Twenty Years of Desert Development in Egypt

The second of two issues, this volume covers aspects of Egyptian society. Contributors include: Donald Cole, Soraya Altorki, Asef Bayat, Eric Denis, Enid Hill, Ziad Bahaeddin, Malak Rouchdy, Linda Herrera, Jim Napoli, Hussein Amin, Mahmoud al-Lozy, Cynthia Nelson, and Shahnaz Rouse.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1985/thumbnail.jp

Introduction: Why a Gender/Women\u27s Studies Program at the American University in Cairo?

The proceedings of the Arab Regional Women’s Studies Workshop held at the American University in Cairo in May 1997. Among the theoretical and practical issues discussed are: the importance of introducing gender studies in order to achieve social equality in the Arab World, rethinking political and research priorities in order to give more attention to gender issues, and comparing gender programs in some Arab countries.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1960/thumbnail.jp

Sisterhood and Stewardship in sister-brother relations in Saudi Arabia

This volume represents revised versions of a collection of papers presented at Cairo Papers Ninth Annual Symposium on \u27\u27The New Arab Family,\u27\u27 held in May 2000. Marriage, divorce, and related topics were center stage, particularly in the demographic papers. Another focus was to combine two very different approaches to the study of the family -- on the one hand demographic, and on the other broadly sociological or anthropological, or as some would say, psychodynamic, that is to say focusing on dyadic or multi-member networks of relationships within the family. Some of these papers in turn focused on \u27\u27agency,\u27\u27 the ways in which individual action fit into cultural and social frames. The research covers most of the Arab world, though with a focus on Egypt. In addition to general papers relying on demographic data from different parts of the Arab world, the volume includes case studies from Tunisia, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/2110/thumbnail.jp

Layla al-Jihni\u27s fiction: Conceits and deceits

Layla al-Jihni is one of several Saudi women novelists whose work has risen to prominence since the 1990s. She writes in a surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness style that features interior monologues and psychological introspection. Her work is published abroad, but on the basis of interviews I conducted with Saudi women, it is accessible in-country. Although al-Jihni is not an activist, and her works do not directly engage matters of policy, her reasons for writing are more than aesthetic and transcend the \u27art for art\u27s sake\u27 ethic. Discourse is a source of power and influence, and al-Jihni\u27s fiction contributes to this discourse in ways calculated to broaden the scope of choice for women in Saudi Arabian society. © 2010 The Centre for Arab Unity Studies

Taking stock: wither the social sciences in Gulf universities

This paper investigates the status of social science in the universities of the Gulf states. It tries to identify what is taught and to suggest why. It examines the positives, which include the construction of buildings, the effort to institute diversity in hiring faculty, and the institution of faculty exchange programmes. The negatives include state interference in curricula, the failure to establish courses in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of the social sciences, rote learning, and excessive deference to the needs of the market in structuring an academic programme, with a consequent stress on market economics, management and business administration at the expense of the social sciences. © 2013 Copyright The Centre for Arab Unity Studies

Struggling for the centre from the periphery: The fiction of Zaynab Hifni

The premise of this article is that anthropologists may examine how literature (and novels in particular) can be used by women to create meanings, and how these meanings are relevant to the lives of people in societies. It pursues this theme in the writings of Zaynab Hifni, a prominent younger-generation author whose works have been distributed widely in the Arab world, if not in her native Saudi Arabia. Writing in the realist tradition, Hifni seeks to challenge male-dominated discourses by exploring ways in which women can interpret cultural values and symbols for themselves and thus broaden their scope for choices. © 2010 The Centre for Arab Unity Studies

Soraya Altorki Oral History

Soraya Altorki was an anthropology faculty member at the American University in Cairo from the 1970s to the 2020s, having studied at AUC as an undergraduate in the mid-1960s. The Saudi Arabian Altorki tells of attending girls' boarding schools in Lebanon and Alexandria, Egypt in her youth, and being the first Saudi woman to attend AUC. She describes students and campus social life in the mid-1960s, noting the restrictions occasioned by living with family, and makes comparisons with AUC students of later decades. She recounts attending graduate school for anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, despite her family’s concerns, mentioning faculty and fellow students there. Alorki tells of her return to AUC in the 1970s as a faculty member, and describes the department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology (SAPE) over the years, including colleagues in its various disciplines. The development of the anthropology program, its students and graduates, and notable visiting scholars are also addressed. She discusses her teaching and research interests, as well as academic administration at AUC

Commerce et production dans le nord de l’Arabie centrale : changement et développement a ‘Unayzah

En utilisant comme exemple la ville et le district de ‘Unayzah, cette étude aborde les thèmes du changement et du développement dans une région de la Péninsule Arabique où ont longtemps cohabité des populations nomades et sédentaires. Située dans la région du Qasîm dans le centre-nord du Najd, la ville de ‘Unayzah compte actuellement une population d’environ 70’000 habitants ; elle est le chef-lieu administratif et commercial du district du même nom qui comprend quelque 3500 km2 de steppe et ..