Upcoming Lecture by Yasser Elsheshtawy, Thursday 3/1

 


Thanks to a series of coincidences, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been able to arrange for Dr. Yasser Elsheshtawy to visit the University of Puget Sound and deliver a lecture. Yasser is one of the leading scholars concerned with urbanism, migration, and public space in the astonishingly diverse cities of the Arabian Peninsula. You can get a bit more information about Yasser’s work here  I hope that you’ll be able to attend his lecture (details below) on Thursday, March 1. Many of our students will be equally interested, and I urge you to figure out ways to encourage them to attend. In my experience, his lectures are aesthetically gorgeous, thematically impressive, and methodologically innovative. 

Transient Spaces: Home and Belonging in Dubai
Dr. Yasser Elsheshtawy
Thursday, March 1
Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Center
4:30 - 6:00 PM

Some areas of his expertise that might be of interest:

Migrants and Migration: as you likely know, the Arab Gulf States host an unprecedented demographic concoction of citizens and migrants. His work deeply engages these communities in Dubai and other cities of the Arabian littoral, and is particularly attentive to these communities’ struggles to establish diasporic spaces in the built environment of the modern Gulf cities.

Urbanism, Architecture, and Urban Space: Gulf cities are truly at the frontiers of global modernity and architectural superlativeness. Yasser is the preeminent scholar in this realm. His grasp of these cities and their diverse inhabitants is pace-setting for the cosmopolitan cadre of scholars preoccupied with urbanism in Arabia. 

Art and Aesthetics — Yasser’s work is oftentimes visually stunning, and there’s an artistic thread in much of what he does. Moreover, he recently curated the Venice Biennale exhibit for the Emirates, and I can envision some campus interest in this aspect of his work. 

Methods — while Puget Sound doesn’t have a node of faculty devoted to urban studies, I think others on campus from a variety of different disciplines will be interested in some of the visual and spatial methods he oftentimes employs. His use of GIS, as well as some time-lapse studies of urban space, are impressive in my estimation, and I’m eager for some of my students to see this methodological creativity.

Arabia, the Middle East, and Asian Studies — we also have a paucity of colleagues and scholars intently focused on the Middle East on this campus. In that sense, Yasser’s lecture will help buoy students’ and colleagues’ interest and awareness of contemporary issues the region. I would also add that Arabia, via its longstanding role in the greater Indian Ocean World, really speaks to the western portion of the geography of Asian Studies. 


ANDREW GARDNER  |  UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND
PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY
T 253.879.3490  |  F 253.879.3556 
gardner@pugetsound.edu
http://ups.academia.edu/AndrewGardner

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