How Has the Field of Middle East Studies Changed in the Last Five Years? An IJMES Retrospective

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Judith E. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Editorial Office ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Per Se ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Over Time

As editor of IJMES from 2004 to 2009, I spent the last five years in the catbird seat of Middle East studies, where I had the privilege of reading well over 500 article submissions that flowed into the editorial office, some 100 of which were ultimately destined for publication. I characterize the experience as very gratifying on the whole; ours is a field that has attracted talented and skilled scholars who are doing some very creative work—this is not a change per se, although it can be argued that we have a new generation involved in increasingly more theoretically informed projects. Have there been other, more tangible, developments in the field as reflected in submissions to IJMES? I mention four trends I have spotted over time that may suggest some of the recent shifts—in region, topic, scope, and critical engagement—in research foci.

From Indie to Mainstream

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-82
Author(s):  
Thomas Barker
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Mode Of Production

New creative work began to appear in the 1990s through television culminating in the breakthrough feature film Kuldesak (1998). It became the watershed for a new generation of young Indonesians to make their own films, often through an indie philosophy. At first being indie and independent were important values, but over time and with the regularisation of production, the need for consistent capital meant more filmmakers turned to big production companies for capital. A new accommodation between creativity and capital has become the dominant mode of production in the post-1998 film industry.

Orientalist Speech-acts and Israeli Middle East Studies: Cautions and Criticisms of Edward Said Beyond the Battle of Ideas

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Eyal Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Middle East Studies

Drawing on speech acts theory, this article discusses the illocutionary and perlocutionary forces of discursive practices with which certain academic circles seek to discredit the Saidian ‘Orientalism’ framework. Identifying the unusual value attached to Said as object of attachment or detachment, desirability and exceptionality, this analysis turns away from deliberations about ‘orientalism’ as a party in a battle of ideas, and studies common cautionary statements and other responses by peers as actions in the social (academic) world, that enculture and police expectations. Cautioning subjects about this framework, or conditioning its employment to preceding extensive pre-emptive complicating mitigations, in effect constructs this framework as undesirable and ‘risky’. While strong discursive reactions are not uncommon in academia, comparing them to treatments of less-controversial social theories reveals formulations, meanings and attentions which are arguably reserved for this ‘theory’. Conclusively, common dismissals, warnings and criticisms of Said and ‘Orientalism’ often exemplify Saidian claims, as they deploy the powerful advantage of enforcing hegemonic, and indeed Orientalist, views.

1973 Presidential Address Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

1974 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Charles Issawi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Thomas Carlyle ◽  
Henry Ford ◽  
Middle East Studies

Anything coming after the floor show we have just seen can only be an anticlimax, and my impulse is to tear up my prepared text and just quote two great men: Thomas Carlyle, who described economics as “the dismal science” and Henry Ford, who said “history is bunk” — from which it presumably follows that economic history is dismal bunk. Instead, I should like to take advantage of this captive audience and speak to you in praise of economic history. This is an old Arabic genre : mahasin al-iqtisad. And of course economic history means giving as little history for as much money as possible, so you will not expect a long speech.

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