Description:

Please join us for MENA Monday.  Lunch will be provided.  The event is in person, a Zoom option is available upon request.

Title: ROUNDTABLE | Dilemmas and Strategies of Research in the Contemporary MENA Region

The covid pandemic and regional shifts have resulted in irreversible transformations in how we think about and conduct our work.  This graduate student workshop will bring together scholars whose work incorporates multi-modal and experimental methods for an interdisciplinary conversation on conducting research in and on the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.  We will collectively assess changes within the research landscape, how to navigate them, and chart new possibilities and limitations of scholarly inquiry.

Speakers:

Beth Derderian is an assistant professor of museum studies and anthropology at the College of Wooster, and was previously a Postdoctoral Associate at the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale University.  Dr. Derderian received her doctorate in anthropology from Northwestern University, and also holds a master's degree in Museum Studies and Near Eastern Studies from New York University.  Her first project, now a book manuscript, focuses on shifts in arts organization and artists' practice in the United Arabe Emirates (UAE) between 2007, when plans for the Louvre Abu Dhabi were announced, and 2017, when the museum opened.  She is currently at work on a new project, which follows objects excavated on the Arabian Peninsula to their later homes in US and European museums.

Leila Tayeb is an assistant professor in residence with a join appointment in the Communication and Liberal Arts Programs.  She received her doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University and holds an MA in performance studies from NYI and an MA in international affairs from the New School.  Prior to joining Northwestern Qatar, Tayeb held postdoctoral appointments at NYU Abu Dhabi and Cornell Univesity.  Tayeb's research and teaching interests are in performance and politics, sound and militarism in daily life, dance studies, Islam and the state, and state-sponsored performance.  Her work spans MENA and Africana studies with a central focus in Libya.