by Keegan Terek From September to November 2021, I carried out a final stage of dissertation fieldwork with the support of an ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellowship in Amman. My research uses theories and methods from linguistic anthropology to examine contemporary contestation over Arabic discourses around non-heteronormative gender and sexuality. In plain terms, I study how people…
Fellowships
Exploring the Political Economy of Cultural Heritage
by Charlotte Vekemans “Heritage is Jordan’s oil.” This statement, which I heard from heritage experts, development workers, and Jordanian government officials, has come to be the most captivating way for me to summarize my PhD project. With the support of a Harrell Family Fellowship granted by the American Center of Research, I conducted field research…
Ethnographic Research on Graffiti/Street Art, Youth, and Urban Space in Amman
by Kyle Benedict Craig With support from an ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellowship, I conducted dissertation fieldwork on Amman’s graffiti/street art scene from May to August 2021. During this period of on-site fieldwork, I attended art exhibitions, observed graffiti/street art painting sessions, participated in walking tours of Amman’s public art scene, and conducted semiformal interviews with artists,…
Analysis of the Early Islamic Pottery from Tell Abu Sarbut, Jordan (700–1000 CE)
by Katarína Mokránová I remember well the time when I was learning how to write. It took years for my first crooked letters to become the handwriting that, admittedly, I am still not quite so proud of today. When I get tired, the text that I write transforms into an indecipherable sea of wavy lines….
“Ask A Scholar” with predoctoral fellow Kendra Kintzi
This written interview is part of a new series on Insights, “Ask A Scholar,” through which we highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The following conversation with Kendra Kintzi (ACOR-CAORC predoctoral fellow, 2021–2022) took place by email in July 2021. Thanks for joining us on Insights! Tell us a little more about yourself…
Wellbeing and Living Well: Ethnographic Approaches to Health and Disability
by Christine Sargent, with Timothy Loh and Morgen Chalmiers What can ethnography contribute to our understandings of health and disability in Jordan and elsewhere? In this roundtable event, Morgen Chalmiers (University of California San Diego), Timothy Loh (MIT), and I offered provisional responses by drawing on fieldwork in Jordan and the United States while reflecting…
A Journey from the Excavation Archive Back to the Site: The Architectural Decoration of the Temple of the Winged Lions, Petra
by Marco Dehner In my recent role as a fellow at ACOR, it was my responsibility to assist with the preparation of the upcoming final publication of the Temple of the Winged Lions (TWL) and to conduct my own research about this Nabataean- to Roman-era (1st–4th-century AD) site in Petra, Jordan, which will lead to…
“Ask A Scholar” with ethnomusicologist Melissa J. Scott
This written interview is part of a new series on Insights: “Ask A Scholar,” through which we highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The following conversation with Melissa J. Scott (ACOR-CAORC predoctoral fellow, 2019–2020; fellow in residence at ACOR winter 2020–spring 2021) took place by email in April and May 2021. Thanks…
اسأل باحث: نضال جرار
يمكنك قراءة هذه المقابلة باللغة الإنجليزية. هذه المقابلة هي جزء من سلسلة جديدة على مدوناتنا “ اسأل باحث” ، والتي من خلالها نسلط الضوء على التجارب الشخصية للزملاء والباحثين المنتسبين الآخرين. أجريت المحادثة التالية مع نضال جرار (الحاصل على منحة الدراسات العليا المقدمة من أكور للطلاب الأردنيين لعام 2020-2021) الكترونيا عبر الإيميل في شباط 2021….
Ask a Scholar: Nedhal Jarrar
Translated by Jackie Salzinger. You can also read this interview in Arabic. This written interview is part of a new series on Insights: “Ask A Scholar,” through which we highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The following conversation with Nedhal Jarrar (ACOR Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship recipient, 2020–2021) took place by email…
Ask a Scholar: Prof. Waleed Hazbun (Former Fellow, Political Scientist)
This written interview is part of a new series on Insights: “Ask A Scholar,” through which we highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The following conversation with former fellow Waleed Hazbun (ACOR-United States Information Agency, 1997–1998), who is now professor of political science at the University of Alabama, took place by email…
Reconnecting with Our Heritage: How Do We Relate the Past to the Present?
By Abbad Diraneyya لتقرأ المقال باللغة العربية هنا Under a hot October sun, from which I had nothing but a winter cap to conceal my face, the famous downtown of the Eternal City looked like a bunch of half-fallen columns emerging from a pile of rubble. “Disappointing” would be an understatement: I had patiently waited…
Ask a Scholar: Micaela Sinibaldi, Islamic Baydha Project Director
This written interview is part of a new series we are launching on Insights: “Ask A Scholar,” through which we hope to highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The below conversation, with former Bikai and de Vries fellow and Islamic Baydha director Micaela Sinibaldi, Ph.D., took place by email in November, 2020….
Ask A Scholar: Morgen Chalmiers, Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Fall 2020
This written interview is part of a new series we are launching on Insights, called “Ask A Scholar,” through which we hope to highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The below conversation, with ACOR-CAORC Pre-Doctoral Fellow Morgen Chalmiers, who is in residence at ACOR during fall 2020, took place by email…
Exploring the tourism development landscape in Aqaba
Kimberly Cavanagh was a Fulbright Scholar (2019–2020) residing at ACOR while undertaking research to complete her book manuscript exploring tourism development in Aqaba, with the working title “Shifting Landscapes: The Social and Economic Development of Aqaba, A Red Sea City.” Dr. Cavanagh is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina Beaufort…