Below are presentations that were showcased during the Thirteenth Annual ASMEA Conference on November 18 - 20, 2020.
Roundtable A: Regional Impact of the Abraham Accords
Prof. Nikolas Gardner, UAE National Defense College Prof. Mark Heller, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University Mr. Bashir Tofangsazi, The Ohio State University
The Abraham Accords, the peace treaties signed between Israel and Bahrain, and Israel and the UAE earlier this year, represent a new era for relations among Middle Eastern states. Signed with the promise to: “seek tolerance and respect for every person…no matter their race, faith or ethnicity; support science, art, medicine, and commerce to inspire humankind…and bring nations closer together; and; end radicalization and conflict…”, the Accords have up-ended longstanding views on pursuing peace in the region. They also pose challenges to regional spoilers like Iran and Turkey. This roundtable discussion will provide views of the Accords from the perspectives of Israel, Iran, and the UAE.
Roundtable B: "Fake News" about Israel: Ground Zero for Today’s Journalism Crisis
Mr. Richard Baehr, Dr. Richard Landes, Dr. Asaf Romirowsky, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, Mr. Sam Westrop Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME)
Starting with the outbreak of the “Al Aqsa Intifada” in September 2000, the Western legacy news media has been engaged in misreporting of the news from the Middle East that has no parallel in its widespread consensus and lengthy hegemony… twenty years and counting. Since then, and with increasing velocity in the last five years, the invasion of manipulative partisan reporting into what should be news media dedicated to accuracy and relevance has become a major plague in Western cultures, especially acute in this time of pandemic. This panel will explore the dynamics of this pandemic of distorted and inaccurate news, and its impact on Western cultures.
Instabilities in the Arabian Peninsula
Dr. Edward Lynch, Hollins University Qatar and the Rift: Small States and Big Opportunities
Mr. Ala Mohsen, University of Utah From rebels to government: Islamist movements in power - The case of Houthis in Yemen
Dr. Wojtek Wolfe, Rutgers University Saudi Arabia’s Growing Economic, Financial, and Geopolitical Troubles
Discussant: Mr. David Silverstein
Adapt and Innovate: The Faithful in Turkey
Dr. Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Bilkent University The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Action: Russia, Turkey and the Ukrainian Ecclesiastical Crisis
Dr. Hakki Gurkas, Kennesaw State University Innovation in Religious Tradition: From the Blessed Birth to the Mevlid-i Nebi, 1989-2019
Mr. Neset Ulusal, Indiana University Bloomington Alawīsm and Shī‘īsm in Ottoman Sunnī Sufism; A Case Study on Ismā‘il Ḥaqqī al-Bursawī
Discussant: Dr. Kivanc Ulusoy
Turkish Foreign Policy: Tested on all Fronts
Dr. Stavros Drakoularakos, University of the Peloponnese Turkey and its periphery after the Arab Spring
Prof. Banu Eligur, Baskent University The Impact of Nonstate Actors on Turkish-Israeli Relations Since 2002
Mr. Kivanc Ulusoy, Istanbul University Testing Turkey’s state capacity: The Syrian Migration Crisis as Catalyst
Discussant: Dr. Ioannis N. Grigoriadis
Finding Meaning in Feminism and the Divine
Ms. Ilma Qureshi, University of Virginia Love, Longing and Self-annihilation: Reconceptualizing Fanā as Ecstasy in Fakhr al-DīnʿIrāqī’s Ushāq-nāmeh
Ms. Golriz Shayani, University of Texas at Austin Persian Christian Worship Music: A Medium for Negotiating Religious and National Identities
Ms. Lamees Assayed Fadl, City University of New York May Ziadah: The Voice of an Arab revivalist Poet and Feminist
Discussant: Dr. Mustapha Tajdin
Who Stands with Women in the Middle East?
This panel is sponsored by Indiana University Press.
Ms. Hala Adel Abdelgawad, University of Sussex and Cairo University Between Exclusionary Discourses and “Performative Citizenship”: The Dynamics of Women’s Mobilization regarding the Appointment of Female Administrative Law Judges in Egypt
Dr. Lindsay Benstead, Portland State University Do Islamists Parties Reach Women?
Ms. Mennatullah Hendawy, TU Berlin and Ain Shams University Housing as [in]visible Spouse: Divorced Women with Custody between Law, Real estate and Culture in Egypt
Dr. Chen Kertcher, Ariel University The Proselytism of Gender stereotypes in Muslim countries: Examination into the UN CEDAW work
Discussant: Dr. Consolata R. Sulley
Lebanon: Negotiating the Precipice
Mr. Isaac E. Andakian, Kennesaw State University The Failure of Liberal Peacebuilding in Lebanon: What is the Alternative?
Prof. Jean D. Avenel, Université Paris 12 The First Humanitarian Intervention in Modern History
Mr. Taylan Paksoy, Bilkent University The Juggling Prince and the Diplomat: Fouad Chehab and McClintock and 1958 Lebanon Crisis
Discussant: Dr. Eyal Zisser
Malawi’s Pursuit of Independence and Good Governance
Dr. Paul B. Chiudza Banda, Tarleton State University Nurturing Decolonication: US - Malawi Relations in the 1960s
Mr. Gift Wasambo Kayira, West Virginia University Land Reform and the Politics of Development in Malawi, 1950s-1962
Ms. SangEun Kim, Vanderbilt University Contested Traditional Leadership and the Welfare of Villagers
Discussant: Dr. Noel Twagiramungu
Models of African Governance
Mr. Vladimir Chlouba, The Ohio State University One Size Fits All: The Origins of Contemporary Mixed Governance in Namibia
Prof. Patrick Milabyo Kyamusugulwa, International Institute of Social Studies State corruption and lack of social accountability: attempt to decipher the root causes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Ms. Kimberly L Shella, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Migration of Identity and Anti-Immigration and Pro-Immigration Parties: Parties, Politicians, the Media, and Characterization of Immigrants in South Africa
Ms. Diane E Whitelaw, Queen's University Between the Big Man and Obscurity: The Political Contributions of Mathias Mainza Chona to Zambian Democracy in the Twentieth Century
Discussant: Dr. Robert Lloyd
Making Religion and Nation in Africa
Dr. Aldrin T. Magaya, DePauw University ‘Change within Continuity:’ Sacred and Holy Spaces and Socialization in Bocha, Zimbabwe, c1910 -1960s
Mr. Andrew Marshall, Georgetown University Bible Translation and the Politics of National Cohesion
Dr. Noel Twagiramungu, Boston University Inside the Tanganyika- Zanzibar Union: A case for Nyerere’s Third Space as an antidote to Tribalism
Discussant: Dr. Wyndham Whynot
The Colonial Project and its Discontents
Mr. Bright Alozie, West Virginia University “Voices Behind Bars” Petition Writing, Convict Identities and the Tensions of Colonial Punishment in Southern Nigeria
Ms. Caroline Angle, University of Maryland, College Park From Civilizing Mission to Cultural Négritude: The IFAN Ethnographic/Art Museum in Colonial and Decolonizing Senegal
Mr. David Tallon, Reading University Oil in Colonial Nigeria: Lessons from Iran Learned and Unnoticed
Discussant: Dr. Paul B. Chiudza Banda
Women in Africa: Progress and Empowerment?
Mr. Alhassan Abdul Rahman, The Ohio State University Muslim Female Enrollment in ‘Integrated Muslim Education’ in Contemporary Ghana
Ms. Katarina Maruskinova, University of West Bohemia Shifting Sands of the Sahara: Moroccan Women in the Local Tourist Industry
Dr. Consolata R. Sulley, University of Dar es Salaam Candidate selection rules and women representation in electoral politics in Tanzania
Discussant: Dr. Lindsay Benstead
Tools of War in the Middle East
Dr. Ricardo A. Crespo, Grossmont College Currency Warfare and Air Power: An Examination of Operation Point Blank and the Air Campaign Against ISIS’s Currency Reserves
Dr. Ofer Israeli, The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel US-Iraq War (2003) Indirect Link of ISIS Rising
Mr. Jay Ryder, The University of Melbourne A Comparative Analysis of Rhetoric from the First Crusade (1095-1099) and the War on Terror
Dr. Aram Shahin, James Madison University What Is Islamic about a Muslim Soldier’s Actions in Battle? Islamic Manuals of War on Islamic Warfare
Discussant: Dr. Kenneth Christie
Holy Discourses and their Interpretations
Prof. Joseph S Spoerl, Saint Anselm College Islam and Islamism Dr. Mustapha Tajdin, Khalifa University for Science and Technology Post-Islamism in Morocco and the Politics of Sharīʿa: Al- Raysunī’s Utilitarianism and Al ʿUthmānī’s Silent Secularity
Dr. Hamza Zafer, University of Washington The Language of Surplus in the Quran’s Communitarian Rhetoric
Dr. Anouar El Younssi, Emory University Voices of Dissent/ Reform in Islam in North America: A Movement that Keeps Growing
Discussant: Dr. Douglas Streusand
Borne in Violence: Local Players in Iraq and Syria
Mr. Haval Ahmad, Aberystwyth University The de facto Autonomous Governance and Stability in the Middle East: The Case of Kurds in Rojava
Ms. Yehudit Barsky, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy Children of The Islamic State: Seeds of Resurgence and Groundwork for Perpetuation
Mr. Tamas Dudlak, Corvinus University of Budapest, University of Pecs Beyond sectarian balancing. The pragmatic relationship between Turkey and the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq (2014-2017)
Mr. Joe Kotinsly, University of Texas at Austin Brave New World Order: The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Politics of Sect
Discussant: Dr. Liora Lukitz
Forging Foreign Relations and National Security in Iran
COL Norvell B. DeAtkine, Joint Special Operations University Historical Considerations in Understanding Iran's Military and Their Way of War
COL Wes Martin, U.S. Army (Retired) The U.S.--Iranian Rollercoaster Relations Since 1953, a Frontline Warrior’s Assessment
Prof. George Sanikidze, Ilia State University Iran and the South Caucasian Countries: Different Realities, Different Opportunities
Discussant: Dr. Joseph Skelly
The Maintenance of Iran’s Ruling Regime
Ms. Shukriya Bradost, Virginia Tech Political Power Sharing in Iran: A Source of Ethnic Conflict
Dr. Neal Coates, Abilene Christian University Iran’s Regime Changing? A Content Analysis of Open Source Media, 2018-2020
Layla M. Hashemi, George Mason University Media, Protest and Resistance in Authoritarian Contexts
Dr. Mark Silinsky, Haifa University Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Its Similarities to the Soviet KGB and the German SS and Gestapo
Discussant: Dr. David Meier
Pursuing Success and/or Failure in Egypt
Dr. Rashed Daher, Contemporary Arab World Center, Budapest Too big to fall? Water policy challenges in the transition to a new political ecology in Egypt
Prof. Sherin El Gendi, Ain Shams University Al-Butrosiya Church: A Story of the Unexpected Terrorist Bombing
Ms. Hannah Ridge, Duke University (Il)liberal Democrats in Egypt
Dr. Mohamed Ismail Sabry, Bremen University of Applied Sciences The rise of Nasserism: Socioeconomic and Institutional factors or Path Dependency?
Discussant: Dr. Steven Childs
Stirring the Pot in North Africa
Mr. Sercan Canbolat, University of Connecticut Decoding Militant Islamists’ Rhetoric and Strategy in Their Native Language: A Novel Arabic Coding Scheme for Leadership Analysis in the Middle East and North Africa
Lucia Kroiter, Royal Roads University Can tribal conflict resolution mechanisms create a common ground for disputing parties in Libya under the regional patronage?
Dr. Natalia Piskunova, Moscow State University Russia’s Return to Africa: A comparative Study of Egypt, Algeria and Morocco
Discussant: Dr. Mark T. Clark
Sifting the Future of the Arab Spring in Tunisia
Prof. Uriel Abulof, Tel Aviv University, Cornell University Tunisia and Algeria Amidst the Arab Spring: Lived Experiences of Hope
Ms. Nourhan Kassem, Macquarie University The Crisis of Hegemony in the Middle East and North Africa after the Arab Spring: The Tunisian Political System’s Crisis as a Case Study
Ms. Shirley Le Penne, Cornell University One state, One people - One Secularism? Understanding Secularism in Tunisia with Saba Mahmood’s Religious Difference in a Secular Age
Mr. Salih Yasun, Ostrom Workshop Bureaucrat-Local Politician Relations and Hierarchical Local Governance in Emerging Democracies: A Case Study of Tunisia
Discussant: Dr. Ricardo Crespo
The Pursuit of Physical Security in East Africa
Dr. Erica De Bruin, Hamilton College The Rise of Militarized Policing in the Middle East and North Africa
Mr. Oliver McPherson-Smith, University of Oxford Better Off Alone: Somaliland, Institutional Legacy, and Prosperity
Dr. Daisy Muibu, American University Police Officer Views on Community Policing and Counterterrorism in Somalia
Dr. Michelle Sikes, Penn State University “Like the Bullets She Triggers at Shooting Rangers, She has Suddenly Shot to the Top”: Early Debates over Female Soldiers in Kenyan History
Discussant: Dr. Larry Simpson
Conflict and Control in The Maghreb
Prof. R.M. Douglas, Colgate University Control by Deterrence: Responding to Sexual Violence in the U.S. Army in North Africa, 1943
Ms. Leyla Tiglay, Department of History at Ohio State University American Military Bases Question and Decolonization in Morocco (1950-1962)
Ms. Yasmine Zarhloule, University of Oxford Understanding bilateral relations in the Maghreb: A border perspective.
Discussant: Col. Wes Martin
Visions of Iran
Mr. Bashir Tofangsazi, The Ohio State University The Forgotten Minority: A Longitudinal Study of the Prosecution of Baha’is in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Dr. Robert Steele, University of California, Los Angeles Two Kings of Kings: Iran-Ethiopia Relations under Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and Haile Selassie
Discussant: Dr. Neal Coates
Experiences and Narratives: How Israel is Shaped
Mr. Asher Lubotzky, Indiana University “Don’t Call Us Kushim”: Racialized Experiences and Political Activism among African Students in Israel in the 1960s
Dr. Dan Naor, Ariel University Narratives of the 1982 War in Lebanon: A Case Study of Halbwach’s Theory of Collective Memory
Dr. Avi Shilon, New York University On the process of the Easternization of the Israel Politics and Society
Prof. Eliezer Tauber, Bar-Ilan University Rashid Rida, Jews and Zionism
Discussant: Dr. Ofira Seliktar
Contemporary Security Issues in Africa
Prof. Bruce Bechtol, Angelo State University North Korean Military Proliferation in Africa
Dr. William Dean, Air Command and Staff College French Military Operations in Africa in the 21st. Century
Prof. William Taylor, Angelo State University Violent Extremism in Nigeria: Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province
Discussant: Dr. Douglas Streusand
Israel, the Palestinians, and the World
Dr. Ziv Rubinovitz, Sonoma State University US policymaking on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 1967-present: The shift from external (Middle Eastern) events to domestic US politics
Dr. Ron Schleifer, Ariel University Deconstructing Gaza--Why the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism Has Failed to Rebuild Gaza
Dr. Ofira Seliktar Gratz College, Professor Emerita Constructing the Oslo Peace: An Academic-Intelligence Failure
Prof. Eyal Zisser, Tel Aviv University Israel and the Arab World -- Breaking the Glass Ceiling?
Discussant: Dr. Avi Shilon
Topics on Africa
Mr. Passmore Chishaka, Kent State University The Role and Impact of Truth Commissions and Tribunals as Transitional Justice and Reconstruction Mechanisms in the Aftermath of the Second Congolese Civil War (1998-2003)
Ms. Camille Dantzler, Howard University Creative Activism and the Works of Rwandan Women Filmmakers
Mr. Joseph Lasky, Cornell University In Times of Crisis: Heterogenous Effects of Violence on Attitudes and Behavior
Discussant: Mr. Bright Alozie
Topics in the Middle East
Ms. Dilara Hekimci, Florida International University Playing the Victim Card: Populism against the Authoritarian Baggage of the Opposition in Turkey
Dr. Daniel Rickenbacher, Ben-Gurion University Unwelcome Victims of Arab Nationalism: Jewish-Egyptian Refugees in Switzerland after the Suez Crisis
Mr. Andrew Russo, University of Rochester Memories of the Morisco Expulsion in the Writings of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Rafi?
Discussant: Ms. Suzanne Sloan
The New Shatterbelt of the Middle East: Geopolitics of Eastern Mediterranean in a Post Corona World
Dr. Nursin Guney, Nisantasi University Flexible, Functional and Fluctuating Alliances in the New Eastern Mediterranean: What is this heading for?
Dr. Visne Korkmaz, Nisantasi University Swinging between Realignment for Benefit and Conflictual Rivalry: What did Covid-19 change in the Turkish-Israel relations?
Discussant: Dr. Nursin Guney
|