Bibliography – Creating Effective Interactions: Researching, Teaching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula (forthcoming, Palgrave MacMillan)

Creating Effective Interactions – Dr. M Risse – working biobibliography 

(authors in bold have additional publications which are not included in this list)

Abdul-Jabbar, Wisam. 2024. “Towards a ‘Study at Home’ Education in the Arab Gulf Region: Reterritorializing the ‘Study Abroad’ Mode.” Journal of Gulf Studies 1.1: 21-39.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2016/1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

—. 2016. “The Cross-publics of Ethnography: The Case of ‘the Muslimwoman’.” American Ethnologist 43.4: 595-608.

—. 2013. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

—. 2011. “Seductions of the Honor Crime.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 22.1: 17-63.

—. 2008. Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley: University of CA Press.

—. 1991. “Writing Against Culture,” in Recapturing Anthropology. Richard Fox, ed. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. 137-62.

—. 1990. “Anthropology’s Orient: The Boundaries of Theory in the Arab World,” in Theory, Politics and the Arab World: Critical Responses. Hisham Sharabi, ed. New York: Routledge. 81-131.

 —. 1989. “Zones of Theory in the Anthropology of the Arab World.” Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 267-306.

—. 1985. “A Community of Secrets: The Separate World of Bedouin Women.” Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10: 637-57.

—. 1985. “Honor and Sentiments of Loss in a Bedouin Society.” American Ethnologist 12: 245-61.

Adra, Najwa. 2011. “Tribal Mediations in Yemen and its Implications to Development.” AAS Working Papers in Social Anthropology 19. Vienna: Institut für Sozialanthropologie. 1-17.

Adra, Najwa, Marieke Brandt, Steven Caton, Paul Dresch and Andre Gingrich, eds. 2021. Tribes in Modern Yemen: An Anthology (Denkschriften Der Philosophisch-historischen Klasse 531). Vienna: Institut für Sozialanthropologie der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Ahmed, Qanta. 2008.  In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

Al-Amadi, Dana, Mark David Major, Heba Tannous and Amina AlKandari. 2023. “Diving for the Spatio-functional Qualities of Exclusivity at The Pearl-Qatar.” Habitat International 138. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397523001169?via%3Dihub

Al Farsi, Sulaiman. 2013. Democracy and Youth in the Middle East: Islam, Tribalism and the Rentier State in Oman. New York: I.B. Tauris.

Al-Ghanim, Kaltham, Andrew Gardner and Noora Lari. 2023. “Contemporary Women in Qatar: An Ethnographic Study of Their Challenges in Terms of Traditional Applications and Modern Requirements.” Sage Open. 1-17. DOI: 10.1177/21582440231196030

Al-Hajri, Hilal. 2006. “British travelers in Oman from 1627-1970.” Modern Oman: Studies in Politics, Economy, Environment and Culture of the Sultanate. Andrzej Kapiszewski, Abdulrahman al Salimi and Andrej Pikulski, eds. Krakow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka. 63-88.

Al-Hikmani, Hadi and Andrew Spalton. 2021. Dhofar: Monsoon Mountains to Sand Seas – Sultanate of Oman. Chicago: Gilgamesh Publishing.

Al Hussein, Mira. 2022, Nov. 10. “UAE: National Identity and the Social Contract.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/88371

—. 2021, Dec. 30. “The Economic Contracts of New Gulf Citizenships.” Orient XXI. https://orientxxi.info/magazine/the-economic-contracts-of-new-gulf-citizenships,5265.

—. 2021, Oct. “Citizenship in the Gulf.” Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Policy Report 40. https://www.kas.de/en/web/rpg/detail/-/content/citizenship-in-the-gulf

—.2021, Sept. 15. “The UAE’s ‘Foreign Talent’ Dilemma.” London School of Economics Blog. blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2021/09/15/the-uaes-foreign-talent-dilemma

Al Ismaili, Ahmed. 2018. “Ethnic, Linguistic, and Religious Pluralism in Oman: The Link with Political Stability.” Al Muntaqa 1.3: 58-73.

Al Maazmi, Ahmed. 2021. “The Apocalyptic Hijab: Emirati Mediations of Pious Fashion and Conflict Talk.” Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 19: 5–27.

Al Mutawa, Rana. 2024. Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making Home in Dubai. Berkely: University of California Press.

—. 2022. “‘We’re Not Like the Newbies’: Belonging Among Dubai’s Long-term Residents.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2142105

—. 2022. “Navigating the Cosmopolitan City: Emirati Women and Ambivalent Forms of Belonging in Dubai,” in Migration in the Making of the Gulf Space Social, Political, and Cultural Dimensions. Antia Mato Bouzas and Lorenzo Casini, eds. New York: Berghahn Books. 67-85.

—. 2020, Dec. 9. “Dishdasha Blues: Navigating Multiple Lived Experiences in the Gulf.” London School of Economics Middle East Blog Posts https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2020/12/09/dishdasha-blues-navigating-multiple-lived-experiences-in-the-gulf/

—. 2019, Nov 8. “Dubai Mall or Souq Naif? The Quest for ‘Authenticity’ and Social Distinction.” London School of Economics Middle East Blog Posts. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2019/11/08/dubai-mall-or-souq-naif-the-quest-for-authenticity-and-social-distinction/

—. 2019, April 30. “You Can’t Sit with Us: Prejudice and ‘Othering’ between Khaleejis.” Sekka. https://sekkamag.com/2019/04/30/you-cant-sit-with-us-the-othering-within-arab-gulf-societies/

—. 2019. “The Mall Isn’t Authentic!: Dubai’s Creative Class And The Construction of Social Distinction.” Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 48: 1-2: 183-223.

—. 2018, Dec.4. “Challenging Concepts of ‘Authenticity’: Dubai and Urban Spaces in the Gulf.” London School of Economics Middle East Blog Posts. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2018/12/04/challenging-concepts-of-authenticity-dubai-and-urban-spaces-in-the-gulf/

—. 2017. “Women and Restrictive Campus Environments: A Comparative Analysis Between Public Universities and International Branch Campuses in the UAE.” Higher Education in the Gulf States: Present and Future. 17-9.

Al-Nowaihi, Magda. 2001. “Resisting Silence in Arab Women’s Autobiographies.” International Journal of Middle East Studies. 33.4: 477-502.

Al-Qasimi, Noor. 2012. “The ‘Boyah’ and the ‘Baby Lady’: Queer Mediations,” in Wawa Series. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 8.3. Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid Al Gharaballi, eds. 139-42.

—. 2010. “Immodest Modesty: Accommodating Dissent and the ’Abayah-as-Fashion in the Arab Gulf States.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 6.1: 46-74.

Al-Rasheed, Madawi. 2013. A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

—. 2013, Apr. 22. “Theorizing the Arabian Peninsula Roundtable: Knowledge in the Time of Oil.” Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/28472/Theorizing-the-Arabian-Peninsula-Roundtable-Knowledge-In-the-Time-of-Oil

Al Salimi, Abdulrahman. 2018. Oman, Ibadism and Modernity (Studies on Ibadism and Oman). Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag.

Alsharekh, Alanoud, ed. 2007. The Gulf Family: Kinship Policies and Modernity. London: Saqi Books.

Altorki, Soraya, ed. 2015. A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

—. 1988. “At Home in the Field,” in Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own Society.  Soraya Altorki and Camillia El-Solh, eds. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 49-68.

—. 1986. Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the Elite. New York: Columbia University Press.

—. 1982. “The Anthropologist in the Field: A Case of “Indigenous Anthropology” from Saudi Arabia,” in Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries. H. Fahim, ed. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 167-75.

—. 1980. “Milk-kinship in Arab Society.” Ethnology 19: 233-44.

Altorki, Soraya and Camillia El-Solh, eds. 1988. Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own Society. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Ali-Karamali, Sumbul. The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and That Veil Thing. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2008.

Ammann, Ludwig. 2002. “Islam in Public Space.” Public Culture 14.1: 277-79.

Anderson, Esther. 2021. “Positionality, Privilege, and Possibility: The Ethnographer ‘at Home’ as an Uncomfortable Insider.” Anthropology and Humanism 46.2: 212-25.

Antrosio, Jason. 2018. “Starbucks Enlightenment: Is Anthropology Better than Starbucks?” Living Anthropologically. https://www.livinganthropologically.com/starbucks-enlightenment/. First posted 28 April 2018. Revised 3 June 2020.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1986. “Theory in Anthropology: Center and Periphery.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 28.2: 356-61.

Arciniega, Luzilda Carrillo. 2018, May 24. “Starbucks, Racism, and the Anthropological Imagination.” Anthropology News. https://www.luzilda-arciniega.com/public-scholarship/project-two-kzr4a

Arebi, Saddeka. 1994. Women and Words in Saudi Arabia. New York, Columbia University Press.

Armstrong, Karen. 1994. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine Books.

Asad, Talal. 1986. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam.” Occasional Papers Series, Center for Contemporary Arab. Georgetown University.

Aslan, Reza. 2011/2006. No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. New York: Random House.

Asmi, Rehenuma. 2016. “Finding a Place to Sit How Qatari Women Combine Cultural and Kinship Capital in the Home Majlis.” Anthropology of the Middle East 11.2: 18-38.

Assaf, Laure. 2020. “‘Abu Dhabi is my Sweet Home’: Arab Youths, Interstitial Spaces and the Building of a Cosmopolitan Locality.” City 24.5-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2020.1837562.

—. 2018. “Who is the Right One? The Meanings of (Marital) Love in the United Arab Emirates,” in Reinventing Love? Gender, Intimacy and Romance in the Arab World. C. Fortier, A. Kreil and I. Maffi, eds. Berne: Peter Lang.

Augustin, Anne-Linda. 2018. “Rumours, Fears and Solidarity in Fieldwork in Times of Political Turmoil on the Verge of War in Southern Yemen.” Contemporary Social Science 13.3-4: 444-56.

Baer, Brian James. 2020. “From Cultural Translation to Untranslatability – من الترجمة الثقافية إلى استحالة الترجمة: Theorizing Translation outside Translation Studies.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 40: 139-63.

Ball, Lawrence, Douglas MacMillan, Joseph Tzanopoulos, Andrew Spalton, Hadi Al Hikmani and Mark Moritz. 2020. “Contemporary Pastoralism in the Dhofar Mountains of Oman.” Human Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00153-5

Barth, Fredrik. 1983. Sohar: Culture and Society in an Omani Town. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Beaugrand, Claire. 2016. “Deconstructing Minorities/ Majorities in Parliamentary Gulf States (Kuwait and Bahrain).” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 43.2: 234-49.

Beckett, Greg. 2019, June 22.  “Staying with the Feeling: Trauma, Humility, and Care in Ethnographic Fieldwork.” Anthrodendum. https://anthrodendum.org/2019/06/22/staying-with-the-feeling-trauma-humility-and-care-in-ethnographic-fieldwork/

Belhaven (same as Hamilton). 1960. Review: “The Empty Quarter No More, review of Thesiger’s Arabian Sands.” The Geographical Journal 126.1: 73-4.

Bell, Duncan. 2003. “Mythscapes: Memory, Mythology, and National Identity.” The British Journal of Sociology 54.1: 63-81.

Bent, James and Mabel Bent. 2005/ 1900. Southern Arabia. London: Elibron.

Bent, James. 1895. Exploration of the Frankincense Country, Southern Arabia. The Geographical Journal 6.2: 109-33.

Berry, Maya, Claudia Chávez Argüelles, Shanya Cordis, Sarah Ihmoud, and Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada. 2017. “Toward a Fugitive Anthropology: Gender, Race, and Violence in the Field.” Cultural Anthropology 32: 537-565.

Bidwell, Robin. 1978. “Bibliographical Notes on European Accounts of Muscat 1500-1900.” Arabian Studies 4: 123-59. 

Blommaert, Jan and Dong Jie. 2020. Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner’s Guide 2nd ed. Bristol: ‎Multilingual Matters.

Bodoh-Creed, Jessica. 2020. The Field Journal for Cultural Anthropology. London: Sage.

Bohannan, Laura. 1966. “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History. https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/12476/shakespeare-in-the-bush

Bonnefoy, Laurent and Ahmed al-Rabaani. 2022. “Exploring Narratives on Omani Peace Culture.” Arabian Humanities 16. https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.8335

Booth, Marilyn. 2010. “‘The Muslim Woman’ as Celebrity Author and the Politics of Translating Arabic: Girls of Riyadh Go on the Road.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 6.3: 149-82.

Bowen, Donna Lee and Evelyn Early, eds. 2002. Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Brandt, Marieke. 2022. “Tribes and Rulers, 3.0: Dominance and the ‘Subaltern’ in Huthi Yemen,” in The Huthi Movement in Yemen: Ideology, Ambition and Security in the Arab Gulf. Abdullah Hamidaddin, ed. London: I.B. Tauris. 77-91.

—. 2021. “Introduction: The Concept of Tribe in the Anthropology of Yemen,” in Tribes in Modern Yemen: An Anthology (Denkschriften Der Philosophisch-historischen Klasse 531). Najwa Adra, Marieke Brandt, Steven Caton, Paul Dresch, Andre Gingrich, eds. Vienna: Institut für Sozialanthropologie der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 11-8.

—. 2021. “Some Remarks on Blood Vengeance (Tha’r) in Contemporary Yemen,” in Tribes in Modern Yemen: An Anthology (Denkschriften Der Philosophisch-historischen Klasse 531). Najwa Adra, Marieke Brandt, Steven Caton, Paul Dresch, Andre Gingrich, eds. Vienna: Institut für Sozialanthropologie der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 63-78.

—. 2017. “The Delocalization of Fieldwork and (Re)Construction of Place: Doing Ethnography in Wartime Yemen.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 49.3: 506-10.

Braun, Bruce. 2004. “Nature and Culture: On the Career of a False Problem,” in A Companion to Cultural Geography. J. Duncan, N. Johnson and R. Schein, eds. Oxford: Blackwell. 15-79.

Breteau, Marion. 2020. “When Love is Neither Showing nor Giving: The Challenges of Valentine’s Day in Oman,” in Quotidian Youth Cultures in the Gulf Peninsula: Changes and Challenges. Ildikó Kaposi and Emanuela Buscemi, eds. London: Routledge.

—. 2019. Amours à Mascate: Espaces, Rôles de Genre et Représentations Intimes chez les Jeunes (Sultanat d’Oman). Thèse de doctorat; Ecole Doctorale Espaces, Cultures, Sociétés; Aix-Marseille Université.

—. 2018. “Outline Pixels of Intimacy: Online Love among Young People in Muscat,” in Reinventing Love? Gender, Intimacy and Romance in the Arab World. C. Fortier, A. Kreil and I. Maffi, eds. Berne: Peter Lang. 91-111.

Breteau, Marion and Ahmed al-Suleimani. 2022. “Education, Youth and Employment in Oman.” Arabian Humanities 16. https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.8329

Brettell, Caroline. 1996. When They Read What We Write: The Politics of Ethnography. London: Bergin & Garvery.

Bristol-Rhys, Jane. 2016/2010. Emirati Women: Generations of Change. London: Hurst.

—. 2012. “Socio-spatial Boundaries in Abu Dhabi,” in Migrant Labor in the Persian Gulf. Mehran Kamrava and Zahra Babar, eds. London: Hurst. 82-3.

—. 2009. “Emirati Historical Narratives.” History and Anthropology 20.2: 107-21.

—. 2007. “Weddings, Marriage and Money in the United Arab Emirates.” Anthropology of the Middle East 2.1: 20–36.

Bristol-Rhys, Jane and Caroline Osella. 2018. “Contexts of Respectability and Freedom: Sexual Stereotyping in Abu Dhabi.” New Diversities 20.2: 1-20.

—. 2016. “Neutralized Bachelors, Infantilized Arabs: Between Migrant and Host Gendered and Sexual Stereotypes in Abu Dhabi,” in Masculinities Under Neoliberalism. Andrea Cornwall, Frank G. Karioris and Nancy Lindisfarne, eds. London: Zed.

Brodkin, Karen, Sandra Morgen and Janis Hutchinson. 2011. “Anthropology as White Public Space?” American Anthropologist 113.4: 545-56.

Brondo, Keri Vacanti. 2020. Cultural Anthropology: Contemporary, Public, and Critical Readings 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brooks, Geraldine. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. New Yok: Anchor, 1995.

Bryant, Rebecca. 2020. “The Anthropology of the Future.” Etnofoor 32.1: 11-22.

Buccitelli, Anthony. 2020. “(Folk)Life, Interrupted: Challenges for Fieldwork, Empathy, and Public Discourse in the Age of Trump.” The Journal of American Folklore – Critical Folkloristics Today 133.530: 412-29.

Buscemi, Emanuela and Ildiko Kaposi, eds. 2020. Everyday Youth Cultures in the Gulf Peninsula: Changes and Challenges. London: Routledge. 

Candea, Matei. 2013. “The Fieldsite as Device.” Journal of Cultural Economy 6.3: 241-58. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17530350.2012.754366

—. 2007. “Arbitrary Locations: In Defense of the Bounded Field-site.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13: 167-84.

Carapico, Sheila. 2004. “Arabia Incognita: An Invitation to Arabian Peninsula Studies,” in Counter-Narratives. Madawi Al-Rasheed and Robert Vitalis, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 11-33.

Carter, Henry. 1852. “Memoir of the Geology of the South-East Coast of Arabia.” Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 3: 21-96.

—. 1847. “Notes on the Mahrah Tribe of Southern Arabia, with a Vocabulary of their Language, to which is appended additional Observations on the Gara Tribe.” Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2: 339-64. 

—. 1845. “Notes on the Gara Tribe.” Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2: 195-201.

Carter, J. R. L. 1982. Tribes in Oman. London: Peninsular Publishing.

Caton, Steve. 2005. Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation. New York: Hill and Wang.

—. 1993. ‘Peaks of Yemen I Summon’: Poetry as Cultural Practice in a North Yemeni Tribe. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

—. 1987. “Power, Persuasion and Language: A Critique of the Segmentary Model in the Middle East.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 19: 77-102.

—. 1986. “’Salam Tahiyah’: Greetings from the Highlands of Yemen.” American Ethnologist 13.2: 290-308.

Chatty, Dawn. 2013.“Negotiating Authenticity and Translocality in Oman: The ‘Desertscapes’ of the Harasiis Tribes,” in Regionalizing Oman: Political, Economic and Social Dynamics. Steffen Wippel, ed. Heidelberg: Springer. 129-45.

—. 2013. “Rejecting Authenticity in the Desert Landscapes of the Modern Middle East: Development Processes in the Jiddat Il-Harasiis, Oman,” in Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa. Sherine Hafez and Susan Slyomovics, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 145-64.

—.  2009. “Rituals of Royalty and the Elaboration of Ceremony in Oman: View from the Edge.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41: 39-58.

—. 2000. “Integrating Participation into Research and Consultancy: A Conservation Example from Arabia.” Social Policy and Administration 34.4: 408-18.

—. 2000. “Women Working in Oman: Individual Choice and Cultural Constraints.” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 32: 241-54.

—.  1998. “Enclosures and Exclusions: Conserving Wildlife in Pastoral Areas of the Middle East.” Anthropology Today 14:4: 2-7.

—.  1997. Mobile Pastoralists: Development Planning and Social Change in Oman. New York: Columbia University Press.

—.  1976. “From Camel to Truck.” Folk 18:114-28.

Chay, Clemens. 2015. “Kuwait’s Diwaniyyas: Dislocation and Dissent in an Urban Gulf Society.” HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Publication Series 15. Durham: Durham University. 1-25.

Clapp, Nicholas. 1999. The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Clark, Janine and Francesco Cavatorta, eds. 2018. Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and Ethical Challenges. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cohen, Jeffery. 2015. Eating Soup without a Spoon: Anthropological Theory and Method in the Real World. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Cole, Donald and Soraya Altorki, 1992. “Was Arabia Tribal: A Reinterpretation of the Pre-Oil Society.” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 15.4: 71-87.

Cole, Juan. 2024. “Terraforming Yemen: Geoeconomic Imperialism, the UAE and the Southern Secessionists.” Journal of Gulf Studies 1.1: 59-79.

Cooke, Miriam. 2014. Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cozzi, Paulino Robles-Gil. 2018. “Blood Diplomacy: Saudi Arabia between Yemen and Jamal Khashoggi.” Gulf Insights Series – 4. Doha: College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University.

Craufurd, C. 1919. “The Dhofar District.” The Geographical Journal 53.2: 97-105.

Criado, Tomás Sánchez. 2020. “Anthropology as a Careful Design Practice?” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (ZfE) / Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 145.1: 47-70.

Cruttenden, Charles. 1838. “Journal of an Excursion from Morbat to Dyreez, the Principal Town of Dhofar.” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society 1: 184-88.

Cumings, Bruce. 1993. “Revising Postrevisionism, or The Poverty of Theory in Diplomatic History.” Diplomatic History 17.4: 539-69.

Dahlgren, Susanne. 2013. “Revisiting the Issue of Women’s Rights in Southern Yemen: Statutory Law, Sharia and Customs.” Arabian Humanities 1. https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.2039

Davidson, Christopher. 2015. After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies. London: Hurst.

—, ed. 2011. Power and Politics in the Persian Gulf Monarchies. New York: Columbia University Press.

Davis, Thomas. 1999. “Revisiting Group Attachment: Ethnic and National Identity.” Political Psychology 20.1: 25-47.

Dawson, Andrew. 2021. “‘Let’s Talk About Me – 101’: Epistemological Vanity in Anthropology and Society.” Etnofoor 33.1: 73-90.

De Koning, Anouk. 2009. Global Dreams: Class, Gender, and Public Space in Cosmopolitan Cairo. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

De Regt, Marina. 2010. “Ways to Come, Ways to Leave: Gender, Mobility, and Il/legality among Ethiopian Domestic Workers in Yemen.” Gender and Society 24.2: 237-60.

—. 2009. “Preferences and Prejudices: Employers’ Views on Domestic Workers in the Republic of Yemen.” Signs 34.3: 559-81.

Deeb, Lara and Jessica Winegar. 2012. “Anthropologies of Arab-Majority Societies.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 537-58.

Dekeersmaeker, Maria. 2015. Whispers of Oman. Salalah, Oman: Dhofar National Printing Press.

—. 2011. The DNA of Salalah, Dhofar: A Tourist Guide. Salalah, Oman: Dhofar National Printing Press.

—. 2011. Treasure Chest Salalah, Oman Serial 1. Salalah, Oman: Dhofar National Printing Press.

Derbal, Nora. 2022. Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society under Authoritarianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009072656

Determann, Jörg Matthias. 2022. “Review of Beyond Exception: New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula.” Journal of Arabian Studies 12.1: 127-8.

DeVore, Marc 2012. “A More Complex and Conventional Victory: Revisiting the Dhofar Counterinsurgency.” Small Wars & Insurgencies 23: 144-73.

—. 2011. “The United Kingdom’s Last Hot War of the Cold War: Oman, 1963–75.” Cold War History 11: 441-71.

Diphoorn, Tessa and Grassiani, Erella. 2020. “‘Why Do We Need Your Research?’: The Ethics of Studying Security and the Dilemmas of the Anthropologist-Expert.” Journal of Extreme Anthropology 4.1: 116-34. https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.7605

Diwan, Kristin. 2014. “Breaking Taboos: Youth Activism in the Gulf States.” Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/breaking-taboos-youth-activism-in-the-gulf-states/

Dominguez, Virginia and Brigittine French. 2020. Anthropological Lives: An Introduction to the Profession of Anthropology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Dorman, Deborah. 2017. “A Nasraniyya in Sanaa, 1988-99,” in Architectural Heritage of Yemen: Buildings that Fill my Eye. Trevor Marchand, ed. London: Ginko. 179-86.

Dorsey, James. 2014, July 10. “Wahhabism vs. Wahhabism: Qatar Challenges Saudi Arabia.” Singapore Middle East Reflections 4. 1-51.

Dorsky, Susan. 1986. Women of ʿAmran: A Middle Eastern Ethnographic Study. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Doumato, Eleanor. 2000. Getting God’s Ear: Women, Islam, and Healing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. New York: Columbia University Press.

Dresch, Paul. 1989. Tribes, Government and History in Yemen. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Due-Gundersen, Nicolai and Francis Owtram. 2022. “The Foundation, Development and Future of the Omani Rentier State: From the Dhofar War to Vision 2040.” Arabian Humanities 16. https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.8328

Eickelman, Christine. 1988. “Women and Politics in an Arabian Oasis,” in A Way Prepared: Essays on Islamic Culture in Honor of Richard Bayly Winder. New York: New York University Press. 199-215.

—. 1984. Women and Community in Oman. New York: New York University Press.

Eickelman, Dale. 1992. “Mass Higher Education and the Religious Imagination in Contemporary Arab Societies.” American Ethnologist 19.4: 643-655.

—. 1989. “National Identity and Religious Discourse in Contemporary Oman.” International Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies 6.1: 1-20.

—. 1985: “From Theocracy to Monarchy: Authority and Legitimacy in Inner Oman, 1935–1957.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 17.1: 3–24.

—. 1983. “Omani Village: The Meaning of Oil,” in The Politics of Middle Eastern Oil. J. E. Peterson, ed. Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute. 211-19.

Eickelman, Dale and M.G. Dennison. 1994. “Arabizing the Omani Intelligence Services: Clash of Cultures?” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 7.1: 1-28.

Emerson, Robert, Rachel Fretz and Linda Shaw. 2011. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ennis, Crystal. 2020. “Citizenship without Belonging? Contesting Economic Space in Oman.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 52.4: 759-64.

—. 2019. “The Gendered Complexities of Promoting Female Entrepreneurship in the Gulf.” New Political Economy 24.3: 365-84.

—. 2015. “Between Trend and Necessity: Top-Down Entrepreneurship Promotion in Oman and Qatar.” The Muslim World 105.1: 116-38.

—. n.d. “Oman Resource Guide.” The Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies. https://agaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Oman-Research-Resource-Guide.pdf

Fabietti, Ugo. 2000. “State Politics and Beduin Adaptations in Saudi Arabia, 1900-1980,” in The Transformation of Nomadic Society in the Arab East. Martha Mundy and Basim Musallam, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fahim, Hussein. 1982. Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries. Durham, NC: Carolina Acadamic Press.

Fardon, Richard, ed. 1989. Localizing Strategies: Regional Traditions of Ethnographic Writing. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Inst. Press.

Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. 1989/1969. Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. New York: Anchor Books.

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Marielle Risse

Books

Houseways in Southern Oman. Routledge, 2023

This book explains how modern, middle-class houses are sited, designed, built, decorated and lived in with an emphasis on how room-usage is determined by age, gender, time of day and the presence of guests. Combing ethnography and architectural studies, the author draws on over sixteen years of living in the Dhofar region to analyze the cultural perceptions regarding houses and how residential areas fit within the urban areas in southern Oman. Dhofari houses are also compared to houses in other Arabian Peninsula countries and positioned within the theoretical frameworks of the “Islamic city” and the “Islamic house.”

Foodways in Southern Oman. Routledge, 2021

This book examines the objects, practices and beliefs relating to producing, obtaining, cooking, eating and disposing of food in the Dhofar region of southern Oman. The chapters consider food preparation, who makes what kind of food, and how and when meals are eaten. Foodways connects what is consumed to themes such as land usage, gender, age, purity, privacy and generosity. It also discusses how foodways are related to issues of morality, safety, religion, and tourism. The volume is a result of fourteen years of collecting data and insights in Dhofar, covering topics such as catching fish, herding camels, growing fruits, designing kitchens, cooking meals and setting leftovers out for animals.

Community and Autonomy in Southern Oman. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

This book explores how, in cultures which prize conformity, there is latitude for people who choose not to conform either for a short time and how the chances to assert independence change over time. The main focus is on how the traits of self-control and self-respect are manifested in the everyday actions of several groups of tribes whose first language is Gibali (Jebbali/ Jebali, also referred to as Shari/ Shahri), a non-written, Modern South Arabian language. Although no work can express the totality of a culture, this text describes how Gibalis are constantly shifting between preserving autonomy and signaling membership in family, tribal and national communities.

Publications – scholarly articles and chapters – anthropology/ culture/ travel writing

“Lifeways of Traditional Fishermen in Dhofar, Oman,” in Fish as Food: Lifestyle and a Sustainable Future. Helen Macbeth, ed. International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition – Alimenta Populorum series. 2024: 155-170. https://archive.org/details/macbeth-young-and-roberts-ed-fish-as-food-anthropological-and-cross-disciplinary

“An Ethnographic Discussion of Fairy Tales from Southern Oman,” Fabula: Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung / Journal of Folktale Studies / Revue d’Etudes sur le Conte Populaire 60.3-4 (De Gruyter, Berlin) 2019: 318–335.

 “Understanding Communication in Southern Oman,” North Dakota Quarterly 84.1 (Special Issue on Transnationalism) 2017: 174-184.

“Generosity, Gift-giving and Gift-avoiding in Southern Oman,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 45 (Oxford: Archeopress) 2015: 289-296. 

“Understanding the Impact of Culture on the TESOL Classroom: An Outsider’s Perspective,” TESOL Arabia’s Perspective 18.2, 2011: 15-19.

“Cultural Refraction: Using Travel Writing, Anthropology and Fiction to Understand the Culture of Southern Arabia,” Interdisciplinary Humanities 26:1, 2009: 63-78.

Publications – scholarly articles and chapters – literature/ pedagogy

“Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching in Oman,” in Unpackaging Theory and Practice in Educational Sciences. Abdülkadir Kabadayı, ed. Lyon: Livre de Lyon. 2023: 129-141.  https://www.livredelyon.com/educational-sciences/unpackaging-theory-practice-in-educational-sciences_595.

“Teaching Paired Middle Eastern and Western Literary Texts,” in Advancing English Language Education. Wafa Zoghbor and Thomaï Alexiou, eds. Dubai: Zayed University Press, 2020: 221-223.

“Teaching Literature on the Arabian Peninsula,” Anthropology News website, October 7 2019. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/10/07/teaching-literature-on-the-arabian-peninsula/

“Selecting the Right Literary Texts for Middle Eastern Students: Challenges and Reactions,” in Focusing on EFL Reading: Theory and Practice. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, ed. Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University Press, 2014: 165-188.

 “Frosty Cliffs, Frosty Aunt and Sandy Beaches: Teaching Aurora Leigh in Oman,” Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 43.4, 2013: 123-145.

“Who Are You Calling ‘Coddled’?: ‘Cloistered Virtue’ and Choosing Literary Texts in a Middle Eastern University,” Pedagogy 13.3, 2013: 415-427.

“Do You know a Creon?: Making Literature Relevant in an Omani University,” in Literature Teaching in EFL/ESL: New Perspectives. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, ed. Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University Press, 2012: 302-314.

“Reader’s Guide” for the English version of Khadija bint Alawi al-Thahab’s My Grandmother’s Stories: Folk Tales from Dhofar (Translated by W. Scott Chahanovich, U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Dhofar University, 2009-2010). Washington, D.C: Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, 2012: 17-23.

Conference Presentations – anthropology/ culture/ travel writing

“Conducting Research on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference. Nov. 14, 2024.

“Windguru and Other Gurus: Fishing off the Coast of Dhofar, Oman,” Navigating the Transcultural Indian Ocean: Texts and Practices in Contact Conference, sponsored by the Rutter Project. June 5, 2024

“Crafting a Home: Interior Home Design in Southern Oman.” Home/Making Symposium, Concordia University. Montreal. May 12, 2023. https://www.concordia.ca/finearts/events/home-making.html

“Good Governance and Open Spaces: How the State and Residents Negotiate the Use of Government Land in Dhofar, Oman.” AnthroState Talks for the European Association of Social Anthropologists Network on Anthropologies of the State. May 4, 2023. https://easaonline.org/networks/anthrostate/talks

“Explorations in the North-west Indian Ocean: The Research Journeys of the ‘Palinurus’ along the Omani Coast in the mid-1800s.” Research Expeditions to India and the Indian Ocean in Early Modern and Modern Times, sponsored by the German Maritime Museum / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History. Nov. 3, 2022.

“Private Lives in Public Spaces: Perceptions of Space-Usage in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association annual conference. Montreal, Quebec. December 2, 2021.

“The Costs and Benefits of Fishing in Southern Oman.” Fish as Food: Lifestyle and a Sustainable Future, annual conference of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, hosted at the University of Liverpool. Sept. 1, 2021.

“Ethical Eating in Southern Oman.” Just Food, virtual conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society; Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society; Canadian Association for Food Studies and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, hosted by the Culinary Institute of America and New York University. June 12, 2021.

“Foodways in Southern Oman,” for the session “Uncovering Truths, Building Responsibility in A Pandemic: Insights from Emerging Monographs at the Nexus of Culture, Food, and Agriculture.” American Anthropological Association. Nov. 9, 2020.

with Keye Tersmette. “Ghurba at Home – Views from Oman.” The Arab World as Ghurba: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging in Literature and Popular Culture, University of Warwick. June 21, 2019.

“Accounts from the Journeys of the Brig ‘Palinurus’ Along the Dhofar Coast in the mid-1800s.” Maritime Exploration and Memory Conference, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. Sept. 15, 2018.

“Recent Views on Oman.” British Society for Middle East Studies, University of Edinburgh. July 6, 2017.

“Female, Femininity, Male and Masculinity in the Gibali-speaking Tribes of Southern Oman.” The Gulf Research Conference, Cambridge University. August 2, 2017.

“‘Words Mean Nothing’: Fluency in Language and Fluency in Culture in Anthropology Fieldwork in Southern Oman.” British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wales. July 15, 2016.

“’Why Would I Hurt a Woman?’: Respectful/ Respecting Women in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association Conference, Denver. Nov. 21, 2015.

“Generosity, Gift-giving and Gift-avoiding in Southern Oman.” British Foundation for the Study of Arabia’s Seminar for Arabian Studies, The British Museum, London. July 27, 2014.

“‘I Do Not Need the Night’: The Gibali Conception of Self-Respect in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association Conference, New Orleans. October 12, 2013.

“They Came, They Saw, They Fought, They Compromised, They Left: The Foreign Military Presence in the Dhofar War (Oman, 1965-1975).” Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference; Edinburgh. July 3, 2012.

 “Waiting for [both] the Barbarians”: Tourism in the Dhofar Region of Oman.” Traditions and Transformations: Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa Region; Amman, Jordan. April 6, 2009.

Conference presentations – literature/ pedagogy

“Finding the Right Texts for Teaching Literature, Cultures, and Empathy in the Middle East.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference. April 9, 2021.

“‘I Came to You for Good’: An Ethnographic Discussion of Folk Tales from Southern Oman.” Third Joint Seminar of The Folklore Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, Royal Anthropological Institute, London. Oct. 26, 2017.

“Antigone, Alcestis, Deanira and Philoketes visit the Empty Quarter: The Reception of Greek Drama on the Arabian Peninsula.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, University of Utrecht. July 8, 2017.

“‘A Man Was Always Catching Fish’: Fairy Tale Elements in the Ali al-Mahri/ Johnstone/ Rubin Gibali Texts from Southern Oman.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. March 18, 2016.

“Analyzing Arabic Teaching to Improve English Teaching.” TESOL Arabia Annual Conference; Dubai. March 14, 2014.

 “John Clare Looks Good in a Dishdash: Linking John Clare to Middle Eastern Poetry.” Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Chicago. January 7, 2011.

“How Can You Hate the Sun?: Translating Western Conceptions of Nature.” Humanities Education and Research Association, Chicago, Illinois. April 9, 2009. 

“Do You Have Anything on Cowboys?: Creating a University Library in the Middle East,” with Chris Sugnet. Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque. Feb., 2000.

Creative Non-fiction

“Yemen with Yul,” in Emanations 11. Independently published, 2024: 417-429.

“Questions About Food and Ethics,” in Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2021: 403-408

“Ok Kilito, I Won’t Speak Your Language: Reflections after Reading Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language,” in Octo-Emanations. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2020: 233-236.

“Predator Anthropologists, Anthropologist Predators: Anthropological Metaphors in Popular Movies,” Open Anthropology Research Repository. Aug. 25, 2020. https://www.openanthroresearch.org/doi/abs/10.1002/oarr.10000333.1

“What’s in Your Bag?” Anthropology News. American Anthropological Association. Oct. 30, 2019. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/07/23/whats-in-your-bag-2019-edition/

“Living Expat,” in Emanations: Chorus Pleiades. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2018: 308-318.

“Research in Foreign Cultures,” in Emanations: Foray into Forever. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2014: 355-358.

 “Throwing Children in the Street: Explaining Western Culture to Omanis,” in Emanations: Third Eye. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2013: 265-274.

 “To Learn Arabic, You Have to Talk the Talk,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 31, 2012. http://chronicle.com/article/To-Learn-Arabic-You-Have-to/132057

“Your Zimbabwe Stories” and “Memsahib 101,” in Emanations: Sidestepping Academic Dicta into the Higher Ecstatic Ethos. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2012: 305-312.

 “Bringing Theory Home in Oman,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 10, 2011: B24.

            http://chronicle.com/article/Bringing-Theory-Home-in-Oman/128139/

“In the House of the Infidel or Perfume: The Great Healer,” Button 16, 2011: 6-9.

 “For Middle East expats, a fake-holly, not-so-jolly Christmas,” The Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2009: C3.

 “An Open Letter to Alice Walker,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Feb. 20, 2009: B11.

            http://chronicle.texterity.com/chronicle/20090220b/?pg=11#pg11

 

 

Bibliography – Arabian Peninsula Literature: Fiction, Drama, Poetry and Secondary Sources

This is a selected bibliography of texts related to Arabian Peninsula/ Middle Eastern literature.

[writers who are underlined are major authors with many other publications]

Arabian Peninsula Writing

general

Akers, Deborah and Abubaker Bagader, eds. and trans. 2008. Oranges in the Sun: Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf. London: Lynne Rienner.

Alshammari, Shahd. 2017. Notes on the Flesh. Malta: Faraxa Publishing.

Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. 1988. The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. London: Kegan Paul International.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2016. Modern Literature of the Gulf. Bern: Peter Lang GmbH.

Meguid, Ibrahim Abdel. 2006. The Other Place. Farouk Abdel Wahab, trans. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.

Wilson, G. Willow. 2012. Alif the Unseen. New York, Grove Press.

also note:

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation [https://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/

Banipal Magazine [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/ ] which has special issues on specific countries, for example: Yemen [ https://www.banipal.co.uk/back_issues/73/issue-36/ ]

Emirates

Al Murr, Mohammad. 2008. Dubai Tales. Peter Clark and Jack Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

—. 1998. “The Wink of the Mona Lisa” and Other Stories from the Gulf. Jack Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Al-Suwaidi, Thani. The Diesel.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. 2009. In a Fertile Desert: Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Krishnadas. 2007. Dubai Puzha: When Seagulls Fly Over Dubai Creek. ‎Thrissur, Kerala: Green Books.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2012. Modern Literature of the United Arab Emirates. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press.

Unnikrishnan, Deepak. Temporary People.

Kuwait

Abulhawa, Susan. 2020. Against the Loveless World.

Al Nakib, Mai. 2023. An Unlasting Home. Mariner Books: New York.

Alsanousi, Saud. The Bamboo Stalk.

Oman

Al Farsi, Abdulaziz. 2013. Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs: A Modern Omani Novel. Nancy Roberts, trans. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press.

Alharthi, Jokha. 2019. Celestial Bodies. Marilyn Booth, trans. New York: Catapult.

Hamed, Huda. I Saw Her in my Dreams.

Ibrahim, Sonallah. 2001. Warda. Hosam Aboul-Ela, trans. Yale University Press: New Haven.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2002. Modern Poetry and Prose of Oman. Krakow: The Enigma Press.

Saudi

Al-Khamis, Omaima Abdullah. Al-Bahriyat.

Alireza, Marianne. 2002. At the Drop of a Veil.

Alsanea, Rajaa. 2007. Girls of Riyadh. London: Penguin.

Benyamin. 2021. Goat Days. Joseph Koyippally, trans. Efinito.

Ferraris, Zoe. 2008. Finding Noof. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: New York.

—. 2010.  City of Veils. New York: Little Brown.

—. 2012. Kingdom of Strangers. New York: Little Brown.

Munif, ‘Abd al-Rahman. 1989. Cities of Salt. Peter Theroux, trans. Random House: New York.

Yemen

‘Abd al-Wali, Mohammad. They Die Strangers.

Ba-Amer, Salih. 1988. “Dancing by the Light of the Moon,” in The Literature of Modern Arabia: An Anthology. S. K. Jayyusi, ed. London: Kegan Paul International. 318-22.

Bajaber, Khadija Abdalla. 2021. House of Rust.

Dammaj, Zayd Mutee. 1994. The Hostage. Interlink Books: Northampton, MA.

Hunter, Barry Stewart. 2017. Aden.

Classical/ Pre-Modern Fiction and Poetry

Allen, Roger. 2005. The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of its Genres and Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Arberry, A.J. 1965. Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Farrin, Raymond. 2011. Abundance from the Desert: Classical Arabic Poetry. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Irwin, R. 2002. Night and Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature. New York: Anchor.

Sells, M., trans. 1989. Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes by Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, Antara, Al-Asha and Dhu al-Rumma. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Folk/fairy tales

Al Taie, Hatim and Joan Pickersgill. 2008. Omani Folk Tales. Muscat, Oman: Al Roya Press and Publishing House.

al-Thahab, Khadija bint Alawi. 2012/ Stories of My Grandmother. W. Scott Chahanovich, ed. Washington, D.C:  Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center.

Behnam, Mariam. 2001. Heirloom: Evening Tales from the East. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

ElMahi, Ali Tigani and Ahmed Mohamed al Khatheri. 2015. “A Folk Story from Dhofar: A Pathway to Indigenous Knowledge.” Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 6.2: 5-12. DOI:10.24200/jass.vol6iss2

Hamad, Abdulsalam. 2006. Omani Folk Tales. Seeb: Al-Dhamri Bookshop.

Johnstone, T.M. 1974. “Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra.” Arabian Studies 1: 7-24.

Johnstone, T.M. 1983. “Folk-Tales and Folk-lore of Dhofar.” Journal of Oman Studies 6.1: 123-127.

—. 1978. “A St. George of Dhofar.” Arabian Studies 4: 59-65.

—. 1974. “Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra.” Arabian Studies 1: 7-24.

Kamal, M. 1999. Juha: Last of the Errant Knights. J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Mershen, Birgit. 2004. “Ibn Muqaarab and Naynuh: A Folk-tale from Tiwi.” Journal of Oman Studies 13: 91-97.

Paine, Patty, Jesse Ulmer and Michael Hersrud, eds. 2013. The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf.  Highclere, Berkshire: Berkshire Academic Press.

Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange. 2014. Malcome Lyons, trans. London: Penguin.

Todino-Gonguet, Grace. Halimah and the Snake, and other Omani Folk Tales. 2008. London: Stacey International.

Wilson, G. Willow. 2012. Alif the Unseen. New York, Grove Press.

Poetry

al Hajri, Hilal. 2014. The Night is Mine. Khalid al Balushi. trans. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

Al Balushi, Khalid, ed. and trans. 2016. Contemporary Omani Poetry in English. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

Handal, N., ed. 2001. The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. New York: Interlink.

Johnstone, T. M. 1972. “The Language of Poetry in Dhofar.” The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35.1: 1-17.

Morris, Miranda. 1985. “A Poem in Jibbali.” Journal of Oman Studies 7: 121-30.

Arabic/ Islamic Drama, Fiction and Poetry

Al Aswany, Alaa. 2006. The Yacoubian Building (Egypt). Harper: New York.

Alghosaibi, Ghazi. 1996. An Apartment Called Freedom (Egypt). Leslie McLoughlin, trans. Kegan Paul.

Al-Hakim, T. 1981. Plays, Prefaces and Postscripts of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Volume One. W. M. Hutchins, trans. Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press.

Carlson, M, ed. 2005. The Arab Oedipus: Four plays. New York: Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications.

Charara, H, ed. 2008. Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab-American Poetry. Fayetteville, AK: The University of Arkansas Press.

Elmusa, S. 2008. Flawed Landscape: Poems 1987-2008. Northhampton, MA: Interlink.

Husni, R. and Newman, D., eds. 2008. Modern Arabic Short Stories: A Bilingual Reader. London: Saqi.

Johnson-Davies, Denys. ed. 2006. The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction. New York: Anchor Books/ Random House.

Johnson-Davies, Denys, ed. 1994. Arabic Short Stories. Berkeley: University of CA Press.

Kabbani, Nizar. 1999. Arabian Love Poems. B. K. Franieh and C. R. Brown, trans. London: Lynne Rienner.

Kahf, M. 2003. E-mails from Scheherazade. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Kaldas, P. and Mattawa, K, eds. 2009. Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. Fayetteville, AK: The University of Arkansas Press.

Kamal, M. 1999. Juha: Last of the Errant Knights. J. Briggs, trans. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Kanafani, Ghassan. 1998. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories. Hilary Kilpatrick, trans. Boulder: ‎Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Mahfouz, Naguib. 1990. The Cairo Trilogy. Doubleday: New York.

Mersal, I. 2008. These are not Oranges, My Love. Riverdale, NY: Sheep Meadow Press.

Nye, N. S. 2002. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York: Greenwillow.

—., ed. 1996. This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World. New York: Aladdin.

Qabbani, Nizar. 2006. On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani. Lena Jayyusi and Sharif Elmusa. trans. Northampton, MA: Interlink Publishing.

Salih, Tayeb. 1995. “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World. Arthur Biddle, ed. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ: Blair Press. 512-522.

Washburn, K. and Major, J, eds. 1998. World Poetry. New York, W.W. Norton.

Williams, D. 1993. Traveling Mercies. Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books.

Literature/ language/ multi-cultural learning

Al Harthi, A. 2005. “Distance Higher Education Experiences of Arab Gulf Students in the United States: A Cultural Perspective.”  International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 6.3: 1-14.

Amin-Zaki, Amel. 1996. “Religious and Cultural Considerations in Translating Shakespeare into Arabic,” in Between Language and Cultures: Translation and Cross-Cultural Texts. Anuradha Dingwaney and Carol Maier, eds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 223-44.

Baer, Brian James. 2020. “From Cultural Translation to Untranslatability – من الترجمة الثقافية إلى استحالة الترجمة: Theorizing Translation outside Translation Studies.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 40: 139-63.

Bell, Duncan. 2003. “Mythscapes: Memory, Mythology, and National Identity.” The British Journal of Sociology 54.1: 63-81.

Booth, Marilyn. 2010. “‘The Muslim Woman’ as Celebrity Author and the Politics of Translating Arabic: Girls of Riyadh Go on the Road.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 6.3: 149-82.

Boyd, F. 2002. “Conditions, Concessions, and the Many Tender Mercies of Learning through Multicultural Literature.” Reading Research and Instruction 42.1: 58-92.

Brooks, W. 2006. “Reading Representation of Themselves.” Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 372-392.

Gatling, Benjamin. 2020, Summer. “There Isn’t Belief, Just Believing: Rethinking Belief as a Keyword of Folklore Studies.” The Journal of American Folklore 133.529: 307-28.

Grosjean, François. 2015. “Bicultural Bilinguals.” International Journal of Bilingualism 19.5: 572–86.

Halstead, J. M. 2004. “An Islamic Concept of Education.” Comparative Education 40: 517-29.

Heble, Ayesha. 2007. “Teaching Literature On-line to Arab students: Using Technology to Overcome Cultural Restrictions.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 6.2: 219-226.

Jabra, Jabra. 1980. “Modern Arabic Literature and the West,” in Critical Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature. Issa Boullata, ed. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press. 8-20.

Mazawi, Andreas. 2010. “Naming the Imaginary: ‘Building an Arab Knowledge Society’ and the Contested Terrain of Educational Reform for Development,” in Trajectories of Education in the Arab World: Legacies and Challenges. Osama Abin-Mershed, ed. London: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Routledge.

McDermott, Ray and Varenne, Herve. 2007. “Reconstructing Culture in Educational Research,” in Innovations in Educational Ethnography, G. Spindler and L. Hammond, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3-31.

Michalak-Pikulska, Barbara. 2006. “The Mosaic of Quotations and the Labyrinth of Interpretations: The Problems of Intertextuality in the Modern Literature of the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 187-200.

Ogulnick, K. 2005. “Learning Language/ Learning Self,” in Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings. S. Kiesling and C. Bratt Paulston, eds. Oxford: Blackwell. 250-4.

Ramsey, Gail. 2006. “The Past in the Present: Aspects of Intertextuality in Modern Literature in the Gulf.” Intertextuality in Modern Arabic Literature since 1967. 161-86.

—. 2004. “Confining the Guest Labourers to the Realm of the Subaltern in Modern Literature from the Gulf. Orientalia Succana, 53: 133-42.

Stadnicki, Roman. 2023. “Branding Backlash: The Erring of Urban Advertising in Gulf Cities,” in Branding the Middle East: Communication Strategies and Image Building from Qom to Casablanca. Steffen Wippel, ed. Berlin: De Gruyter. 497-516.

Zemrani, Aziza, Deborah L. Trent and Sawsan Abutabenjeh. 2020, Dec. “Cultural Competency Teaching and Practice in the MENA.” AlMuntaqa 3.2: 64-7.

Webb, Allen. 2012. Teaching the Literature of Today’s Middle East. London: Routledge.

Using Creative Writing Prompts in Foreign Language Learning

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Teaching Literature and Staying au courant – The Man from Nowhere and the Ancient Greeks

Navigating without Language

Poems

Poem: “For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper,” Joesph Fasano

“For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper,” Joseph Fasano

Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are you trying
to be free of?
The living? The miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

****

“Sudden Hymn in Winter,” Joseph Fasano

What if, after years
of trial,
a love should come
and lay a hand upon you
and say,
this late,
your life is not a crime

Two poems for courage: “Against Hesitation” by Charles Rafferty and “Thalassa” by Louis MacNeice

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

Poems – “Finding Poems for my Students” by Mohja Kahf

Poems

I will be presenting “Conducting Research on the Arabian Peninsula: How To Create Effective Interactions” at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference

I will be presenting my paper “Conducting Research on the Arabian Peninsula: How To Create Effective Interactions” at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference on Nov. 13 at 11:30 EST.

https://my-mesa.org/program/sessions/view/eyJpdiI6InVvTitCY2FmRlFVaWt0Ym1vRkh4OGc9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiUmN6bTAyWlloNnkzelNYei82ZlJxZz09IiwibWFjIjoiOGQxNmUwMjE2ZTdjZWZhYWJlMWUyMzNkNGRlZWM4NGYyNTk4ZWVlYjQyZGQwNDM1ODIwYThiMTA1NjUwMTIyYyIsInRhZyI6IiJ9

abstract

My talk outlines strategies for anthropologists and researchers to communicate effectively on the Arabian Peninsula, with a concentration on Southern Arabia. Using first-person ethnographic accounts, as well as scholarly texts from the fields of anthropology, history, literature, political science and travel writing, this presentation will give clear advice so non-locals can create successful interactions. As I have lived on the Arabian Peninsula for more than 20 years, this talk is a distillation of observations, academic research and a longstanding, deep involvement within local communities. My background experience includes teaching cultural studies classes at the graduate and undergraduate level, giving lectures about local cultures to visiting expats, doing orientation lectures for new faculty, publishing scholarly and non-fiction articles about cultural interactions and taking classes taught by locals.

Culture Shock – Drugs, Medicines, Choices and Chances

(photo by Onaiza Shaikh, Instagram: Onaiza_Shaikh)

One of the interesting linguistic differences between the US and Oman is with the word “drug.” In Omani-English, “drug” is always a negative, meaning an illegal substance.

“In the States, ‘drug’ has two meanings,” I would explain to my Omani students. “It can mean something illegal, but it is also used as another way to say ‘medicine.’ So, for example, a pharmacy can be called a ‘drug store.’ If you are at work with a Western person and someone asks you, ‘Do you have drugs?’ Don’t get upset! They are asking for an aspirin.”

That statement opened up new issues to explain as the common word for a headache-reliever in Oman is Panadol, so I would sometimes have to clarify what ‘aspirin’ meant.

When we were talking about a pharmacy, in such stories as O’Henry’s Love Medicine, I would explain the difference between pharmacies in the Arabian Peninsula and North America. On the Arabian Peninsula, pharmacies are only for medicine and almost all the items are kept behind the counter. You tell the clerk what you want, but you can also say what’s wrong and ask them to suggest something.

In North America, pharmacies are like small grocery stores, with drinks and snacks as well as candy, make-up, magazines and household cleaners. Almost all of the medicine is on the shelves. Just prescription-only drugs are kept behind the counter and if you want one of them, you must have a doctor’s approval. There is no way to sweet talk your way into buying antibiotics as I often did in Oman.

The difference is store set-up is the answer to a much larger question: who is in charge of your health?

In Oman, the answer is usually God. If you are sick, you pray. You might also go to a doctor or a traditional healer. You might take the prescribed medicine, but you don’t usually engage with the process by, for example, looking up information about the medication. Over and over, when I asked Omanis, “What did the doctor say?” the answer was, “I got a shot.” What kind of shot? They didn’t know.

In North America, the first answer to who is in charge of your health is you. Training starts early with parents modeling appropriate behavior by either standing in a drug store, looking at the types of medicine and making their choice or doing their own research, on-line or by talking to other people with questions such as, “My symptoms are x and y, what do you think I should do?” Many children grow up with the idea that they are responsible for their health care. For example, moving out of your parent’s house means gradually building your own medicine cabinet. You learn that when your body feels like X, you take Y pill.

These are generalizations but I want to highlight this difference as a cultural shock issue because most Americans carry their own personal pharmacopeia in their head. When they have joint pain, they want X medicine; if it’s a stomachache, they want Y. Moving to the Arabian Peninsula, means walking into a pharmacy and announcing your symptoms to the clerk and being given a choice of 2 or 3 products. Or you can go to a doctor and get an unexplained list of drugs to buy. Instead of your old standby (which comes in 4 flavors, 3 sizes and as a pill, powder and gel), there is a smaller range of options and fewer chances for you ask questions to a medical provider.

And the reverse is just as jarring. Someone who is used to the limited choices on the Arabian Peninsula stands aghast in an American pharmacy staring at 4 by 8 feet section of treatments for a sore throat: sprays, lozenges, gargles, antihistamines, and hot drink mixes. You have a huge variety of manufacturers, sizes and flavors, not to mention the organic and natural types. If you haven’t been trained for making this type of choice, it’s overwhelming.

When you move somewhere new, it’s all different – fun, new, exciting and, sometimes, overwhelming.

Culture Shock: (Not) Being Under Observation

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part, part 1

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Reflections on Ethnographic Research: Claiming Knowledge and Shifting Perceptions

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part (Don’t Lie), part 2

(photo by Onaiza Shaikh, Instagram: Onaiza_Shaikh)

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part, part 1

I realized as I am working on my next book, Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions (accepted for publication at Palgrave Macmillan), that I am often giving the advice “don’t lie” in different contexts.

For teachers, I mean: don’t say anything to your students that you can’t back-up. Making idle threats signifies that your word can’t be trusted. Once students think you say things you don’t mean, then trying to give directions and enforcing rules becomes progressively more difficult.

For researchers, I mean: don’t try to trick your informants. Explain what you are trying to do in realistic and honest terms. I wish researchers on the Arabian Peninsula who despise the people they are studying would be clear about their disdain so that there could be some honest dialog. Just writing down responses while silently reviling the people you are interviewing does not seem an effective way to do research to me.

For business professionals, I mean: don’t lie at the office by exaggerating your connections, your abilities, your background or your opinions.  

This is a large generalization that I am still thinking about/ trying to refine but what I see as a common trope in the States is that a ‘boss’ will speak more and employees will listen in one-on-one informal interactions. [I am not talking about formal contexts such as employee reviews or giving information.] Even kindly, well-meaning bosses may assume that they have interesting experiences to share and are often used to people listening carefully to them.

What I often found on the Arabian Peninsula was that non-North American, -UK and -EU managers often want underlings to talk in social conversations/ informal settings because of a differing understanding of the purpose of those conversations.

To me, the purpose is different because of how different cultures conceive of finding out and using personal information. In the States, many people are on websites such as LinkedIn. They often have a personal website connected to their university and/ or job, as well as various kinds of social media, so it’s easy to get data about someone. Plus, most employers have screening as a step in the hiring process and want a diverse workplace, or at the least have to follow state/ federal laws about employee protections.

So, pace outliers such as George Santos, people in a workplace usually trust that others are who they represent themselves to be. If someone says that won X prize or finished Y achievement, there will be some sort of digital proof. Thus, bosses don’t need to figure out who they are working with.

Often on the Arabian Peninsula, it is more difficult to get accurate information about someone. Someone might not be on LinkedIn, or their university/ former workplace might not have an active web presence so it’s impossible to verify their stated qualifications. A person’s social media presence might not be in their name as they might have opinions which would be problematic for their family, social group, workplace or government. And in tribal societies, you could have several people with the same first name, father’s name and tribe name but who have very different levels of social capital.

So, managers might use chit-chat as a way to gather more information, at the same time employees use social gatherings to highlight their social, academic or business credentials. I knew one person who would tell higher-ups that their grandmother was originally from the higher-ups’ country. Over the years, their grandmother changed nationality four times as the person tried to form connections with bosses from various cultures.

Another aspect of social discussions at work is to instill fear. I have known several people from one Arab country (not on the Arabian Peninsula) who would drop an obscure fact about my life into conversations. The first few times I showed my amazement and asked how they knew. They smiled and refused to explain. I realized that the goal was to put me on guard so I stopped reacting. I have never had that kind of interaction with an American.

I could drive myself crazy wondering how they figured out some obscure fact about my life but the easy way to live is to always tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

Culture Shock: The Parable of the Boxes

Reflections on Ethnographic Research: Getting it Wrong

Culture Shock: Bumpy Reentry and Moral Dilemmas

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Steve Cass

(photo by Hussein Baomar)

Some types of sadness lessen in time, while some submerge, then come back full-strength. Today is two years since Steve Cass passed away. I still miss him terribly – he was so cheerful that he pulled people along with his happy magic. For Steve, every morning was a fresh start, a new chance for good things to happen. The motto he taught students was ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ which aptly sums up his philosophy: there is always hope, always a way forward. His joie de vivre was a much needed tonic for me and many others.

Yet with all his positivity he didn’t ignore, overlook or accept corrupt behavior. He was a gentleman, but also a warrior for better teaching and he continually fought on behalf of our students. His insistence on speaking truth to power was a much needed jolt of honesty for those who only heard a chorus of approval for their policies, regardless of those policies’ effectiveness or usefulness.

Now that I have moved back to the States, I often wish I could talk over with him all of my culture shock and how much I miss Oman. I know he would have exactly the right words to make this transition easier. He made life brighter for everyone he met.

Steve Cass

Steve Cass, teacher and friend

Remembering Steve Cass

New book – Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions

I am happy to announce that my 4th book, Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions, has been accepted for publication at Palgrave Macmillan. I am very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers who gave positive and helpful comments.

This book outlines strategies for current or soon-to-be business professionals, government employees, anthropologists, researchers and teachers to communicate, study and work effectively on the Arabian Peninsula. Using first-person accounts, as well as scholarly research from the fields of anthropology, history, literature, political science and travel writing, this text gives clear advice so long- and short-term visitors can create successful interactions with people from Arabian Peninsula societies. By discussing how the practicalities of work and research intersect with cultural norms, this book fills the gap between guides aimed at the casual tourists and academic texts on narrowly defined topics.

Reflections on Ethnographic Work: Leaving and Learning

Presentation – “Windguru and Other Gurus: Fishing off the Coast of Dhofar, Oman”

Culture Shock – (Not) Being Under Observation

Predator Anthropologists, Anthropologist Predators: Anthropological Metaphors in Popular Movies

 

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

I had a wonderful time teaching for 21 years on the Arabian Peninsula; I wish I could have stayed longer. My students were smart, funny, creative and kind. Yet, coming from a different culture, I had some assumptions which I needed to unlearn. I realize the following might sound negative so I want to be clear: there are difficult students no matter where you teach. My students in the Emirates and Oman were 99% lovely and 1% challenging.

teachers control all areas of a school

This was the first assumption I had to unlearn. On the Arabian Peninsula, teachers are in control of only their students only in the classroom only during class time; any other attempts to correct behavior can be seen as an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Asking a student who is leaning against a “no smoking” sign in a hallway to stop smoking was met with a furious denunciation most of the time. Asking students to stop screaming in the hallway was likewise often met with contempt, in addition to louder screaming, hysterical giggles and rude words.

The first few times this happened, I thought I was dealing with unusually difficult students but I soon realized this was the norm. It didn’t matter if I asked politely, merely gestured or evoked my status; very few students would willingly put out the cigarette or stop yelling. I did not have the right to police hallways.

if students make mistakes, they will be polite

On the Arabian Peninsula, the older you are, the more self-control you are expected to have. This can set up a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for students in that if they are rude, they believe that the elder teacher must keep their temper. A common tactic was for a student do something wrong, act rudely, elicit anger from teacher, then claim victim status, thus shifting the conversation from the student’s mistake to the teacher’s anger.

Nothing was more infuriating for a student than a composed teacher, such as my saying sadly and slowly, “I am so sorry, this paper is more than a week late so I can’t give you a grade. I will review it for mistakes so you are ready for the midterm, but your grade is zero.” My staying calm meant they could not get traction to change the focus from their not doing the work to my being “angry.” My expressing sorrow and speaking quietly meant the discussion centered on them, not me.

students with a low level of English will be the hardest to teach

This seemed to me quite straightforward, the less I could communicate with a student, the less I would be able to teach them. But the opposite was true. Students with low language skills would either make an effort by focusing in class, getting help from friends, coming to see me in my office or signing up for tutoring. A few tried to cheat, but if I caught them, they would either give up and drop the class or settle down to work honestly.

The worst difficulties were always with the students who had a high level of English. There was often a terribly dynamic in which they felt that, since they had always received straight As, high grades were their right. Other teachers had feted their ability to speak fluently, so they felt they had mastered all the necessary skills.

The most grueling conversations I had were with students who expected a perfect grade for perfect English combined with problematic elements such as giving a presentation while twisting their body, clutching their clothing and reading long paragraphs off PowerPoint slides or someone who wrote an essay without any grammar mistakes which was a hodge-podge of ideas in no discernable order.

Trying to explain that there was a difference between writing correct sentences and having well-organized essays was futile. Trying to explain that even good writers revised and reorganized their work was futile. It was also futile to explain that shorter sentences and essays divided into paragraphs are expected in English essays. Some students had gone through high school and some university-level classes with non-native speakers of English who allowed 60-word sentences and two-page essays which were all one paragraph. My saying that this was not usual in academic English was viewed as an attempt to steal their well-deserved marks.

It was frustrating for both me and the student to have these kinds of conversations. My point was, “you have the basics down, now let’s get you to the next level of writing with stronger openings, more fluid transitions between topics, better quotes, more interesting endings, etc.” Their point was, “I am getting 100/ 100 in my other classes, I know everything I need to know.”

teachers’ interactions with students are based on professional considerations

The most common metaphor for teachers is that they should be like a “mom,” i.e. endlessly forgiving and accepting. And like any situation with one mom and several children, students were always on the lookout for any signs of partiality.

Over the years, I tried to refine my teaching to eliminate any chance of being accused of favoritism. Instead of asking “who wants to read” or picking a random student, I would always start with the student who was sitting to the far right in the semi-circle. I used rubrics with highlighters to grade papers. For example, if a student lost points because of grammar issues, I would highlight the word “grammar” on the rubric in yellow and then highlight the paper’s grammar mistakes in yellow so they could easily see the correlation between their paper and their grade.

When they handed in an exam, I would immediately flip over the cover page with their name and I graded exams by going through everyone’s first page, then everyone’s second page (without looking back to see how a student did on page 1), etc.

All this effort mitigated some of the complaints but there was no way to make all the grades unbiased in their opinion. For example, I based the portion of the grade for “class participation” on three types of grades: 1) homework and recitations, 2) if they participated in group work and 3) reading checks, when I would walk around the room at the start of class to see if they had written notes/ definitions for the text we would read that day.

I picked which days I would check for reading at random and would write them in my planner ahead of time so I would not base my decision given who was present or whether I could see writing in their texts as I walked into class. But students would still complain, “She KNEW I didn’t do the reading, that’s why she checked today.”

One semester, as I walked out of the last class, one student was telling the others (in English, i.e., wanting to make sure I understood) “She ONLY checked readings on the days I didn’t prepare for class.” I know this was a self-preservation tactic (related to the next point) but the ones who practiced it created an unhealthy atmosphere of distrust towards teachers.

you make your choices and you live with the consequences

I went through my education with the idea that my grades were under my control. However, some students held the view that their grades were concocted from mysterious forces beyond their ken. Bad grades were not a result of them deciding not to do homework, come to class, ask questions or study; bad grades were the result of bad teaching and “circumstances.”

Being caught cheating on an exam or copying from the internet produced anger at me for not telling them that they were not allowed to copy paragraphs verbatim from other sources. When I printed out and highlighted the sections of the syllabus and assignment which explained that copying was not allowed, they said that they had not read that and hence didn’t know, so I did not have the right to lower their grade.

Some students had what I call the “two-world theory”; if they were late to class, they have a good reason but there was no acceptable excuse if another person (such as a food delivery person) was late. This odd dichotomy played out often. Students who missed 25% of my class complained viciously if a teacher missed their office hours. Students who turned in papers late complained about unorganized teachers. Students who broke rules such as using their phones in class, talking incessantly and copying homework from their friends complained if someone in administration did not do their job properly.

I never quite saw the contours of this problem – was it that the students were so endlessly coddled at home that they truly believed nothing could ever be their fault, or they felt so endlessly put upon that they were going to fight for whatever advantage they could get, or they felt everything was unfair and everyone was behaving badly so it didn’t matter if they did as well?

Of course, not all students acted like this, but the ones who did held on to the two-world theory so tightly that pointing out their hypocrisy (“yesterday you complained to me about how that person did not organize their time well and today you were 15 mintues late to class”) effected no change in attitude.

communal cultures means students will work well in groups

This is another issue that I don’t see all the contours of. I assumed that given the students were from tribe-based cultures and often spoke of the Omani dedication to peaceful coexistence, that group work would be a breeze. I quickly learned that a tribal upbringing meant that students would never rat out the students who did no work. It got to the point that a student wrote me an anonymous note asking me to stop doing group work as she had to do all the assignments; the other students in her group did nothing but she couldn’t say that publicly.

So I reworked groups as just discussion-based and told them that I would pick one student from the group at random to explain what the group had decided. This solved the issue of some students not participating.

But another problem remained: some students refused to speak to other students. I would set students in groups, then sit at my desk and pretend I was busy with paperwork. After a few minutes, I would look up and try to asses what was going on. Often if they were in groups of three, two students would talk and ignore the third one. So I learned to put students in pairs or groups of five. And I would always decide on the groups (deliberately splitting up any pairs of friends) as, the few times I let them choose, they would either pick their one friend, sit by the person they thought was the smartest person in the class or sit silently alone, making no effort to create an alliance, which is related to my next point.

try the new

When I was an undergraduate at University of Wisconsin-Madison, I signed up for a class on Northern European history on a whim because I didn’t know anything about that topic. On the first day we were given a list of possible topics for a presentation which would involve us teaching an entire class on the subject we picked. I choose the Finnish Civil War as I knew nothing about it.

When I went to the library to find some books on my topic, I discovered that my professor had written the definitive three volume history of the Finnish Civil War. I researched and cobbled a draft together, then went to his office to ask some questions and ended up sobbing as I was overwhelmed by having to explain this war to all my classmates in front of a Finnish professor. The poor man calmed me down and I managed to pull through.

I continued on this path of picking classes that were way beyond my knowledge base with similar consequences. When I studied at a German university, I took a class on Russian drama because I had never read one. German universities give collective exams after 3 years of study, but since I was transferring back to Wisconsin, I had to go to the professor’s office and have an oral exam at the end of the semester. One of his questions was “What is distinctive about Chekhov’s dramas?” I answered the best I could but I could not get the right answer which was the pauses between when actors speak. I had no idea about this feature as I had only read the plays; I had never seen one performed.

When I was accepted into my Masters of Education program for foreign language and social studies, the university required that I take two American History classes. I picked one on the 1600s and 1700s and one on the civil war. The Early American class had Masters and PhD in American History students and was based on class discussions. In the Civil War class, my classmates were two American History PhD students and we three traded off presenting books we had read. I was in way over my head all semester. I also moved overseas three times without knowing anyone in the country and traveled solo through Europe and several Asian countries.

I am laying this all out to explain why I was surprised that students generally refused to take any new class, even when they had lobbied for the class to be added to the plan of study. The first time a course was offered, so few students would sign up that it was closed or run with only a handful of students. Sometimes a new class was offered for 2 or 3 semesters before it was finally had enough participants. And the first semester of teaching a new class was misery as students dealt with their anxiety by skipping class.

Even a new type of assignment (such as writing a shape poem or a dialog with a character) was met with steep resistance. There would be endless questions and if I said “just go ahead and try, just write something, there’s no grade for this, dive in” inevitably several students would simply stare at the paper until I came and reexplained what to do to them personally. It was never a language issue; they understood what I was asking them to do, they were simply paralyzed at the thought of trying a new style of writing.

Reflections on Ethnographic Work: Ending and Beginning

Teaching Metaphors: Conducting a Jazz Symphony

Teaching: Reflective Teaching and Motivation

Teaching Paired Literary Texts

Reflections/ Research on Teaching Cultural Studies and Literature

Two poems for courage: “Against Hesitation” by Charles Rafferty and “Thalassa” by Louis MacNeice

“Against Hesitation,” by Charles Rafferty

If you stare at it long enough

the mountain becomes unclimbable.

Tally it up. How much time have you spent

waiting for the soup to cool?

Icicles hang from January gutters

only as long as they can. Fingers pause

above piano keys for the chord

that will not form. Slam them down

I say. Make music of what you can.

Some people stop at the wrong corner

and waste a dozen years hoping

for directions. I can’t be them.

Tell every girl I’ve ever known

I’m coming to break her door down,

that my teeth will clench

the simple flower I only knew

not to give … Ah, how long did I stand

beneath the eaves believing the storm

would stop? It never did.

And there is lightning in me still

“Thalassa,” Louis MacNeice

Run out the boat, my broken comrades;

Let the old seaweed crack, the surge

Burgeon oblivious of the last

Embarkation of feckless men,

Let every adverse force converge–

Here we must needs embark again.

Run up the sail, my heartsick comrades;

Let each horizon tilt and lurch–

You know the worst: your wills are fickle,

Your values blurred, your hearts impure

And your past life a ruined church–

But let your poison be your cure.

Put out to sea, ignoble comrades,

Whose record shall be noble yet;

Butting through scarps of moving marble

The narwhal dares us to be free;

By a high star our course is set,

Our end is Life. Put out to sea.

My Job

Reflections on Ethnographic Research in Dhofar Oman

A good poem for hard times – “Atlas” by U. A. Fanthorpe

Antigone and Ismene – Making Difficult Choices

Two poems about nature and rest: “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry and “Sleeping in The Forest,” Mary Oliver