Werner Ende was a world of knowledge about modern Islam.
Tag: Middle Eastern studies
Bernard Lewis: remade in America
Fifty years ago, Bernard Lewis came to America. That changed them both.
To boycott or not to boycott?
How can MESA members dissent from its boycott madness?
The (sad) state of Middle Eastern studies
Aside from double standards, politicization, boycotts, and foreign money, Mideast studies are just fine.
Israel boycotters convene in Denver
MESA, now a boycott-Israel association, pretends to be academic.
The center cannot hold at Middle East centers
Academe's money machines are broken.
Ivory Towers and Twin Towers, 20 Years Later
Two decades later, Middle Eastern studies are still stuck.
Ivory Towers on Sand at 20
My 20 years of running commentary on Middle Eastern studies.
What would Bernard Lewis say?
Bernard Lewis passed away two years ago. No one has filled the stage vacated by Lewis, and I explain why.
If Fouad Ajami had eulogized Bernard Lewis
What if Fouad Ajami had eulogized Bernard Lewis?
Edward Said and Middle Eastern studies in America
A 2017 interview on what went wrong in Middle Eastern studies.
The decline of Palestine studies
The numbers don't lie: Palestinian studies aren't what they used to be, and that's a good thing.
Bernard Lewis: master historian
An entire syllabus could be based on the works of Bernard Lewis.
Me and My MESA
Martin Kramer attends MESA. Why does he bother?
A smoke screen for Palestine-pushers
Government funding for area studies is controversial. The president of MESA wants you to think it isn't.
Columbia’s slippery boycotters
The boycott of Israel at Columbia is a personal affair—so they claim.
Enough Said
Review by Martin Kramer of Robert Irwin, Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents (Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2006). The review appeared in Commentary, March 2007. Posted retroactively at Sandbox. THE British historian Robert Irwin is the sort of scholar who, in times past, would have been proud to call himself an Orientalist. The traditional Orientalist was …
Middle East Studies: What is the Debate About?
On April 4-5, 2005, Brandeis University convened the inaugural conference of the new Crown Center for Middle East Studies. The opening session bore the title "Middle East Studies in the United States: What is the Debate About?" Panelists included Steven Caton, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University; Malik Mufti, director …
Continue reading Middle East Studies: What is the Debate About?
Arab Studies: My Critical Review
On April 1, 2005, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University hosted a panel on "Arab Studies in the Cross-hairs," as part of the center's thirtieth-anniversary symposium entitled "Arab Studies: A Critical Review." Participants on the panel including Michael Hudson, As'ad AbuKhalil, and Martin Kramer. The following are Martin Kramer's remarks, as delivered. …
Columbia: The Future of Middle Eastern Studies at Stake
Columbia is a case study in what went wrong in Middle Eastern studies.
Pipes’s Partner
The following item appeared alongside a profile of Daniel Pipes in Harvard Magazine, January-February 2005. Posted retroactively at Sandbox. No study of Daniel Pipes would be complete without a few words about the trenchant Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former editor of Pipes's Middle East Quarterly, who …
Ivory Towers 101
I'm keenly interested in the way my book Ivory Towers on Sand is used in university-level courses on the Middle East. Here are two recent examples turned up by a quick search. This past fall, Professor Rex Brynen, a political scientist at McGill University, assigned the book toward the end of his course on "Middle …
The A-word and Mideast studies
Here's a wrap-up of the most recent straw poll that ran on this site. The question: "Do you think that anti-Semitism in Middle East programs on American campuses is currently a very serious problem, somewhat of a problem, or not a problem at all?" Ballots were cast by 167 readers. Very serious problem, according to …
Saudi Prince on Academic Shopping Spree
Last month, a newspaper in Exeter, England, carried a news item with this Thousand-and-One-Nights headline: "Rich Prince Shares Wealth with City's University Students." Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal had flown into Exeter to make a gift of one million euros to the local university's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. The news item was absolutely …
Saudi Oil Lobby Puffs Middle East Centers
When my book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies appeared just after 9/11, the Middle Eastern studies crowd panicked. They feared that unfavorable publicity would damage them in Washington, and endanger the millions of dollars they receive in government subsidies. The then-president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) talked about …
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