Minutes, November 2008

Middle East Sociology Working Group

Informal meeting at the Middle East Studies Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 24, 2008.

We met at the registration desk at 3:00 p.m., as arranged via our list-serve the previous week, and then found some empty tables near a cafe in the conference hotel. We numbered about seven people, including two graduate students. After introductions and a discussion of the job market for Middle East sociologists in North America, we brainstormed possible sociology-themed panel at MESA meetings, to complement the Middle East-themed panels at ASA.

It was also noted that the timing of our get-together was unfortunate, as it coincided with a panel that included sociologists Helen Rizzo and Katherine Meyer.

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