Friday, 23 January 2009

8.30am to 5.30pm
Marriott University Park Hotel

A look at journalism and reporting on the new US president with a focus on the Middle East and Latin America . Three panels of faculty and journalists will discuss topics such as new media and blogging, global responses to the new Obama administration, web-based reporting, access to information, and the implications for journalism in the US .

Keynote address and luncheon at noon
Globalizing Media, Networked Publics and the Politics of Communication: Is the Internet a Free-Speech Panacea for the Middle East ?

Keynote by Jon W. Anderson, professor of anthropology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC

Jon Anderson is a socio-cultural anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of religion (ritual and symbol systems) and politics, new media and the social life of information technologies, and the Middle East. He has done field research in Afghanistan and Pakistan on tribalism and Islamic cosmology, and on Catholics in the Bible Belt South.

He currently research es the communications and information revolution in the Arab world, transnational cultures and the social organization of international "cyberspaces."

He has been editor of the multidisciplinary Middle East Studies Association Bulletin (1992-96), Program Chair of the American Anthropological Association (1995), chair of its Advisory Group on Electronic Communication, and President of the Middle East Section of the AAA (2000-02) , served on an SSRC Steering Committee for Information Technology & International Cooperation (2002-05), and chaired the Program Committee of the Middle East Studies Association for 2008.

Recent publications: Reformatting Politics: Information Technology and Global Civil Society (co-edited with Jodi Dean and Geert Lovink, 2006), "Des communautés virtuelles? Vers une théorie techno-practique de'Internet dans le monde arabe," Maghreb-Machrek (Winter 2004); "New Media, New Publics: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere of Islam," Social Research (Fall 2003);   New Media in the Muslim World (co-edited with Dale F. Eickelman, 1999, second edition 2003);   Arabizing the Internet (1998);  " Globalizing politics and religion in the Muslim world ," Journal of Electronic Publishing (September 1997);  "The Middle East & North Africa," Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (1996);  The Culture of Bible Belt Catholics (with William Friend. 1995).

Program

Session One (roundtable): Surfing the Middle Eastern Blogosphere: Ideological Echochamber or New Town Hall? (9.30-11.30)

Luncheon and Keynote: noon-1.30pm

Session Two (panel): Global Media Responses to the Obama Administration (2-3.30pm)

Session Three (panel): A Return to Public Discourse in America? (4-5.30pm)

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Registration:
$20 ($10 for students) and includes lunch buffet; registration fee is not tax-deductible

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Session One: Roundtable (9.30am-11.30am)
Surfing the Middle Eastern Blogosphere: Ideological Echochamber or New Town Hall?
Chair: Leila Hudson, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies

• Lebanese Media Perceptions , Tylor Brand , MA candidate, Dept of Near Eastern Studies
• Israeli New Media , Jason Hushour, MA candidate, Dept of Near Eastern Studies
• The Blogosphere in Iran , Shireen Keyl , MA candidate, Dept of Near Eastern Studies
• Online Turkish Newspapers , Hikmet Kocamaner, PhD candidate, Sociocultural Anthropology/Near Eastern Studies
• The Egyptian Blogosphere , Evan Murphy, MA candidate, Dept of Near Eastern Studies
• New Kurdish Media , Christian Sinclair, Assistant Director, UA Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Session Two: Panel (2pm-3.30pm)
Global Media Responses to the Obama Administration
Chair: Jacqueline Sharkey, Director, UA School of Journalism

• Faten Ghosn, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
• Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism
• Asher Kaufman, Visiting Scholar,  Center for Middle Eastern Studies; Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame, Department of History

Session Three: Panel (4pm-5.30pm)
A Return to Public Discourse in America?
Chair: Maggy Zanger, Associate Professor of Practice, UA School of Journalism

• Ann Brown, Editorial Page Editor, Arizona Daily Star
• Tom Volgy, Professor ,  Department of Political Science, former Tucson Mayor, Executive Director, International Studies Association
• Alan Weisman, Associate Professor, School of Journalism/Latin American Studies; Senior Editor and Producer, Homelands Productions, author of The World Without Us