The purpose of this two-day conference is to offer historical contexts and critical perspectives regarding issues discussed and debated by historians, political scientists, sociologists, and journalists with regard to the United States as a global power and its role in the Middle East. More specifically, the notion of the United States as a modern empire is one that has been vehemently put forth and just as emphatically denied by various parties. This conference aims to unpack the relevance and nuances of what the U.S. as empire actually means and to probe the implications of each.

The conference features panels devoted to imperial knowledge; global ideologies; movements and networks; gender and empire; and the impact of the media, which will examine ideology and propaganda. The panelists will investigate the various techniques of “soft power” historically used by past empires in the Middle East as well as by local agencies to achieve political goals and legitimize their policies.

Friday, April 28 ICC 7th Floor
9:15-9:30 Welcome remarks
John Tutino (Department of History, Georgetown University)
Michael Hudson (Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University)

9:30-10:15 Keynote address
Rashid Khalidi (Middle East Institute, Columbia University)

10:30-12:45 Empire, Knowledge and Politics
Chair: Gabor Agoston (Department of History, Georgetown University)
Andrew N. Rubin (Department of English, Georgetown University) Archives, Empire, and the Politics of Knowledge

Osama Abi-Mershed (Department of History, Georgetown University) French Enlightenment and Positivism: Approaches to Indigenous Instruction in Colonial Algeria, 1831-1870.

Irene Gendzier (Department of Political Science, Boston University,) Rules of the Game

Scott Lucas (Department of American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham,) Power, Liberation, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East: 1956 and 2006

2:00- 3:45 Gender and Empire
Chair: Yvonne Haddad (Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding / Department of History, Georgetown University)

Judith Tucker (Department of History/CCAS, Georgetown University) Revile, Rescue, and Reform: Gendered Discourses of Empire in the Middle East: The British and American Cases

Meredith McKittrick (Department of History, Georgetown University) Gender in the Service of Empire: The View from Sub-Saharan Africa

Elizabeth Thompson (Department of History, University of Virginia,) Women's Rights and the Hazards of Intervention in the Middle East

4:00- 5:45 Ideologies, Movements and Networks
Chair: John Voll (Department of History / CMCU, Georgetown University)

Shireen Hunter (CSIS / CMCU, Georgetown University)
Islam and Resistance in the Russian Empires

Peter Mandeville (Center for Global Studies/Department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University) The Umma Strikes Back: Muslim Anti-Globalization Movements in the Time of Empire

Melanie McAlister (Department of American Studies, George Washington University,) The Global Visions of American Evangelicals

Saturday, April 29 ICC 7th Floor

10:00-12:30 Empire and Media
Chair: Michael Hudson (CCAS, Georgetown University)

Michael Hudson (Georgetown University / CCAS)
New media and the challenge to American hegemonic legitimacy in the Middle East

Duncan MacInnes (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs) American Idealism in the Media Souq: The Changing Image of U.S. in the Middle East

Comments and reflections by Representative of Al-Jazeera International satellite channel

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP online at:

DAY 1:
http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/index.cfm?Action=View&EventID=583

DAY 2:
http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/index.cfm?Action=View&EventID=584

Organized by the Department of History
Co-sponsored by Department of History and The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University

Special thanks to the Department of History’s Quigley Lecture Fund