2022 US Fellows

Suja Sawafta, University of Miami

The Dialectic of the Sea and the Desert: Exile, Commitment, and Dissent in the Novels of Abdulrahman Munif

This project explores and synthesizes the relationship between exile, commitment, and dissent by using the novels of the late Iraqi-Saudi petroleum-economist and novelist, Abdulrahman Munif (‘Abd al-Raḥmān Munīf, 1933-2004) as a case study. Munif, who transitioned from a career in politics to a career in literature in 1970, lived his entire life in a state of exile, a condition that significantly influenced the majority of his work. The Dialectic of the Sea and the Desert examines the thematic breadth of Munif’s literary corpus and the manner in which it was inherently guided by exile. Using the concept of commitment (itlizām/engagement) as the nucleus of the project, a question that lies at the core of the project’s whole. Exile is at once the stimulant and the catalyst that drives a self- perpetuating cause and effect relationship, one that continues to inform and transform Munif’s evolving notions of intellectual commitment. Dissent is the natural outcome; the conclusion borne out of Munif’s socio-political and literary experiment of writing novels. As a medium, the novel is the vehicle that affords Munif the space to negotiate the aforementioned threads, while remaining committed to the representation of the popular strata in his works. As the title suggests, the two broad sub-regional divisions treated within the book are the Sea (the Arab Mediterranean, the Levant, and Iraq) and the Desert (Iraq, the Arab Gulf, the Sahara). The first half of the book, focusing on the Levant and Iraq, incorporates themes of migration and the formation of the native intellectual. By contrast, the second half, focusing on Iraq, the Gulf, and the North African Sahara, focuses on notions of ecologically oriented indigeneity and the history of the Petroleum industry as it is represented through literature.

Laith Saad Shakir

Archaeology, Development, and Tourism in Modern Iraq, 1920-1945

Historians of Iraqi archaeology have tended to focus on the politics and debates between British officials and Iraqi nationalists over excavations in the interwar period: from the country’s establishment as a League of Nations Mandate under British occupation and governance in 1920, through the granting of (nominal) independence in 1932 and ending with the British reoccupation of the country during World War II. However, comparatively little research has been done on the broader cultural, social, cultural implications of antiquities in the same period. Shakir’s dissertation project, “Archaeology, Development, and Tourism in Modern Iraq, 1920-1945,” offers an alternate, comprehensive view by moving from a focus on the state-centric politics of archaeology towards a global cultural history of Iraqi antiquities. Focusing on English and Arabic archival records, popular published material, and ephemeral textual and visual sources, this project connects the history of archaeology to two crucial yet underdiscussed spheres in the interwar period: tourism promotion and development. In doing so, his dissertation asks: what was the relationship between British colonial policies, archaeological discourse and practice, the creation of mechanized transportation infrastructure, regional and global tourism promotion campaigns, and ideas about Iraq’s economic development? How did a range of otherwise opposing historical actors come to share a belief in Iraq’s ancient past as crucial to the country’s potential futures? What can Iraq’s history tell us about the broader relationship between tourism, archaeology, and development in other contexts?