New Review: Gilgamesh’s Snake and Other Poems
The Bottle Imp, 16th June 2016 Ghareeb Iskander’s own transformation of the Gilgamesh epic into a modern poem draws the original’s grandeur down to the personal scale, without rendering it … Continue reading
Gribetz, “Defining Neighbours”
A few fascinating and thought-provoking excerpts from Jonathan Gribetz’s excellent exploration of intellectual life and perceptions of faith in Late Ottoman and early inter-war Palestine (Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and … Continue reading
The Book of Khartoum
This is exciting (for me…). Comma Press now have copies of The Book of Khartoum, an anthology of Sudanese short stories co-edited by my fellow IMES PhDer Raph Cormack; I … Continue reading
New review: Love, Theft and Other Entanglements…
Electronic Intifada, 20th July 2015 Mousa, played by Sami Metwasi, is a thief whose latest job is a vehicle which contains a gagged and bound Israeli soldier, something he finds … Continue reading
Neoliberalism and higher education: a wee example from Edinburgh
As Isabel Lachenauer, one of the first – and possibly the last – graduates of the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Arabic masters programme writes: I strongly urge the Head of … Continue reading
A Bird is Not a Stone
Since it has been one of the consuming passions of the last eighteen months of my life, it seems about time that I post something on here about A Bird … Continue reading
Cats + Istanbul
So, my friend Peter Cherry tells me that there is a film coming out about cats and Istanbul – that is, two of my favourite things combined. I’m not sure … Continue reading
Edinburgh University Press – binning back-issues, threatens students with arrest
Here is a sequence of minor but very depressing and frustrating events which I witnessed today. 1) about 2.30pm, arriving at my department at the University of Edinburgh on George … Continue reading
(Paid) research/curatorial internship, Alwaleed Centre, Edinburgh
This very exciting looking ad just came up from the Alwaleed Centre, based in the same department as me at Edinburgh University… Call for research internship applications 10-month part-time research … Continue reading
New article: Edinburgh exhibits Nakba memorial plans
Electronic Intifada, 10th October 2013 Omar Mohammad is sensitive to the danger that to create a monument to something is to place it in the past, to declare it to … Continue reading
Why I’m not getting a smartphone (for as long as possible)
One of the few irritations of an absolutely amazing two years on Edinburgh University’s Arab World Studies MSc has been the background pressure to get a smartphone. Or an iPad. … Continue reading
Poetry from Iraq and Scotland
Sabreen Kadhim, a young poet from Baghdad who very much dispels any myths linking poetry with dowdiness and cardigans, was supposed to appear at Reel Iraq earlier this year. However, … Continue reading
‘Head over Heels in Saudi Arabia’ at Edinburgh Fringe
Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia is a one-woman show by Maisah Sobahi, in her day-job a lecturer at a university in Jeddah and now the first ever Saudi performer … Continue reading
‘Anna’ at the Edinburgh Fringe, Summerhall
At the end of this evening, a mild-mannered man called Keith came up to me as I was unlocking my bike from the Summerhall railings and asked me what I … Continue reading
New review: ‘A World Not Ours’
ReOrient, 5th August 2013 Bassem – or ‘Abu Iyad’, as he is so called – is Fleifel’s best friend, nicknamed after the Fatah military commander assassinated by Israeli commandos in … Continue reading
New review: Louisa Waugh’s ‘Meet Me In Gaza’
Electronic Intifada, 23rd July 2013 For people who know nothing of Gaza but lazy media stereotypes, this book is a perfect introduction. And for those who think they know all … Continue reading
Sarah Irving 