abadan Oil Workers’ Strike of 1946
Kristin Smith Diwan, American U–Islamic Finance and Islamist Mobilization in the Petro-Welfare States

Session IV
Sunday, November 23
2:00pm-4:00pm

(NP59) Comparative Perspectives on Egypt

Martin Bunton, U of Victoria–Land Settlement in Egypt and Palestine: The Transformation of Colonial Land Regimes in Comparative Perspective
Amr Ismail Adly, European U Inst–State Elites and Developmental State Building: Cases of Egypt and Turkey (1980-2005)
Erin Snider, Cambridge U–The Political Economy of Democracy Assistance in the Middle East: A Critical Analysis of US Efforts in Egypt since 1990
Khaled Helmy, Tulane U–Islamism Beyond Democracy & Theocracy: The Silent Impact of the Electoral Inclusion of Islamist Parties on Church-State Regimes
Sebnem Gumuscu, U of Virginia–Comparing Moderations: Why Cannot the Muslim Brotherhood become the Justice and Development Party?

Session V
Sunday, November 23
4:30pm-6:30pm

(NP07) Contemporary Ethnography from the Middle East

Sami Hermez, Princeton U–Why We Kill: Lebanese Fighters in Everyday Life
Kate McClellan, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor–Artful Marketing: The Aesthetics and Captivation of Marketplace Display in Damascus, Syria
Laila Azem, U of Muenster, Germany–A ‘Society of Wives Without Husbands’
Dana Hercbergs, U of Pennsylvania–Teenage Culture and Identities of Place, Nationality, and Religion in Jerusalem/al-Quds
Farha Ghannam, Swarthmore Col–Death Without Notice: The Meaning of Good Endings in Urban Egypt
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego–The Muharram Mystery: The Vision of Fatimeh in the Arab-Iranian Community of the Port-City of Bushehr

(NP08) Islamicization in Egypt and Turkey

Hayal Akarsu, New York U–Ottomanism in the “Globalized World”: Transnational Muslim Identities and Formation of a Global Ummah in the Recent Turkish TV Program, “Ramadanization of the World”
Hazem Kandil, UCLA–Limits of Counter-Hegemonic Strategies: The Case of Islamization in Egypt, 1982-2007
Kurtulus Cengiz, Abant Izzet Baysal U–Religion, Industrialization and Social Change in Turkey: The Concept of Calvinist Islam, an Oxymoron?
Samuel Harris, Georgetown U–Amr Khaled’s Life Makers and the New Social Contract in Egypt
Shadaab H. Rahemtulla, Oxford U–Private versus Government: Mosques, Political Protest, and the Ulama in Modern Egypt

(NP45) Arab-American Political Engagement

Saeed Khan, Wayne State U–The 2006 Lebanon War and the Emergence of New Constructions of Arab Nationalism & Identity among Lebanese Americans in Metropolitan Detroit
Emily Regan Wills, New Schl for Social Research–Visuality and Politics in Arab New York: Community and Representation
Angelica M. DeAngelis, Arab Open U Kuwait–Where’s the Beef?: Arab American Literature since 9/11
Ihsan Alkhatib, Wayne State U–Arab-American Political Participation: Role of Country of Origin and Religious Affiliation in Explaining Voting, Campaign Contributions and Contacting Government Officials

(NP47) Jordan, Still at the Crossroads

Avshalom Rubin, U of Chicago–A Very Narrow Bridge: Israel, Jordan and Arab Summitry, 1964-1965
Amal A. Kandell, Cairo U–The US-Market-Oriented Qualifying Industrial Zones in Jordan: Socioeconomic Realities and Scope of Benefits
Victoria Mason, Lancaster U–Jordan on a Tightrope: The Impact of the 2003 Occupation of Iraq on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Zaid Eyadat, U of Jordan–Explaining Political Liberalization in Jordan

(NP54) Islam and Secularism in Turkey

Amelie Barras, London Schl of Economics–Re-Inventing Secularities
Basak Ozoral, McGill U–Religion and Capital: The Case of Islamic Entrepreneurs in Turkey
Gozde Yavuz, Sabanci U–A Comparative Study of Islamist Press in Turkey on the Headscarf Issue
Itir Bagdadi, Izmir U of Economics–From Emancipation to the Headscarf Protests: The History of the Divided Turkish Women’s Rights Movement

Session VI
Monday, November 24
8:30am-10:30am

(NP12) Royalty in the Middle East

Brian Ulrich, U of Wisconsin–Eastern Arabia in the Sassanid Period: New Perspectives
Rafi W. Mottahedeh, U of Chicago–The Timar and Mülk: Terminologies, Legalese, and Feudalism in Literature on the 15th and 16th Centuries
Emily Burnham, New York U–Alexander and Al-Andalus in the Medieval Islamic Geographical Imagination
Hazel Antaramian-Hofman–The Royal Portrait of King Gagik-Abas, Queen Goranduxt, and Princess Marem: What Was Its Purpose?
Patrick Wing, U of Redlands–The Construction of Royal Authority in the Post-Mongol Middle East
Mohammad Gharipour, Georgia Inst of Technology–The Chaharbagh Pattern: An Analysis on the Development from the Achaemenid Gardens in Persia to the Mughal Gardens in India

(NP39) British Colonialism in the Middle East

Jeffrey W. Dyer, Georgetown U–Desert Saints or Lions without Teeth: The British Perceptions of Bedouin Masculinity in 19th Century Arabian Peninsula
Richard Cahill, Berea Col–“Black and Tans” in Palestine?
Doaa Adel Kandil, Helwan U-Egypt–Zefta: The Forgotten Republic
Nurfadzilah Yahaya, Princeton U–British Colonial Law and the Hadhrami Diaspora
Arturo Marzano, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna–Anti-British and Anti-Semitic Propaganda in the Arab World as a Tool of the Italian Fascist Policy in the Middle East
Zeinab A. Abul-Magd, Georgetown U–A Lady and the Rebels: Empire and Revolt in Upper Egypt, 1860s

(NP43) Social Movements and Mobilization

Anne Alexander, SOAS, U of London–Social Movements and the State after the July Revolutions in Egypt and Iraq
Joseph W. Roberts, Roger Williams U–Social Movements in the Middle East as a Rentier Phenomenon
Fernando Carvajal, U of Exeter–Political Mobilization in Revolutionary Upper Yemen, 1961-1978
Kristian Alexander, U of Utah–Revolutionary Turmoil and the Potential for Revolution: Comparing Iran and Saudi Arabia
Helga Baumgarten, Birzeit U–Muslim Brothers, Authoritarian Governments and the Quest for Democratic Transformation: The Case of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority Controlled by Fatah, 2004-2008

Session VII
Monday, November 24
11:00am-1:00pm

(NP26) Narratives of Incarceration and Escape

Marco Boggero–Omar al-Mukhtar and the Construction of a Martyrdom Narrative: Shakib Arslan and the World Islamic Congress
Nima Naghibi, Ryerson U–The Politics of Compassion: Iranian Women’s Prison Narratives in English
Nadine Sinno, U of Arkansas–Prison, Madness, and Women’s Space in Two Contemporary Arabic Novels
Amalia Skarlatou Levi, U of Maryland–Memory Keepers, Identity Shapers: Tracing Sepharic Women in American Archives
Zjaleh Hajibashi, U of Virginia–Iranian Cinema: Behind the Bars

Session VIII
Monday, November 24
2:30pm-4:30pm

(NP63) Making and Unmaking States

Yektan Turkyilmaz, Duke U–The Route from Conflict to Catastrophe: The Violent Collapse of Coexistence in Eastern Anatolia, November 1914-April 1915
Mansour Nsasra, U of Exeter–Resistance to Middle Eastern States: The Negev Bedouin under the Rule of the Ottoman and British 1900-1948
Helen M. Rizzo, American U in Cairo and Katherine Meyer, Ohio State U –The Dynamics of Conflict Cycles: The Middle East in the 1990s
Sarah Washburne, U of Exeter–Sudanese Identity Crisis?: A Discourse Analysis of the Problem of Legitimacy of the Bashir Regime since 1999

(NP66) Balkan Themes in Ottoman History

Cenk Palaz, Columbia U–Young Turks and Irregular Armed Forces in Late Ottoman Macedonia, 1902-1908
Zeynep Atademir, EHESS–Epidemic Diseases in the Balkan Wars: Studying Cholera and Its Social Effects in Edirne 1912-1913
M. Fatih Calisir, Bilkent U–“I Want To Marry A Janissary!”: Social Change in the Ottoman-Habsburg Frontier (ca. 1570-1670)
Nikolay Antov, U of Chicago–Patterns of Demographic and Ethno-Religious Change in the Rural Countryside in the 16th Century Northeastern Ottoman Balkans: Turkoman Colonization and Conversion to Islam

Session IX
Monday, November 24
5:00pm-7:00pm

(NP27) Teaching Arabic in an English Context, Teaching English in an Arabic Context: Pedagogical Issues

Jeremy L. Palmer, U of Arizona–Student Perceptual Change Regarding Spoken Arabic after Living in Country: New Data about Acculturation and Linguistic Competence in Study Abroad Programs
Ilham Nasser, George Mason U–Teaching and Learning under Occupation: The Case of English Language in Palestine
Gerald E. Lampe, National Foreign Language Center–Culture Proficiency Guidelines, Testing, and Training with an Arab Culture Focus
Wagih Elgohary, DLI–The Practice of Teaching: Teaching philosophy and assumptions as related to Defense Language Institute

(NP57) In and About Palestine

Suheir Daoud, Harvey Mudd Col–The Palestinian Trapped Minority in Israel and July War 2006
Omar Tesdell, U of Minnesota–Development, Religion and Modernity in Israel-Palestine
Timothy Seidel, Mennonite Central Committee–Development, Religion and Modernity in Israel-Palestine
Polly Pallister-Wilkins, SOAS, U of London–The Wall as a Representation of Power in Israel and an Alternative Discourse
Adina Friedman, George Washington U–Unraveling the Right of Return
Ghada Al Madbouh, U of Maryland–“Coexistence with Them is Possible but Partnership is Not”: An Inquiry into the Struggle between the Palestinian Authority Fatah’s Elites and Hamas over Governance

(NP67) Historiographies

Will Smiley, U of Cambridge–Interest and Identity Formation in Eighteenth Century Syria
Nahid Mozaffari, New York, NY–The History of Slavery in Iran: Methodological Problems and Gaps
Tia Wheeler, U of St. Andrews–Early Timurid Historiography
James M. Gustafson, U of Washington–Performing Cultural Eliteness in Qajar Kerman
Michael J. Reimer, American U in Cairo–An Egyptian Nationalist’s View of Ottoman History and Young Turk Politics: Muhammad Farid’s Tarikh al-Dawlah al-`Aliyah al-`Uthmaniyyah

Session X
Tuesday, November 25
8:30am-10:30am

(NP15) Religious Authority Contested (I)

Denise A. Spellberg, U of Texas at Austin–‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr: ‘The Battle of the Sandals,’ or the Debate over the Political and Other Precedents of the Prophet’s Wife in the Last Two Decades
Gavin Brockett, Wilfrid Laurier U–Buyuk Cihad and the Origins of the Turkish Islamist Press
Meir Hatina, Hebrew U–The Governance of the Jurist: A Sunni Version
Henri Lauziere, Princeton U/Northwestern U–The Origins of Salafism as a Concept and a Label
Ahmed Ibrahim, Georgetown U–Jamal al-Banna’s New Jurisprudence: A Quranist Approach to Legal Reform?

(NP23) Allegory and Metaphor in Classical Arabic Literature

James T. Monroe, UC Berkeley–Some Remarks on The Book of Kalila wa-Dimna
Ailin Qian, U of Pennsylvania–The Maqâma of Poesie and the Talking Parrot
Annie C. Higgins, Wayne State U–Verse and Obverse: Qatari’s Coin and the Economy of Living
Ching-Jen Wang, U of Pennsylvania–The Trickster in Hamadani’s Maqamat-a Jungian Reading
Thomas H. Hefter, U of Chicago–Undermined Pseudonymity and Self-Parody in the Works of al-Jahiz

(NP48) State and Society in Egypt

Evrim Gormus, U of Washington–Amr Khaled: From Islamist Polity to Personal Piety
Asya El-Meehy, U of Toronto–Negotiating Retrenchment in Egypt: An Analysis of the Social Fund
Omneya Ragab, American U in Cairo–Corporate Social Responsibility: An Engine for Sustainable Development or a Legitimate Conservation of the Status-quo?
Kevin Koehler, U of Tuebingin and Jana Warkotsch–The Politics of Protest Mobilization in Egypt: Kifaya, Worker’s Strikes, and the Dynamics of Contentious Action
Yasser El-Shimy, Boston U–Castles of Sand: The State, the Ulama and Society in Modern Egypt

(NP49) Islamism and Secularism in Turkish Politics

Sena Karasipahi, Texas A & M U–Islamist Politics and the Rise of the “Muslim Democrats” in Turkey: The Case of Justice and Development Party
Feryaz Ocakli, Brown U–Moderate Islam and Kurdish Politics: Political Party Strategies in Eastern Turkey
Kerem H L Oktem, St. Antony’s Col, U of Oxford–Limits of Tolerance: The AKP and the Alevis
Ete Hatem, Middle East Technical U–Performing Islamist Politics in a Secular State: The Case of AKP in Turkey
Tolga Koker, Yale U–Caught In-Between: Islamists, Secularists and Turkish Public Opinion

(NP51) Global Communications and Public Diplomacy

William L. Youmans, U of Michigan–Reporters with Borders: US Media Coverage of Al-Hurra and Public Diplomacy in the War on Terror
Foad Izadi, Louisiana State U–Soft Power Factors in US-Iran Relations
Hatim El-Hibri, New York U–We’re All American under the Skin: Reality TV and Cultural Diplomacy
Hayat Alvi-Aziz, US Naval War Col–The Risks of Dependency on the US in the Use of Medical Diplomacy in the Middle East
Yesim Kaptan, Indiana U–The Marketing of Nationalism in a Global World and Cola Turka Commercials

Session XI
Tuesday, November 25
11:00am-1:00pm

(NP16) Religious Authority Contested (II)

Timothy J. Fitzgerald, Harvard U–To Kill a Judge: The Struggle to Make Mamluk Justice Ottoman in 16th-Century Aleppo
Onder Kucukural, Sabanci U–Religion a la Turca: A Dynamic Approach to Religion in Turkey
Rachel M. Scott, Virginia Tech–What Would the Islamists Do with Al-Azhar?: Religious Authority in an Islamic State
Zack Heern, U of Utah–Laying Foundations for Orthodoxy: The Transformation of Shi’i Islam during the Time of Vahid Buhbihani (1704-1791)
Maryam Moazzen, U of Toronto–Dissemination of Knowledge as Religious Duty: Modes of Transmission of Relgious Knowledge in Safavid Educational Institutions

(NP17) Classical Texts

John Walbridge, Indiana U, Bloomington–Bookish Medicine: Written Sources and Experience in Qutb al-Din Shirazi’s Commentary on Ibn Sina’s Qanun
Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, Inst of Ismaili Studies–On the Margins of Sira: Introducing the al-Zahr al-Basim of Mughulta’i (d.762/1361)
Terence J. Kleven, Central Col–Averroës’ Defense of Religion in KitŒb al-Kashf ‘an ManŒhij al-Adilla f¥ ‘AqŒ’id al-Milla (The Book of the Exposition of the Methods of Proofs in the Teachings of Religion)
A. David K. Owen, Harvard U–An Overview of Logic in the Maghreb: With Special Attention to Al-Akhdhari’s (d. 1546) Al-Sullam Al-Murawniq fi ‘l-mantiq (The Splendid Ladder of Logic)
Ghada Jayyusi-Lehn, American U of Sharjah–A Critique of Medieval Arabic Sources: The Case of Harun al-Rashid (170-193/786-809) and His Son al-Mu’tasim (218-227/833-842)

(NP37) Migration and Diaspora across Continents

Carla Nichelle Daughtry, Lawrence U–On Sanctuary and the Illusion of Security: A Refugee Church Community and the Sudanese Mothers Union in Cairo
Isil Acehan, Bilkent U–Between an Old World and the New World: Assessing the Identity Problem of the Early Ottoman Immigrants in the United States (1900-1930)
Vladislav Sobolev, St. Petersburg U–Muslim Education in Russian Megapolises (Moscow and Saint-Petersburg)
Andew K. Arsan, U of Cambridge–The Ties That Bind: The Political Sentiments of Lebanese Shia Migrants in Senegal, 1921-1956
Maria del Mar Logrono Narbona, Florida International U–The Great Syrian Revolt and the Political Radicalization among Syrian and Lebanese Emigrants in Latin America (1925-1927)

(NP44) Turkish Nationalism, Identity, and Political Thought

Tuba Kanci, Sabanci U–Reconfigurations of National Identity in Turkey: An Analysis through Their Reflections on Schoolbooks, 1980-2008
Ozgur Gurel, U of Toronto–Islamic Social Imaginaries in Turkey: The Hermeneutical Interpretation of Modernity in Serif Mardin, Nilüfer Göle and Hakan Yavuz
Hasan Bülent Kahraman, Sabanci U–Would Yahya Kemal Be Happy in Turkey Today: The Changing Nature of Turkish Conservatism
Ersin Kalaycioglu, Sabanci U–Three Styles of Politics: Conservatism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkish Politics
Ilker Ayturk, Bilkent U–Ideologues of the Ottomanist Turn in Turkish Nationalism: Dundar Taser and Erol Gungor

(NP46) Challenge of Radical Islamist Movements

Shelley Deane, Bowdoin Col–Paramilitary to Parliamentary: The Piecemeal Position Shifts of Protagonists in Protracted Conflict
James Mikulec Jr., George Washington U–Memories of Strength and Weakness: Osama Bin Laden and the Formation of Transnational Identity
Christopher Boucek, Princeton U–Saudi Arabia’s Counseling Program: Rehabilitation, Reintegration, and Counter-Terrorism
Steven M. Niva, Evergreen State Col–Problems with Robert Pape’s Dying to Win: Rethinking the Crucial Case of Palestinian Suicide Bombings

(NP60) Iraq: Past, Present, and Future

Myriam Benraad, Sciences-Po-Paris–Identity in Iraq: Revisiting the “Sunni Arab” Problematic
Marc A. Lemieux, Forum of Federations–Iraq and the GCC, a Regional Future without the US
Naomi Weinberger, Colgate U–Rebuilding Iraq’s Securiy Sector
Nimah Mazahei, U of Washington–The Political Effects of Economic Sanctions in Iraq, 1990-2003
Don Matthews, Oakland U–The Kennedy Administration and Iraq’s First Revolutionary Regimes

(NP69) Program Committee Picks

Anjela Cannarelli Peck, Hamilton Col–Of Angels, Prophets and (Other) Divine Intermediaries: Exploring Christian-Muslim Spaces in Early Modern Spanish Muslim Texts
Reecia Orzeck, U of Vermont–Imperialist and Freedom Fighter: The Jewish Agency for Palestine’s Case before the United Nations Special Committee
Veronica Canton, Americans for Informed Democracy–Legal Statement Regarding Adjudication of Violations of International Humanitarian Law by Privatized Military Firms
Sholeh A. Quinn, Ohio U–Religion and Politics under the Safavids and Mughals: the Chronicles of Akbar and ‘Abbas I
Catherine E. DeLong Malloy, Catholic U of America–Shared Roots of Faith: The Lead Books of the Sacromonte

Session XII
Tuesday, November 25
1:30pm-3:30pm

(NP02) Textual Perspectives on Ottoman Imperium

Darin N. Stephanov, UCLA–The Autocrat’s Sacred Aura: Religious Aspects of the Shaping of a Monarchic Persona in the Late Ottoman and Russan Empires
Sinem Eryilmaz, U of Chicago–The Ambitions of an Ottoman Imperial Scroll
Malissa Taylor, UC Berkeley–Imperial Tradition, Islamic Idiom and Peasant Interlocutors
Heather L. Ferguson, UC Berkeley–A Mercantile World and the Ottoman Empire: Defining Authority in an Age of Absolutism

(NP03) Religious Networks and Alterities in Middle Eastern History

Ayshe Polat, U of Chicago–Thinking through the Questions in the Late Ottoman Journal Sirat-i Mustakim
Amit Bein, Clemson U–Authority Contested: Ottoman Ulema in the Early Turkish Republic
F. Betul Yavuz, Rice U–The Sufi Saint and His Female Guides: Women in Anecdotes of Dhu’l-Nun al-Misri
Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Harvard U–The Wafa’i Order and Its Kizilbash Offshoots in Anatolia
Amina Elbendary, American U in Cairo–Social Networks in late Mamluk Damascus through the Eyes of Ibn Tawq

(NP05) Palestine: Histories and Memories

Yuval Ben-Bassat, U of Haifa–The Ottoman Background of the Early Jewish-Arab Encounter in Palestine at the End of the 19th Century
James P. Reidy, U of Texas at Austin–Arabs and Jews in the Court System of the Palestine Mandate
Tom Hill, Trinity Col, U of Cambridge–The Nakba Commemorations of 2008
Enaya Hamad Othman, Marquette U–Dogma of Womanhood: Quaker Missionary Women in Ramallah, Palestine, 1886-1914
Scott C. Lesko, SUNY Stony Brook–“Whose Palestine”: Representation of Gender and Nationalist Consciousness in Palestinian Political Poster Art, 1968-1987

(NP29) Themes in the Contemporary Arabic Novel

Rose-Louissa Oburra, Cornell U–In Search of a Savior: Walid Mas’ud
Hanadi Al-Samman, U of Virginia–Are We There Yet? Lesbian Identity in Modern Arabic Literature
David DiMeo, US Military Academy–Subversion of Fictional Space in Mahfuz’s Later Novels
Zaki Haidar, U of Pennsylvania–The Cosmopolitan of a Tunisian Writer: ‘Ali Al-Du’aji’s Mediterranean Barhopping

(NP41) Authoritarianism and Opposition

Radwan Ziadeh, Harvard U–Democratization and Political Division in the Middle East
Sarah E. Yerkes, Georgetown U–The Little Engine that Couldn’t?: The Influence of Civil Society on Elections in the Arab Middle East
Mohamed Daadaoui, U of Oklahoma–The Authoritarian State in Morocco: Rituals of Power and the Islamist Challenge
Hesham Sallam, Georgetown U–Political Opposition Cohesion and Internal Party Accountability in the Arab World
Cory S. Julie, Georgetown U–Upgrading and Downgrading Arab Civil Society: Problematizing Pro-Democracy Opposition Politics with Insights from Egypt and Syria

(NP56) Conflict and Cooperation across Lebanese Lines

Michelle Flores, U of Southern California–Religious Contestation and Sectarianism in Pre-War Lebanon
Maren Milligan, U of Maryland–The Impact of Confessionalism on National and Group Level Quality of Democracy in Lebanon
May Farah, New York U–Solidere as Exception: Neoliberalism and the Reconstruction of Downtown Beirut
Katarina Noetzold, U of Westminster–“This Opposition is Illegitimate!”: Lebanese Televisions’ Framing of the Anti-Syrian Opposition

(NP68) Conversion in Turkey: Agents and Identities

Iren N. Ozgur, U of Oxford–Do Religious Schools in Turkey Cultivate Political Sentiments in Their Students?
Zeynep Turkyilmaz, UCLA–Ambiguous Conversions: State, Missionaries and Kizilbas Communities in the Late Ottoman Empire
Kaley M. Carpenter, Princeton Theological Seminary–Perfect Bedfellows?: Missionary Influence on US Foreign Policy in the Near East, 1915-1923
Sevgi Adak, Central European U–Turkish Secularism in the Making: State Influence on Ramadans and the Debate on Conversion in the Early Republic
Lisa DiCarlo, Babson Col–Positioning Turkey’s Newest Christians: “Are You Armenian Now?”