SPRING 23: MES Visiting Professors

Middle East Studies Spring 2023 Courses with Visiting Professors

Hoda Barakat: Language and Rebellion: Arabic Literature in a coparitive context MES 15.09/COLT 53.03 @ 2A

Montgomery fellow Hoda Barakat is one of the most important Arab authors writing today. Her novels include Stone of Laughter (1990), Disciples of Passion (1993), and most recently Voices of the Lost (2017). Barakat's writing has been praised for its bold exploration of ethical, social, and psychological collapse exposed in times of war. Published in over 14 languages, Barakat's work earned her great critical acclaim and many honors and awards including the International Prize of Arabic Fiction (2019). She was a fellow at the Wissenshaft College in Berlin 
(2008) and a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin (2013) and the University of Virginia (2014).

Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroue: Post-War Art from the Middle East: The case of the Lebanese Civil War MES 12.16/ART 42.02 @ 10A

What is the funciton of art after a long and devastating conflict like the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990)? When cities are destroyed and people are displaced, radical ruptures occur at the physical level but also at the level of people's understading of their own history and identity. Much like Adorno's questioning of the possiblity of poetry after Auschwitz, Lina Majdalani and Rabih Mroue have put in question what art could represent after the catastrophic event. These two artists investigate through their art the work of memory, the representation of the body, and the possibility of dialogue through image and performance.