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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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.