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Academic Appointments

Visiting Associate Professor, History Department, UCLA, 1999-2000

Visiting Research Associate, Middle East Center, Harvard University, 1998-1999

Associate Professor, History Department, University of Arkansas, 1995-1999

Research Fellow, Center for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, Germany, 1994-1995

Fulbright (CIES) Research Fellow and Visiting Scholar, French Institute of Damascus, Damascus, Syria, 1990

Associate Professor, History Department and Center for Contemporary Arab & Islamic Studies, Villanova University, 1989-1999 (received tenure 1989)

Assistant Professor, History Department and Center for Contemporary Arab & Islamic Studies, Villanova University 1985-1989

Lecturer, Social Science Faculty, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, 1984-1985

Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland, European Division, Wiesbaden, 1984

Visiting Scholar, Deutsche Archäologische Institut, Damascus, Summer 1981

Visiting Scholar, Grunebaum Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California at Los Angeles, 1979-80 as a Volkswagen Fellow, 1984-85 as a Visiting Scholar

Adjunct Lecturer, Seminar für Geschichte, Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt, 1981-1983

Adjunct Lecturer, Seminar für Orientkunde, Universität Mainz, 1981-1982

Volkswagen Fellow, Seminar für Orientkunde, Universität Mainz, 1979-1982

Research Fellow, Institut für Europäische Geschichte, Mainz, 1973-1988 (with interruptions)

Research Fellow, Institut Français pour les Etudes Arabes, Damascus, 1971-1972

Degrees

D.Phil., Oriental Studies, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, 1978

M.A. Middle Eastern Studies, American University of Beirut, 1969

B.A. Politics and Asian Studies, Honors, Indiana University, 1965

Languages

English, German, French, Arabic

Books

Dimashq fi Qarnain al-Thamin-ashara wa-l-Tisa-ashara. A new edition of Families in Politics translated into Arabic by `Amr and Dina Al-Mallah, Damascus (Syria): Al-Jumhuriya Press, 1998, 338 pp.

Exhibited at the Damascus International Book Fair, this translation into Arabic of Families in Politics sold 5000 copies in the first month and is now in a second printing. Though the English-language edition is now more than ten years old, it is the timing of this Arabic edition which has increased its appeal to a far wider Middle Eastern audience. Syria is beginning to experiment with post-Cold War solutions to its constitutional and international problems. This book reports on conditions prior to European interference, and the role of the "great" families who, though still present, have been eclipsed by Baathism. The revisions in the Arabic edition provide the basis for a second English edition of the book.


Der Nahe Osten in der Zwischenkriegszeit 1919-1939. Die Interdependenz von Politik, Wirtschaft und Ideologie [The Middle East in the Inter-War Period 1919-1939. The Interdependence of Politics, Economy and Ideology] edited by Linda Schatkowski Schilcher and Claus Scharf, Institut für Europäische Geschichte, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1989, i-x + 540 pp., bibliog. 483-540.

This volume resulted from an international conference organized on behalf of the Institute for European History of Mainz and the support of the Volkswagen Foundation. The latter wished to (re)define Europe by its regional relations within and contacts with contiguous non-European regions. A number of volumes resulted, including this one, which deals with the Middle East. Twenty-two chapters covering intellectual, diplomatic, and political economic change in the entire Middle East between the first and second world wars, provides the German-speaking student and researcher a wide range of materials about a region which has been largely neglected in Germany (as a consequence of having no colonial involvement). Themes which emerge through a comparative reading of the book include: the impact of the world economic depression; the struggles for independence from Europe; the emergence of fascism; the contradictions of political elites striving for national independence while their status was based on economic integration and dependence; the politicization of religion as the voice of local discontent; mono-culture and its influence on national economy; demographic transformation, immigration and migrant labor; the conflation of class conflict with national rebellion; and the emergence of a U.S.-dominated world order.

Families in Politics. Damascene Estates, Factions and Elites of the 18th and 19th Centuries (with preface by Albert Hourani), Berliner Islamstudien 2, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1985, i-xiv + 248 pp., 7 figs., 9 photos, 25 genealogies, pp. i-xii + 235, bibliog. 223-235, index 236-248.

Extending the D.Phil. dissertation, the book adds the topographical and prosopographical details of Damascus and its notables in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also adds new materials collected from the Islamic court records. Though published in Germany, the text is in English. It, more than the dissertation, has served the function of a standard reference for all those working on modern Syrian history. The numerous maps, charts, genealogies and family histories have also been extensively utilized by subsequent researchers. The core thesis of the book serves to explain the success of the Baathists, independent of Marxist influences, and as a reflection of the parallels in other Mediterranean societies attracted to the Soviet model of modernization. The book is no longer available, having sold out in 1994.

Articles

"Railways in the Political Economy of Southern Syria 1890-1925," in: The Syrian Land. Processes of Integration and Fragmentation in Bilad Al-Sham from the 18th to the 20th Century, Berliner Islamstudien 6, eds. Thomas Philipp, Birgit Schaebler, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998, pp. 97-112.

"Hawran in Late Roman and Late Ottoman Times: Three Models for Comparative Research," in: Histoire Economique et Sociale de L'Empire Ottoman et de la Turquie (1326-1960), ed. Daniel Panzac, Collection Turcica Vol. VIII, Paris: Peeters, 1995, pp. 689-701.

"The Famine in Syria 1915 1918," in: Problems of the Modern Middle East in Historical Perspective. Essays in Honour of Albert Hourani, ed. John Spagnola, St. Antony's Middle East Monographs 26, Reading (UK): Ithaca Press, 1992, 229-258.

"The Great Depression (1873-1896) and the Rise of Syrian Arab Nationalism," in: New Perspectives on Turkey, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi, 1991, 167-189.

"Violence in Rural Syria in the 1880's and 1890's: State Centralization, Rural Integration and the World Market," in: Peasants and Politics in the Middle East, eds. Farhad Kazemi and John Waterbury, Miami, Florida International University Press, 1991, 50-84.

"The Grain Economy of Late Ottoman Syria and the Issue of Large scale Commercialization," in: Landholding and Commercial Agriculture in the Middle East, ed. Çaglar Keyder and Faruk Tabak, Albany: SUNY Press, 1991, 173-195, 224-228.

"Die Weizenwirtschaft des Nahen Ostens in der Zwischenkriegszeit: Der Einfluss der Ökonomie auf die Politik am Beispiel Syriens," in: Der Nahe Osten in der Zwischenkriegszeit 1919-1939, ed. Linda Schatkowski Schilcher and Claus Scharf, Stuttgart, 1989, 241-259. [trans. "The wheat economy of the Middle East between the World Wars: the influences of economics on politics in Syria"]

"The Lore and Reality of Middle Eastern Patriarchy," Gegenwart als Geschichte. Festschrift für Fritz Steppat, Leiden, 1988, published as a special issue Die Welt des Islams, 28 (1988) 496-512.

"The Hauran Conflicts of the 1860's: a Chapter in the Rural History of Modern Syria," International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13 (1981) 159-179.

"Aspects of Notable Status in Late 18th and Early 19th Century Damascus," Proceedings of the Second International Congress of the History of Bilad al Sham, Damascus, 1980 (so far only the Arabic translation has been published) 323-56.

"Die Provinz von Damaskus in den sechziger Jahren des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: Osmanische Politik gegenüber Bauern und Beduinen am Beispiel des Hauran," Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Supplement 4 (1980) 244-246. [trans. "Damascus Province in the 1860s: Ottoman policies towards peasants and nomads: the case of the Hawran"]

"Ein Modellfall indirekter, wirtschaftlicher Durchdringung: Das Beispiel Syrien," in W. J. Mommsen (ed.), Imperialismus im Nahen und Mittleren Osten, Sonderheft, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 1 (1975) 482-505. [trans. "Case study of indirect economic penetration: Syria"]

Conference Papers

"Eco-Tourism and the Preservation of Abandoned Syrian Cities," Round Table on "Culture, Preservation, and Development. The Dead Cities of the Limestone Massif (Syria)," Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997.

"Eco-Tourism Petra to Palmyra: New Age Trauma?" Conference on "Transformations of Middle Eastern Natural Environments: Legacies and Lessons," Yale University Center for International and Area Studies, New Haven, 1997.

"Eco-Tourism in the Middle East," Conference of the Arkansas Association of College History Teachers, Fayetteville, 1997.

"Middle East Studies: Headacher or Boondoggle?" Conference of the Arkansas Association of College Hisotry Teachers, Little Rock, 1996.

"The Treatment of Gender in Ottoman Urban Studies," Twelth Symposium of the Comite International d'Etudes Pre'Ottomanes et Ottomanes, Prague, 1996.

"The Impact of the Railways on the Political Economy of Southern Syria 1890-1925," Second International Conference on The Syrian Land: "Infrastructures and Communication: Processes of Integration and Separation in Bilad Al-Sham from the 18th Century to the Mandatory Period," Erlangen, 1995.

"Syria in East German Scholarship," Middle East Studies Association Conference, Phoenix, 1994.

"Family and Polity in Late Ottoman Times," Eleventh International Congress of the Economic and Political History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, Amsterdam, 1994.

"The Validity and Utility of Trans-Epochal Comparison: The Hawran in the Late Ottoman and Late Roman Periods," Sixth International Conference on the Social and Economic History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, Aix-en-Provence, 1992.

"The Great Depression (1873-1896) and the Rise of Syrian Arab Nationalism," Middle East Studies Association Conference, Washington, 1991.

"Nationalism and the `Ulama' Tradition of Damascus," Conference on "Processes of Arab Self Definition," [in Honor of C. Ernest Dawn], University of Illinois, 1989.

"Violent Confrontations in Rural Syria of the 1890's," Middle East Studies Association Conference, Boston, 1986.

"Explaining Increased Wheat Production in Southern Syria in the 19th Century," Conference on Large Scale Commercial Agriculture in the Ottoman Empire, SUNY, Binghamton, 1986.

"Economic Sectors in 18th Century Syrian Towns," IVth International Congress for Turkish Economic and Social History, 1071 1920, Munich, 1986.

"Patriarchy in the Middle East: Women and the Politics of Families in the 18th 20th Centuries," American Historical Association Conference, Chicago, 1984.

"Lebanon and the 1860 Events in Damascus," Middle East Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, 1984.

"The Wheat Economy in the Inter War Period: What the Statistics Indicate," Colloquium on the Middle East in the Inter War Period, Bad Homburg, 1984.

"Individual Women of Central Political Importance in 19th Century Syria," Middle East Studies Association Conference, Chicago, 1983.

"The Wheat Economy of Syria and Lebanon during the Second World War," Eighth International Economic Historians Congress, Budapest, 1982.

"Aspects of Notable Status in Nineteenth Century Damascus," Bilad al-Sham Congress, Damascus, 1979.

"Conflict in the Hawran in the Nineteenth Century," German Orientalists Congress, Erlangen, 1977.

"Economic Penetration of the Middle East. The Case of Syria," Panel on Imperialism organized by Wolfgang Mommsen, German Historical Congress, Braunschweig, 1974.

"The Maqassed of Beirut, a Case Study in Modernization," jointly authored with Samir Khalaf, Middle East Studies Association Conference, 1968.

Public Lectures, Talks, and Appearances

"Women and Family in the Middle East," Elder-Hostel, College of Continuing Education, University of Arkansas (King Fahd Program for Middle East Studies), May, 1998

"Sustainable Development in the Volcanic Desert of the Western Fertile Crescent," presentation of research proposal to the directors of the University of Arkansas Environmental Dynamics Program, April, 1998.

Round-Table Participant: "Sustainable Heritage: A Round Table on Culture, Preservation, and Development. The Dead Cities of the Limestone Massif (Syria)," The Agha Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 1997.

"Eco-Tourism: New Age Trauma?" San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, 1997.

"Women in Religion: Islam," University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 1997.

"Politics of Food in the Second World War," Middle East Studies Colloquium, University of Arkansas, 1995.

"Liation and Civilization," University of Arkansas, 1995.

"Liation and Civilization," Center for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, 1994.

"Family and Polity in Ottoman Syria," Abigail McCarthy Center for Women, College of St. Catherine, Minneapolis, 1994.

Gulf Crisis lectures and panel participations before civic groups (e.g. Rotary Clubs, School Groups, League of Women Voters, Student Associations, Churches) on fourteen different occasions, August, 1989 through May, 1990.

"Factors Effecting Long-Term Cycles of Urbanization in Geographic Syria," PARSS Seminar on the Middle East, University of Pennsylvania, 1993.

"Laification, Islamification and Arab Nationalism in Lebanon," Social Science Forum, Villanova University, 1992.

"Rural Resistance in Late Ottoman Syria," Harvard University, Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University, 1992.

"Syria," TV appearance on World Monitor during the Gulf Crisis, Discovery Channel, Special on Syria, 1990.

"The Crisis of Damascus in the Late Ottoman Period," Institut Français pour les Etudes Arabes de Damas, 1990.

"Arab Nationalism and the Ulama of Damascus," Lecture Tour: Universities of Freiburg, Erlangen, Utrecht, 1989-90.

"Conflict in the Middle East in Personal and Historical Perspective," American Association of University Women, Wayne, Pennsylvania, 1987; Abington, Pa., 1988.

"Politics and Society in Modern Syria," Villanova University, 1986.