Language, Conflict and Security in the Middle East
Language, Conflict and Security in the Middle East
10-11 April 2010
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Read about the resulting report: Language, Conflict and Security in the Middle East.
Conference Programme
Saturday, 10 April 2010
09:00 – 09:30 Registration and Refreshments
09:30 – 09:45 Professor Yasir Suleiman – Welcome
09:45 – 11:00 Security and Beyond (Chair: Sir Richard Dearlove, Master of Pembroke College)
- Prof. Karin Fierke, School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews
Security Studies and Beyond
- Prof. Karin C. Ryding, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Security Studies, Arabic, and New Academic Alignments: Bridging the Transcultural Gap
- Prof. Yasir Suleiman, Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge
Language, Conflict and Security: Exploratory Perspectives
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:30 Language in Conflict (Chair: Dr. Ian Patterson, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge)
- Prof. Bert Vaux , Department of Linguistics, University of Cambridge
Languages in Conflict in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem
- Prof. Mohamed Benrabah, Department of Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Stendhal-Grenoble III University
French in Algeria: From Bitterness to Appropriation
- Mr. Kusha Sefat, Senior Producer at Press TV and consultant to the former spokesperson at the Iranian foreign ministry
Media, Conflict and War: Potent Objectivity as a Media Strategy
- Dr. Jacob Høigilt, Middle East Researcher, Fafo, AIS, Oslo, Norway
Hizbullah and the Semantics of Resistance
13:30 -14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 -16:30 War of Words (Chair: Dr. Boping Yuan / Linguistics / Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge)
- Dr. Richard Jackson, Reader in International Politics, Prifysgol Aberystwyth in Wales & Dr Helen Dexter, Centre for International Politics, University of Manchester
Fighting Talk: Language and Narrative in the Social Construction of Political Violence and Civil War
- Lt. Col. Mark Gagnon, Academy Professor (returning from Iraq) United States Military Academy – West Point.
Linguists in War
- Ms Lindsay Sparling, Persian Language Analyst and Subject Expert
Persian: The Need for Less Commonly Taught Languages in the Post-9/11 World
- Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Watrud, Chief of Staff, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, U.S. Army
DLIFLC and the Languages of the Middle East
16:30 – 17:00 Coffee Break
17:00 – 19:00 Israel, Palestine, Language and Terminology (Chair: Prof. Yasir Suleiman, Head of Department of Middle Eastern Studies, and Director of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge)
- Prof. Hannan Hever, Head of School of Literatures at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
The Palestinian Nakba in Hebrew Poetry, 1948-1958
- Prof. Ahmad Atawneh, Department of English, Hebron University,
The Political Discourse of Israeli Occupation: The Spirit of Orientalism
- Dr. Abigail Sone, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto
There is no Arab Street in Israel’: Language Ideology and Spatial Practice in a Divided Landscape
- Dr Michelle Burgis, School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews
Listening for Silences in the Courtroom: Law, language and the politics of denial in Israeli Supreme Court Jurisprudence
Sunday, 11 April 2010
09:00 – 11:00 Reading between the Lines: The Other Side of Language and Conflict (Chair: Dr. Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Univeristy of Cambridge)
- Prof. Elana Shohamy, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
Language Tests as Europe’s Gatekeepers
- Dr. Helle Lykke Nielsen, Asc. Professor, Centre for Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark
The struggle over Arabic: Lessons learned from the Danish cartoon affair
- Ms. Tami Sarfatti, PhD Candidate (currently finalising thesis Les Égyptiens de l’an VI: Bonaparte’s Savants and the Description of Egypt) at UCLA
Making the Map of Egypt: Orientalists, Army, and Modes of Transliteration
- Dr. W.J. Dorman, Lecturer in Middle East Politics, School of Government & International Affairs, Durham University
Cityscapes of Disorder: the Social Production of the ‘Ashwa’iyyat Discourse in Cairo
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:30 Teaching Other’s Languages (Chair: Prof. Colleen McLaughlin / Faculty of Education)
- Dr. Shlomo Alon, General Supervisor of Arabic Studies in Israeli Ministry of Education
Teaching Arabic in Israel: Language or Politics?
- Dr. Mansour Abdel Wahab Mansour, Hebrew studies teacher, Department of Semitic Languages, Faculty of Languages, Ein Shams University – Cairo. Serve as a Hebrew translator for the President.
Teaching Hebrew in Egypt: On Foreign Language Teaching and Normalisation
- Ms. Nadia von Maltzahn, DPhil Candidate in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
Persian Language Teaching in Syria
- Prof. William Beeman, Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
Arabic vs. Persian in Iran
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 – 16:30 Is Arabic under Attack? (Chair: Dr. Khaled Hroub, Director of Cambridge Arab Media Project)
- Dr. Ahmed Kabel, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco
Arabic and Arabisation in a Time of Terror
- Col. Dr. David F. DiMeo, Academy Professor of Arabic and Director, Centre for Languages, Cultures and Regional Studies, United States Military Academy – West Point.
Language and Security: Teaching the Arabic Language in a Changing Security Environment
- Mr. Elhanan Miller, Graduate student, Department of Islamic and Middle East Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
Army in the Classroom: the Attempts of the IDF to Encourage the Study of Arabic in Israeli High Schools
- Mr. Evan Renfro, MA Centennial Fellow, PhD Student, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Breeding James Bonds: ‘Critical Language’ Acquisition and National Security
16:30 Prof. Yasir Suleiman, Closing Remarks
16:45 End of Conference