NEWSLETTER - The University of Texas at Austin

ELIZABETH FERNEA 

PRESIDES OVER MESA 

ANNUAL MEETING 

Elizabeth Fernea (CMES, 

English) delivered the Presidential 

Address at the Banquet 

of the 1986 Middle East Studies 

Association (MESA) Meeting in 

Boston on November 22. The 

Meeting lasted from November 

20-23 with a Plenary Session, a 

Business Meeting, and some 127 

panels and workshops for participants. 

Fernea's address, "The 

Intellectual Contribution of 

Women's Studies to the Field of 

Middle Eastern Studies," will be 

reprinted in the Summer 1987 

volume of the MESA Bulletin. 

The Plenary Session, ''The 

Middle East in World History," 

featured Keynote Speaker William 

H. McNeill (University of 

Chicago). On Saturday a Special 

Session, entitled ''The Scholars, 

the Media and the Middle East," 

featured Bernard Lewis (Princeton), 

Edward Said (Columbia), 

Leon Wieseltier (The New Republic), 

and Christopher Hitchens 

(The Nation). 

Center for Middle Eastern Studies 

NEWSLETTER 

The University ofTexas at Austin 

Of special note at this year's 

Meeting were the films shown 

continuously during the three 

days of panels. Present to discuss 

their films were Assia Djebar, 

director of La ZeTda and La 

Nouba Des Femmes, and Mai 

Masri and Jean Chamoun, directors/producers 

of Wildflower. 

Special visitors to the MESA 

Meeting included seven Middle 

Eastern Studies scholars from 

the People's Republic of China. 

The scholars participated in a 

workshop explaining their 

personal areas of research. 

Another important visitor from 

outside the country was Abdul 

Karim Rafeq, the Fulbright 40th 

Anniversary Lecturer in Middle 

Eastern Studies. Rafeq, Professor 

of History at the University 

of Damascus, participated in the 

MESA Plenary Session as a Discussant. 

The 1986 Meeting marked 

the inauguration of the newly 

formed Association for Middle 

East Women's Studies (AMEWS). 

At a formal meeting and banquet 

the day before MESA com- 

Spring 1987 

menced, Lebanese poet Etel Adnan 

was the Keynote Speaker. In 

connection with AMEWS, a 

panel of poets read their works 

to an extremely large audience 

on Friday. Salrna Jayyusi (Palestinian) 

introduced the poets, 

who were Huda Naamani 

(Lebanese), Assia Djebar (Algerian) 

and Adnan. The women 

read in Arabic, French, and 

English. 

Fedwa Malti-Douglas (Arabic) 

was elected a member of the 

MESA Board of Directors. She 

will serve on the Board for the 

next three years. Attending the 

Conference from the University 

were faculty and staff, graduate 

students, and personnel from 

the University of Texas Press. 

UT speakers at the Conference 

were Peter Abboud (Arabic), 

Aman Attieh (Arabic), Shafeeq 

al-Ghabra (Government), Kate 

Gillespie (Business), Barbara 

Harlow (English), M.A. jazayery 

(Persian), Michael Hillmann 

(Persian), Gregory Rose (Government), 

Poopak Taati (Sociology), 

and Caroline Williams (Architecture). 

Elizabeth Fernea, Huda Naamani, Basima Bezergan, Salma jayyusi, and Assia Djebar at 

Poetry Reading

at Berkeley), Ahmad Karimi 

Hakkak (University ofWashington), 

Farzaneh Milani (University 

of Virginia), Heshmat 

Moayyad (University of 

Chicago), Girdhari L. Tikku 

(University of Illinois at Urbana 

Champaign), Mohammad 

Valady (University of Texas), 

Ehsan Yarshater (Columbia), 

and Emami. The panels were 

devoted to aspects of Farrokhzad's 

life and to analyses of her 

poetry, both in Persian and in 

translation. 

Poetry is a serious business 

forme. 

It's a responsibility 

I feel vis-a-vis my own bemg. 

It's a sort ofanswer 

I feel compelled to give 

To my own life. 

Forugh Farrokhzad 

UPCOMING 

CONFERENCES 

The American-Arab Affairs 

Council, in conjunction 

with Memphis State University, 

will hold a meeting, "America's 

Economic and Political Interests 

in the Arab World," on October 

15-16,1987, in Memphis. Leading 

Arab and American figures 

from politics, business and academics 

are being invited to participate. 

Contact the American 

Arab Affairs Council at 1730 M 

Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 

20036, for further information. 

The Middle East Studies 

Association Annual Meeting will 

be held November 14-17,1987, 

in Baltimore. For further information, 

contact MESA, Department 

of Oriental Studies, University 

of Arizona, Tucson, 

Arizona 85721. 

The African Studies Association 

will have its annual Meeting 

on November 19-23, 1987, 

in Denver. For further information, 

contact African Studies Association, 

255 Kinsey Hall, University 

of California, Los 

Angeles, California 90024. 

NIMA-TV 

A television series on Iranian 

culture began airing on 

Austin Cable Channel 10 in the 

fall of 1987. Called NIMA (National 

Iranian Music and Art), 

the hour-long program shows at 

noon on Sundays and again at 

seven Wednesday evenings. The 

show is produced and directed 

by Visiting Scholar Sheraguime 

Youchidge. It features children's 

stories, cooking lessons, 

music, and interviews, all in 

Persian. M. R. Ghanoonparvar, 

author of two \ Persian cookbooks, 

hosts the cooking segment. 

M. A. Jazayery, Director 

of the Center, gives a series of 

talks on the life and works of 

Ahmad Kasravi. 

The program is sponsored 

by the Department of Oriental 

and African Languages and Literatures, 

the Language Laboratory, 

and Literature East & West. 

1987 TEL YIN'AM 

EXPEDITION 

Harold Liebowitz (Hebrew) 

will be directing continued digging 

in Tel Yin'am this summer 

from June 10 to July 22. Excavation 

at the site was begun in 

1975, and has been sponsored 

by the Center and the Department 

or" Oriental and African 

Languages and Literatures. The 

hope this year is to expose more 

of the Late Bronze Age buildings 

and excavate to the Neolithic 

levels. After two weeks of 

excavation, volunteers will go to 

Jerusalem and work on the finds 

at the Department of Antiquities. 

Three credit hours will 

be offered through the Department 

of Oriental and African 

Languages and Literatures. Students 

and other interested 

persons should contact 

Liebowitz at the University. 

The Center is in the process 

of exploring the possibility of 

participating with other institutions 

in an archaeological consortium 

to excavate a new site in 

the Upper Galilee. The proposed 

site, Tel Rosh, is a large 

mound north of Safed, near 

Ma'alot. Each member of the 

proposed consortium would be 

asked to contribute to an operating 

budget for three seasons of 

excavation and would be invited 

to send fifteen students for the 

dig. For more information contact 

Liebowitz.

y visiting a series of major cities 

with substantial Jewish populations 

along Interstate 35 (Dallas, 

Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, 

and Laredo) and Monterey. 

Liebowitz also presented a 

paper in Atlanta, Georgia, on 

the "Late Bronze Age Level at 

Tel Yin'am." The occasion was 

the annual meeting ofthe American 

Schools of Oriental Research. 

Fedwa Malti-Douglas (Arabic) 

was elected to the Board of 

Directors of the Middle East 

Studies Association for a threeyear 

term. She was also appointed 

Book Review Editor for 

Literature of the Middle East 

Studies Association Bulletin. Her afterword 

to the translation of 

Yusuf al-Qaid's War in the Land of 

Egypt (London: al-Saqi Books, 

1986) appeared, as did her article, 

"In the Eyes of Others: The 

Middle Eastern Response and 

Reaction to Western Scholarship," 

in As Others See Us: Mutwl 

Perceptions, East and West, a special 

issue of the Comparative Civilizations 

Review. ''The Mummy: an 

Egyptian Classic," coauthored 

with A. Douglas, appeared in 

Cairo Today, October (1986). 

Malti-Douglas will be delivering 

invited public lectures during the 

spring of 1987 at the University 

of Michigan, Indiana University, 

and the University ofChicago. 

Claudio Segre (History) will 

have his book, Italo Balbo: A Fascist 

Life, published by the University 

of California Press. The 

book is the biography of the last 

Italian governor of Libya. "Colonization 

in the French Maghreb: 

Model for Italy's Fourth 

Shore" was published in the February 

special issue on Libya of 

The Maghreb Review. 

Robert Stookey (CMES Research 

Assistant) addressed various 

audiences in Austin, Houston, 

and San Marcos on Middle 

East issues during the spring 

and fall of 1986. He has reveiwed 

for Middle East Journal 

the books Contemporary Yemen, 

edited by B. R. Pridham, and 

Failure in Palestine by Martin 

Jones. The latter review will appear 

in the Spring, 1987, issue. 

SPECIAL EVENTS 

Visitors and local faculty 

lecturing on subjects related to 

Middle Eastern Studies during 

the months of January and February 

have included: 

Erella Brown, Ph.D. candidate 

at Cornell University, 

speaking on "Why Allegory?" 

The lecture was sponsored by 

the Department of Oriental and 

African Languages and Literatures. 

Brown is a candidate for a 

position in Hebrew Studies. 

Nathan J. Brown, Ph.D. 

candidate at Princeton, spoke on 

"The Ignorance and Inscrutability 

of the Egyptian Peasantry." 

Brown is a candiate for one 

of two position in Government 

and Middle Eastern Studies. 

The Government Department 

sponsored his lecture. 

Norman Daniels spoke on 

"Islam and the West." Daniels, 

the British Cultural Attache in 

Cairo for many years, has a 

Ph.D. from the University of 

Edinburgh. He has been active 

during his career in promoting 

cultural relations between Arab 

nations and the West. 

The French and Italian Department 

sponsored Allen 

Douglas, Assistant Professor in 

French and Italian and in Oriental 

and African Languages and 

Literatures, lecturing on "Imperialism 

and the Exotic East: 

Maurice Barres' Enquete au 

Pays du Levant." 

Another candidate for one 

of the positions in Government 

and Middle Eastern Studies was 

Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Professor 

at the University of Pittsburgh. 

The title of his presentation 

was "Problems of 

Conceptualizing the Syrian 

Political System." 

Another candidate for the 

position in Hebrew Studies was 

Yudith Nave, who lectured on 

"Existential Humiliation in the 

Short Stories of Shulamit Hareven." 

The DepartmentofOriental 

and African Languages and 

Literatures sponsored Nave, a 

candidate for a Ph.D. at Brandeis. 

The Government Department 

brought to campus two 

other candidates for the positions 

in Government and Middle 

Eastern Studies. Mark A. Tessler, 

Professor of Political Science 

at the University ofWiseonsin-Milwaukee, 

spoke on 

"Studying Political Attitutes in 

the Middle East." Robert 

Vitalis, Ph.D. candidate at Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology, 

spoke on "A Mythical 

Capitalist Class: Egypt's Weak 

Local Progressive National 

CompradoI' Bourgeosie." 

The Department of Art 

presented John Williams, Professor 

ofArt and Middle Eastern 

Studies at the University, in a 

lecture on "David Roberts and 

Orientalism." Williams' presentation 

featured many slides of 

the work of 19th century British 

artist Roberts and his contemporaries. 

r

CARTER BRYANT 

Carter Bryant, who completed 

a Ph.D. in 1982 at the 

University in Comparative Literature 

with a concentration in 

Persian, passed away in Los 

Angeles on October 9, 1986, at 

the age of forty-two. Bryant had 

trained in Austin for a Peace 

Corp assignment in the summer 

of 1966. He served in eastern 

Iran and continued there to 

study Persian, serving as the Director 

of the Iran-American Society 

in Mashhad. After receiving 

his degree in Austin, he 

moved to Los Angeles, where he 

achieved prominence among 

North American Persianists for 

his translations from Persian 

prose and his literary critical essays. 

A Society for Iranian 

Studies panel at the 1986 MESA 

Meeting was dedicated to Bryant's 

memory, and Michael Hillmann's 

forthcoming book, Iranian 

Culture: A Persianist View, is 

also dedicated to Bryant. 

The University of Texas at Austin 

Center jar Middle Eastern Studies 

Austin, Texas 78712 

IN MEMORIUM 

Two separate Memorial 

Funds have been established by 

the Center in memory of Curriculum 

and Instruction Lecturer 

Victorine Abboud and Research 

Associate Arthur Allen. 

Abboud died in 1984 after a 

distinguished career of pioneering 

work in computer-assisted 

instruction for Arabic studies. 

Allen, who died in 1985 after 

eight years with the Center, contributed 

knowledge to students, 

faculty and community groups, 

based on his thirty-year diplomatic 

service in the Arab world. 

The Memorial Funds will be 

used for grants to students. Anyone 

wishing to contribute should 

contact the Director of the Center. 

DAVID FRANCIS 

Faculty, students, and staff 

connected with the Center were 

saddened to hear of the death of 

Eric David Francis, Professor of 

Classics and member of the Center's 

faculty. Francis, 1985 winner 

of the Jean Holloway Award 

for Teaching Excellence, died 

March 16, 1987. 

A member of the University 

faculty since 1975, Francis taught 

classical mythology, Greek civilization, 

and Greek poetry. He had 

earned bachelor's and master's 

degrees in Classics and Linguistics 

from Cambridge. He had also 

received master's and doctoral 

degrees in Linguistics at Yale 

University. 

Editor: Annes McCann-Baker 

ProdUClion, Design: 

Diane Watts

NEWSLETTER - The University of Texas at Austin

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