Hala Auji - Böcker

Although scholarship on how Islamic art is studied, collected, and exhibited is on the rise, less attention has been paid to how the field’s various commitments relate to pedagogical and curating practices. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this book explores how the past two decades of debates around diverse, inclusive, decolonial, and global approaches to Islamic art history have taken shape in classrooms, galleries, and related settings. The contributions span three interrelated themes: Theory (Critical approaches to teaching and curating), Method (pedagogical approaches), and Practice (curating, collecting, and archiving). Through focused case studies, the volume highlights the complexities raised by the call for global art histories. In doing so, it contends with the challenges – not only the successes – of teaching, curating, and researching Islamic art history in a global context, while contributing new perspectives to broader discourses on the global turn.

What was popular entertainment like for everyday Arab societies in Middle Eastern cities during the long nineteenth century? In what ways did café culture, theatre, illustrated periodicals, cinema, cabarets, and festivals serve as key forms of popular entertainment for Arabic-speaking audiences, many of whom were uneducated and striving to contend with modernity’s anxiety-inducing realities? Studies on the 19th to mid-20th century’s transformative cultural movement known as the Arab nahda (renaissance), have largely focussed on concerns with nationalism, secularism, and language, often told from the perspective of privileged groups. Highlighting overlooked aspects of this movement, this book shifts the focus away from elite circles to quotidian audiences. Its ten contributions range in scope, from music and visual media to theatre and popular fiction. Paying special attention to networks of movement and exchange across Arab societies in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco, this book heeds the call for ‘translocal/transnational’ cultural histories, while contributing to timely global studies on gender, sexuality, and morality. Focusing on the often-marginalized frequenters of cafés, artist studios, cinemas, nightclubs, and the streets, it expands the remit of who participated in the nahda and how they did.