Minutes, November 2010

Middle East Sociology Working Group

Informal meeting at the Middle East Studies Association, Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, November 21, 2010.

The working group met at Bandar Restaurant, perhaps the finest cuisine that we have ever enjoyed at these informal meetings, and certainly the largest portions. Our primary agenda item was the upcoming grant announcement of the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12819). The group expressed an interest in exploring opportunities for collaboration in the training of sociologists of the Middle East, in partnership with institutions and researchers in the region. Among the questions raised were whether the effort would focus on particular countries in the region, whether the training would focus on particular themes or specific methods, and what sorts of venues would be most effective for collaboration — possibly summer workshops and/or fellowships for graduate, post-doctoral, and junior-faculty research? Examples of past PIRE projects are listed on the NSF webpage, and we decided to examine these further and possibly contact the program officer to see what guidance is available.
Our group has organized a thematic session at the 2011 meetings of the American Sociological Association, entitled “Conflicted Nations in the Middle East,” and has proposed a thematic session for the 2012 ASA conference as well.

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