Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East and Islamic World
The 2018-19 Gender and Sexuality Seminar Series discusses key debates and new approaches to the theory and study of women, gender and sexuality in the Middle East and Islamic World, and the implications of those on the theory and study of women, gender and sexuality in the Global South. The Spring semester will include a sub-series discussing the work and contributions of the late Professor Saba Mahmood, from the perspectives of leading and upcoming scholars in the field. The seminar meets biweekly, alternating between a speaker events and collective reading and discussion sessions led by the graduate coordinators and faculty members.
The seminar is co-sponsored by the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS), the Science, Religion and Culture Program (SRC), the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, and the Journal of Middle East Women Studies (JMEWS). This year’s seminar inaugurates the residence of JMEWS at Harvard, which extends from May 2018 to May 2022.
Unless otherwise noted, all events take place from 3-5 pm in the Plimpton Room (Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy St.) and are open to the public.
September 17, 2018 – Afsaneh Najmabadi (Harvard) Gender Studies in the Middle East: Histories and Approaches
*Note: this event will take place in CGIS S030
October 22, 2018 – Beth Baron (CUNY) Birthing Egyptians: Medicine, Museums, and Hard Labors
November 26, 2018 – Hibba Abugideiri (Villanova) Seeing and Unseeing Gender: Toward a Qur’anic Hermeneutic of Woman
*Note: this event will take place from 12:30 to 2:30 pm
February 4, 2019 – Sherine Hafez (University of California, Riverside), Soha Bayoumi (Harvard), and Ellen McLarney (Duke), editors of JMEWS
March 7, 2019 – Sa'ed Adel Atshan (Swarthmore) Please note that this event will take place in Andover Hall, Room 102, Cambridge, MA 02138.
April 1, 2019 – Salih Can Aciksoz (UCLA)
April 29, 2019 – Nadje Al-Ali (Brown)
A reading group, open to the public, will accompany the seminar. The group will meet in the WGS Seminar Room, Boylston Hall G35, on the following dates:
September 24, 2018
October 8, 2018
November 5, 2018
December 3, 2018
February 18, 2019 - Cancelled due to Presidents' Day holiday
March 8, 2019 from 4:00 - 6:00pm
April 12, 2019 from 4:00 - 6:00pm
For details and readings, or with other questions, please email wgssymposia@fas.harvard.edu.
Questions? wgssymposia@fas.harvard.edu
Directions
The Barker Center is bordered by Prescott, Harvard, and Quincy Streets. Enter the courtyard from Quincy Street, opposite the Lamont Gate. The Barker Center is the large brick building facing the Faculty Club. The Humanities Center administrative offices are located on the first floor in rooms 136 and 135. To locate Humanities Center seminar events, please consult the postings in the Barker Center main lobby.
Harvard University
Plimpton Room
Barker Center 133
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA
Parking
Parking is available at no charge, on a space available basis, at the Broadway Garage, located on Felton St. between Cambridge St. and Broadway. The garage closes at midnight. All parkers should identify themselves as participants in a seminar at the Humanities Center (the guard's list of events does not include the names of individual seminars) and should arrive close to the time that the seminar begins. If the garage is full, which is more likely prior to 4:00 p.m., ask the attendant to direct you to another Harvard parking facility.