Minutes, August 2013

Middle East Sociology Working Group
Minutes

Informal meeting, American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, New York, New York, August 11, 2013.

The Middle East Sociology Working Group and the Sociology of Islam group held a joint luncheon at the Carnegie Deli, crowded into several non-contiguous tables with a large number of tourists. This was not the ideal setting for a scholarly conversation, but the larger-than-usual turnout of 28 sociologists, drawn perhaps by the famously overstuffed sandwiches, addressed a variety of developments in the field:

* Middle East specialists won prizes from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements:

Kevan Harris, Princeton University, won the best paper prize for his article, “The Brokered Exuberance of the Middle Class: An Ethnographic Analysis of Iran’s 2009 Green Movement,” Special Section on Middle East Protest, Mobilization, December 2012.

Ali Kadivar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, won the graduate student paper award for his article, “Alliances and Perception Profiles in the Iranian Reform Movement, 1997-2005,” which is forthcoming in the American Sociological Review.

* The first issue of the new journal, Sociology of Islam, was just published. Congratulations to editors Gary Wood of Virginia Tech and Tugrul Keskin of Portland State University!

* The Carnegie Corporation of New York is expected to fund 10 or more fellowships for social scientists at Arab universities to study at a variety of universities in the United States. The first announcement came from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and more are expected.

* The Arab Council for the Social Sciences held its inaugural conference in Beirut, Lebanon, in March 2013 — “a truly inter-disciplinary occasion where academics from across the Arab region and beyond met to exchange their work and ideas,” according to one participant.

* Planning is underway for an ASA Section on Middle East and Muslim Societies. An initial commitment of 200 ASA members is required to establish a new section. Stay tuned for further developments!

Minutes taken by Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.