Minutes, August 2011

Middle East Sociology Working Group
Minutes

Informal meeting at the American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 20, 2011.

The working group met at the Trevi restaurant, in the surreal environment of the Caesar’s Palace casino, with more than 2 dozen participants, our largest turnout to date. The size of the group and the ambient noise precluded holding a single conversation, but we raised for small-group discussion the subject introduced by our colleague Tugrul Keskin over the Sociology of Islam listserv this past summer: to what extent sociological study of the Middle East can be characterized as a form of liberal imperialism, supporting movements and interventions that reshape the region to match Western interests and values. And if this is a problem, what alternative programs of study might we pursue? No firm conclusion emerged from the discussions, so far as I could tell, aside from a sense that these are issues that we should continue to reflect on and address.

In other news, this year’s American Sociological Association conference featured five panels related to Middle East and Islamic studies, possibly the most ever:

• Middle East and Muslim Societies
• Conflicted Nations in the Middle East
• Uprisings in the Arab World
• Islam and the Modern World
• Muslim Americans

To follow up on an item from the previous working group meeting, applying for the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for International Research and Education proved unworkable at our current stage of development, since our numbers are not sufficiently concentrated at any particular universities that could serve as hubs for the grant. However, we will keep our eyes out for other opportunities to coordinate and improve training in Middle East sociology.

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