Thanks for joining us on Insights! Your scholarship has taken you to various countries and institutions around the world since the time of your residential fellowship at ACOR in the late ‘90s. Can you tell us a bit about the broad outlines of your career since then?

After my ACOR-supported fieldwork in Jordan on the politics of tourism development, I was able to return to Boston and finish up my PhD in political science at MIT. I was lucky and got an academic job at Johns Hopkins University teaching international political economy. With the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, however, I felt the need to focus more of my teaching and research on U.S. foreign policy and its impact on the Middle East. In Baltimore, I felt disconnected from the region, so in 2007 I took a leave of absence and served as a visiting professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB). I arrived in Beirut in the wake of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war that devastated Lebanon. This experience reshaped my perspectives and interests while giving me new insights into the dynamics of regional geopolitics. I returned to the U.S., but two years later my department voted against allowing me to go up for tenure. Fortunately, AUB had an opening that year, and I was able to relocate to AUB in the fall of 2010. Again, I was very glad to secure a job, but more critically it was an amazing experience and opportunity.

I am so grateful that my career took this path back to the region and into an academic environment that supported interdisciplinary work and efforts to support scholarship focused on regional and Global South concerns rather than being constrained by U.S. academic hierarchies, concerns, and the increasingly narrow focus on quantitative methods. Soon the Arab uprisings broke out, and Lebanon faced its own internal conflicts and the spillover from the civil war in Syria. I learned a tremendous amount from students and colleagues, including Rami Khouri, whom I had met at ACOR in the late 1990s, and had the wonderful opportunity of serving as director of the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies (CAMES) and working with the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS), directed by former Yarmouk University anthropologist Seteney Shami.¹

While I can honestly say I never imagined that I would end up living in the American South, in 2018 I took a position at the University of Alabama as part of an effort to help build a Middle East studies program. Beyond the opportunity to work with wonderful colleagues, I have been surprised by how interesting I find the experience, which has given me new perspectives from which to view U.S.-Middle East relations and ongoing changes in American politics while appreciating the great biodiversity and natural beauty of the state.

What topics and methodologies have occupied your work in recent years? How have they built on the research you were first engaged in while at ACOR?

It was while walking around Wadi Musa with ACOR fellow Najib Hourani that I formed ideas about the relationship between transnational flows and local territorial control that became the basis of the theorical approach presented in my dissertation, which compared the cases of Tunisia and Jordan, and I later developed in my book that the university press decided to title Beaches, Ruins, Resorts. I think the ability to easily travel across Jordan and explore its diverse archeological sites, rural landscapes, seacoasts, and budding ecotourism projects helped me to think in terms of geography and space and made seeing the contrast to spatial patterns of tourism development in Tunisia clear. Having drawn on theories of economic geography in my study of tourism and with the goal of seeing the dynamics of change in the Arab world as part of (rather than exceptions to) larger global processes (such as globalization), I approached the issues of international relations and U.S. foreign policy through the lens of geopolitics, that is, the territorial dimensions of international politics. My approach draws from the field of critical geopolitics and uses concepts such as “imagined geographies,” a concept developed by Edward Said and others that explores how space and territorial relations are understood through discourse, imagery, and other representations. Much of my work on tourism as well as international relations is concerned with rival ways regional and external actors “map” territories, flows, and the relationship between places.

From your vantage point as a comparative political scientist, how has the subject of your 2008 book (Beaches, Ruins, Resorts: The Politics of Tourism in the Arab World) grown and developed in the past twelve years?

That book was one of the first to address the political economy of tourism in the Arab world in a comparative manner. Meanwhile, geographers at the Center for Research on the Arab World (at University of Mainz in Germany) also produced a series of important studies. Today, there are far more scholars working on tourism (and related topics) in the Middle East from a range of disciplinary approaches. There is even a handbook of tourism in the Middle East and North Africa, and in my experience Middle East studies are pretty quick to recognize the importance of tourism in the region, including both its negative and positive impacts. Nevertheless, it is possible that the topic is still not taken seriously in many academic disciplines or faces the challenge of disciplinary silos, as tourism remains a topic best served by a multidisciplinary approach.

If you look at the numbers, internationally the tourism sector is currently in a crisis far deeper than at any time since the end of the Second World War. There are a lot of questions about which sectors and locations are going to recover. This crisis came after a decade during which tourism sectors in many locations across the Middle East and North Africa were hit hard by wars, political violence, and economic crisis. Tourism remains an important sector, especially in the Gulf states, with many governments continuing to stake hopes in using tourism as an engine of economic development. It is a cycle I have seen play out many times across the region. The recent moves towards normalization between Israel and the Gulf States and Morocco echo much of the discourse found in the 1990s during the peace process.

One of the most critical aspects of change in patterns of tourism development, I think, is the extension of some trends first recognized by the Mainz geographers (including Ala Al-Hamarneh and Christian Steiner). They noted how, in the years following 9/11, many Arabs redirected their tourist travel away from Europe to other parts of the Arab world. At the same time, domestic tourism flows and regional investment in the sector became increasingly important features. While these flows had always been there, with the volatility of western flows, governments and entrepreneurs came to give them more attention. While the vast wealth of the Gulf states is a critical driver in this process, more broadly the geographies of tourism are no longer mostly defined by western tourists, but rather by regional Arab tourists, religious pilgrims and Islamic tourism development, and the growing trend of halal leisure tourism. At the same time, tourism economies in many places, including Jordan, have become more highly diversified, including ecotourism, medical tourism, movie-based tourism, conference and meeting tourism, and sporting events, as well as heritage and cultural tourism, and are driven by new projects such as larger professional museums and cultural centers. Many of these trends are enhanced by the internet, social media, Airbnb, and the like, as well as the expansion of regional aviation networks, including low-cost airlines.

But I suppose that, for me as a scholar, one of the most rewarding trends to observe is the growth of local expertise in the field of tourism studies. In my interviews in the 1990s, I heard many complaints about outside tourism experts and externally developed tourism plans. In 2009, I gave a keynote address at a tourism conference held in Amman. There I met many young Arab tourism scholars and students. I was excited to find the Jordanians working on research topics such as the local views on the impact of tourism or different ways to promote tourism that appreciated aspects of the Jordanian landscape and ecology. In the years since, I noticed Jordanians such as Suleiman A. D. Farajat, who earned a PhD in tourism studies, has taught at the University of Jordan, and now serves as the chief commissioner at the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority. Increased local expertise and professionalism is key to the future of tourism development in the region.

Do you have any advice for Insights readers who would like to get to know Jordan and the region better, especially from a comparative politics standpoint? Books or authors you would suggest, or online publications?

As I shifted to a focus on U.S. foreign policy and a concern for geopolitical developments at the regional level, I have not been able to follow Jordan as closely as I once did. In term of the politics of Jordan, I turn to the scholarship (and tweets) of specialists such as Curtis Ryan and Pete Moore. In terms of urban development in Amman, I follow the work of former ACOR fellow Najib Hourani. More broadly, I recommend both the current work as well as the very impressive publications archive of the Middle East Research and Information Project (Middle East Report).

In any case, for those outside the outside the region, an important tool to better understand Jordan and the region is to study Arabic and follow local events and media. One can also follow the English-language news sources from the region or ones with extensive reporting resources in the region, including outlets such as Al Jazeera and Al-Monitor. One can also now watch talks and other events taking place at institutions in the region, such as AUB or the ACSS, via their YouTube channels or livestreamed events. Still, there is no substitute for visiting and, more critically, living in the region for extended periods of time. One should travel extensively to see many places and peoples, but also live in places for long enough that they become familiar “homes” that you miss when you move away.

Waleed Hazbun is Richard L. Chambers Professor of Middle Eastern Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama, where he teaches international relations and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and, when lucky, is able to offer a seminar on the politics of travel and tourism. He previously taught at the American University of Beirut and served as director of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES). While its cover depicts Palmyra, his book Beaches, Ruins, Resorts: The Politics of Tourism in the Arab World (Minnesota University Press, 2008) was based in part on dissertation fieldwork in Jordan. ​He is a longtime reader and now member of the editorial committee of the Middle East Report and, since relocating to Alabama, serves on the executive board of the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society (SERMEISS​). He has two ongoing research projects. One addresses the politics of insecurity in the Arab World, and the other explores the global politics of airports, aviation, and air travel in the Middle East. ​

1. Editor’s Note: Seteney Shami is a member of ACOR’s board of trustees since 2012. Her most recent edited volumes, Seeing the World: How US Universities Make Knowledge in a Global Era (Princeton University Press, 2018) and Middle East Studies for the New Millennium: Infrastructures of Knowledge (NYU Press, 2016) are available to read at our library in Amman. Back to main article.

If you liked the above article, we think you may also enjoy this recent podcast interview (40 minutes), which published by our colleagues at the Richardson Institute in summer 2020:

The post Ask a Scholar: Prof. Waleed Hazbun (Former Fellow, Political Scientist) appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

For many of our readers, the last time they heard updates on your work was likely your public lecture for us in 2019. How has your research and writing evolved since then?

In 2019 and early 2020, I focused on a study season and, until the COVID-19 situation slowed things down, on the first in-person presentations of the results from the six fieldwork seasons of the Islamic Baydha Project. A lecture cohosted by ACOR and the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) in April 2019 was followed by a fieldwork season in October 2019 and by presentations on updated results in London at the British Museum and the Islamic Archaeology Day workshop, in Bern at the European Association of Archaeologists conference, and in Petra at Hussein Bin Talal University. Interviews were also released for articles in Archaeology magazine (“Letter from Jordan: Beyond Petra”) and the Jordan Times (“Petra Region Still Holds Completely Untapped Potential—Archaeologist”). Finally, I created and launched the Islamic Baydha Project’s new website, which collects videos, links, news, and images from the project’s six seasons. Fieldwork season 2019 produced very interesting results, as excavations at one of the mosques revealed several structures of the village’s earlier phases, one of which dates to the Byzantine period. The University of Oxford’s Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project has also been taking, for a second year, great aerial photographs of our site.

In terms of research on the crusader period in Jordan, I was privileged to be invited to present my PhD research results at the Institute for Historical Research in London for the Crusades and the Latin East Seminar and to discuss it with scholars at the institute, which has helped greatly in the preparation of my publications on the subject. My study of the crusader-period building phases of Karak Castle in Jordan, which I based on an analysis of both the documentary sources and the castle’s built structures, was published in late 2019 in Bridge of Civilizations, the proceedings of a conference held in Esztergom, Hungary, in May 2018.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected the archaeological research community, making it nearly impossible to do international field research. How else have you adapted your work this year, given pandemic conditions?

Because the Islamic Baydha Project did not go into the field in 2020, I had the opportunity to focus on data analysis. This summer, the project has proudly received an award from the Barakat Trust, our main funder, for a study season to carry on our publication work. In addition, this quiet time, during which conferences, too, were almost completely cancelled, gave me the opportunity to focus on other publication projects. Besides contributing to Petra: The North Ridge (ACOR, 2020) and to the manual of archaeological pottery from Jordan being organized by ACOR and SCHEP, I have been preparing my contribution for the forthcoming publication of the ACOR’s Beidha Documentation Project, which was directed by Dr. Patricia Bikai from 2003 to 2008. In addition, I have been working on a further publication from my PhD research on the crusader lordship of Transjordan. For all of these projects, access to the ACOR building in Amman has been essential. Over these past months ACOR has become a much quieter place than usual, but, thanks to the staff, it was also a safe, welcoming, and productive place to carry on with work. The limited opening hours of the library have been extremely beneficial for keeping me on task. Finally, I have been able to give the finishing touches to the new documentary on the Islamic Baydha Project, which will be released soon.

Micaela at ACOR working on the pottery from Baydha. (Photos by Jessica Holland.)

As we researchers know, the silver lining of the COVID-19 situation has been many more online conferences and webinars, so I have tried to take advantage of some of these opportunities. Unfortunately, it is likely that the international conference that I am scheduled to organize for Shanghai University in 2021 will also be one of these. The logistics of the current situation are still far too complicated to plan an in-person event.

During these months based in Amman, I have been waiting for my visa and for news about travel possibilities to China, in hopes of joining my students in Shanghai for the fall semester, which started on 1 September. However, at the time I write this (November), because of travel restrictions I still have not managed to leave. I have therefore been teaching online the whole semester and have met the students and staff of the university only remotely. Although getting used to all this distance from the students took the first few weeks, from many points of view it is also extremely interesting to learn about the Chinese education system and culture. The students have already been very successful in learning and communicating through our online meetings.

Some readers may have had plans to come to Jordan this year for research or travel but can no longer do so. Do you have any advice on ways they can engage with Jordan’s history and culture from afar?

Especially during the spring, the Jordanian government dealt with the pandemic in a firm and strict way. This kept the virus largely under control, but it also has meant far fewer opportunities to go out to socialize and practice speaking Arabic. To try to make up for missing time in the external world, besides catching up more than usual with family and friends online and watching classic movies, I have been working on my Arabic language skills by watching episodes of Female (في ميل), a Jordanian TV comedy series set in Amman. I recommend it highly to friends who miss Jordan, as it is very good for not only practicing Jordanian ‘Ammiya (dialect) but also learning about contemporary culture.

Micaela Sinibaldi is a visiting professor at the Shanghai International Studies University, Institute for the Global History of Civilizations and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of History, Archaeology, and Religion, Cardiff University. She has been awarded a number of ACOR fellowships over the years, most recently a Bikai Fellowship in 2013. A specialist in the archaeology of the Islamic and crusader periods in the Levant, she serves as the director of the Islamic Baydha Project, which is part of the broader Late Petra Project and reconstructs the history of the Islamic period in the ancient city.

Left: screenshot of the new project website. Right: Micaela Sinibaldi at ACOR working on the flotation of archaeobotanical  materials from Baydha. (Photo by Jack Green.)

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