IUAES

International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences

Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East  

Fortitude in Face of Turmoil, 4-6^th September, 2024

Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatolienne

Istanbul, Turkey

Chair: Soheila Shahshahani

Executive Secretary: Magdalena Rodziewicz

Regional Representatives:

Soraya Tremayne & Christian Bromberger: Europe

Mary Hegland: United States and Canada

Paulo Pinto: South America

Tomoko Yamagashi: East Asia

List of Panels

Please submit your proposals to the panel chairs, with a copy to soheilairan@gmail.com and mrodziewicz@uw.edu.pl.

Panel 1: Gift-Giving and Exchange: Perspectives from Cultural and Economic Anthropology

 Chairs: Anne H. Betteridge (anneb@arizona.edu) & Hsain Ilahiane (hsain@arizona.edu)

 & Hania Sholkamy (hanias@aucegypt.edu)

Panel 2: Ethnographic Encounters with Nonhuman Actors in the Middle East

 Chair: Nahal Naficy (nahalnaficy1400@gmail.com)

Panel 3: Sports in the Middle East

Chair: Christian Bromberger (brombergerchristian8@gmail.com)

Panel 4: Food on the Move: Home, Belonging and Resilience

Chairs: Susan Rottman (susan.rottmann@ozyegin.edu.tr) 

& Zeynep Yilmaz Hava (zeynepyilmazhava@gmail.com)

Panel 5: Shifting Social Landscapes: Legacy of Migration in the Middle East

 Chair: Seyed Abdolreza Hosseini (abdr.hosseini@gmail.com)

Panel 6: We are Moving Back …’  ­– Researching Internal Migration in the Middle East

 Chair: Danila Mayer (danila.mayer@hotmail.com)

Panel 7: Ethno-History of the Middle East and Central Asia

How Can We Write Ethnohistory of the Middle East in the 21st Century?

Chair: Fakhri Haghani (the.fakhrih@gmail.com)

Representatives of Soviet Colonizers, Rescuers of Local Cultures, and Ethnographers

Chair: Anna Cieślewska (acieslewska@gmail.com)

Panel 8: Tourism and Tourists in the Middle East

 Chair: Amir H. Moghaddam (moghaddames@umz.ac.ir)

Panel 9: Gender, Religion, Sexuality and Identity 

 Chair: Soraya Tremayne (soraya.tremayne@anthro.ox.ac.uk)

Panel 10: Anthropology of Telegram Societies: Exploring Religion and Gender in Central Asian Telegram Channels

   Chair: Rano Turaeva (Rano.Turaeva@lmu.de)

Panel 11: Women’s Lived Experience of Inequality

   Chair: Saman Taheri (samantaheri76@yahoo.com)

Panel 12: Reinventing Rituals: Changing Sacred Meanings and Practices

   Chairs: Paulo Pinto (Philu99@gmail.com) & Gisele Fonseca Chagas (giselechagas@id.uff.br)

Panel 13: Visual Anthropology

Panel 14: Research in Progress

   Chair: Soheila Shahshahani (soheilairan@gmail.com)

BOOK LAUNCH EVENT

Friday 26 January 2024, 3.00-5.00pm GMT

Soraya Tremayne (Co-Founding Director of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group; Research Affiliate at the Instituteof Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford)

joined by the other two general editors of the series

Marcia C. Inhorn (William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, Yale University)

Philip Kreager (Director, Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group, and Research Affiliate, Institute of Social and CulturalAnthropology and Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford) 

This is a hybrid event.

To join us online via Zoom, register here:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x2UrbfiPQS28NVjBDQHFAQ 

To join us in Person at the RAI, register here:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-soraya-tremayne-tickets-775706016577?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Celebrating the 50th volume of the landmark Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality series (Berghahn Books), this book offersa much-needed analysis of shifting reproductive policies and practices in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a society that isusually represented as either “revolutionary” or “oppressive.” Instead, Tremayne reflects on more than four decades ofresearch arguing that changing reproductive behaviors on the part of ordinary Iranians must always be viewed against thebackdrop of core cultural values and traditions, which are often reinforced, instead of radically altered, by new reproductivetechnologies, juridical opinions, and state policies. 

IUAES, Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East

Fortitude in Face of Turmoil 

4-6^th September, 2024

Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatolienne

Istanbul, Turkey

Dear Colleagues, 

This is the first message of the Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East conference to be held in Istanbul next year, 4–6th of September 2024. 

Please note that the panels listed are only suggestions at this stage. You can suggest other panels, you can change the title of the panel you would like to chair; then you would have to send us your proposed panel and a Call for Panel (CFP) to share with everyone. 

At this stage we need convenors for all panels (some are already listed). Later we will contact you with more complete proposals and finally ask you to send us your Call for Panel, i.e. a paragraph explaining your panel. It would be very good if you could include a group of scholars for your proposed panel. 

By the 10th of January we need to have all your panel proposals, by the 15th of April we should have your final version of the panel CFP and by the 30th of June we should have the names of all the scholars participating in your panel and the titles of their papers. By the 15th of July, we should have their individual abstracts and bios. Please note all these dates.

We look forward to your cooperation so that we can have another strong conference for our Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East. 

Please note that Dr. Farniyaz Zaker for personal and professional reasons will no longer be our Executive Secretary, and Dr. Magdalena Rodziewicz has been elected as our new Executive Secretary. 

We both look forward to hearing from you. 

All the best, 

Soheila Shahshahani (Chair of the Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East) 

soheilairan@gmail.com 

Magdalena Rodziewicz (Executive Secretary) 

mrodziewicz@uw.edu.pl

List of panels:

Where have the children gone? Reflections on Demographic Transition and Population Decline in the Middle East, Prof. Soraya Tremayne 

A-Evolution of Kinship and Changes in Choice of Spouses in the Middle East

B-Gender Role Evolutions in the Middle East, Prof. Christian Bromberger

Games and Sports in Middle Eastern societies, Prof. Christian Bromberger

Social Media: New Radios / Podcasts etc. The role of each of these in informing and educating the public, inciting them to action.

Urban Anthropology/Urban Displacement, Dr. Are J. Knudsen

Movement of Cars like the Blood in the veins of the city, or even Rural and Nomadic Areas, Dr. Amin Hosseini 

Music and its Adaptation to Urban Life

Food: Local meaning, and its importance for migrating populations. Food practice within households, and in stores and restaurants, Dr. Susan Rottman 

“We’re Moving Back”: Researching Internal Migration and Return to one’s Origins in the Middle East, Dr. Danila Mayer 

Gift-giving: Economic Anthropology, Prof. Anne H. Betteridge & Dr. Hsain Ilahiane

Visual Anthropology

Re-Inventing Rituals: Changing Sacred Meanings and Practices, Prof. Paolo Pinto 

 Medical Anthropology / Migration to South East Asia, Dr. Sachiko Hosoya 

Disaster Anthropology: The case of specific environments, countries, cities and rural areas. 

Religion and Business in the 20th and 21st centuries, Dr. hab. Bozena Gierek

Ethno-History of the Middle East, Dr. Fakhri Haghani

Curating Desert Culture: The Role of Museums for Making and Teaching Heritage in Middle East and North Africa, Prof. Aref Abu-Rabia & Dr. Emilie LeFebvre

The Uprooting of the Middle East Cultural Traditions, or Finding Cultural Confidence in the midst of war and destruction? Dr. Soheila Shahshahani

Identity, Separation, and Belonging

6-8^th of September 2023

Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatolienne

Istanbul, Turkey 

Our Conference started on the 6^th of September, registration from 9 AM, and program from 9:30. Our schedule was very tight this year, as a result we had short lunches and coffee breaks and we passed 17:00 second and third day. All the sessions were prepared and presented in a scientific atmosphere of seriousness and cordiality. Very few lectures were presented through Zoom, and the facilities allowed for the presentation of PowerPoints, slides and so on.

This year as is our yearly habit, we had a Commission Business Meeting in which topics for next year were discussed, and there was also a vote for the next executive secretary of the Commission. Dr. Farniyaz Zaker had informed me that she would not be present at the Conference due to her personal and academic reasons, and so I had announced the matter and had informed scholars about volunteering themselves for the task. Dr. Magdanela Rodziewicz from the University of Warsaw in Poland, who has been with our Commission from before Covid, she volunteered and won the approval of those present that she would become the Executive Secretary of the Commission.

This year, we had 12 sessions with 62 scholars from 16 countries, from Japan to California. Some of the sessions were presented with a few participants already prepared for the session by the Convenor. The program is attached for your information. Two participants have been asked to write at the Conference, and all were asked to send in their views so that we could ameliorate our work for next year. The title of the Conference and the sessions will be announced soon.

Soheila Shahshahani

Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Chair of the Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East