Rory McCarthy (Magdalen College, Oxford) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre seminar series, chaired by Michael Willis (St Antony's College). In the wake of the Arab uprisings, the Tunisian Islamist movement al-Nahda voted to transform itself into a political party that would for the first time withdraw from a preaching project built around religious, social, and cultural activism. This turn to the political was not a Tunisian exception but reflects an urgent debate within Islamist movements...
May 01, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Ozlem Belcim Galip (Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow, The School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre seminar series, chaired by Marilyn Booth (Magdalen College). A movement is observable that sees Kurdish migrant women moving from oppression within a traditional, patriarchal society; ethnic oppression; and being stuck between secularism and Islam, to exhibiting a liberated agency that challenges the monolithic perspectives of soci...
May 01, 2019•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew Arsan (University of Cambridge) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre. Chaired by Walter Armbrust (St Antony's College).
Apr 30, 2019•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Abbas Kadhim (Atlantic Council) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre seminar series, charied by Toby Matthiesen (St Antony's College). Dr. Abbas Kadhim leads the Atlantic Council Iraq Initiative. He is an Iraq expert and author of Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State. He earned a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. The subject of his dissertation was Shia political theology in Baghdad in the 5th A.H./11th C.E. centur...
Apr 30, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Relli Shechter (St Antony’s College) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre, on 29th January 2019. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Egypt experienced swift economic growth-the result of a regional oil boom. Oddly, this economic growth hardly registered in Egyptian public discourse, which continuously claimed that the country was experiencing multiple economic crises that became social and cultural crises, as well. In my lecture, and based on a recently published book, I investigate this discre...
Mar 08, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Zep Kalb (UCLA) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre. Chaired by Yassamine Mather.
Mar 05, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Imane Chaara (QEH Oxford), Dr Doris Gray (Al Akhawayn University), Dr Nadia Sonneveld (Radboud University) take part in a discussion at the Middle East Studies centre. Chair by Michael Willis (St Antony's College). About the speakers: Dr. Imane Chaara (QEH Oxford) Title: Moroccan Mothers' Religiosity. Impact on Daughters' Education Abstract: The participation of mothers in decisions within their household has non-neutral effects and in many instances positive impacts, especially on children’s...
Feb 25, 2019•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The seminar will consider the Iraq Inquiry’s origins, terms of reference, mode of operation, and issues which arose in the course of its work, in framing its conclusions, and on its publication and reception.
Feb 08, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nick Westcott (Director Royal African Society and Associate at SOAS) gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre on 1st February 2019. Chaired by Eugene Rogan (St Antony's College). Since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2011 and the European Union pledged to reinforce its foreign policy cooperation, it has struggled to articulate and implement a policy on the Middle East which effectively protects and furthers its interests in the region. It responded swiftly but not very successfully t...
Feb 06, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joost Hiltermann (International Crisis Group), gives a talk for the Middle East Centre Friday Seminar Series on 25th January 2019. Professor Eugene Rogan chairs. In many places in the Middle East, and in various ways, the region’s people continue to thrive: in business, art, music and other fields. Yet Middle Eastern states are undergoing a profound social and political transformation in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings and the civil wars these sprouted. The region has seen the collapse of st...
Feb 01, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Sharro (architect, satirist and Middle East commentator), gives a seminar for the Middle East Studies Centre. Chaired by Walter Armbrust (St Antony's College). The Middle East is the mysterious land of veils, minarets and Orientalist cliches. Karl Sharro, aka Karl reMarks, talks about his seven year journey of satirising how his enchanted native land is represented in Western media and punditry. From the Arab Spring to the rise and decline of ISIS, Sharro discusses how his online alter ego ...
Dec 07, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Panel discussion with Harith Hasan (Central European University), Hayder al-Khoei (University of Exeter), Renad Mansour (Chatham House) and chaired by Toby Matthiesen (St Antony's College).
Dec 07, 2018•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Kamiar Alaei (Co-president, Institute for International Health and Education), gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre. Chaired by Dr Nazila Ghanea (Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law, Department for Continuing Education). Dr Kamiar Alaei's academic, medical and international public health project work has all navigated the art of advancing health (and later, also educational) concerns in conservative settings. When patients are condemned for having certain conditio...
Nov 26, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Professor Edmund Burke III (UC Santa Cruz) gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre. Who was Marshall Hodgson and should he have a claim on our attention today? In a moment of populist nationalisms and deepening Islamophobia, Hodgson’s humanistic vision is once again of interest. Primarily known as the author of the innovative three volume textbook, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization (Chicago, 1974), Hodgson proposes a vision of the unfolding of Islam tha...
Nov 26, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Christian C Sahner (Associate Professor of Islamic History, Faculty of Oriental Studies), talks about his new book, the discussants are Phil Booth (Faculty of Theology) and Professor Julia Bray (Oriental Institute). Chaired by Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins (Faculty History, Oxford). How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam explains how Christians across t...
Nov 26, 2018•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Seth Anziska (Mohamed S. Farsi-Polonsky Lecturer in Jewish-Muslim Relations, University College London), gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre. Based on newly declassified international sources, Preventing Palestine charts the emergence of the Middle East peace process, including the establishment of a separate track to deal with the issue of Palestine. At the very start of this process, Anziska argues, Egyptian-Israeli peace came at the expense of the sovereignty of the Palestinian...
Nov 26, 2018•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Naysan Adlparvar (Yale University), gives a talk for the Middle East Studies Centre. Marriage, in Afghanistan, is a highly strategic affair. In most cases, Afghan parents carefully manage who their children marry. This is done to forge alliances and accrue financial benefits. At the same time, marriage also serves to maintain community boundaries - be they familial, religious or ethnic. These boundaries are often stark; with prolonged conflict making interethnic and intersectarian marriage un...
Nov 26, 2018•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Homa Katouzian (Iran Heritage Foundation Research Fellow, St Antony's) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre. Chaired by Stephanie Cronin (St Antony's College). Khalil Maleki (1901-1969) was a selfless campaigner for democracy and social welfare in twentieth-century Iran. His was a unique approach to politics, prioritising the criticism of policies detrimental to his country's development over the pursuit of power itself. An influential figure, he was at the centre of such formative events ...
Nov 13, 2018•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Zach Vertin (Princeton University) on a joint event with Sudanese Programme, African Studies Centre and the Centre for International Studies. Chaired by Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi (Sudanese Programme).
Nov 13, 2018•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast James Barr (King's College London) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre, chaired by Eugene Rogan (St Antony's College). Thanks to the now-infamous 1953 conspiracy to oust Iran’s prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq, the prevailing wisdom is that Britain and America colluded in the Middle East. In his talk James Barr will challenge this assumption, arguing the opposite was in fact the case: in the quarter century following the battle of El Alamein in 1942, Britain and America were invariably comp...
Nov 13, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jacqueline Rose (Birkbeck), Kfir Cohen (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute), Moshe Behar (The University of Manchester), Hakem Al-Rustom (Michigan), Ella Shohat (New York University) discuss at the book event. Chaired by Eugene Rogan (St Antony's College).
Aug 28, 2018•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ella Shohat (New York University) and Avi Shlaim (St Antony's College) give the second of two workshops for the middle east centre.
Aug 28, 2018•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ella Shohat (New York University) and Avi Shlaim (St Antony's College) give the first of two workshops for the middle east centre.
Aug 28, 2018•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ella Shohat (New York University) gives a lecture for the middle east centre, chaired by Yaacov Yadgar (Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies, St Anne's). Comments by Yuval Evri (SOAS).
Aug 28, 2018•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Moncef Marzouki (Former President of the Republic of Tunisia, 2011-2014) gives the annual George Antonius Memorial Lecture.
Aug 28, 2018•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Deena Al Asfoor (St Catherine's College) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre. Chaired by Nazila Ghanea (Kellogg College).
Aug 28, 2018•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast George Hawatmeh (Jordan Radio and Television Corporation) gives a public lecture on Arab media in the new age. Chaired buy Philip Robins (St Antony's College). George Hawatmeh is currently the Chairman of the Board of Jordan Radio and Television Corporation. Before his appointment to head the state-owned JRTVC in June 2016, he was an independent communications and media consultant. In this capacity, and as president of AWAN, Arab Media Consultants, a firm he founded in 2007, Hawatmeh publishes t...
Jun 01, 2018•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sir Vincent Fean KCVO, gives a talk for the Middle East Studies seminar series.
Apr 03, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alexandre Toumarkine (INALCO, Paris) talks about religious freedom in Turkey.
Apr 03, 2018•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Guy (Consultant Surgeon), Omar Abdel-Mannan (Paediatrician), and Debbie Harrington (Consultant Obstetrician) talk about the challenges of healthcare in Gaza.
Apr 03, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
