Position:

University Lecturer; On leave until Trinity Term 2012

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / St Antony's College

Email:

walter.armbrust@sant.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

• Mass media and popular culture of the Middle East.
• A history of new media in the Middle East (1919 to the present)

Current Projects:

• A History of New Media in Egypt, 1919-1975
• Christmasizing Ramadan and Other Tales of Ambiguous Piety: Essays on Popular Culture and Religion in Modern Egypt

Courses Taught:

• For Final Honours School in Arabic and Islamic Studies or Arabic with a Subsidiary Language: Further Subject (3rd year) on Society and Culture in the Modern Arab World; Special Subject (4th year) in Popular Culture and Mass Media, 1930 to the Present.
• For the M.Phil and M.St in Modern Middle East Studies: Social Anthropology of the Middle East; Mass Media in the Middle East.

Recent Publications:

• 2008   Editor,  "The Formation of National Culture in Egypt: Social, Cultural and Ideological Trajectories."  A special issue of History Compass 6
  (http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/). Half of the papers delivered at a conference convened in Oxford, Jan 12-13, 2006.
• 2008   “The Formation of National Culture in Egypt in the Interwar Period: Cultural Trajectories.”  History Compass  6
  (http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/).
• 2008   "Long Live Love: Patriarchy in the Time of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab."  History Compass 6 (http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/).
• 2008  "The Ubiquitous Non-Presence of India: Peripheral Visions from Egyptian Popular Culture." In Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti eds, Global Bollywood: Transnational Travels of the Song-Dance Sequence.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 200-220.
• 2007   Co-editor (with Ron Nettler and Lucie Ryzova),   "The Formation of National Culture in Egypt: Social, Cultural and Ideological Trajectories."  A special issue of Maghreb Review v. 33 (1).  Half of the papers delivered at a conference convened in Oxford, Jan 12-13 2006.
• 2007   "Celebratory Ramadan and Hyperpiety in a Mexican Standoff: Counterhegemony in the Crossfire." In John Chalcraft and Yasin Nourani eds., Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony.  London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 155-176.
• 2007   "Ismail Yasin in the Coloring Book."  ARTE News (Quarterly Feature: Ambivalent Nostalgias; edited by Christa Salamandra).  October. 
  http://www.arteeast.dreamhosters.com/pages/artenews/nostalgias/128/
• 2007    "Bravely Stating the Obvious: Egyptian Humor and the Anti-American Consensus."  Arab Media and Society, October
  (http://www.arabmediasociety.org/?article=413).  Not peer reviewed.
• 2006   "Audiovisual Media and History of the Middle East."  In Amy Singer and Israel Gershoni eds, History and Historiographies of the Modern Middle East.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 288-312.
• 2006   "When the Lights Go Down in Cairo."  In Diane Singerman and Paul Amar eds, Cairo Cosmpolitan: World Capital of Myths and Movements.  Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, pp. 415-445.
• 2005   "Synchronizing Watches: The State, the Consumer, and Sacred Time in Ramadan Television."  In Birgit Meyer and Annalies Moors eds., Religion, Media and the Public Sphere.  Indiana University Press, pp. 207-226.
• 2005   "What Would Sayyid Qutb Say?  Some Reflections on Video Clips."  Transnational Broadcasting Studies 14 (Spring/Summer)
  http://www.tbsjournal.com/Archives/Spring05/armbrust.html.

Further Info:

• Senior editor of the e-journal Arab Media and Society
  (http://www.arabmediasociety.org/).
• Walter Armbrust's web site:http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Esant1114/Armbrust.html
• The Middle East Centre:http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/mec/