News

Consultation hours during holidays:

Tuesday, 26. February, 4 p.m.

Thursday, 21. March, 4 p.m.

reservation via secretary's office

No other appointments are possible.

Workshop

"Beyond the 'patriarchal family': Forms of uxori‐ /matrilocality and matrifocality
in Islamic Societies. Past and Present" at University of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany, 9‐10 December 2011
Further information

Teaching

 

Teaching in the Winter Semester 2012/13

088644 Kultur- und sozialanthropologisches Verständnis von Gesellschaft im Vergleich
18.10.12 - 31.01.13, Do 10-12, SCH 100.3

088630 From Orientalism to Auto-Ethnography: Movie Portrayals of the Middle East
Einzeltermin, 17.10.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 31.10.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 07.11.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 21.11.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 05.12.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 19.12.12, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)
Einzeltermin, 16.01.13, Mi 14-18, STU 105 (2.10)

The popular image of the Middle East to a large extent has been created by the imagery about the Orient brought forward in Hollywood movies. Usually, such movies oscillated between racism, Islamophobia and cultural discrimination on the one hand, and the romantization of Arab life on the other hand. Generally, these motion pictures have led to an oversimplification of the region and its cultural, social, and religious diversity by constructing monolithic essentialist images which Edward Said would have classified as “Orientalism”.

In this seminar we will first present and analyze some of these movies in order to get an idea about the way in which Hollywood (among other film making industries) has shaped the Western image of the Middle East.  Then, for a change of perspective we will focus on the vibrant Middle Eastern film industry which already from the 1930s onwards has produced a variety of movies ranging from historical plots, over drama to musicals.  The major focus however will be on the contemporary Middle Eastern cinema and its cultural specific themes involving a wide array of political, social, cultural, and religious topics.  We shall subject these movies to an anthropological analysis and explore whether the stories and images conveyed can be interpreted as a kind of “auto-ethnography”. Finally we shall discuss how such forms of auto-ethnography relate to other forms of cultural representation.

Teaching in the Summer Semester 2012

088727: BA: Research Seminar (focus on Anthropology of Migration and Transnationalism)

11.04.2012, Wednesday 14-16, STU 105 (2.10)

088799: MA: Anthropology of the Middle East and Muslim Migrants in Europe

12.04.2012, Thursday 10-12, STU 105 (2.10)

Teaching in the Winter Semester 2011/12

088657 Lecture: Cultural and Social Anthropological Understanding of Society
20.10.11 Do 10-12, SCH 100.2

088661 Social Structure
19.10.11, Mi 14-16, STU 105 (2.10)

Teaching in the Summer Semester 2011

087896 Research seminar
12.04.11, Di 14-16, STU 105 (2.10)

087920 Lecture: Translocal relations
14.04.11, Do 10-12, STU 105 (2.10)

Teaching in the Winter Semster 2010/11

Graduate course: 088048 : Fieldwork

Teaching in the Summer Semster 2010
Key concepts in the Anthropology in the Middle East

Diaspora and Translocality: Theory and Case Studies

Teaching in the Summer Semester 2008

 

087456

Graduate  course: Gender and Islam in the Middle East 23.05.2008 14-16 p.m. 1. Block: 28./29.06., 9-5 p.m. 2. Block: 05./06.07. 9-5 p.m.

 

Teaching in the Summer Semester 2006

 

087209

Graduate course: Introduction to the Anthropology of the Middle East

Teaching in the Winter Semester 2005/2006

 

085380

Undergraduate course: Introduction to Turkish and Arab kinship systems

Mo 2-4 p.m.

S 6

 

Teaching in the Summer Semester 2005

 

085610

Toturial: Anthropology of kinship

Wed 4-6 p.m.

IfE

 

 

Publications

Monography

2010: Die "Gemeinschaft des Hauses": Religion, Heiratsstrategien und transnationale Identität türkischer Alawi/Nusairi-Migranten in Deutschland. Berlin/ Münster: LIT Verlag.

Edited Book

2012: Laila Prager (Hrsg.): Nomadismus in der 'Alten Welt': Formen der Repräsentation in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Berlin/ Münster: LIT Verlag.

Articles

f.c. “Dangerous liaisons”: Modern bio-medical discourses and changing practices of cousin marriage in Southeastern Turkey. In: Alison Shaw and Aviad Raz (eds.), Cousin Marriages and the Medicalisation of Spouse Selection. New York/ Oxford: Berghan Books.

f.c. Alawi ziyara traditions and their inter-religious dimensions: Sacred places and their contested meanings among Christians, Alawis and Sunni Muslims in contemporary Hatay (Turkey). In: The Muslim World (accepted for publication)*

 f.c. The Mnemonic Body: Cycles of rebirth and the remembrance of former lives in Alawi religion. In: Patrick Franke, Susanne Kurz & Claudia Preckel (eds.), Körper, Sexualität und Medizin in muslimischen Gesellschaften,. Bamberg: Univ. of Bamberg Press. (in print).

2012a: Auto-Orientalismus und imaginiertes Pan-Beduinentum: Repräsentierte Territorialität im Kontext des Beduinen-Festivals von Tadmur. In: Laila Prager (ed.): Nomadismus in der 'Alten Welt': Formen der Repräsentation in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, pp. 184-211. Berlin/ Münster: LIT Verlag.

2012b: Einleitung: Repräsentationen von Nomaden und Sesshaften in der 'Alten Welt'.  In: : Laila  Prager (ed.):  Nomadismus in der 'Alten Welt': Formen der Repräsentation in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart 1-9. Berlin/ Münster: LIT Verlag.

2011: "Wie Falken der Steppe": Imaginierte Ursprünge, Territorialität, anti-hegemoniale Diskurse bei syrischen Beduinen. In: Sandra Calkins  und Jörg Gertel (Hrsg.), Nomaden in  unserer Welt, pp. 226-235. Bielefeld: transcript.

2010: Âmes sexuées et  idées de procréation  chez les Alawites/ Nousairites (en Turquie). Anthropology of the Middle East 5,2.*

Articles in handbooks and encyclopedias

2012 a: Customary Marriage. In: S. Loue;  M. Sajatovic (Hrsg.):  Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, 526-527. New York: Springer Science+Business.

2012 b: Honor Killing. In: S. Loue;  M. Sajatovic (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, pp. 843-845. Heidelberg / New York: Springer Science+Business.

2012 c: Matrifocal Families. In: S. Loue;  M. Sajatovic (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, 1054-1056. Heidelberg / New York: Springer Science+Business.

Reviews

2013 : Gokalp, Altan: Têtes rouges et bouches noires et autres écrits. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2011. 566 pp. Anthropos 108,1.

* peer reviewed journal

Curriculum Vitae

 

Current Research Interests

Anthropology of the Middle East  (Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestinian territories and Palestinian diaspora• Muslim Migrants in Germany and Europe • Anthropology of Kinship and Gender • Migration und Transnationalism • Ritual change • Islam • inter religious and inter ethnic relations in urban and rural contexts

Academic Education

2010		Ph.D in Social Anthropology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster (Germany) Disputatio (defence of the thesis) 8th February 2010; grade: summa cum laude (with highest distinction)
2005		Master of Arts in Social Anthropology, Modern History, Pre-History at the  Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster (Germany)
Summer 2002		Study of the Arabic Language at the Language Centre of the University of Jordan
February - June 2002		Study of Social Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris

 Work Experience

 

since 2011												Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Muenster
2009 - 2011												Consultant in Intercultural Elements
2009 - 2010												Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Leipzig (Collaborative Research Centre 586: Difference and Integration
2007- 2009												Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Muenster
2005												Internship at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Prices and Academic Distinction

2010	Forschungsförderungspreis der Frobenius Gesellschaft (Frankfurt) (Academic distinction for anthropological research and publication: "Die Gemeinschaft des Hauses")

 Contributions to Conferences and Workshops

2011		"Women on their own: recasting Gender and Family in the Middle East"; Workshop: Beyond the 'patriarchal family': Forms of uxori-/matrilocality and matrifocality in Islamic Socities. Bamberg.
2011		"From shared 'blood' to 'religious genes': Modern bio-medical discourses and changing practices of cousin marriage in southeastern Turkey", Seminar at the Fertility and Reproductions Seminars: Cousin Marriages and the Medicalisation of Spouse selection at University of Oxford. (Travel grant by the equal opportunity office of the univeristy of Münster)
2011		Transnational Connections and the Paradoxes of Immigration Policy: The Case of the Turkish Alawi Migrants in Germany; Panel: The 'Integration Debate' and Modes of Incorporation – Looking at Diasporas from Turkey; DGV-Tagung Wien.
2010		"Performing tribal histories in Bedouin TV-series (musalsal bedawi). Diverging aims, addressees and self-perceptions of tribal film making in Syria and Jordan", Panel: Contextualizing Bedouin History in the 21st Century: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives; MESA San Diego.
2010		"The Alawi Body an expression of souls and metempsychosis" [in German: Der alawitische Körper als Ausdruck der "Seelen" und der Wiedergeburt."].Panel: Körper, Sexualität und Medizin in islamisch geprägten Kulturen at the Marburger Orientalistentage; Germany.
2010		"Alawi ziyara tradition and its inter-religious dimensions: Sacred places and their contested meanings in contemporary Hatay (Turkey)" Panel: Late Ottoman/Post-Ottoman Heterodox Communities at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies in Barcelona.
2009		The Tadmur Camel race. A representation of "Bedouinity" in Modern Times. [in German: Das Kamelrennen in Tadmur.  Repräsentation der beduinischen Identität in der Moderne. At the Workshop "Repräsentation" of the Collaborativ Research Centre  (CRC) 586: Difference and Integration. Halle; Germany.
2009		"Depression" and the Unspeakable:  Migration, Conflict, and Gendered Healing among the Alawi/Nusairy of Southeast Turkey; paper presented at the Panel "Troubled Lives - Healed Bodies: Perspectives on conflict, suffering and compassion in the Middle East and Western Asia" at the conference: "Medical Anthropology at the Intersections", Yale University (panel financed by Yale University)
2008		"A Society of "Wives without Husbands"; paper presented at the Panel: (NP07) Contemporary Ethnography from the Middle East at the Middle East American Association (MESA)-conference, Washington D.C.
May 2. 2007		"Des âmes sexuées et des gènes religieux: procréation, substance et métempsychose chez les Alawites /Nosairis (Turquie)"; paper presented at the doctorale class: "Pour une Anthropologie du Souffle; at the Centre Louis Gernet, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, organized by : Manrique and Barra.

 Organizer of Workshops and Panels, Working Groups

2009 - 2010		Coordinator of the Working Group "Representation" of the CRC 586 Halle/Leipzig.
18-21. Nov. 2010		Co-Organizer with Johann Büssow (University Halle): "Contextualizing Bedouin History in the 21st Century: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives" in San Diego.
6. Nov. 2009		Co-Organizer with Nadine Quenouille (University of Leipzig) and discussant of the Workshop "Representation" in Halle (Saale).

 Field Research

Oct. 2009 - Nov. 2009		Field study in Syria among Sba´a-Anezeh Bedouins (oral tradition; religion, inter-ethnic relations)
Oct. 2006-April 2008		Field study conducted among Alawis in Turkey (urban and rural Hatay- and  Çukurova region) (financed by the Germany Research Foundation)
July 2006- Sep. 2006		Field study conducted among urban Palestinians and Palestinian refugees in Amman, Jordan
April 2005- Jan. 2006		Field study conducted among Turkish Alawi migrants from Hatay and Adana in Germany: research focus: Integration, Trans-national Identities, Ritual change
Oct. 2003- Feb. 2004		Field study among Turkish Alawi migrants from Hatay and Adana, research focus trans-national marriage strategies
July 2003 – Sep. 2003		Field study among urbanized Bedouins in Jordan and Syria
Nov. 2002- April 2003		Research on the burial practices of different Muslim migrants in Germany

 Membership and Affiliation to scientific institutions

Since 2009

Status as associated researcher of the IFPO Damascus (Institut Français du Proche Orient) Member of MESA (Middle East American Association) Member of AAA (American Anthropological Association) Member of MES (Middle East Section of the AAA) Member of SUNTA (Society for Urban, National and Transnational Anthropology) Member of DGV (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde = German Society of Anthropology) Member of DAVO (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient = German Research Society of Middle East)

 

 

 

Research

 

• since 2011 habilitation project: The religion of the Alawi / Nusairy between dogma and pragma: rituel acting, merit and the modeling of the contemporary world

• 2009 - 2010 Project A3: The tribal confederation of the Anezeh-Bedouins: history and memory of a Bedouin groupe in Syria, from 1800 to 1950. Colloborativ research group  586 (Halle-Leipzig); financed by the German research foundation. mehr

• 2007 - 2009 Socio-religious identity and inter-religious relations among the Alawi of Turkey; University Muenster; financed by the German reserach foundation