We’d like to draw our readers’ attention to a new membership organization that shares ideals with the NAS. The Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) was formed two years ago in response to the growing academic interest in these two areas. ASMEA seeks to address Middle Eastern and African studies through open inquiry and pursuit of the truth, and it upholds rigorous standards of scholarship.
Bernard Lewis, Princeton’s Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, is chairman of ASMEA. Here is a video of Professor Lewis’s keynote address at the 2008 ASMEA conference, in which he situates the academic study of the Middle East in a historic context. And below is a flyer with information about this year’s ASMEA conference:
ASMEA
Association for the Study
of the Middle East and Africa
ASMEA cordially invites you to attend our
Annual Conference
The Middle East and Africa:
Historic Connections and Strategic Bridges
October 22-24, 2009
Key Bridge Marriott Hotel
Washington, DC
RSVP to:
202-429-8860
Advance Registration Rates
Full/Associate Members - $50 (Register now)
Student Members - $30 (Register now)
Non-Members - $150 (Register now)
The second annual conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) will be held October 22-24, 2009 at the Key Bridge Marriott in Washington, D.C.
Entitled, The Middle East and Africa: Historic Connections and Strategic Bridges, the conference will feature presentations and roundtables that demonstrate the inter-relationships between the two regions over time with special emphasis on the historical, political, economic, religious, security and cultural links between them.
Along with the academic paper presentations and roundtables, ASMEA's 2009 conference will feature special presentations by:
- ASMEA Chairman Bernard Lewis <
- Dennis Ross, Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Gulf and Southwest Asia
- John Bolton, Former United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
To learn more, please visit: http://www.asmeascholars.org
The association has put out a call for papers to be presented at the conference. Only ASMEA members may present papers and the due date for submitting a proposal is today, so if you are interested, act now! ASMEA is also looking for other conference participants—panelists, referees, and discussants—and is offering a limited number of grants to cover hotel costs for full-time graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and professors.
We believe many of our members and readers would like to see reasoned inquiry applied to Middle Eastern and African scholarship, and we invite you to visit the ASMEA website to learn more about this important organization.