Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
in Collaboration with the
Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies
Announces a Conference
Title: Postcolonial Theory and the Middle East
Dates: Saturday evening, October 29 through Monday, October, 31 2005
Location: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Convener: Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Sponsor: The Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies, Professor Peter Haas, Director, Case Western Reserve University
Conference Chair: Philip Carl Salzman, McGill University
Proceedings Publishers: Israel Affairs and Routledge Press (Spring 2007) Philip Carl Salzman, McGill University; Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College; Efraim Karsh, King’s College, University of London, Co-Editors
Sessions, Participants, Topics
Participants in SPME Conference on
“Postcolonial Theory and the Middle East”
Sunday morning, 30 October
SESSION I: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
9:00 Chair: Ed Beck, SPME President
9:10 Irfan KHAWAJA, John Jay College, CUNY
“Realism, Nominalism, & Orientalism: Edward Said on the Essence of Islam”
9:40 discussion
9:50 Ed MORGAN, Law, University of Toronto
“What Really Was Said: History as Advocacy”
10:20 discussion
10:30 coffee break
10:50 Ronald NIEZEN, Anthropology, McGill University
“Postcolonialism and the Utopian Imagination”
11:20 discussion
11:30 Laurie ZOLOTH, Medicine, Northwestern University
“Mistaken-ness and the Nature of the ‘Post’: The Ethics and the Inevitability of Error in Theoretical Work”
12:00 discussion
12:10 Discussant: Jonathan ADELMAN, International Relations, Univ. of Denver
12:30 general discussion
12:50 end of Session I
Sunday afternoon, 30 October
SESSION II: POSTCOLONIALISM IN ACADEMIA
2:30 Chair: Judith S. Jacobson, Public Health, Columbia University
2:40 Herbert LEWIS, Anthropology, Wisconsin
“The Influence of Edward Said & Orientalism on Anthropology”
3:10 discussion
3:20 Jonathan ADELMAN, International Relations, University of Denver
“What Does Postcolonialism Do to Russian and Chinese Studies?
3:50 discussion
4:00 coffee break
4:20 Ilan TROEN, History, Ben-Gurion University & Brandeis University
“De-Judaizing the Homeland: Academic politics in rewriting the history of Palestine”
4:50 discussion
5:00 Gerald STEINBERG, Political Studies, Bar Ilan University
“Postcolonial Theory and the Ideology of ‘Peace Studies'”
5:30 discussion
5:40 Discussant: Ronald NIEZEN, Anthropology, McGill University
6:00 general discussion
6:20 end of Session II
Monday morning, 31 October
SESSION III: POSTCOLONIALISM AND ISLAM
9:00 Chair: Nidra Poller, Author & Journalist, Paris
9:10 Efraim KARSH, Mediterranean Studies, King’s College London
“The Missing Piece: Islamic Imperialism”
9:40 discussion
9:50 David COOK, Religious Studies, Rice University
“The Muslim Man’s Burden: Explaining the Great Islamic Conquests in the Light of Postcolonial Theory by Contemporary Arab and Muslim Intellectuals”
10:20 discussion
10:30 coffee break
10:50 William IRONS, Anthropology, Northwestern University
“Yomut Turkmen Ethnography and Postcolonial Theory”
11:20 discussion
11:30 Phyllis CHESLER, Psychology, C.U.N.Y.
“The Palestinianization of the Feminist Academy: Stalinism, Postmodernism, and Islamic Apocalypse Now.”
12:00 discussion
12:10 Discussant: Donna ROBINSON DIVINE, Government, Smith College
12:20 general discussion
12:40 end of Session III
Monday afternoon, 31 October
SESSION IV: POSTCOLONIALISM, PALESTINE, & ISRAEL
2:30 Chair: Ruth Contreras, Jewish Studies, University of Vienna
2:40 Andrew BOSTOM, Medicine, Brown University
“Negating the Legacy of Jihad in Palestine”
3:20 discussion
3:30 Philip Carl SALZMAN, Anthropology, McGill University
“Postcolonial Theory and Middle Eastern Tribes”
4:00 discussion
4:10 coffee break
4:30 Irwin MANSDORF, Psychology, Jerusalem Project for Democracy in the Middle East
“The Psychology of Post-Colonial Revisionism in the Arab World: An Analysis of ‘Occupation’ and ‘Right of Return’”
5:00 discussion
5:10 Gideon SHIMONI, Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“Postcolonialism and the History of Zionism”
5:40 discussion
5:50 Discussant: Peter HAAS Judaic Studies, Case Western Reserve University
6:10 general discussion
6:30 end of session IV
Closing Comments
6:30 Remarks on publication of proceedings: Philip Carl Salzman
6:40 Closing remarks: Ed Beck
6:40 end of conference sessions
