Book Launch 19 June 2015

Title: Studying Modern Arabic Literature: Mustafa Badawi, Scholar and Critic

Dr Robin Ostle (Emeritus Research Fellow in Modern Arabic, St John’s College)

See poster here

See photos from the event here

Prior to the 1960s the study of Arabic literature, both Classical and Modern, had barely been emancipated from the academic approaches of Orientalism. The appointment of Mustafa Badawi as Oxford University's first Lecturer in Modern Arabic Literature changed the face of this subject as Badawi showed, through his teaching and research that Arabic literature was making vibrant contributions to global culture and thought. Part biography, part collection of critical essays, this volume celebrates Badawi's immense contribution to the field and explores his role as a public intellectual in the Arab world and the west.

Annual Lecture 18 June 2015

GEORGE ANTONIUS MEMORIAL LECTURE

Title: In Memoriam George Scanlon (1926-2014): Islamic Archaeology Before and After 'The Drain Brain’

Speaker: Prof Scott Redford (SOAS, University of London)

Chair: Dr Eugene Rogan (Director of the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College)

See poster here

See photos from the event here

Read about the speaker here
Read about the George Scanlon Memorial Award here

Seminar 16 June 2015

Title: From periphery to IRCAM: how Morocco's Berbers have come in from the cold

Speaker: Dr Michael Peyron (Grenoble University, retired)

Chair: Dr Michael Willis  (St Antony's College)

See poster here

See photos from the event here

Read about the speaker here

Listen to the podcast here

Lecture 8 June 2015

Title: Palestine- what future?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti in conversation with Edward Mortimer

(General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative)

See poster here

Read about the speaker here

Seminar 5 June 2015

Title: “Bled ma-fihash Yahud ma-fihash Ta'arikh" - Researching and Narrating Morocco's Jewish Community

Speaker: Dr Orit Ouaknine- Yekutieli (Ben Gurion University and Academic Visitor at St Antony's)

Chair: Dr Michael Willis  (St Antony's College)

See poster here

See photos from the event here

Read about the speaker here

Listen to the podcast here

Book Launch 4 June 2015

Title: The Water Crisis in Yemen: Managing Extreme Water Scarcity in the Middle East

Speaker: Mr Christopher Ward (University of Exeter)

Chair: Dr Michael Willis  (St Antony's College)

See poster here

See photos from the event here

Read about the speaker here

Listen to the podcast here
See the PowerPoint presentation here

The Water Crisis in Yemen provides the first comprehensive study of the water management crisis in one of the most water-short countries in the world where groundwater is being extracted at such a rate that parts of the rural economy could disappear within a generation. Based on extensive field and documentary research and practical experience in Yemen over the last fifteen years, the book was written whilst Chris was Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter. The book looks at all aspects of the crisis - institutional, environmental, technical, political economy – and asks what must Yemenis do to ensure that clean water is available for all, and that the agricultural economy can provide a decent living for the increasingly poor rural population?  The presentation at the book launch will ask – how to manage water for the benefit of the people when the government is extraordinarily ineffective?  The solution that will be discussed is an attractive one – that Yemenis can revive their traditions of local cooperation over the management of natural resources.

Unveiling of the Investcorp Building

From left: Nada and Nemir Kirdar (the Benefactor), Dame Zaha Hadid (the Architect),
HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar (the Keynote Speaker)
and Professor  Eugene Rogan (the Director of the Middle East Centre)

On Tuesday 26 May, the Oxford University building created by Zaha Hadid was unveiled and named the Investcorp Building. The £11 million building was commissioned by St Antony’s College to provide much-needed space for its Middle East Centre. The Investcorp Building spans two Victorian buildings on Woodstock Road in the grounds of the college. Read more here

See images of the building here

See photos from the ceremony here

TV: Newsnight, BBC Two 27/05/2015, 22.30

One of the world’s top architects, Dame Zaha Hadid, is interviewed at St Antony’s College about the unveiling of the new building she has designed for the Middle East Centre. Interviewer Evan Davis describes it as ‘a gleaming new arrival…certainly eye-catching with the usual curvaceous form associated with Zaha Hadid, who also designed the Aquatics Centre of London 2012 Olympics. It is inescapably not trying to be conventional, rather like Zaha Hadid herself’. There are musical sequences over panning shots of the exterior and interior of the building.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05wxx88/newsnight-26052015
(around 33:42 on the clock)


The Guardian online, 26/05/2015, Ian Black
Article focuses on the keynote speech, at the opening of the new Investcorp building at St Antony’s College, given by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned, ‘one of the most influential and high-profile women in the Arab world’.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/26/qatar-emirs-mother-speaks-out-over-treatment-of-muslims-by-west

Mail Online, 26/05/2015, via Reuters
Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect, has designed a futuristic addition to Oxford University: a curvy bridge building for St Antony's College's Middle East Centre that was inaugurated on Tuesday. The 1,127-square-metre structure, which connects two existing Victorian premises, will house the centre's archive, library and 118-seat lecture theatre. The £11 million ($17 million) cost has been covered by Investcorp, an investment company which will give its name to the building and was founded in 1982 by Iraqi-born financier Nemir Kirdar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3097814/Oxford-University-unveils-new-Hadid-designed-Middle-East-wing.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

What's that? Roaring debate over Hadid's 'ear trumpet'
The Independent, 27/05/2015, p.6, Jay Merrick
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/zaha-hadids-modernist-library-inspires-shock-and-awe-in-oxford-10277247.html


Muslims 'dehumanised' says Qatar royal
BBC News online, 26/05/2015, Sean Coughlan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32887820


Oxford University unveils new Hadid-designed Middle East wing
Economic Times (India), 26/05/2015, via Reuters
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/oxford-university-unveils-new-hadid-designed-middle-east-wing/articleshow/47435204.cms


Oxford University unveils new Hadid-designed Middle East wing
Channel NewsAsia, 26/05/2015, via Reuters
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/entertainment/oxford-university-unveils/1873690.html

Middle East Centre building revealed

Oxford Mail, p.3, 27/05/2015

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/12972693.Middle_East_Centre_building_revealed/http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/12972693.Middle_East_Centre_building_revealed/