Ninth Annual ASMEA Conference Schedule

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27

Welcome Reception
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Opening remarks delivered by H.E. Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie, State Minister for Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28

7:30 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.
Breakfast

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Islamic Encounters with Assyrians, Copts, and Persians

Sam Encounters Ishmael: The Encounter of Syriac Christianity with Islam in the 7th -9th century
(Abjar Bahkou, Baylor University)

Al-Shafi’i’s Hermeneutics in al-Tahawi’s Mukhtasar, al-Quduri’s Mukhtasar with al-Marghinani’s Hidaya in Reference
(Husain Kassim, University of Central Florida)

A Comparative Study on Leading Factors of Messianic Movements during the First Islamic Centuries in Iran: Abu Muslim and Al-Muqanna
(Khadijeh Salimi, Old Dominion University)

The Conscription of Egyptian Christian Sailors in Medieval Muslim Naval Warfare: Taking the Long View
(Myriam Wissa, University of London)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. D Gershon Lewental

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Identity, Struggle, and Repression in Southern Africa

From Christian Brother to Native: Claiming and Rejecting Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization in Early Twentieth Century Natal
(Robert Houle, Fairleigh Dickinson University)

The Troubled Mind of Apartheid: Black Consciousness & White Radicals Through the Eyes of the 1972 Schlebusch Commission
(William Keniston, University of Illinois)

“Africa and Providence have been good to us”: Apartheid South Africa and the Politics of Development
(Jamie Miller, University of Pittsburgh)

Do the Kalanga Have More Than Their Fair Share? A Practical Problem in Sociology
(Phyllis Puffer, Big Sandy Community & Technical College)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Robert Lloyd

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Diplomacy and Defense in Israel

The New Paradoxes of Cumulative Deterrence: How Israel’s First National Military Strategy is Enslaved to Deterrence-Catch
(Elad Popovich, Columbia University)

Deir Yassin as a Trigger for the Palestinian Exodus, 1948
(Eliezer Tauber, Bar-Ilan University)

Pragmatismus über alles? Israel-Germany Process of Normalization, 1948 – 1965
(Jacob Tovy, University of Haifa)

Maritime Navigation, Energy Security and Peace Dividend: Exploring the Historic Developments of the Dead Sea Conveyance Project
(Samuel Willner, University of Haifa)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Ido Zelkovitz

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Islamic State: Authenticity and Savagery

Holy Rape: The Historical Basis of the Islamic State’s Sexual Subjugation of Non-Muslim Others, and Its Ramifications for Contemporary Muslims
(Daniel Brubaker, Rice University)

Is the Islamic Caliphate State Islamic?
(David Bukay, University of Haifa)

The Islamic State Between Authenticity, Nostalgia, and Iconoclasm; The Reality of History and the Banality of Dying “First Nations”
(Franck Salameh, Boston College)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Mark Silinsky

8:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Roundtable A: Iran’s Global Reach

Understanding  Russian-Iranian ties
(Jonathan Adelman, University of Denver)

Iran versus Israel: Why the Obsession?
(David Menashri, Tel Aviv University)

Is Change in Iran Rhetorical or Real?
(Michael Rubin, American Enterprise Institute)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Asaf Romirowsky

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Israel: Interacting with Citizens and Neighbors

What Is Left of Palestine’s Eighty-Year-Old Partition Plan?
(Shaul Bartal, Bar-Ilan University)

The Formation of the Israeli Security Zone in South Lebanon: Origins and Motives
(Dan Naor, Bar-Ilan University and Ariel University)

The Joint List and the National Leadership of the Arab-Palestinians in Israel: A New Level of Leadership?
(Rami Zeedan, The Open University of Israel)

Stamps, Post and the creation of a new Palestinian Socio-Political Order 1994-2000
(Ido Zelkovitz, Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Mark Heller

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Strife and Migration in Africa

Mass Youth Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa (2002-2015)
(Binneh Minteh, Rutgers University)

Rethinking Wartime Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur
(Andrea Morris, University of Rochester)

Rethinking the Politics of Refugee Hosting States in Africa: An Ethnographic study of Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia
(Amanda Poole, Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Politics, Ethnicity, and the Addis Ababa Master Plan
(Jan Zahorik, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Phyllis Puffer

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Shared Ideas and Identities: Iran, Kurdistan, Turkey

Diaspora and Yearning – The Iranian Exile’s Diluted Identity
(Ronen A. Cohen, Ariel University)

Politics of Standardizing the Kurdish Language
(Ahmed Ferhadi, New York University)

Iranians in Istanbul, Ottoman-Qājar relations, and the Constitutional Revolution
(D Gershon Lewental, University of Oklahoma)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Nergis Canefe

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Motifs in the Literature of the Middle East

Paranoia and Conspiracy Discourse in Turkish Literature
(Doruk Tatar, SUNY-Buffalo)

The Motif of Blindness in Iraqi Literature as a Tool for Political and Religious Criticism
(Hilla Peled-Shapira, Bar-Ilan University and Ariel University)

Tracing the Development of the Protagonist in Libyan Short Stories from Dictatorship to Post-Arab Spring
(Safa Elnaili, University of Alabama)

The Jewish Union and the Crescent Moon: Popular Poetry and Contentious Politics in the Cairene Karaite Journal al-Ittiḥād al- Isra’īlī, 1924-28
(Hannah Scott Deuchar, New York University)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Myriam Wissa

10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Roundtable B: Assessing Iran-Saudi Tensions

(Dr. Patrick Clawson, WINEP; Ms. Hanin Ghaddar, WINEP; Mr. Mehdi Khalaji, WINEP; Dr. Matthew Levitt, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy)

12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Banquet Luncheon and Keynote Address
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Prof. Martin Kramer, President of Shalem College and author of Ivory Towers on Sand, will speak on “The Pathology of Middle Eastern Studies.”

2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Women’s Rights, Women’s Lives

Nationalism and Education:  Arab and Jewish Women of Early Mandate Palestine
(Thomas Martin, Pennsylvania State University)

Syrian Women Subverting Dominant Paradigms
(Manal al-Natour, West Virginia University)

Kill the Women First! Female Terrorism and Islam
(Christine Sixta Rinehart, University of South Carolina Palmetto College)

Dancing at Both Weddings: Democracy, Religion and Israeli Haredi Women’s Accidental Political Revolution
(Jan Feldman, University of Vermont)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Hilla Peled-Shapira

2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Assigning and Asserting Identity Across Africa

The Construction of the Somali Subject in British Travel and Colonial Writings
(Jamal Gabobe, University of Washington)

The ‘Caffres’ as Objects of Knowledge  in European Discourses about Southern Africa, c. 1500–1820
(Jochen S. Arndt, Virginia Military Institute)

Jihad and the West: The Case of West Africa During the Nineteenth Century and Today
(Robin Hardy, Montana State University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Jamie Miller

2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Moroccan Mosaic: Faith, Resistance, and Culture
SPONSOR: Moroccan American Cultural Center

Jewish Thought in Fes in the Generations Following the Spanish Expulsion: Characteristics, Style and Content
(Michal Ohana, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

The Cultural Perceptions of the Spanish Army in North Africa and Their Meaning for Moroccan History
(Geoffrey Jensen, Virginia Military Institute)

Palaces, Tents, and ‘Imperial Souvenirs’: Exhibiting Cultural Authority in the French Protectorate of Morocco
(Ashley Miller, University of Michigan)

Text, Body, and Law: Naked Prayer in the Commentary Tradition of the Khalīl
(Matthew Steele, Harvard University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Ricardo Laremont

2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Loyalties, Allegiances, and the Formation of National Consciousness in the Arab World and Israel

The Nation State and the Formation of National Identities in the Arab World
(Jack Lassner, Northwestern University)

The Validity and Significance of Designating Israel as a Western State
(Ilan Troen and Carol Troen, Brandeis University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. D Gershon Lewental

2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Roundtable C: Turkey in the Aftermath of the Failed Coup

(Prof. Sinan Ciddi, Georgetown University; Prof. Paul Kubicek, Oakland University; Prof. Kemal Silay, Indiana University; Prof. Birol Yesilada, Portland State University)

4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Pursuing Empire in the Middle East

Remembering the Hejaz Railway in Saudi Arabia
(Jeffrey Macris, U.S. Naval Academy)

Holy War and a Place in Paradise? Development of East Roman Holy War 4th-11th Centuries
(Ilkka Syvänne, University of Haifa)

Jihad and the West- Black Flag over Babylon
(Mark Silinsky, Army War College)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Jonathan Zartman

4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
In Furtherance of Strategic and Economic Interests

Russian Middle Eastern Policy in the Context of Moscow’s Confrontation with the West
(Nikolay Kozhanov, European University at St.Petersburg)

The Belt and Road Initiatives and China’s Middle East Energy Policy
(Xuming Qian, Shanghai International Studies University)

The Middle East and the New Era in the World Oil Market
(Yossi Mann, Bar-Ilan University)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Douglas Streusand

4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Economy, Identity, and the Making of Modern Turkey

Envisioning a “Turkish Miracle”: Modernization Theory and the 1960s Turkish Guest Worker Initiative
(Brian JK Miller, Allegheny College)

Turkish Experiment in Nation-Building: An Assessment of Modernism and Ethno-Symbolism in Nationalism Theory
(Banu Eligür, Başkent University)

“Who is the State–I am the People” Politics of Large-Scale Extraction and Mining Projects in ‘New Turkey’
(Nergis Canefe, York University)

Alternative Identities and the State in Contemporary Turkey
(Ole Frahm, Bogazici University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Birol Yesilada

4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
The Palestinian Refugee Problem

The Palestinian Refugee Problem and the Missing Peace
(Joseph Spoerl, Saint Anselm College)

The Anomaly of the Arab Palestinian Refugees
(Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe, SPME)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Ilan Troen

4:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Roundtable D: Fire in the Desert: Jihad in the Sahel

(Prof. Ricardo Laremont, SUNY Binghamton; Dr. Marc-Antoine Perous-de Montclos, University of Paris VIII) 

Film Screenings
8:00 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29

7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Breakfast

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Islamism, Protest, and State Power in Egypt

Authoritarianism, Jihadist Ideology, and Renewal of the Religious Discourse in Egypt
(Bosmat Yefet, Ariel University)

Extending the State’s Police Power in Egypt after the Revolutionary Wav of the Arab Spring – Prospects for Change and Transition Toward Democracy
(Ahmed Zohny, Coppin State University)

Towards Better Governance on National and Local levels: Public Participation in National and Local Policies in Egypt
(Yasmin Khodary, The British University in Egypt)

Discourses of Public Behavior in Egypt: Business as Usual or Justice Served?:  A Counterrevolutionary Tale of Pirates, Bullies and Demagogues
(Sherifa Zuhur, Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic and Strategic Studies)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Max Guirguis

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Iran: A Disunified Vision

Governing the Commemoration of the Iran-Iraq War in its Battlefields:  Conjuring Up the Shi`i “Origin”
(Mahshid Zandi, Arizona State University)

The Portrait of Generational Conflict in Iran
(Vahid Abedini, Florida International University)

Yesterday’s ‘Rogues,’ Today’s ‘Allies?’ Unraveling the Operational Codes of Ali Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, and Ali Larijani
(Sercan Canbolat, University of Connecticut)

Factional Competition in an Electoral Authoritarian Regime: An Analysis of 2008, 2012 and 2016 Iranian Majlis Elections
(Luciano Zaccara, Qatar University)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Ronen Cohen

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Turkey and the Future of Comprehensive Security Cooperation in MENA

A Re-set between Ankara and Tel-Aviv: What May the Future Bring?
(Nurşin Güney, Yıldız Technical University)

Foreign Policy Impulsion from Geo-Political to Geo-Economics: Turkey’s Constative Energy Trail Between East and West
(Sedat Aybar, Istanbul Aydın University)

Is Security Cooperation Possible in the Levant? Under What Conditions will Turkey be a Facilitator?
(Visne Korkmaz, Yıldız Technical University)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Gawdat Bahgat

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Democracy, Faith, and Gender in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cost of Ruling: An Examination of Political Business Cycle, Governmental Accountability, and Alternation in Power in Ghana’s Democracy
(George Keteku, SUNY Westchester and Purchase College)

African Judaizing Movements and the Question of Polygamy: Perspectives from Cameroon
(Nathan Devir, University of Utah)

Democratization and Gender Equality in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Paul Kubicek and Jenna Blankenship, Oakland University)

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Robin Hardy

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Healthcare, Foreign Relations, and Others: Evolving Approaches in Morocco

Moroccan Foreign Policy: Challenges of Democratization in a Hybrid Regime
(Michael Schumacher, Loyola University Chicago)

You are Just Saharawi: Negotiating and Constructing New Racial Subjectivities in Meknes, Morocco
(Lewis Bradford, Indiana University)

Identifying Barriers to Accessing Maternal Health Care in Rural Morocco: A Qualitative Study
(Jami Baayd, University of Utah)

Qur’anic First-Aid in Morocco: Healing Bodies and Making Spaces
(James Riggan, Florida State University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Larry Simpson

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Roundtable E: Round Pegs, Square Holes: The Challenges to Military and Academic Collaboration
SPONSOR: Marine Corps University Press

(Ms. Hala Abdullah; Dr. Alexandra Kindell; LtCol Vern Liebl; LtCol Mike Purcell; Dr. Matthew Slater)

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. 
Modern War-Making in the Middle East

“An Agonizing Death”: 1980s US Policy on Iraqi Chemical Weapons During the Iran-Iraq War
(David Walker, Boise State University)

Checking the Blocks: Training the U.S. Army for Deployment to the Middle East
(Norvell DeAtkine)

How Technology Impacts Doctrine in Asymmetrical Warfare
(Jeremiah Rozman, University of Virginia)

The Shared Values Initiative Revisited
(J.R. Reiling, Old Dominion University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Joseph Skelly

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Assessing Outcomes of the Arab Spring

How Far “Above the Fray”? Jordan and the Mechanisms of Monarchical Advantage in the Arab Uprisings
(Daniel Brown, University of Oklahoma)

After the Spring: Movement Emergence vs. Movement Outcomes in the Arab Spring
(Bashir Tofangsazi, Ohio State University)

Five years on: Lessons from Egyptian Failed Revolution of 2011
(Alexey Khlebnikov, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod)

Evidence for Land and Property Restitution in Syria: Preparing for Mass Claims During the War
(Jon Unruh, McGill University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Ahmed Zohny

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Iran: Before, During and After the Revolution

From Hope to Despair – The Iranian Arman-e Mostadha’afin Organization and Its Innovative Revolutionary Approach: 1976-1982
(Ronen A. Cohen, Ariel University)

Seeking Gandhi, Finding Khomeini
(Larry Simpson, High Point University)

Iranian Hegemonic Endeavors in Azerbaijan: The Case of Nardaran
(Isa Kagan Karasioglu, Columbia University)

The Potential Impact of the Vienna Deal on Regional Issues
(Abdallah Alashaal, Cairo University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Jonathan Adelman

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Socio-economic Progress and Setbacks in Africa

Towards a Professionalism of Agricultural Extension: A Strategy for Achieving Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Africa
(Robert Agunga, Ohio State University)

Managing the Majority: How are Distributive Goods Used to Maintain Public Support for Ethnic Minority Authoritarian Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa? A Uganda Case Study
(Jennifer Doherty, George Washington University)

Women, Management and Development: The Case of Uganda’s Firms
(Miriam Katunze, Economic Policy Research Center)

The Common Enemy: Case Studies of LGBTIQ Resilience in Authoritarian Regimes
(Zachary Karazsia, Florida International University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Beverly Lindsay

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
What Makes You Tick?: Identity and Ideology

Typology of Radical Islamic Movements and Terror Networks in the Emerging Muslim Nation States of Central Asia: The Crimea as a Test Case
(Alexander Bligh, Ariel University)

An Examination of the Roots of Militant Jihad in Qur’an, Sunnah and Tafseer
(Glenn Stewart, The Queen’s College, Oxford University)

Society Without Consensus: The Drift Away from Piety Politics in post-1967
(Ahmad Agbaria, University of Texas at Austin)

Identity Crafting and Citizenship Policies in the GCC
(Marta Saldana, Georgetown University Qatar)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Christine Sixta-Rhinehart

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Turkey: Minorities in Dissent

Organizing Around November 25th: Transnational Connections of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in Turkey
(Elif Ege, SUNY University at Buffalo)

The Treatment of Ethnic Minorities in Democratizing Muslim Majority Countries: The Securitization of Kurds in Turkey Versus the Autonomization of Acehnese in Indonesia
(Maurizio Geri, Old Dominion University)

Civil War and Disorder in Western Anatolia: Circassian Opposition to the Nationalists of Ankara in 1923
(Caner Yelbaşı, SOAS, University of London)

The Assessment of the Current Scholarship that Associates Alevis Either with Shi`ism or Sunnism
(Reyhan Erdogdu-Basaran, Rice University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Paul Kubicek

12:30 p.m.
LUNCH

1:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. 
Watching the Public Space: Politics, Sexism, and Design

Al-Tahrir Square: Public or Political Space?
(Rasha Al-Tameemi, University Of Cincinnati)

Women in the Streets: A Manifestation of Soft-Power (A Critical Analysis of Sexism in Public Spaces in Iranian Cities)
(Ladan Zarabadi, University of Cincinnati)

Eyes are Following Me: the Root of Iranian Women’s Self-surveillance
(Armaghan Ziaee, University of Cincinnati)

Victor Valensi’s L’Habitation Tunisienne (1928):Jewish Perspectives on Pluralist Vernacular Modernities in Tunisia
(Nancy Demerdash-Fatemi, DePaul University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Sherifa Zuhur

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Achieving Ends with Differing Means: Turkey, Lebanon and Suez

Globalization Über Alles: Framing the 1956 Suez Crisis within America’s Economic Project
(Michael Pesses, Claremont Graduate University)

Project Motherland: Antakya’s Annexation in 1939 and its Implications for its Arab Alawite Population
(Defne Sarsilmaz, Florida International University)

Beirut experience: fighting terrorism in Lebanon during the 70’s and the 80’s
(Elie Elias, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik)

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Morocco: Native and European Interactions

Mad at Tangier: Mental Pathologies, Hygienist Discourses and International Competition over Morocco (1912-1929)
(Francisco Javier Martínez-Antonio, University of Évora)

The Tzaddik: Human Power and Divine Power in Colonial Morocco
(Maite Ojeda-Mata, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)

Is There a Political Elite in Moroccan Government between 1985- 2012?
(Khaoula El Baz, Mohammed V University)

Christians and Muslims in the Western Mediterranean: Assessing the Territorial and Political Impact of the Portuguese in Morocco (1415-1471)
(Gonçalo Matos Ramos, University of Lisbon)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Nathan Devir

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Youth, Minorities, and the Media in Tunisia

The Market has Run out of Jasmine: How the Tunisian Revolution betrayed Atheists and Homosexuals
(Tommaso Virgili, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa)

Stop the Presses: The Rise and Fall of Media Reform in Ben Ali’s Tunisia
(Eoghan Stafford, University of California, Los Angeles)

Active on the Street but Apathetic at the Ballot Box? Evolving Political Behavior of Tunisian Youth During the Post-Revolutionary Era (2011-present)
(Kirstie Dobbs, Loyola University Chicago)

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Leadership, Policy, and Opinion in Turkey

The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Its Impact on Turkish Domestic and Foreign Policy
(Dilara Hekimci-Adak, Bahcesehir University)

Accessing to Infrastructure: Struggles over Regional Development in Israel and Turkey
(Esra Bakkalbasioglu, University of Washington)

The Sociology of Contemporary Critical Muslim Intellectuals and Their Organizations: Cases from Turkey’s Public Sphere
(Deniz Ilhan, Stony Brook University)

Ideology vs. Affection: Leader Polarization in Turkey
(Orçun Selçuk, Florida International University)

DISCUSSANT: Prof. Banu Eligur

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Topics in Middle East Studies

The Vatican and Islam: Time to Take Up the Challenge
(Lawrence Franklin)

The Revival of Orientalism in Contemporary Art
(Rachel Winter, University of Iowa)

Is Iran Sanctions-Relief Enabling Genocide in Syria? Steps in an Argument
(Ernest Sternberg, SUNY, Buffalo)