The Human Security in the Middle East Seminar Series
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 5:00pm – McKinney Conference Room, 2nd floor, Watson Institute for International Studies. Sponsored by the Middle East Studies program at Brown University.

Abstract
What does geopolitically motivated U.S. aid “buy” in the Middle East? Does U.S. aid improve the capabilities of state institutions to provide security, public goods, and the means for economic development? As a major donor, is the U.S. able to extract policy concessions from recipient governments? Most importantly, why and under what conditions? Peters considers these questions through the lens of U.S. aid to the four major recipients of the “peace dividend:” Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. She argues that domestic political survival strategies of incumbent regimes in the aid recipient shape three outcomes: (1) the composition of aid portfolios, including the presence of “parallel institutions” that bypass domestic institutions to provide public goods directly to recipient populations; (2) the degree to which aid supports institutional upgrading; and (3) the intensity of international hierarchy, the degree to which the recipient cedes fragments of its sovereignty to the donor.

Colonel Richard Kemp served in the British Army for over thirty years, completing 14 operational tours of duty around the globe in places such as Bosnia, Macedonia, Iraq, and Northern Ireland, and he was commander of British forces in Afghanistan. Kemp made a presentation to the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2009 in response to the publication of the Goldstone Report and Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. He has been asked to speak at the UN and other world bodies as an expert on war crimes and the treatment of civilian populations in war zones. His perspective as an objective observer of the Middle East has catapulted him to the center of the international debate on these topics and he has become known for both his grasp of these issues, as well as for his engaging presentation style. We are honored that he will be speaking at Brown University on November 17th at 8 PM in List 120 on the topic of war crime accusations.

Cosponsored with the Middle East Studies Program.

The 2012 K. Brooke Anderson Annual Lecture
Moday, February 27, 2012, 6:00 pm  -  Rhode Island Hall, room 108.
Sponsored by the K. Brooke Anderson Memorial Lectureship Fund under the aegis of the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life and the Religious Studies Department.

Angel M. Foster, DPhil, MD, AM. – Echo Endowed Chair in Women’s Health Research and Associate Professor, University of Ottawa / Affiliated Scholar at Ibis Reproductive Health will be giving a talk on access to emergency contraception in the Arab world.

In the Arab world an estimated one in four pregnancies are unintended and identifying ways to address unmet contraceptive need has long been identified as a regional public health priority. After providing an overview of the status of contraception and abortion in the region, this talk will focus on current efforts to expand access to emergency contraception (EC). Through a discussion of three case studies, Tunisia, Jordan, and Palestine, this talk will highlight the different needs, challenges, and opportunities related to expanding access and will showcase how inclusion of EC into reproductive health service delivery promises to be especially important for unmarried women, refugees, and other vulnerable populations.

Learning objectives:

1)      Learn about the sexual and reproductive health context in the Arab world.
2)      Understand better the impact of lack of access to contraception and abortion services
on women’s health and autonomy.
3)      Identify different avenues for expanding access to emergency contraception in the region.

The Human Security in the Middle East Seminar Series is sponsored by the Program of Middles East Studies at Brown University.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 2:00 – 4:00 pm  -  Kim Koo Library. Watson Institute for International Studies, 111 Thayer Street, 3rd Floor.
Sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities and the Watson Institute for International Studies.

“Catalyzing Conversations on Diversity” is a program run by the Office of Institutional Diversity, which will be presenting Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in a Post-Osama Era
with Human Rights Lawyer, Activist, and Media Commentator Arsalan Iftikhar.

Co-Sponsored by The Office of Institutional Diversity’s Catalyzing Conversations on Diversity Program, The Watson Institute for International Studies, The Office of the Chaplaincy and Religious Life, B-Literate, The Program in Middle East Studies, The Swearer Lectureship Fund, The Cogut Center (Faculty Lectureship Fund), The Department of Religious Studies, The Kaleidoscope Fund, The Office of College Life, The Muslim Student’s Association.

The Human Security in the Middle East Seminar Series:
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 5:00pm – McKinney Conference Room, 2nd floor, Watson Institute for International Studies. Sponsored by the Program of Middle East Studies at Brown University.

Abstract
This talk describes how some physicians working in Israeli detention facilities contribute to the torture and ill treatment of Palestinian detainees.   Physicians are committed to be the guardians of their patients’ care and health.  But in Israeli prisons, physicians often find themselves either instructed or coerced to disregard or keep silent about detainees’ complaints of torture, to pass on confidential medical information to interrogators, and to authorize physical torture and mistreatment.  I argue that this situation is attributable to broader psychological mechanisms of the Occupation, according to which Palestinians are mainly seen as dehumanized enemies of the Israeli state.  Physicians operating in such a system are as vulnerable as any others to such an ideology and fail to see the Palestinian prisoner as a total human being.  Many of them are unaware of their biases or blind spots and assume they are operating as neutral and objective medical practitioners.  Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli medical human rights NGO, works tirelessly to expose, protest, render visible, and thereby bring an end to the involvement of the medical profession in torture and ill treatment, as part of a broader mission to sanctify the lives and well-being of the vulnerable in this conflict-torn region.

On Israeli Stage:

Mission statement:
Bringing Israeli theatre to American audiences. An exciting way to celebrate and recognize the art and artists of Israel, and introduce Israeli culture into the American theatrical landscape.

Vision statement:
The general American population will have a greater understanding of Israeli culture, and would be able to use that understanding to talk about the State of Israel and the Middle East at large. American theatre artists and goers will have a greater awareness and appreciation of Israeli theatre, and will welcome and embrace productions of Israeli plays in the United States, both by visiting Israeli troupes and local theatres.

Values:
Artistic integrity, Education, Humane

The Human Security in the Middle East Seminar Series
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 5:00pm – McKinney Conference Room, 2nd floor, Watson Institute for International Studies. Sponsored by the Program of Middle East Studies at Brown University.

Abstract
Since September 11th, 2001, Arab men have been particularly vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. Against this backdrop of neo-Orientalist representation, this paper presents a humanizing portrayal of ordinary Middle Eastern men as they struggle to overcome their infertility and childlessness. Contrary to popular expectations, male infertility is more common than female infertility in the Middle East, and many Middle Eastern men are engaged in high-tech forms of assisted reproduction. Through in-depth ethnography undertaken in assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinics in four countries, the paper captures the marital, moral, and material commitments of infertile Middle Eastern couples as they engage with ARTs. Emerging technologies—particularly intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to overcome male infertility and egg donation to overcome age-related female infertility—are changing Middle Eastern couples’ lives and religious moralities. Although Islamic authorities have condoned assisted reproduction as a solution to human suffering, third-party reproductive assistance (sperm donation, egg donation, embryo donation, surrogacy) is still widely banned across the Sunni Muslim world from Morocco to Malaysia. However, recent Shia Muslim fatwas have challenged this ban, leading to a thriving donor technology industry in both Iran and Lebanon. In today’s Middle East, men are rethinking their “Islamic masculinities” as they undertake transnational quests for conception out of devotion to the infertile wives they love. In forwarding the trope of “the new Arab man,” this paper questions taken-for-granted assumptions about Middle Eastern men as men in an era of emerging science and technology.

The Middle East Studies program conference
Thursday, April 5 and Friday April 6, 2012  – McKinney Conference Room (3rd floor) & the Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute for International Studies. Sponsored by The Carnegie Corporation (NY), The Watson Institute for International Studies , The Office of International Affairs, The Department of Sociology, The Department of Anthropology, and The Middle East Studies Program.

The Arab revolutions of 2011 have taken most stakeholders by surprise—Western governments, the regional regimes, activists, and observers. More than any other party, it is perhaps the scholarly community that seems to have betrayed expectations.
To what extent have the prevailing analytical tools and approaches that inform the study of the Middle East contributed to scholarly oversight about the Arab revolts? How can these revolutions inform and reshape the conceptual premises and outlooks of Middle East scholarship?

Rather than a mere critique of “Orientalism”, the conference aims to address what the Arab Spring means for the study of the Middle East. Do the Arab revolutions confirm current perspectives, or is there a need to reevaluate our assumptions about the way we produce knowledge about the region? For instance, what do these revolutions mean for the assumptions underlying the “elitist” approach, “authoritarian durability”, Middle Eastern exceptionalism, the political implications of the idea of rentier state, modernization perspectives, or premises about “Islamic culture?” At the same time, the conference will explore how the Arab Revolutions may offer scholars possibilities to develop fresh analytical categories and novel perspectives in order to better understand the socioeconomic, political, and cultural realities of the region.

Revolutions involve a highly complex and interconnected set of ideas, agents, and processes operating in particular political cultures and historical moments.
The Arab revolutions are taking place in the current neoliberal moment in the globalization process when economic and social life has undergone deep transformations. In what ways do the Arab revolutions with their multiple visions, actors (including the subaltern, women, youth, the urban, and rural), and adversaries teach us to assess them in novel fashions?
In light of these uprisings, do we need to reevaluate our understandings of class and gender dynamics, social movement mobilization, the agency of the ordinary people, and the place of Islam in politics and society?

Participants from diverse disciplines (Politics, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Economy, and Cultural Studies) will draw on their own thematic and disciplinary expertise but take the problématique of the relationship between these political upheavals and social theory as the core of their contributions.