Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons^™

A Palatable Identity: Turkish-German Integration Through Cuisine, Film And Hip-Hop, Thomas Goldsborough

Student Publications

This paper explores how Turkish-German identity is constructed and negotiated through cultural production in contemporary Germany. It argues that belonging is shaped less by formal political inclusion than by processes of visibility, commodification, and marketability. Through case studies of döner kebab culture, Turkish-German cinema, and hip-hop, the paper shows how minority identity is made legible to the mainstream by being aestheticized and adapted to familiar forms. While these processes enable recognition and creative expression, they also reveal how acceptance is often contingent on profitability and cultural “palatability” rather than genuine social integration.

Domestic Material Culture And Wealth: Equality Bronze Age Houses And Intramural Tombs At Titriş Höyük, Turkey, Yoko Nishimura

East Asian Studies Faculty Publications

This article measures differential accumulation of material wealth between houses at the intrasite level. The dwellings measured are located in two separate residential neighborhoods at the urban settlement of Titriş Höyük in southeastern Turkey. As proxies of the measurement, the author employed various architectural spaces, built-in features, and portable artifacts exposed from primary floor contexts, as well as grave inclusions from burials within the houses that were completely or partially excavated. Gini values are calculated for thirteen variables derived from the material culture. The results show that occupants of the houses shared a similar economic status from about 2300 to …

Androgyny In The Ancient World: The Intersection Of Politics, Religion And Gender In The Art Of Hatshepsut, Megan N. Reimer

Student Publications

The Pharaoh Hatshepsut is one of the most well-known rulers of ancient Egypt and she has fascinated historians for decades. She ruled Egypt during the 15th century BCE, coming to power after the death of her husband, Thutmose II. Hatshepsut is particularly interesting to historians due to how she was portrayed in her art. Due to how far in the past she ruled, not many pieces of her art have survived; however, in the objects that we do have she is often shown very androgynously or even in came cases distinctly masculine. My research focuses on the many theories as …

The Bedouin In Arabia: A Nomadic Success, Cole D. Quinn

Student Publications

This paper analyzes the lifestyle of Bedouin tribes in Arabia prior to the rise of Islam. It looks closely at how Bedouin tribes were able to coexist alongside pre-Islamic settlements and secure a dominant position in Arabia. Specifically, this paper covers the Bedouin's practice of pastoralism, tribalism, and militarism, and explains how Bedouin tribes were able to secure and maintain a dominant position in Arabia despite the pressure of neighboring settlements.

Conjunctions And Interjections In Modern Standard Arabic, Abdulkareem Said Ramadan

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Conjunctions and Interjections in Modern Standard Arabic is a grammar for Modern Standard Arabic introducing conjunctions and interjections from the most basic to the most advanced, with drills for each grammatical point. Skill in the use of conjunctions and interjections is essential for acquiring proficiency in expressing relationships of causation, order, time sequence and other relationships among events and ideas.

Each chapter presents the grammar of conjunctions and interjections in clearly organized tables with examples of each use. An additional section presents multiple drills for practice and functional use.

Aimed as a textbook for students for all four years of …

Language Evaluation: Classical Arabic Approaches, Abdulkareem Said Ramadan

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

This article explores the criteria and standards of literary evaluation as used by linguists in the Arabic literary tradition. Linguists did not apply such standards for instructional purposes only, but they also used them to assess poetic aesthetics. Because poetry was the primary context in which language was assessed, this linguistic evaluation appeared in various forms throughout poetry criticism. For example, giving preference to one poet over another meant the poet had reached a more superior linguistic level according to the standards that linguists followed in their judgments. These standards, which linguists in the Arabic literary tradition used, were not …

A Middle East Perspective: Civil War Memory In Syria And At Home, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Last summer, while on a trip with the Eisenhower Institute’s Inside the Middle East program, I stood at the Israeli edge of the Golan Heights and heard a bomb explode across the border in Syria. We had spent the day within several miles of the war-ravaged nation with all remaining quiet until that moment, and while none of us wanted to admit it, we had the smallest hope that we might catch a glimpse of the conflict. However, when the sound of the detonation roared across the hills, excitement was replaced by a sense of fear and grief. I had …

On A Particularly Patriotic Day, Laila M. Mufty

SURGE

I stare at myself in disgust before turning away and beginning to apply skin creams and makeup that promise a lighter complexion. I straighten my naturally thick, curly hair, methodically going over the same strand multiple times while wishing for straight hair like the other perfect blond girls in my grade. I put on a modest all black ensemble in an effort to avoid unwanted attention and pull on a large jacket with a hood to hide my face. [excerpt]

Gardens In The Air: A Reexamination Of The Ottoman Tulip Age, Rachel R. Fry

Student Publications

Scholars have long considered the “Tulip Age” to be a sort of Ottoman renaissance—a golden age initiated by the 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz and lasted until the Anti-Tulip Rebellion in 1730. However, recent scholarship has questioned the objectivity of the field’s founding historian, Ahmed Refik, who based his theory off of the twofold concepts of a marked increase in tulip culture and a movement toward westernization in the Ottoman Empire. Because of this shaky foundation, this research reexamines the debate from the beginning: the tulip’s connection to earlier Turkic arts and the actualities of Ottoman “modernization.” This perspective on the …

Book Review: Fragile States, Lohar Brock, Hans-Henrik Holm, Georg Sorensen, Michael Stohl, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

In an era when good governance features prominently on the global development agenda, there seems to be a corollary spotlight on state fragility. In this book - a quick read that covers much ground - the authors wade into the conceptual waters of state fragility with the following aims: (i) sketching more clearly its conceptual parameters, including its core characteristics; (ii) dissecting its connection to violent conflict; (iii) analyzing the role that international society has played in relation to fragile statehood; and (iv) laying out two proposals for tackling its intractability. These analyses are conducted through the prism of three …

Prehistory To 1250: Languages, Abdulkareem Said Ramadan

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

The Hemic group includes the Egyptian and Coptic languages, the Libyan and Barbarian languages, the Koshtia languages, and the languages of the original inhabitants of the eastern part of Africa. [excerpt]