What UCSB's Mona Damluji ‘Wants You to Know’ About her new Children’s Book

December 6, 2024

UCSB Film and Media Studies professor Mona Damluji recently discussed her journey into children's literature and the inspiration behind her socially-conscious works. Damluji published her debut children’s book, Together, in 2021, emphasizing the power of collective action. Her upcoming book, I Want You to Know, dives deeper into personal and political narratives. Written as a poem for her children, the book reflects on the generational effects of war, particularly in the Middle East, and explores themes of displacement and resilience. Damluji aims to open dialogue about complex histories, colonialism, and intergenerational trauma.

From Iran to America: Culture and Immigration

November 6, 2024

Filmmaker and director Persis Karim visited UC Santa Barbara for a screening of her film The Dawn is Too Far, hosted by the Center for Middle East Studies. The film details how art serves as a cultural creative outlet for many Iranian immigrants who moved to America.

A Palestinian and an Israeli Call for New Narratives

October 29, 2024

Jewish Israeli Rotem Levin and Palestinian Osama Iliwat discussed their transformative life experiences and the different realities they face in the same land, in a discussion hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. As violence escalates in the Middle East, leaving many devastated, the two activists are holding conversations around the world, to encouraging individuals to listen to one another and challenge presumptions. By doing so, they aim to foster a future of peace and freedom for all.

Political Satire in Middle East Literary History

April 8, 2024

UCSB Religious Studies professor Janet Afary discussed her book Mollā Nasreddin: The Making of a Modern Trickster, 1906-1911 with department colleague Dwight Reynolds as part of the series “Humanities Decanted,” an Interdisciplinary Humanities Center program in which UCSB scholars present their newest works in a relaxed environment. Mollā Nasreddin: The Making of a Modern Trickster, 1906-1911, explores the first era of the 20th century Middle Eastern journal Mollā Nasreddin and its use of visual art, folklore, and satire to transmit social democratic ideas in Transcaucasia and Iran.

Religious Studies: Opening Minds and Hearts

October 24, 2023

Faculty and students of UC Santa Barbara’s Religious studies kicked-off the academic year with hopes of peace and collaboration in the department and among religious groups worldwide. Department chair Juan Campo urged the campus to focus on efforts to foster peace as students and faculty navigate times of immense violence and suffering on all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A Public Art Event Amplifies the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' Movement

May 12, 2023

A Woman, Life ,Freedom art projection was displayed on campus earlier this week in solidarity with the struggle for women’s equality in Iran. Shiva Balaghi, a cultural historian and academic coordinator of the UCSB Area Global Initiative, collaborated with her colleagues at two nonprofit organizations, Mozaik and ArtRise Collective, to create the public art project.

Cinema in Iraq: A Tale of Three Brothers

May 3, 2023

In 1951, Moris Sawda’i, an Iraqi Jew, left Baghdad for Israel and worked as an assistant editor on an Israeli film production team. In an unpublished memoir, he wrote, “I hoped to realize my dreams of becoming a great film director. However, at the end of this journey, the fact of working as a small contributor in a big cinema project left me depressed.” Sawda’i went from the top of the film business in his country of birth to starting over, said University of Oslo Middle East cultural historian Pelle Valentin Olsen at a recent UCSB event. The Sawda’i family pioneered the construction of cinemas and established the first Iraqi film studio in the 20th century.

The Enduring Legacy of a Medieval Egyptian Historian

April 14, 2023

Nasser Rabbat, director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visited UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Middle East Studies to to speak about one of the most important Egyptian historians, Al-Maqrizi, a documentarian of the medieval Mamluk period who impacts Egyptian scholars and students still today.

The City of Isfahan, As Seen Through Family Archives

February 13, 2023

UCSB’s Middle East Studies program hosted University of Michigan historian Kathryn Babayan earlier this month to discuss her book, “The City as Anthology: Eroticism and Urbanity in Early Modern Isfahan.” Babayan spoke about the medium she used to uncover the lives of 17th-century Isfahan residents and migrants—family archives. She said the seldom-viewed records revealed details of relationships and attitudes toward sex that provide a new perspective on the city’s documented history.

Religious Dietary Practices: UCSB Support for Students

October 20, 2022

UC Santa Barbara religious studies professor Juan Campo and Arabic language lecturer Magda Campo spoke last week on Jewish kosher food and Islamic halal food, and they prepared a chicken and couscous meal for a CalFresh enrollment party co-hosted by UCSB Health & Wellness, Thrive, and the Educational Opportunity Program. The event publicized the CalFresh program and UCSB’s Halal and Kosher Grocery Program for food-insecure students who observe these religions’ dietary laws.

Spreading Rumi's Wisdom

June 10, 2022

UC Santa Barbara biopsychology major Kiana Ranjbaran devotes herself to the study of Islamic poet Rumi and holds an internship with the Rumi Education Center via the Department of Religious Studies. She says everyone can benefit from reading Rumi, who writes about the interconnectedness of humanity, the world, and the divine.

Research Slam Inspires Undergraduates: "I Can Do that too"

May 12, 2022

UC Santa Barbara’s annual undergraduate competition for the best short research presentation took place last week, spotlighting students who could explain their projects in three slides and under three minutes. The winner was Sriram Ramamurthy, a third-year biology-major for his work on genetic differentiation among tree species in their evolution.

Celebrating Cultures of the Middle East in Song and Dance

November 29, 2021

UCSB’s Middle East Ensemble has performed at Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, marking their return to live performances since the COVID-19 pandemic required social distancing. The ensemble has been performing as an ethnomusicology performance ensemble in UCSB’s Music department for 33 years. The concert showcased the diversity of Middle East cultures through a series of music and dance performances from across the region, including pieces by Egyptian legend Umm Kulthum.

Bringing the Middle East to UCSB

June 14, 2019

“I was surrounded by those who shared the same music taste as me, whether it was our love for Lebanese artists Nancy Ajram or Fares Karam. We shared the same taste in food, the same values, and the same understanding of what it means to be an Arab in America,” said Jasmin Abdulaziz. “It was astounding to see what had flourished simply by stepping out of my comfort zone and attending a meeting with a room full of strangers.”

In this piece Abdulaziz talks about how she, a Syrian American, found herself a community after joining UCSB’s Lebanese Social Club.

Dennis Ross: Middle East peace requires more than a military approach

November 2, 2018

Speaking at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s Taubman Symposium in Jewish Studies, Middle East expert and former diplomat Dennis Ross Ross said that President Trump has “a policy — but not a strategy” for the Middle East.

He pointed out that Trump’s actions show a pattern – a tendency to favor counter-terrorism and counter-Iranian policies, as well as a desire to resolve to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But, he said, there are flaws in the Trump administrations approach to all three of these Middle East policy areas, and those shortcomings prevent long-term progress.

NEWS: Fifteen Years Later— Time to Reframe Perceptions of Iraq

May 22, 2018

For many U.S. college students, hearing mention of Iraq evokes images of soldiers, oil, refugees, and destruction. In 2003, the United States invaded the country and American soldiers remained there for roughly eight years. Those soldiers and the combat that surrounded them dominated U.S. media coverage, leaving little room for the stories of Iraqi civilians and the hardships they endured during and after the occupation.

Now, 15 years after the invasion, several departments at UC Santa Barbara came together for a symposium to flip the script and reframe U.S. perspectives on Iraq. “[The goal is to] re-orient us towards Iraq in order to overturn these reductive and insufficient representations of human beings,” said organizer Mona Damluji, a professor in the Film and Media Studies Department.

The two-day event, called “Iraq Front and Center” was held earlier this month to create a space for interdisciplinary conversations, bringing together guest speakers from the diverse perspectives of novelist, journalist, filmmaker, and doctor.

Kinan Azmeh and the UCSB Middle East Ensemble play tribute to Ibn ‘Arabi

November 25, 2017

Syrian clarinetist-composer Kinan Azmeh captivated a Santa Barbara audience with a composition about a lover’s resilience in a war-torn Syrian village, which he dedicated to the Islamic philosopher Ibn ‘Arabi.

Azmeh appeared alongside the UCSB Middle East Ensemble for a concert, lecture, and poetry reading to open the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society’s annual conference “This Vast Earth,” hosted by UCSB’s Center for Middle East Studies.

“I was totally inspired by what I read,” Azmeh said, telling the audience how discovering Ibn ‘Arabi’s poetry led him to compose the music. “The piece ended up being a depiction of Ibn ‘Arabi’s journey, of love and fate intersecting.”

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