FALL 2006 KEVORKIAN CENTER NEWS

New Director of Kevorkian Center Appointed

In April 2006, Deans Sullivan and Foley announced that Michael Gilsenan will serve as the new Director of the Kevorkian Center. “The Kevorkian Center is one of NYU's jewels,” said Dean Foley. “We are very fortunate to have had such outstanding directors in the past, and to have Michael continue this legacy.”

“I am very much looking forward to developing yet further the exciting programs of the Kevorkian Center,” Gilsenan remarked. “Near Eastern Centers have never faced such a challenging time; MA degrees in the field have never been so important. I expect to work intensively with our students and faculty and with centers in other universities to explore new avenues of collaboration here in the city and nationally and to ensure that our workshops and conferences remain a vital part of our collective work here at NYU.” Gilsenan hopes to further develop programs that extend collaborations with scholars working on other world areas. In that vein, Gilsenan has organized the 2006-07 Kevorkian Research Workshops series with a focus on anthropologists working on Islam in a variety of regions—from Nigeria to Indonesia.

Gilsenan joined NYU in 1995 as David B. Kriser Professor of the Humanities and holds a joint position in the Departments of Middle East and Islamic Studies and Anthropology. He served as the Chair of the Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies for nine years. Having previously worked in Egypt and Lebanon on the sociology of religion and violence, respectively, Gilsenan’s most recent research focuses on aspects of the diaspora of Arab families from the Hadhramaut (south Yemen) into South East Asia over the past one hundred years. Gilsenan was awarded a Carnegie Scholarship in 2003 to support the project. “My current research is the most complex that I have undertaken,” he explained. “As questions of region, area, history and anthropology become ever more pressing such research seems even more daunting but also potentially rewarding.”

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist, Anthony Shadid, to Speak at NYU

Anthony Shadid, the Islamic Affairs correspondent for the Washington Post, will discuss his experiences covering recent wars in Iraq and Lebanon. The event, titled “ Covering the Middle East: War and the Media in the US,” is part of a series of programs organized to highlight the ways that recent wars in the Middle East have changed war journalism and the ways that media coverage of these wars affects Americans’ perceptions of the region. The talk will take place on November 9 from 3-5 pm in Hemmerdinger Hall, NYU Silver Center , 31 Washington Street, 1st Floor.

In 2004, Shadid received the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Iraq war and its aftermath. The committee praised Shadid "for his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended." Edward Said, the author of Covering Islam, which examined American journalism on the Middle East noted, "In the reductive and bellicose sensationalism that has disfigured the general American awareness of Islam, Shadid's work is a stirring exception."

Shadid's book, Night Draws Near, is one of the few books written on Iraq that focuses on the way the war and its aftermath were experienced by the Iraqi people. Shadid will be available to sign copies of the paperback edition issued in 2006 by Picador Press that will be available for sale.

This event has been organized by the Kevorkian Center; American Studies; the Center for Religion and Media; & the Center for Media, Culture and History with support from the NYU Humanities Council.