November 28, 2012 @ 7:30pm
Mason Hall, Meese Room
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

Presented by  the Arab Studies Institute (ASI), George Mason University's Middle East Program Studies and The Middle East Etc. Film Club

A film screening of "Reel Bad Arabs" and an interactive discussion of the new face of Orientalism with Zein El-Amine. After a screening of "Reel Bad Arabs," Zein El-Amine's discussed the new face of Orientalism, including his musings on President Obama's new favorite show "Homeland."

November 15, 2012 @ 7:00pm
Mason Hall D005
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

Presented by the Arab Studies Institute (ASI) and George Mason University's Middle East Studies Program

In July 2012 Mitt Romney explained the gap between the gross domestic product of Israelis and Palestinians. "Culture makes all the difference," he concluded. Palestinian authority official Saeb Erakat called the statement "racist." Aside from the absurdity of measuring the gross domestic product of a people under occupation, Romney and Erakat shared an underlying conviction in the causal relationship between "vitality" and economy. This causality was not a new idea among Palestinian capitalists and thinkers; it dates back to the early twentieth century. This paper traces how Palestinian thinkers and capitalists shaped ideas of economy as a mode of conduct as well as the means to and the very ends of progress in the 1930s and 1940s.

November 12, 2012 @ 6:30pm
Mason Hall, Meese Room
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

Presented by the Arab Studies Institute (ASI), George Mason University's Public and International Affairs Department, Middle East Studies Program and the Graduate Political Science Society

Featuring...
Jack Censor | The Slow Unexpected can be Expected |
Eric McGlinchey | New Revolutions and Old Autocrats |
Jo-Marie Burt | You Win Some You Lose Some, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements in Latin America |
David Ericson | What Kind of Revolution was the American Revolution? |
Bassam Haddad | The Arab Uprising: Common Denominators |
Moderated by Peter Balint