Leila Hudson – författare

Middle Eastern Humanities: An Introduction to Cultures of the Middle East combines the guided, step-by-step and interactive style of a textbook with a sophisticated and sympathetic approach to the cultural logics of tradition and innovation of the Middle East. The book will be useful for teachers and students, as well as those educating themselves about this critical region of the world. Each chapter starts with an introduction by the author, an anthropologist and historian who writes and teaches about Syria, Islam, nationalism, gender, media and popular culture. Each chapter then includes readings by Middle Eastern and Western scholars, journalists and historical actors to deepen the point. Finally, study or discussion questions prompt the reader to apply the material to practical situations. The book is divided into sections on methodology (the value of a humanities approach and debunking stereotypes), diversity and environment (geography, food and diverse lifestyles), Islam (its origins, practices and beliefs, family life and durabilities and vulnerabilities as a social system), cultural expressions (literature, art, science, music and dance traditions) and current hybrids (electronic media and popular culture in predominantly young societies). Following a program used successfully in the University of Arizona's General Education program for a decade, this book prepares students and readers for a trajectory of further study, professional engagement or appreciation of the complexities of this critical region of the world.

While humanitarian organizations and media outlets often reduce Syrian refugees to statistics or brief anecdotes, the real story of displacement unfolds in the intimate spaces of family life. Through the interwoven narratives of five middle-aged sisters from Damascus, Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home reveals how Syrian women navigate war, exile, and the profound transformation of their families and identities. Drawing on extensive interviews conducted between 2015 and 2017, this book follows an extended Sunni Muslim family as they flee their homes in Damascus’s Eastern Ghouta suburbs and scatter across Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and eventually Europe. As these women move through an increasingly hostile landscape of border controls, refugee camps, and human trafficking networks, they must reinvent themselves—from stable middle-class mothers to resourceful survivors, from guardians of tradition to architects of change. Their journeys challenge conventional assumptions about refugee experiences, revealing how displacement reconfigures family networks, religious practices, and gender roles. Leila Hudson’s intimate portrait of Syrian displacement offers vital insights for researchers and practitioners working in humanitarian assistance, refugee resettlement, and forced migration. It provides essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how ordinary families navigate extraordinary circumstances, and how women in particular bear both the burdens and opportunities of displacement.