Cellter fc)! Middle Easterll Studies

NEWSLETTER

Images of the Middle East on Displayin Main Building

No. 18

Summer 1993 MiddleEastern LanguageInstitute

M.R. Ghanoonparvar

This year the Center will be the

I host of the annual SummerMiddle Eastern Language

lnstitute.The Institute, which is jointlysponsored by the Consortium ofWestern Universities, will be held onthe campus ofThe University ofTexasat Austin June14-July16 (first session)and July 19-August 20 (secondsession). Courses will include thestandard language courses, first-,second- and third-year Arabic, andfirst- and second-year Persian andHebrew. First year Turkish will beoffered as well as Azerbaijani Turkishfor the first time in the U.S.

A number of additionalcourses in history and cultures of theMiddle East will also be offered. Theyindude: Biblical An;haelogy, Historyof the Arab World, and Modern Iran.Informal classes (non-credit) include:Israeli Cinema; Persian Cuisine; Satel­lite Imagery of the Middle East; andIntroduction to Kurdish History andCulture.

M. R. Ghanoonparvar,(Persian) is the director of this year'sInstitute. Plans for the summer alsoinclude a Middle East film series andseveral group outings within theAustin area, such as a picnic and an

IMAGES OF THE MIDDLE EAST is ondisplay on the ground floor of theMain Building of the UT Austin

campus from February through June.The exhibit is a collaboration betweenthe Center for Middle Eastern Studiesand the General Libraries Map Collec­tion. Five of the six display cases aredevoted to maps and aerial and satel­lite imagery of the region. Some of themaps are reproductions of historicmaps, including the famous Idrisi mapfrom the Middle Ages. Other cases dis­play modem maps of the region aswen .as cartographic resources avail­able in the General Libraries. With overone quarter million maps, the GeneralLibraries Map Collection is the largestmap collection in the American South­west.

The sixth case gives informa­tion about projects in which the Centeris involved. Staffartists Jim Retherford

Spring 1993

evening on Austin's famous SixthStreet. The Center will host a breakfastand a dinner for the participants. Forinformation about the Institute,contact Dolly Robinson, coordinator,at (512)471-3881.

NASA Landsat Image of the Dead Sea

of the General Libraries and DianeWatts of the Center for Middle East­ern Studies developed the displayfrom materials provided by ProfessorRobert Holz(Geography) and StephenLittrell, map librarian at the GeneralLibraries. Roberta Micallefand AnnesMcCann-Baker provided additionalassistance.

From The Director

T he spring semester of 1993 hasbeen busy and exciting at theCenter. In early March we

learned that the Boad of Regents hadapproved an exchange program be­tween the University of Texas andMoulay Ismail University in Meknes,Morocco. The agreement was mailedto Morocco during the second week inMarch for final signatures. We hope tomake this an active program with ex­changesofstudentsand faculty inbothdirections. As a first step in itsimplementaion, Keith Walters (Lin~

guistics) will visit Meknes for severalweeks at the end of the spring semes­ter. Ifyou have any ideas, suggestions,or recommendations, or would like toparticipate in this program, pleasecon­tact me.

Because of budget restrictionsand other considerations, the Centerhas delayed plans for the SummerStudy Abroad Program in Israel. TheTexas Coordinating Board approvedthe Program in early March-too latefor the summer of 1993. We are, how­ever, going forward with plans forsummer 1994. The six-week program,based at the Rothberg School of TheHebrew University of Jerusalem, willgive our students the opportunity toearn college credit while living andtraveling in Israel. Courses will be con­ducted each summer by University ofTexas faculty members. The Center ispreparing a brochure and will beginrecruiting students in early Septem­ber. We are excited aboutthe opportu­nities this program will offer both stu­dents and faculty in coming years.

The Department of Orientaland African Languages and Litera­tures has interviewed four candidatesfor the vacant position in Arabic litera­ture. To fill this position OALL hasmade an offer to Walid Hamarneh,who is currently teaching at Yale. At atime when faculty recruitment hasbeen restricted, we are appreciativethat Dean Robert D. King has aUowedthe Department to go forward withthe search for a candidate for this po­sition.

Elizabeth "BI" Fernea (En­glish) will be on leave during the sum­mer and fall of 1993. I have askedAbraham Marcus (History) to serve asGraduate Advisor for the 1993-94 aca­demic year beginning in June. Abewill bring new energy and directionto the job and we are looking forwardto working with him. I want to extendmy thanks to BJ for serving as Gradu­ate Advisor for the past two years. Shehas done an excellent job dealing witha major expansion in the graduate pro­gram (from 18 students in 1990-91 to53 in the fall of 1992).

Next year the Center will ini­tiate a required but non-credit, one­hour proseminar for graduate stu­dents. Adiffferent facul ty member willspeak each week, providing an over­view of his/her teaching and researchinterests in the Middle East. The ob­jectives of this course are to acquaintour graduate students with the rangeand diversity of faculty research onthe Middle East and to give them atleast an introduction to theory andmethodology from a variety of disci­plinary perspectives. We encourageall faculty to participate in this newand exciting initiativefor graduatestu­dents.

I was in Washington D.C. inearly April to attend a meeting of TitleVI Center Directors organized by theU.s. Department of Education. Thiswas a key meeting for two reasons:first, we have a new administration inplace in Washington and second, nextfall we win be submitting a major pro­posal, for peer review, to qualify theCenter for the next three-year cycle offunding. Iurgeyou now to begin think­ing about new and innovative ideasfor teaching and other programs onthe Middle East. We need weB-devel­oped, imaginative programs to meetthe increasingly competitive demandsfor funding under the Title VI pro­gram.

Over the next few months theCenter will be preparing for the inten­sive SummerLanguage Institutespon­sored by the Western Consortium. Weanticipate that between 100 and 150students will be on campus to take

part in this Institute. In addition to ourown UT students, there will be peoplefrom the other Consortium universi­ties-University of Arizona, UC Ber­keley, Portland State University, Uni­versity of Utah, UCLA, and Univer­sity ofWashington. Ihope eachofyouwill take part in these activities andmeet as many of the Summer Institutestudents as possible.

The Center is providing par­tial funding for trips to the MiddleEast during the summer by three fac­ulty members: Yair Mawr wiIl travelto Israel to videotape interviews withmajor Israeli writers for an excitingcourse on Israeli literature; Ian Man­ners will go to Turkey, where he willconduct research on water resourcesand meet with key Turkish academicleaders abouta possible exchange pro­gram; Keith Walters will lecture onArabic discourse at Moulay IsmailUniversity in Meknes, Morocco, andgather material for a course on lan­guage and culture in Arabic-speakingcommunities. Faculty members whoare interested in travelling to theMiddle East to carry out research inconnection with course developmentshould submit suggestions next faBfor inclusion in the Center's proposalto the Department of Education.

Discussion continues aboutmoving the Center back to a campuslocation. As of this writing, no deci­sion has been made although severallocations have been mentioned as pos­sible quarters. I suspect tha,t a decisionwill be reached by summer, and wewould hope such a move could takeplace during the summer.

DeborahLittrell,ourOutreacl~

Coordinator, who has been on mater­nity leave since early December, hasreturned toa part-time schedule. DianeWatts, our Artist and Academic Pro­gram Coordinator, who was on leavedue to an illness, has also returned towork. I want to thank all the staff fortheir cooperation and professionalismduring this period when we foundourselves short-staffed.

Robert K. HolzDirector

LecturesNisitors

T he Center has sponsored nu­merous public lectures on the

I Middle East inconjunction withits ongoing colloquium series. On Oc­tober 20, Travis Hanes, Assistant Pro­fessor of History, Southwestern Uni­versity, spoke on ''Imperialism or Ex­patriate Nationalism: Decolonizationin the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan." In No­vember, Douglas Haldane, Ph.D. can­didate in History and Research Asso­ciate, Institute of Nautical Archaeol­ogy, TexasA&M,gaveatalkon "Nau­tical Archaeological Research: Case ofan 11 th Century Shipwreck at SerceLimani, Turkey." Renate Wise, Ph.D.,Arabic, spoke on the fictional worksofYusuf Idris in a lecture entitled"AndThen the Wolf KiUed the Lamb: SexualDynamics in the Short Stories of YusufIdris." OnJanuary 26, Hadassa Kantor,Department of Hebrew and SemiticLanguages, Bar-Han University, gavea lecture entitled "ThelmpactofWest­ern Cultures on Israeli Hebrew." InFebruary, David Lesch of Trinity Uni­versity spoke on "Taking Arab Na­tionalism Seriously: The Anglo-Syr­ian CrisisofI957." Virginia Danielson,Rockefeller Fellow, UT Austin, spokeon "Words to Music: Umm Kulthum,Popular Song and Performance inContemporary Egyptian Society." InMarch,Teirab AshShareef, RockefellerFellow, spoke on "Triple Vision: Cul­tural Consciousness in Muhammad alFayturi's Poetry." Moira Killoran,Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, gavea talk entitled "Poetic Endings for anUnclosed History of North Cyprus."

Several other visitors with in­terests in the Middle East came to thecampus during the year. On Novem­ber 6, Michael Fry, Professor of Inter­national Relations, University ofSouthern California, visited the urAustin campus and lectured at theBritishStudiesSeminar on ''The UnitedNations and the Crisis in Lebanon in1958." Dr. Abdallah Hassan EI-Ashaal,a Deputy Director of the DiplomaticStudies Institute in Egypt's Ministryof Foreign Affairs, visited the Centeron November 11. Peter Bridges, Man-

ager of International Affairs, Shell OilCompany, and former ambassador toSomalia, delivered a speech FebruaryItO enti,tled "Reminiscences of Soma­lia." Jason Thompson, Assistant Pro­fessor of History, Western KentuckyUniversity,gave a lecture entitIed "Ed­ward William Lane: Travels to Egypt"on February 19 co-sponsored by theCenter and the British Studies Semi­nar. Steven Meadows of the Legal I

Department at Conoco Inc. spoke on"Dubai, Historical Pragmatism" onMarch 4. Anton Shammas, author ofthe highly acclaimed novel Arabesquesand adjunct professor of Near EasternStudies at the University of Michigan,gave a public lecture entitled "Lan­guage and Identity" on March 26.

Anton Shammas

A series of lectures spon­sored by the Department of Orientaland African Languages and litera­tures for candidates for a faculty po­sition in Arabic included a talk byTeirab AshShareef, Assistant Profes­sor, University of Minnesota, andcurrently Rockefeller Fellow at theCenter, on February 19 entitled "TheQur'anic Narrative: A Typology."John Crofoot, M.A., University ofMichigan spoke on "Approaches tothe Past Through ContemporaryArabic Literature: History andTurath" on February 22. On March 1,Magda M. AI-Nowaihi, Lecturer,Princeton University, spoke on"Death-defying Narratives." WalidHamameh, Assistant Professor, YaleUniversity, gave a talk entitled "Re­writing the Pre-Modern: Some Post­Realist Narrative Strategies in the

Contemporary Arabic Novel" onMarch 8.

Pinar Batur-VanderLippe,Assistant Professor of Sociology,Vassar College, will speak on"Azerbaijani Intellectuals and the De­bate on Identity" on April 15. HamidNaficy, Rockefeller Fellow, Rice Uni­versity, will speak on April 21 about"Creating Culture in Exile: Iranian­American Music Videos." On May 6­7, a workshop on proficiency-basedinstruction in Uzbek will be held onthe UT Austin campus. The workshopis organized by Giiliz Kuruoglu, Lec­turer in Turkish.

Symposium on JewishChildren

O n April 1, the Hebrew Studies, Program and the Department

of Oriental and African Lan­guages and Literatures presented asymposium on Children and Adoles­cents in Jewish Society and Culture.The symposium took a panoramicview of children and adolescents fromthe Biblical period to the present.Speakers at the symposium, a~l fromthe University, focused on the impor­tant role played by children in therevival of the Hebrew language andotheraspects of Jewishchildren's lives.

Esther Raizen (Hebrew Stud­ies) presented a paper entit]ed "Whereis the Biblical Youngster?"; HaroldLeibowitz (Hebrew Studies) spoke on"The Education of Children and Ado­lescents"; Aaron Bar-Adon (Linguis­tics) delivered a presentation on "Chil­dren and their Role in the Revival ofHebrew"; Avraham Zilkha (HebrewStudies) spoke on "Children of theKibbutz"; Yair Mazor gave a talk en­titled "Who's Afraid of HebrewChildren's Litera ture and Why?";YaronShemer (Hebrew Studies) spokeon "Children and Adolescents in Is­raeli Film"; and Ramon Tasat (Music)spoke on "Lullabies in Jewish Tradi­tion."

Arabic Linguistics

The seventh annual Symposiumon Arabic Linguistics was heldon the UT Austin campus March

5-6, 1993. The symposium wassponsored by the Arabic LinguisticsSociety, the University (College ofLiberal Arts, the Center, TheDepartment of Linguistics, and theDepartment of Oriental and AfricanLanguages and Literatures) and theUniversity of Utah (Department ofLanguages and Literatures). Thesymposium featured more than 18presentations on Arabic linguistics byprofessors of Arabic from aU over thecountry.

Iranian Authors Visit UTCampus

AseriesofIranianauthorshavevisited campus during thespring semester in conjunc­

tion with a course entitled "IranianLiteratureinExHe." The course, taughtby Professor M. R. Ghanoonparvar,features a series of guest lectures byIranian authors living in the UnitedStates whose books have been read bystudents in the class. The lecture se­ries was co-sponsored by the IranianStudies Endowment, the Center, thedepartments of Oriental and AfricanLanguages and Literatures, Psychol­ogy and Women's Studies. MajidAmini, author of several fictionalworks, gave a talk entitled "BetweenTwo Cultures"; Manoucher Parvin

Manoucher Parvin

spoke about his recently-completednovel enWed "Avicenna and I";Bahman Sholevar lectured on "TheCreative Process"; and SattarehFarman Farmaian, author of a re­cently-published autobiography,

spoke on "An Iranian Woman'sStruggle for Liberation."

Sattareh Farman Farmaian

Center Is Evaluated

On February 3-4, the Center hadits program evaluated. The sitevisit by two important schol­

ars in the field of Middle Eastern Stud-ies, Lee Bean, Professor of Sociologyand Director of the Middle East Centerat the University of Utah, and ErnestMcCarus, Professor of Near EasternStudies and former Director, Centerfor Near Eastern and African Studiesat the University of Michigan, gavefaculty and students the opportunityto discuss thestrengthsand weaknessesof the program. The final report by theevaluators, containing itsoverall evalu­ation as well as suggestions and rec­ommendations for ·the program, willbe written up and delivered to thePresident of the University.

Student News

Kamran Hooshmand hostsMiddle Eastern music night

.' "Mahfel" at Chicago House (607Trinity) the first Tuesday of everymonth. Local musicians perform Per­sian, Arabic, Turkish and other non­Western music. The next Mahfel willtake place on Tuesday, May 4.

Moira Killoran, Ph.D. candi­date in Anthropology, received a lib­eral Arts Dissertation Fellowship forthe spring 1993 semester. RobertaMicallef, Ph.D. candidate in Compara­tive Literature, delivered a paper inlate March at the American Compara­tive Literature Association conferenceentitled "Space and the Other." Robertahas received a grant to conduct disser­tation research in Uzbekistan from theInternational Research ExchangeBoard

(IREX). Mandy McClure and Marga­ret Schulenberg have both beenawarded one-year scholarships tostudy Arabic in Egypt under the aus­pices of the Center for Arabic StudyAbroad (CASA).

. Gregory Noakes, M.A. inMiddle Eastern Studies, authored thelead article entitled "AI-Andalus" forthe current issue of Aramco Worldmagazine. Tom Har,tweH, B.A. MiddleEastern Studies, has had his photos ofMorocco published in the lead pieceofa recent New York Times travel section.Catherine and Najeeb Ahmad,gradu­ates of the joint MES/Business Schoo'!program, visited the Center and heldan informal discussion for MES gradu­ate students. Najeeb is currently work­ing with Mobil Oil in Dallas.

A number of graduate stu­dents with areas of specialty in theMiddle East recently completed theirPh.D. dissertations. Pinar Batur­VanderLippe, Sociology 1992, wrotea dissertation entitled "The Tactics ofCounter-At,tack: Ethnic Movementsand the Formation of Ethnic Identity."Pinar was recently hired as an Assis­tant Professor of Sociology at VassarCollege. BushraHamad,Arabic,1992,completed his dissertation ''Wad DayfAllah as a Historian: An Analytical,Li terary, and LinguisticStudyofKitabat-Tabaqat" and is currently teachingArabic at Cornell University. DavidMcMurray, whose dissertation wason "The Contemporary Culture ofNader, Morocco, and the Impact ofInternational Labor Migration," re­ceived his degree in Anthropology in1992. Joya Saad, whose dissertationwas on "The Image of Arabs in Mod­ern Persian Literature," received herdegree in Persian in 1992. RenateWise, Arabic, 1992, completed herdis­sertation on "The Concept of Sexual­ity in the Short Stories of Yusuf Idris"and is currently workingasa ResearchAssociate at the Center. DarrowZenlund, Anthropology, 1991, whosedissertation is entitled "Post-ModernAleppo, Syria: Struggles in Represen­tation and Identi ty," recently returnedfrom Morocco after spending a yearthere doing post-doctoral research.

II

Faculty and Staff News

C ora Boyett (Accountant for theCenter) will receive an awardfor fifteen years of service at

the Annual Staff Recogni tion Programand President's Reception on May 14.

Elizabeth Fernea (CMES andEnglish) has been elected to the Boardof Editors of the Middle East Jourrull, inWashington, D.C. Her article, "Cui­sine of Survival," about Iraqi cuisineappeared in the April issue of NaturalHistory Magazine.

Robert Fernea (Anthropol­ogy) is completing his final year asPresident of the Society for CuI turalAnthropology and as a member of theBoard at the American AnthropologyAssociation.

M.R. Ghanoonparvar (PersianStudies) was promoted to the rank ofAssociate Professor in the DepartmentofOriental and African LanguagesandLi teratures. His book, In a Persian Mir­ror, Images of the West and Westerners inIranian Fiction, was published by theUniversity of Texas Press in March;and he was appointed Editor of theSociety of Iranian Studies Newsletter.

Deborah Harrold, a Ph.D. stu­dent at the University of Chicago inPolitical Science, has been a visitingLecturer in the Government Depart­ment during the spring semester. Shehas been teaching a course on the rela­tion between recent political liberal­ization in the Arab world and the rapidexpansion of the Islamicist movement.Her own research is focused on eco­nomic discourse in contemporary Al­geria.

Clement Henry (Govern­ment) presented a paper, "The Politi­cal EconomyofBanking," at the Ameri­can Political Science Association meet­ing in Chicago on September 5. Hegave a presentation on 'The TurkishOpening to Arab-Islamic Capital" atthe MESA meeting in Portland in Oc­tober. On January 12, he delivered hislecture "Political Economics of Finan­cial Adjustment: May Bankers Sup­port Democracy?" to the DepartmentofPolitical Science at Cairo University.Henry completed the final month ofhis Fulbright research grant in Cairo

during the Christmas break of 1992193.

Michael Hillmann's transla­tion of Shahrokh Meskoob's Melliyatva Zaban (Iranian Nationality and thePersian Language) was published byMage Publishers in December. InJanu­ary, 1993, at the invitation ofthe Criti­cal Languages Institute at Florida A&M University, he participated in a na­tional conference on teaching materi­als needs in less commonly taughtlanguages. The Society for IranianStudies has asked Hillmann to orga­nizea panel on classical Persian litera­ture at SIS's first biennial conferencein Virginia in May, 1993. Hillmannhas been named Will and Ariel DurantChair in the Humanities at St. Peter'sCollege inJersey City, NJ, for the 1993194 academic year.

Roger Louis (Kerr Centen­nial Chair in English History and Cul­ture) edited withRobertBlakethenewvolume Churchill, published by Ox­ford Press in England and W.W.Norton in the United States. The bookis a major new assessment ofChurchill's life in peace and war.

Yair Mazor's book The OtherTchernichovsky: His Narrative's Land­scape; Saul Tchernichovsky's ArtofNarra­tive was published by Papyrus Pressof Tel Aviv University in 1992. In De­cember, Mazor delivered papers:"Scolding Aesthetics in Biblical lit­erature" at the AJS Annual Confer­ence in Boston, and "Bridled Bird: ThePoetics of Yair Horvitz" at the interna­tional conference dedicated to mod­em Hebrew poetry at Tel Aviv Uni­versity.

Annes McCann-Baker(CMES Editor) received a Joseph J.Malone Fellowship from the NationalCouncil on U.s.-Arab Relations. Shewill participate in the Islamic StudiesProgram in Kuwait and Syria fromMay 18 to June 3. McCann-Baker wasalso selected to receive a $500 Collegeof Liberal Arts Award for Outstand­ing Service by a Staff Member thisspring.

Gail Minault (History) willbe conducting research at the IndiaOffice Library in London this summer

onanSSRCIACLS advanced researchgrant. The title of her research projectis: "The Delhi Renaissance: AnIntellectural History of the MughalImperial City, 1827-1857."

Thomas G.Palaima(DicksonCentennial Professor of Classics) wasrecently elected a Member of theMycenaean Commission of the Aus­trian Academy of Sciences. WhileFulbrightProfessorofMycenaean pre­history at the University of Salzburg,he delivered invited lectures on "TheThree Most Important MycenaeanReligious Texts" at the University ofNancy, "Blues and Blacks in America"at the Altenmarkt Fulbright Confer­ence, and "The Origin of MycenaeanKingship" at the University of Heidel­berg. He also visited the Classics De­partment of the University of Vilniusin Lithuania in December and Jar\U­ary in order to set up a program tohelp scholars and students in thenewly independent republic.

Anne Rasmussen (Music) de­livered papers this year at MESA inPortland and the Society forEthnomusicology in Seattle. She con­tinues to direct the Middle East En­semble, which has given numerousperformances for University and com­munity audiences over the academicyear.

Denise Schmandt-Bessaratdelivered three lectures in the fall:"The Origin of Writing" at the Uni­versity of California at Berkeley; "TheInvention of Writing," at WhittierCollege at Whittier, California; and"Counting," at Whittier College. Shewas interviewed on "Discover" onthe Disney channel February 16.

Abazar Sepehri (CMES li­brarian) made a library acquisitionstrip to Istanbul, Turkey, in Septem­ber, where he acqui red 43 complete orpartially complete Turkish periodicalsets and more than 300 retrospectivemonographic titles selected from vari­ous vendors' catalogs. He also madeexchange agreements with severalacademic and research institutions in­cluding Istanbul and Marmara.

TAMES Meeting

T he 1993 annual conference ofthe Texas AssociationofMiddleEast Scholars (TAMES) was

held on the Trinity University campusin San Antonio during the weekend ofFebruary 26-27.

A Social Sciences panel in­cluded the following papers: "TakingArab Nationalism Seriously: The Re­percussionsof the 1957American-Syr­ian Crisis" (David Lesch-Trinity Uni­versity); "Explaining the Hostility ofthe Iranian Revolution Toward theUnited States" (Robert Snyder-South­western University); "InternationalMigration in the Middle East: TheHaves and Have Nots" (Aaron Segal­UT El Paso); "Monumentalism of Ev­eryday Life in Syria and Morocco"(Darrow Zenlund-UT Austin); and"Istanbul and the Western Imagina­tion: Rereading the Early Maps of theCity" (Ian Manners-UT Austin).

A Turkic Literature panel in­cluded "Nationalism and UzbekNov­els" (Roberta Micallef-UT Austin);"Mulla Nasreddin in the Past andPresent" (Monika Shepherd-UT Aus­tin); "Turkey as America's Other"(Pelin Basci-UT Austin); "Turkish Lit­erature Abroad" (Hiilya Onlii-South­western University); and "Time andSpacein Turkish and Uzbek Folktales"(Giiliz Kuruoglu-UT Austin).

A panel on Literature andLanguished Boundaries: the LiteratureofExile and Alienation was composedof the following papers: "Existential­ist Poetics: Alienation in the Poetry ofSaleh Abd al-Sabur" (TeirabAshShareef-UniversityofMinnesota);"The Turkish Cypriot Experience ofLiving History in Exile" (MoiraKilloran-UT Austin); "The Fiction ofColi Taraqqi in Exile" (FaridounFarrokh); "Exile at Home: PalestinianFeminism within the Palestinian Na­tionalist Discourse" (Nejd Yaziji-UTAustin); and "Refashioning the Past:Complicity and the Painful Legacy ofColonialism in LePasse Simple of DrissChraibi" (NajibMokhtari-UT Austin).

A Voices of the Middle Eastpanel included "Sleepers Awake!:The

Masahharati on Television" (VirginiaDanielson-UT Austin); "Egypt's 1979Personal Status Laws: a Social andPolitical Context(ChristineHerrmann­UT Austin); "Layali Alf Layla: A Nov­elistic Interpretation of the Thousandand One Nights" (Ayman A. El­Desouky-UT Austin); "Magical Real­ism in the Contemporary EgyptianNovel: The Case of Ibrahim Abdel­Maguid" (Hosam Aboul-Ela-UT Aus­tin); and "The Emergence of MysticThemes in the Post-RevolutionaryMusic of Iran" (Karnran Hooshmand­UT Austin).

One of the highlights of fheweekend was a performance ofMiddleEastern music by the Middle EasternEnsemble, led by UT Lecturer AnneRassmussen. Thanks to Susan Siavoshiand Trinity University for hosting theconference, to Elizabeth Fernea,Mohammed Chanoonparvar, CiilizKuruoglu, and Hafez Farmayan forserving as chair/discussants to thepanels and to all others who made theconference such a success. And specialthanks to Allison Hodgkins, CenterOutreach Assistant, for organizing theconference.

During the business meeting,a decision was made to hold next year'sTAMES meeting at UT Austin. In thefuture, UT Austin will host the confer­enceeveryotheryear. The new TAMESofficers for the 1993-94 year are Presi­dent: Yair Mazor (UT Austin); Trea­surer: Faegheh Shirazi-Mahajan (UTAustin); and Council Member:Manocher Dorraj (Texas ChristianUniversity). For further informationon upcoming TAMES events or onmembership, please contact DeborahLi ttrell, Outreach Coordinator, Centerfor Middle Eastern Studies, UniversityofTexasatAustin 78712, (512)471-3881.

Outreach News-T- his year the Outreach Programhas focused on developing cur-

. ricular materials and promot-ing its services to teachers. The Out­reach Program in conjunction withECHO (ExpandingCultural Horizons

and Options) and the Middle EastOutreach Council had a booth at theannual meeting of the Texas Councilfor Social Studies in October. Thisgathering of social studies teachersfrom around Texas is a good opportu­nity to infonn many teachers at onceof the Center's services.

A pilot edition of an Explor­atory Language Curriculum unit forArabic has been completed and is cur­rently being evaluated in schools inTexas and other parts of the country.The nine-week unit is designed to helppromote interest in this critical, lesscommonly taught, world language.Three other area studies centers at UThave developed similar units, and thissummer an institute will be hosted tointroduce language teachers from tenTexas school districts to the four lan­guage units being offered (Arabic,Russian, Portugueseand HindD.Onceevaluations have been completed, re­visions will be made as needed and afinal edition made available nation­wide for the 1994 school year.

The Malcolm Kerr ScholarsProgram is a nationwide competitivesummer study abroad program forhigh school.juniors, designed to givestudents an opportunity to study Araband Islamic society and experienceanother culture. The Outreach staffhelped promote the program in theAustin area again this year, and ispleased to report than an Austin stu­dent has been chosen to participate inthis summer's program.

New Research Institute inSyria Planned

Plans are underway to establishan American Research Institutein Syria (ARIS). Funding would

come from USIA. A set of by-laws hasbeen drafted and the committee is look­ing for both individuals and institu­tions who are interested in joining thisorganization. A copy of the proposedby~laws are on file in the Center, ifanyone would like to review them.

(Publications continued)

Publications

T TheCenter has published newbooks in two of its series thiswinter: The Islamic Movement

in North Africa in the Middle EastMonograph Series and Please, No Po­lice in the Modern Middle East Litera­tures in Translation Series.

The Islamic Movement in NorthAfrica was writtenoriginally in Frenchby Franc;ois Burgat and published in1988 in France as L'Islamisme auMaghreb. Burgat and Time correspon­dent William Dowell translated thebook into English and added a greatdeal of new material including an in­terpretation of the eVl;:nts of the sum­mer of 1992 in Algeria. Much of thetext is translation from Arabicspeeches and articles by leaders of themovements in the North African coun­tries. TheForeword is by Robert Femea(Anthropology-UT). The book sells inpaperback for $13.95 from the Univer­sity of Texas Press.

·,~~t~f,~ .

Please, No Police is TeomanSipahigal's translation of the Turkishod inal by Aras Oren. The novellaonc rns the situation of Turkish

workers in Berlin, the alienation of thel wo cultures and the misunderstand­ings that result. Former scholar at theUniversity, Akile Gursoy-Tezcan,wrote the introduction that helps putthis unusual and informative piece offiction into context. The paperbacksells for $9.95 from the University ofTexas Press.

The Center congra tula tes fac­ulty member Denise Schmandt­Besserat(ArtHistory) for winning theKayden National University PressBook Award for $2,500 for the bestbook in the humanities published bya university press. Her two-volum

work, Before Writing, published by theUniversity of Texas Press, was theunanimous choice of the Kayden BookCommittee who read 33 publications

during the course of the award period.Before Writing presents new theoriesabout the origins of writing in theMiddle East.

Iranian StudiesEndowment

Since the Iranian revolution morethan ten years ago and the result­ing political tensions between

the United States and Iran, opportuni­ties for funding, research and travel inthe area of Iranian Studies have beenseverely hampered. To address thisneed, The Iranian Studies Endowmentwas recently established at the Uni­versity of Texas at Austin. "The Ira­nian people have a long and rich his­tory," said M. R. Ghanoonparvar, oneof the co-chairs of the Endowment."Iranians have contribu ted a great dealto the fields of art, literature, science,philosophy and religion, but mostWesterners have a limited knowledgeof these contributions." Designed toenhance Iranian studies on the UTcam­pus and in the Austin community, theendowment has an initial goal of rais­ing $250,000.

The Iranian Studies Endow­ment, established with the support of

Center for Middle Eastern StudiesThe University of Texas at AustinAustin, Texas 78712

the Center, serves as a permanent en­dowment to encourage the greatestpossible support for Iranian Studies atthe University. The interest from thisendowment would ultimately be usedto support a variety of activities in­~ludin~ providing academic trainingm Iraruan Studies; assisting worthystudents, both American and Iranianto further their studies of Iranian cUI~ture; assisting graduate students andfaculty, both American and Iranian to,carry out research on Iran; developingcurricular rnaterials for precollege stu­dents; organizing conferences and~ymposia;encouraging exchange vis­Its of American and Iranian studentsand scholars; arrangingcultural eventssuch as art exhibits, musical programs,plays, films, and poetry readings; andsponsoring the publication of transla­tions of scholarly and literary works.

The following are AdvisoryCommittee members for the IranianStudies Endowment: Professor HafezFarmayan and M.R. Ghanoonparvar,

EA SF DP 866DEBORAH LITTRELLMIDDLE EASTERN STUDIESCAMPUS 59400

chairs; Dr. Parviz Adib, Dr. and Mrs.Ahmad Fatehi, Dr. and Mrs. EzamGhodsi, Professor M. A. Jazayery, Dr.and Mrs. Keikhosro Kavoussi, Profes­sor Vijay Mahajan, Dr. MinaMohammadioun, Mr. AbazarSepehri,Dr. and Mrs. Mehdi Sharifian, Dr.Faegheh Shirazi-Mahajan. ProfessorRobert K. Holz, Center Director, andMarjorie Payne, Executive Assistant,serve as ex-officio members. The En­dowment is also supported by TheIranian Students' Academic and Cul­turalOrganization.

Editor: Annes McCann-Baker

Editoral Assistant: Persis Karim

Production, Design, and Photographs:Diane Walls

Not printed with state funds