Call for Applications: Doctoral Seminar: "Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates" with Hasan Kayali and Michael Provence, University of Basel, September 11-12, 2014.
The 2nd Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, "Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates", is a two-day intensive seminar (September 11-12, 2014) organized by Prof. Dr. Maurus Reinkowski, Dr. Selen Etingü, and Alp Yenen, M.A., Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Social Sciences at the University of Basel.
Two leading scholars of Ottoman-Arab history will take over the instruction of the seminar: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hasan Kayalı and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Provence, University of California, San Diego. The objective of the workshop is for participants to acquire advanced knowledge of the history and historiography of Ottoman-Arab nationalism.
The deadline for the application is May 15, 2014.
Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates
In the historiography of Middle Eastern nationalisms, Arab nationalism occupies an exceptional place. It has received inordinate attention compared with other nationalisms and indeed with other social-political movements in the region. The seminar will appraise the body of scholarship generated on Arab nationalism in its general outlines by identifying the distinctive cultural, social, and political strands of national consciousness in the Arab Middle East. It will focus on the period that followed the Revolution of 1908, when notions, and even projects, of Arab nationhood were articulated within the broadening public sphere of the constitutional era and in the context of contested politics. The objective will be twofold: an investigation of Arab nationalism against the background of imperial, military, and diplomatic contingencies; and its evaluation in relation to transformations in imperial self-view and legitimation strategies.
The milestones of the Arab national narrative, the “awakening” (al-nahda), Sharif Husayn’s revolt (1916), Ottoman defeat and surrender (1918), the San Remo Treaty (1920), and the emergence of the League of Nations mandates (1922) tend to obscure the multi-faceted quests for nationhood in the broader region. The seminar will examine these disparate movements and projects in the Fertile Crescent and the rump-empire, as well as contact and impact across treaty lines. Thus, another goal will be to re-appraise the certainties of both Turkish and Arab nationalism as perceived in the broader region both at the time and in retrospective nation-state narratives. More broadly, we will ask what was distinctive about the project of modernization and national identity in the Ottoman realms relative to other World War belligerent states, and what was distinctive about the emergence of national identities in the post-Ottoman period.
The League of Nations mandates of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Transjordan emerged in unique ways. Arguably the individual national identities of these new countries did not become self-evident for decades. We will try to understand how this process played out in the mandates, and what challenges, both common and particular, the people of the region faced in forming new political communities in the interwar period.
Organization
The 2nd Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates, is a two-day intensive seminar (September 11-12, 2014) organized by Prof. Dr. Maurus Reinkowski, Dr. Selen Etingü, and Alp Yenen, M.A., Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Social Sciences at the University of Basel. Two leading scholars of Ottoman-Arab history will take over the instruction of the seminar: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hasan Kayalı and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Provence, University of California, San Diego.
The objective of the workshop is for participants to acquire advanced knowledge of the history and historiography of Ottoman-Arab nationalism.
The doctoral workshop is funded by MUBIT Inter-University Doctoral Consortium in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Basel/Zurich and is a part of the curriculum of the Graduate School of Social Sciences (G3S), University of Basel. For a report of the 1st Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, Turkish Nationalism: Approaching Ottoman and Islamic Legacies beyond Ethnicity, Secularism, and Westernism, with Prof. Dr. Erik J. Zürcher (University of Leiden) and Prof. Dr. M. Hakan Yavuz (University of Utah), written by Alexander E. Balistreri (Princeton University), please see:
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Turk&month=1310&week=d&msg=QNJ9%2BG13sCevwyrQQMkKXQ13sCevwyrQQMkKXQ
Unfortunately, the organizers cannot assume any travel and accommodation costs. However, a limited number of cheaper accommodation options will be available, which include staying with local undergraduate and graduate students. Please contact Dr. Selen Etingü for information and questions regarding organizational matters at: g.etingue@unibas.ch.
Application Procedure
PhD students who wish to attend the workshop are asked to write an email to Dr. Selen Etingü (g.etingue@unibas.ch), with a biographical abstract explaining their research interests and academic background (max. 400 words, in 3rd person singular, in English). The deadline for the application is May 15, 2014. Applicants will receive an answer regarding their participation on June 1. The maximum number of participants is 20 students.
Requirements for Successful Participation
Participants are entitled to 3 ECTS points for successful participation. Participants will receive a list of required and recommended readings from the guest lecturers by July 1, 2013. Successful participation at the workshop is subject to the mandatory completion of the required readings in advance and active participation in the workshop discussions.