Professor Ussama Makdisi of Rice University, a leading Middle East historian, was the guest of first program of the seminar series, entitled “A Common Horizon for Humanity and the Planet”, which is broadcasted live on the Cappadocia University YouTube channel on Thursday, October 28 at 19:30 TRT. Professor Makdisi’s fields of interest include modern Arab history, US-Arab relations, Ottoman history, and the history of missionaries and sectarianism. He is the author of “Age of Coexistence”, “Faith Misplaced”, “Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East” and “Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon”. The conversation at the event was on the topic of “Decolonizing Arab History.”
The program is moderated by Professor Cemil Aydın, Professor of the University of North Carolina.
Decolonization of the Middle East has been one of the most debated issues of the recent historical studies both in the west and east. Prof. Ussama Makdisi of Rice University argues, pointing out to th...
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Professor at Rice University
Professor Ussama Makdisi is a faculty member of the History Department at Rice University, and is the president of the Arab-American Educational Foundation at the same university. He completed his undergraduate studies at Wesleyan University in 1990 and his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1997. Makdisi’s interests incşude modern Arab history, US-Arab relations, Ottoman history, and the history of missionaries and sectarianism. Professor Makdisi’s “Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World” (2019), “Faith Misplaced: the Broken Promise of US-Arab Relations, 1820-2001” (2010), “Artillery of Heaven” : American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East” (2008), “The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon” (2000), and “Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa” (2006) publications have been translated into many languages. He has been engaged in studies in many areas and is the recipient of many international awards.
Professor at University of North Carolina
Prof. Cemil AYDIN is a faculty member of the History Department at University of North Carolina. He completed his undergraduate studies at Boğaziçi University in 1991 and his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2002. Aydın’s interests include Modern Middle Eastern History and Modern Asian history, with particular emphasis on the international and intellectual histories of the Ottoman and Japanese Empires.
