Researching the Middle East

Lorraine Charles is a Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge and Co-Lead of the Digital Skills and Digital Work project at the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement, University of Cambridge. Ilan Pappé is Professor of History and Director for the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. He is author of numerous books, the most recent being The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine (Oneworld, 2015), The Idea of Israel (Verso, 2014) and The Modern Middle East; A Social and Cultural History (Routledge, 2014). Monica Ronchi is a social entrepreneur working in the education sector in Europe and the Middle East.

• IntroductionPart I: Researching Political Dynamics in the Middle East1. The Past is Here: Reflections on modern Middle Eastern HistoriographyIlan Pappé2. Doing research in conflict and post-conflict contextsIrene Costantini and Sansom Milton3. Researching (and deconstructing) Sectarianism in Lebanon and BeyondAna Almuedo-Castillo4. Researching Livelihoods for Syrian Refugees in Protectionist Labour Markets: The Cases of Jordan, Lebanon and TurkeyLorraine CharlesPart II: Identity and Positionality in Research5. Talking to Young People about Being a National: Fieldwork Reflections from DubaiIdil Akinci6. ‘Here be Dragons: Navigating the Problems of Researching ‘Terrorism’ and Critical Terrorism StudiesRichard McNeil-Willson7. Positionality and Access: Doing Surveys and Empirical Research in the Middle EastBethany ShockleyPart III: Conducting Ethnographic Research8. Women, Conflict and the Everyday: Feminist Ethnographies in Palestine and KurdistanSophie Richter-Devroe and Veronica Buffon9. From the ethical to the practical: cases of working with interpreters in Middle East StudiesAlex Mahoudeau & Yves Mirman10. Conducting Research in Arabic: challenges and new perspectivesGiorgia FerrariPart IV: Research through Text, Symbols and Technology11. Problems of Method: Applying ‘Western Literary Theory’ to Arabic TextsHannah Scott Deuchar12. YouTube and Ethnography in the Middle East: Creative Access in Difficult PlacesKenneth H. Schmitt13. Reading the Signs: Toward a Semiotic Approach in Islamic StudiesPierre Hecker