Cities and Circulations: Challenging theorical frameworks in Gulf Studies and geographies

The conference revisits historical processes of knowledge production, immigration, and cultural exchange in colonial and post-colonial geographies of the Gulf. It also uncovers histories of community, migration, language/dialect, and hinterland denials in both the making of Gulf cities and the production of their histories. The aim is to foster novel investigations that question the positionality of different actors, that humanise the landscape, and that deconstruct persistent myths, material and immaterial structures, spaces and systems that limit a critical reading on the Gulf.

Programme

Jeudi 29 mai 2024 - INALCO, Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 75007

8h30 : Registration - Welcome Coffee 

9h : Institutional welcome remarks. Inalco, KU, CEFREPA, Sciences Po

10h : Session 1: Moderated by Hélène Thiollet, Sciences Po-CERI

Challenging persistent dichotomies in historical processes: resituating Gulf histories within complex phenomena of hybridisation through South-South circulations

10h : Todd Reisz, Independant Scholar

Infinite Arrivals

10h30 : Mae Al-Ansari, Kuwait University (zoom)

Challenging dichotomies in Gulf histories: refraiming tradition, housing, and architectural flows as critical aspects of recentering

11h : Talal Al-Rashoud, Kuwait University & Wafa Al-Sayed, University for Science and Technolohy (zoom)

Arabia's anti-colonial hub: Kuwait and the Bahrani nationalist movement (1956-1966)

11h30 : Q&A 

12h30 : lunch break

14h : Session 2: Moderated by Eric Verdeil, Sciences Po-CERI

Recentring Gulf cities within colonial- and post-colonial histories and uncovering the webs of connections, transfers and conflicts within And Across empires 

14h : Philippe Pétriat, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University

The (first) Line: Tapline's cities and the historiography of oil urbanism in the Gulf

14h30 : Lukasz Stanek, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Mobilities of weak actors 

15h : Alix Philippon, Sciences Po, Aix-en-Provence

Redefining Baghdad trhough the shrines: translocal devotion, mobilities and urban politics in post-2003 Iraq

15h30 : Q&A

16h : Keynote - Mohammad Al Jassar, Secretary general for the National Council for Culture Arts and Literature, Kuwait

The past, present, and future of two marginalized towns in Kuwait 

18h30 : cocktail Inalco aux salon Borel et de Tassy (1er étage)

Vendredi 30 mai 2024 - Sciences Po, Salons Scientifiques, 1 place Saint Thomas, 75007 Paris

9h : Welcome coffee

9h30 : Session 3: Moderated by Chantal Verdeil, Inalco-CERMOM

Representing cities, circulations and transformations through languages and literature

9h30 : Marcela Rubino, Inalco-CERMOM

The treatment of race in post-2000s Gulf novels 

10h : Elisabeth Vauthier, Université Jean Moulin-Lyon 3 IETT - CEFREPA

Ville romanesques : une lecture de l'histoire du Koweit

10h30 : Laura Hindelang, University of Bern

Challenging cultural circulation: a media-historical approach to Gulf cities

11h : coffee break

11h30 : Q&A

12h15 : lunch break 

14h : Session 4: Moderated by Asseel Al Ragam, Kuwait University

Revisiting and relocating Gulf architecture and urban planning within global, regional, and local contexts to draw Out continuities and exceptions beyond oil development

14h : Laurent Bonnefoy, Sciences Po-Ceri

The Omani urban counter-model in the Gulf 

14h30 : Anahi Alviso, Sciences Po-CEFREPA

Un-Monuments across cities of the Arabian peninsula

15h : Jawaher Al Sudairy (zoom)

Tracing the endogenous forces animating Makkah's urban restructuring 

15h30 : Q&A

16h : Concluding remarks 

Roundtable discussion 

Organised by Asseel Al-Ragam, Hélène Thiollet, Eric Verdeil, Chantal Verdeil