Report on MESA, Washington DC, 1-4 December 2011
by Dr. Daniele Cantini
From the 1st of December I participated, as a paper presenter and unexpectedly as a discussant in a second panel to the US Association of Middle East Studies, held in Washington DC for 4 days. This is the hugest conference in this field, and all the more established scholars are usually taking part in it; for me it was the first time, and I deemed it important to be somehow connected to the US academia and to scholars from all over the world, for the variety of topics touched upon in the conference and the unique possibility of getting to know personally most people that are usually quoted in academic works.
I was invited to participate in a pre-organised panel, put together by Dr. Al-Hamarneh (Mainz University), on “Internationalisation and Privatization of Higher Education in the Arab World - Challenges and Chances”, held on the 2nd December, in which I presented a paper on “Higher education in Egypt: between state control and internationalization and privatization processes”. The panel was completed by a presentation by Dr. Al-Hamarneh and by Prof. Kelly (AUK), and saw Dr. Shami as a discussant. The results presented by the three speakers were the partial outcomes of a SSRC-funded project on “Arab universities and governance” (2010), which is supposed to continue this year for a follow-up study. I was also asked to act as a discussant in a panel organised by Dr. Schielke (ZMO) and Dr. Abenante (Milan-Bicocca University), on “The Ambiguity of Great Expectations: Ethnographic Approaches to Living a Life in the Middle East”; this panel was held on the next day, the 3rd December, and saw the participation of scholars such as Dr. Winegar, Dr. Dahlgren and Dr. Menin, other than the organisers.
As mentioned the panel on which I presented my paper is part of an ongoing research project that will see other meetings in this year. The participation in the second panel was also a nice opportunity, for most of the scholars met there are part of a publication that I am in the process of editing, with Dr. Abenante, and that should be published within 2012.