The rise of modern media has led to debates about religious authority in Islam, questioning whether it is fragmenting or proliferating, and exploring the state of the ‘ulamā’ and new groups like religious intellectuals and ...

This dissertation explores the works of Ibn Rushd and identifies an appropriation of Aristotle’s concept of natural justice, paying attention to the distinction he makes between the written laws (al-sunan al-maktūba) and ...

This paper presents an analysis of how Hizbullah’s Secretary General Nasrallah attempts to project an alternative to existing versions of a Lebanese national identity, based on an analysis of a selection of his speeches ...

This dissertation poses three central questions about the 2011 Egyptian Arab Spring: 1) What catalyzed and perpetuated Egypt’s 2011 ‘revolutionary interval’? 2) How effective were various messaging channels (vocal, gestural, ...

This dissertation is a comparative study of modern Egypt and Morocco from the turn of the twentieth century through the 1970s, narrated through the lens of the urban middle-class kitchen. Scholars of the region have paid ...

This project studies the ways through which poets form their self-image and design its relationship with authority. It explores how poets forge their distinct identities through their responses to the challenges of the ...

Historically, cultural production and diplomacy have played important roles in many of the major events of Kuwaiti history. In this study, I explore contemporary examples from Kuwait’s rich history of social movements by ...

This dissertation is a study of twentieth-century Egypt and the role that popular music plays in constructing the modern nation, a process I examine through the lens of the famous singer ‘Abd al-Ḥalīm Ḥāfiẓ (1929-1977). ...

The 11th/17th-century Hijazi scholar Ibn Maʿṣūm al-Madanī (d. 1120/1709) wrote a significant later post-classical/pre-modern biographical anthology, Sulāfat al-ʿaṣr fī maḥāsin al-shuʿarāʾ bi-kulli miṣr (Pressing of the ...