Beshara Doumani
Professor
Contact
Office: 3120 Dwinelle
Hours: TuTh 2:30-4
Phone: (510) 643-3147
Email: bdoumani@berkeley.edu
Education
Ph.D., Georgetown University, 1990
M.A., Georgetown University, 1980
B.A., Kenyon College, 1977
Research Interests
My abiding interest from the very beginning has been in recovering the
history of social groups, places, and time periods that have been silenced or
erased by conventional scholarship on the Modern Middle East. My specialty is
the social and cultural history of peasants, merchants, artisans, and women who
live in the provincial regions of the Arab East during the period of Ottoman rule
(16th - 20th centuries). I try to paint a live portrait of everyday life
through studying family history, the political economy of urban-rural relations,
and connections between gender and property. Most of my work relies heavily on
locally-produced archives such as family papers, material culture and, most of
all, legal records of the Sharia (sijill). I am currently working on
two projects that revolve around the ethics and politics of writing people into history:
1. Family history in the Eastern Mediterranean with a focus on relationships between property, gender, and Islamic Law (based on a comparative study of Tripoli, Lebanon and Nablus, Palestine, 1660-1860)
2. Modern social History of the Palestinians
Selected Publications
Please note: selected publications are available to
download. Those that can be downloaded are indicated with a PDF icon. 
In
order to view these articles you will need the free
Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
You can also click on links to connect to online information.
Books
Academic Freedom After September 11. Editor. New York: Zone Books, 2006.
Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender. Editor. Albany: SUNY Press, 2003.
I’adat iktishaf Filastin: ahali Jabal Nablus fi al-ahd al-Uthmani. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1998. (Translation of Rediscovering Palestine, with additonal materials).
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900. Berkeley, UC Press, 1995.
Selected Articles
“The Power of Layers or the Layers of Power? The Social Life of Things as the Backbone of New Narratives.” In Benoit Junod, Georges Khalil, Stefan Weber, Gerhard Wolf (eds.), Islamic Art and the Museum: Discussions on Scientific and Museological Approaches to Art and Archaeology of the Muslim World., London: Saqi Books, 2011.
“Al-Mahdhufun min al-sard al-tarikhi,” (From Biblical Geography to Social History: Anglophone Studies on Palestine and the Palestinians). Majjalat al-Dirasat al-Filistiniyya., 84 (Fall 2010). 35-41.
“A Tribute Long Overdue: Rosemary Sayigh and Palestinian Studies.” Journal of Palestine Studies. 38:2 (Winter 2009). 6-11. (with Mayssoun Soukarieh).
“Children Looking.” In Issam Nassar and Rasha Salti, Eds. I would have Smiled. Photographing the Palestinian Refugee Experience: A Tribute to Myrtle Winter-Chaumeny. (Jerusalem: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2009). 132-135.
"Arshifat Filastin wa al-filastiniyun." In Zakaria Muhammad, Khalid Farraj, Salim Tamari, and Issam Nassar, Eds. Awraq `a’iliyya: Dirasat fi al-tarikh al-ijtima`i al-mu`asir li Filastin. Ramallah: Mu’asassat al-Dirasat al-Maqdasiyya, 2009. 11-19.
"Archiving Palestine and the Palestinians: The Patrimony of Ihsan Nimr." Jerusalem Quarterly, 36 (Winter 2009). 4-12.
"A Passing Storm or a Structural Shift? Challenges to Academic Freedom in the United States after September 11." In Willem B. Drees and Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld, Eds. The Study of Religion and the Training of Muslim Clergy in Europe. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2008. 219-241.
Guest Editor, special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly: Social Biographies and Family Histories. No. 30 (Spring 2007).
"My Grandmother and Other Stories: Histories of the Palestinians as Social Biographies," Jerusalem Quarterly, No. 30 (Spring 2007). 3-9.
"Palestine Versus the Palestinians? The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied," Journal of Palestine Studies 36, no. 4 (Summer 2007), pp. 49-64.
"Le contrat salam et les relations ville-campagne dans la Palestine ottomane." Annales HSS, juillet-aout 2006, No. 4. 901-924.
Co-guest editor with George Bisharat. "Open Forum: Strategizing Palestine." Journal of Palestine Studies, 35:3 (Spring 2006). 37-82.
"Between Coercion and Privatization: Academic Freedom in the Twenty-First Century." In Beshara Doumani, Editor. Academic Freedom After September 11. (New York: Zone Books, January 2006). 11-57.
"Academic Freedom Post-9/11." ISIM Review 15 (Spring 2005), 22-24.
"Nablus taht al-ihtilal: mashahid min al-hayat al-yawmiyya." ("Nablus Under Occupation: Scenes from Daily Life.") Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filistiniyyah, No. 62 (Spring 2005). 153-163.
"Scenes
From Daily Life: The View from Nablus." Journal of Palestine Studies,
34:1 (Fall, 2004). 1-14.
"Adjudicating Family: The Islamic Court and Disputes Between
Kin in Greater Syria, 1700-1860." In Beshara Doumani, Editor. Family
History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender. Albany:
SUNY Press, 2003. 173-200.
"Introduction."
In Beshara Doumani, Editor. Family History in the
Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender.
Albany: SUNY Press, 2003. 1-19.
"Endowing Family: Waqf, Property and Gender in Tripoli and
Nablus, 1800-1860."Comparative Studies in Society and History,
40:1 (1998), 3-41.
"The
Political Economy of Peace in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Since 1992."
Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee, October, 1997.
"The Political-Economy of People-Counting: Jabal Nablus, Circa, 1850,"
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 26:1 (February, 1994),
pp. 1-17.
"Rediscovering Ottoman Palestine: Writing Palestinians into History,"
Journal of Palestine Studies, 21:2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 5-28.
"Al-ta'rikh wa i`adat al-ta'rikh li Filastin al-uthmaniyya wa al-intidabiyya." (Rethinking Palestinian Ottoman and Mandate History). Afaq Filistiniyya, No. 6 (Summer, 1991), 5-32.
"Family and Politics in Salfit," in Intifada: the Palestinian
Uprising Against Israeli Occupation, edited by Zachary Lockman and
Joel Beinin, (South End Press: Boston, 1989), pp. 143-154.
"Palestinian Islamic Court Records: a Source for Socioeconomic History," MESA Bulletin, 19:2 (December, 1985), pp. 155-172.
Teaching
Lecture courses: surveys of Middle East History (History 12, 109C)
Undergraduate Seminars: The Palestinians (History 39 - Freshman/sophomore seminar); Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli Conflict; Gender and Class in the modern Middle East; History 101: Social History of the Middle East and North Africa.
Graduate Seminars: Topics in the Social and Cultural History fo the Middle East; Family and Modernity in Europe and the Middle East.
Current Service
Member, Board of Directors, 2008-2011. The Middle East Studies Association.
Member, Board of Directors, 2008-2011. Palestine American Research Center
Editorial Board, 2002-Present: Journal of Palestine Studies.
Contributing Editor: MERIP Reports