March 2-3, 2007
Friday, March 2 - Student Union, Room 3206A-B
Saturday, March 3 - Hyde Hall, Seminar Room 210
The Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations (
CCSMEMC) proposes a fruitful hybrid between traditional area studies approaches and cross-regional Islamic Studies. The central organizing principle of UNC-CH"s efforts in Middle East Studies is to develop a new method of studying the region, one that breaks down area studies barriers and combines cross-regional approaches with traditional regional concerns.
Middle East Studies has come to be defined by somewhat arbitrary geographic boundaries drawn by the U.S. government in the early days of the Cold War. In the late 20th century; hwever, a number of scholars concluded that the traditional area studies boundaries have become hindrances to international studies. The global flow of ideas, commodities, and people has accelerated to the point that no region can be studied any longer in isolation. This perspective has been the subject of a Themtatic Conversation on "Constructing and Deconstructing a Region: Cross-Regional Approaches to the Middle East," held at the 2005 Middle East Studies Association meeting and planned to continue for the next two years. CCSMEMC is now convening a workshop on The Global Middle East in Chapel Hill on March 2-3, 2007.
