Global Middle East Studies Inaugural Annual Symposium

UIC Global Middle East Studies (GMES) invites to you our first Annual Symposium, a day of stimulating presentations and lively exchange that is critically oriented, historically attuned, and community-engaged. The symposium will highlight multi-disciplinary and emerging research, creative activities, and an interactive workshop led by UIC students, faculty, and guests. We look forward to coming together in a space of shared reflections and nourishment.

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/XAvLFtJwDu

Addresses for event locations:

Institute for the Humanities
Behavioral Sciences Building (BSB)
1007 W Harrison Street
Suite 153
Chicago, IL

Arab American Cultural Center
Behavioral Sciences Building (BSB)
1007 W Harrison Street
Suite B01
Chicago, IL

Registration
Time: 09:30 to 10:00
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Welcome
Speaker: Nadine Naber and Jane Rhodes
Time: 10:00 to 10:15
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Panel #1: NOSTALGIA, VISIONS of MODERNITY, and GOVERNANCE
Moderator: Sultan Tepe
Time: 10:15 to 11:45
Location: Institute for the Humanities

• Tarek Jabri – Religiosity, Nationalism, and Ambition: Imagining, Perceiving, and Remembering the Revolt
• Saeed Saffar-Heidari – The Thinkable ‘Unthinkability’ of the Iranian Revolution
• Kaveh Rafie –Cubism in Iran, 1940s–1950s: A Horizon of a Socialist Modernity
• Frida Sanchez Vega, Ralph Cintron, and Azadeh Ghanizadeh – Liberalism, Modernity, and the ‘Power Elite

Panel #2: GENDERING STATE and IMPERIAL VIOLENCE
Moderator: Zeina Zaatari
Time: 10:15 to 11:45
Location: Arab American Cultural Center

• Nadine Naber– Imperial Severance: Radical Mothering from Chicagoland to Palestine
• DaiGianna Williams – The Taliban Through a Girardian Lens: Women & The Crisis of Lack of Differentiation

Lunch
Time: 11:45 to 12:30
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Keynote: Global Middle East Studies: New Directions and Threats to Scholarship
Speakers: Norma Moruzzi & Dima Khalidi
Moderator: Atef Said
Time: 12:30 to 01:45
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Panel #3: TECHNOLOGIES and DISCOURSES of POWER and POLICING
Time: 02:00 to 03:30
Location: Institute for the Humanities

• Nicole Nguyen – Securitizing Care: Therapeutic Governance and the Global War on Terror
• Andy Clarno – Spirals of Surveillance: From Chicago to Gaza and Back
• Sultan Tepe & Rodrigo Moura Karolczak – How To Oust a Populist Autocrat? The Paradox of Oppositional Coalition Building and Pivotal Party Flipping.

Interactive Skills Building Workshop: Experiences of Being Othered
Organizers and Presenters: Syeda S. Raza & Dalal Katsiaficas
Time: 02:00 to 03:30
Location: Arab American Cultural Center

Break
Time: 03:30 to 03:45
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Panel #4: POLITICAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS and SOVEREIGNTY
Moderator: Andy Clarno
Time: 03:45 to 05:00
Location: Institute for the Humanities

• Abla Abdelkader – The Role of Colonial Interference in Yaffa’s Citrus Industry
• Sultan Tepe & Yasmine Haiti- Value Politics: Islamists Between Theology and Economy
• Reeham Mourad - Dispossession as Public Good/Benefit: The 54’s Law (Egypt)

Panel #5: COLONIALITY, IDENTITY, and STRUCTURES of EXCLUSION
Moderator: Nadine Naber
Time: 03:45 to 05:00
Location: Arab American Cultural Center

• Mina Mari – From Mesopotamia to the Midwest: The Assyrian and Chaldean Diaspora in Chicago and Detroit
• Urmee Priya Das – Roots of Islamophobia: Colonial Narratives and Historical Legacies
• Jenin Zayed - Settler and Environmental Colonialism in the Occupied Jawlan
• Maryam Khamissi – The impact of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 on non-Persian or non-Muslim communities: Auto Ethnography

Closing
Speaker: Zeina Zaatari
Time: 05:00 to 05:15
Location: Institute for the Humanities

Evening Programming: 

Our Stories Matter: A Celebration of Middle East Studies, Poetry, Music, and Awards
Time: 05:30 to 07:00
Location: Institute for the Humanities
Music by Rami Gabriel
Poetry and Prose by: Layla Azmi Goushey, Joel Farran, Zeina Rousan, and Sahar Mustafah

All-Day: Art Installations/Displays

Contact us:

Email: gmes@uic.edu
Website: https://arabamcc.uic.edu/global-middle-east-studies-minor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gmesuic/

Co-sponsored by UIC Global Middle East Studies, Institute for the Humanities Global Middle East Studies Working Group, and the Arab American Cultural Center.