Orit Bashkin
Office: Walker 515
Phone: 773-834-8346
Email: oritb@uchicago.edu
Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History
Education
2005, Ph.D. Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University.
Dissertation's title: "Intellectuals in Monarchic Iraq - 1921-1941"
1999, Turkish Language and Culture Program, Bogazici University (Istanbul)
1995-1998, MA, Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University (summa cum laude). Thesis' title: "Al-Misbah, A Jewish Newspaper in Iraq"
1995, Seminar in Peace Research, Oslo University
1992-1995, BA, Tel Aviv University. Double Major: Middle Eastern History & Arabic Literature (magna cum laude)
Background
Orit Bashkin received her Ph.D. at Princeton University (1999-2004). Her dissertation "Intellectuals in Monarchic Iraq "1921-1941" looks at the construction of the Iraqi public sphere and the emergence of democratic discourses in Iraq during the interwar period. She did her undergraduate work at Tel Aviv University in Middle Eastern History & Arabic Literature. Her publications include articles on the history of Arab-Jews in Iraq, on Iraqi history and on Arabic literature. She has also edited a book Sculpturing Culture in Egypt with Israel Gershoni and Liat Kozma, which included translations into Hebrew of seminal works by Egyptian intellectuals. She is currently working on a book dealing with intellectuals in Hashemite Iraq titled: The Other Iraq, Intellectuals, Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq, 1921-1958.
Publications
Books:
- The Other Iraq—Pluralism, Intellectuals and Culture in Hashemite Iraq, 1921-1958 [Manuscript stage]
- Sculpturing Culture in Egypt: Cultural Planning, National Identity and Social Change in Egypt, 1890-1939, co-authored with Israel Gershoni and Liat Kozma, (Ramot Press, Tel Aviv, 1999) [Hebrew]
Essays in journals:
- "When Mu'āwiya entered the Curriculum" - Some comments on the Iraqi education system in the interwar period," Comparative Education Review, (special Issue on "Education in Islam: Myths and Truths"), Vol. 50, no. 3 (2006)
- "Why Did Baghdadi Jews Stop Writing to their Brethren in Mainz? - Some Comments about the Reading Practices of Iraqi Jews in the 19th Century," Journal of Semitic Studies, Sup.15 (2005)
- "Grandma and I - Tales from Old Baghdad," Mekarov, Winter 2002 [Hebrew]
- "Hanukka in the Zionist Discourse According to "Seffer Hamoadim" (The Book of Festivals)," Zemanin, Vol 16, Number 61, Winter 1997/8 [Hebrew]
Book chapters:
- "When Dwelling Becomes Impossible - Arab-Jews in Americaand in Israelin the writings of Ahmad Susa and Shimon Ballas," for Zahia Salhi (ed.), The Arab Diaspora - Voices of Anguished Scream, Routledge, 2005
- "Looking forward to the Past: Nahda, Revolution and the Early Ba'th in Iraq," The Other Renaissance, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2007.
- "The NileValley at the Banks of the Euphrates and Tigris: Egyptian Intellectuals in Iraq during the Interwar Period," Israel Gershoni and Meir Hatina (eds). "Narrating the Nile - Cultures, Identities, Memories," Lynne Rienner Press, forthcoming (under contract)
- "Concubine J Demands Her Freedom -- Harems and Political Tyranny in the works of Jurjī Zaydān," Marilyn Booth (ed.), Harem Histories, forthcoming, Duke University Press, forthcoming (under contract).
- "On Noh's Fantastic Struggle against Fadhil al-Jamali - Dhu al-Nun Ayyub (1904-1983) and the Iraqi Education System in the Interwar Years," in Ami Ayalon (ed.), The Madrasash Festschrift in Honor of Michael Winter, Tel Aviv University Press, 2004 [Hebrew].