Press
Press Releases
AY 2020-21
NYUAD Researcher Featured on BBC’s Flagship Discussion Program
Anne-Lise Tropato’s insight into the roundtable discussion with other leaders in the field of falconry was featured on the BBC’s website and broadcast to millions worldwide.
July 7, 2021
New Clues to the Ancient History of the UAE and Oman Uncovered by NYUAD-Sponsored Team
Unusually heavy winter rains helped to reveal new insights into how the region’s ancestors lived.
August 27, 2020
AY 2019-20
Researchers from NYUAD examine the diversity, evolutionary history, and genomics of falcons.
December 11, 2019
AY 2018-19
New Perspectives on Old Traditions
NYU Abu Dhabi scholars have produced an impressive collection of books and articles about the Arab world’s rich intellectual, religious, and cultural history.
2018
AY 2016-17
Bedouin Nabati Poetry in the Arabian Peninsula
For centuries, Nabati poetry has been a touchstone of identity and tribal values in the Arabian Peninsula.
June 2017
NYUAD Researcher Stars in Arabic TV Series About Bedouin Life
An NYU Abu Dhabi researcher who roamed the deserts of Saudi Arabia in the 1980s is now starring in an Arabic TV series about his experiences.
October 2, 2016
AY 2015-16
Responding Locally to Global Problems
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi are trying to determine how climate change will affect humanity’s collective future and how to better understand changes that are taking place.
April 18, 2016
Resident Expert: The Untold Story of OPEC
Will the world always need oil and is it true that we're running out? Are oil-rich nations like the UAE victims of the so-called oil curse? Senior Research Fellow Giuliano Garavini answers these and other tough questions as he explores the untold past and uncertain future of OPEC.
March 12, 2016
Syria, Children of War & Digital Diplomacy
These two experienced scholars/diplomats discuss the war in Syria, ways to provide education to children displaced by war, and the role that digital diplomacy can play in the future.
January 27, 2016
The rapid pace of development in the United Arab Emirates over the past few decades is sometimes difficult to comprehend.
November 29, 2015
AY 2014-15
Resident Expert: What Drives National Identity?
Humanities Research Assistant Matthew MacLean studies the spatial transformation of the UAE and Trucial States in the second half of the 20th century, in particular how the development of the UAE's infrastructure — housing, roads, and ports — made possible the emergence of Emirati national identity.
July 26, 2015
Resident Expert: Early Writings in Arab Feminism
NYUAD Senior Research Fellow Marilyn Booth's recent work demonstrates how scholarly research can work: you never know what will catch your attention.
May 30, 2015
Marilyn Booth and Özge Calafato on the Egyptian Collection
In this feature, Dr. Marilyn Booth and Özge Calafato investigate a collection of photographs that were taken in the early 20th century.
March 22, 2015
AY 2013-14
A Varied Landscape of Humanities Research
A detailed history of OPEC, the complexities of land ownership in Kenya, and ethical positions of sonic practices and performance in Morocco — three areas of study being investigated by the first recipients of the NYU Abu Dhabi Humanities Research Fellowship Program — appear to be as far ranging as it gets.
June 25, 2014
In The News
Humanities Research Fellows are frequently featured in local and international news media.
2021
Michael Christopher Low Wins 2021 Albert Hourani Book Award
Michael Christopher Low has earned the Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association for his book Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj.
MESA | December 2021
Imperial Mecca Shortlisted for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize
Michael Low’s book Imperial Mecca (CUP, 2020) has been chosen as one of the six shortlisted titles for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize.
BKFS Book Prize | August 2021
Tomb discoveries reveal Oman’s ancient trade route from coast to interior
Grave sites discovered in Ad Dhahirah governorate are revealing new information about the past.
The National | July 7, 2021
Falconry: The history of hunting with birds of prey
Rajan Datar asks what lies at the heart of the bond between humans and raptors, and explores the modern-day challenges to this ancient, and at times controversial, practice.
BBC World Service – The Forum | June 17, 2021
Preserving Arabia’s Bedouin Poetry
In 1989, diplomat and linguist Marcel Kurpershoek set out to meet poets and record their verses. It became a lifetime project that continues to illuminate roots of the Arabic language and Arabian Peninsula cultures.
AramcoWorld | May/June 2021
NEH Announces $24 Million for 225 Humanities Projects Nationwide
The Bat Archaeological Project has been selected as a recipient of the 'Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research' grant by the US National Endowment for the Humanities.
National Endowment for the Humanities | April 14, 2021
Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (New Texts Out Now)
I turn to consider the hajj as an epidemiological bridge between British India and the Ottoman Empire.
Jadaliyya | February 25, 2021
Imperial Mecca: An Interview with Prof. Michael Low
The hajj—that is, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca—is a pillar of faith for Muslims, but in the late nineteenth century, it was also a legal, epidemiological, and imperial frontier.
Toynbee Prize Foundation | February 19, 2021
Michael Christopher Low analyzes the late Ottoman hajj and Hijaz region as transimperial spaces, reshaped by the competing forces of Istanbul’s project of frontier modernization and the extraterritorial reach of British India’s steamship empire in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
New Books Network | January 28, 2021
Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj by Michael Christopher Low
In Imperial Mecca, Michael Christopher Low sets the Hijaz as a place between two imperial worlds: an Ottoman island adrift on a colonial ocean, lost in the artificial academic division between the Middle East and South Asia.
Asian Review of Books | January 12, 2021
2020
Ajam Podcast #29: Nostalgic Desire & The Restoration of Kabul’s Darul Aman Palace
In this episode, Rustin Zarkar interviews Dr. Huma Gupta about her 2017 article, “‘Nostalgic Desire’: The Restoration of Dar ul-Aman Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan” (Thresholds Journal, MIT Press).
Ajam Media Collective | December 7, 2020
Ayman Shihadeh appointed to the History sub-panel of REF 2021
Senior Humanities Research Fellow Ayman Shihadeh was nominated and then selected for appointment to one of the 34 expert sub-panels of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. The new panelists include experts and leading researchers from across a range of universities in the UK and beyond who will play a key role in assessing the wider impact of research conducted at higher education institutions in the UK.
Research Excellence Framework | December 4, 2020
Prof. Michael Christopher Low (Iowa State University and NYU Abu Dhabi) discusses with Renee Manderville, Philip Gooding, and Archisman Chaudhuri (all IOWC) his new book, Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (New York: Columbia University Press, 2020).
Appraising Risk | September 30, 2020
Ajam Podcast #24: Imperial Mecca
Dr. Low discusses the challenges the Ottomans faced in administering the province of Hijaz and the hajj in the rapidly transforming 19th century.
Ajam Media Collective | September 28, 2020
Beyond the Headlines: Saudi Arabia from Bedouin culture to a leading power
As the kingdom celebrates its 90th anniversary this week, we reflect on the growth of one of the Middle East's most important countries
The National | September 23, 2020
As it turns 60 Opec needs to adapt to navigate the transition of energy resources
The oil crises has sowed the seeds of modern renewable energy, efficiency, and energy policy, while halting the post-war paradigm of environmentally unsustainable breakneck growth.
The National | September 14, 2020
Co-Editors of Jadaliyya’s Environment Page, Carly A. Krakow and Huma Gupta, recently spoke with Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh about his work as the founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS), and the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH).
Jadaliyya | August 17, 2020
Ecological Imaginaries of Water & Climate Change in Dubai
Nadia Christidi explains how an anthropological approach can help us understand the political practices and economic rationalities of water governance based on her fieldwork in Dubai.
Status | August 12, 2020
Le Portrait Francophone – Anne-Lise Tropato (in French)
Anne-Lise Tropato has a doctorate in art history. She teaches artistic and cultural history of falconry at NYUAD.
Salut les Émirats | June 28, 2020
Translated by Huma Gupta. The original interview was conducted by Osama Esber in Arabic.
Jadaliyya | June 23, 2020
L’antica arte della falconeria, patrimonio dell’umanità (in Italian)
Falconry Researcher Anne-Lise Tropato talks about NYUAD's falconry project in this episode of the Italian podcast 'The Voice of Focus History'.
La Voce di Focus Storia | June 16, 2020
Cement, War, and Toxicity: The Materialities of Displacement in Iraq
Huma Gupta and Gabi Kirk, discuss with Kali Rubaii how ecologies of war have produced multiple waves of displacement and have intimately shaped the lives of displaced Iraqis through the materiality of cement.
Jadaliyya | June 8, 2020
Arts & Culture: Tracing the visual history of falconry in the UAE
Anne-Lise Tropato talks to Gulf News about this important fixture in Arabian culture.
Gulf News | May 19, 2020
Green Sukuk: The Future of Islamic Financing for Climate Change Adaptation
The Environment in Context podcast discusses the role of Islamic Financing in the development of the global Green Bond industry, with Bassam Haddad as this episode's guest host.
Jadaliyya | April 19, 2020
A Dutchman's quest to translate Bedouin poetry takes him to Ras Al Khaimah
Marcel Kurpershoek is seeking to understand the 17th century writings of folk hero Ibn Dhaher for an English-language book.
The National | March 8, 2020
Giuliano Garavini's book is a corrective to Western-centric accounts of the organisation, and a rare insight into international diplomacy at work.
The National | January 20, 2020
2019
What falconry can teach us about diplomacy and feminism
A new course at NYU – Abu Dhabi is using falconry to teach students about everything from art history to heritage and the role of women in society.
The National | November 28, 2019
Episode 1: A Meeting of Cultures. London to Isfahan
The first episode focuses on the early modern period exploring the history of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722); rituals and banquets at the court of Shah Abbas I (1571-1629); the architecture of Isfahan and English travellers to Isfahan.
UK Government Art Collection & Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art | October 7, 2019
Dr. Rustom sheds light on the figure of Iblis (or Satan) in the writings of ‘Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, the 12th century Sufi mystic and jurist.
Ajam Media Collective | June 23, 2019
The Quintessence of Reality: An Interview with LAL Fellow Mohammed Rustom
Two Library of Arabic Literature Fellows, Mohammed Rustom and Bilal Orfali, recently sat down together to discuss the edition and translation projects they’ve been working on this year at NYU Abu Dhabi. Here, Bilal Orfali interviews Mohammed Rustom about his work on ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s Zubdat al-Haqa’iq (The Quintessence of Reality).
Library of Arabic Literature | March 29, 2019
2018
How the falcon became a symbol of regal power
A research project at NYUAD looks at the bird of prey’s place in history as an emblem of wealth and authority.
The National | May 26, 2018
The European Qur’an (EuQu) Awarded €10 million ERC Synergy Grant
Dr. Jan Loop, along with an international team of researchers, will study how the Quran has been interpreted, adapted, and used in Christian Europe from the Middle Ages through to early modern history.
European Research Council | October 23, 2018
Arabian Romantic: Translating and ‘Cherishing the Irrational’
In this second part of a back-and-forth that took place over email, Kurpershoek discussed what is unique about Ibn Sbayyil’s work and the translational challenges of bringing it into a contemporary English.
Library of Arabic Literature | October 19, 2018
Arabian Romantic: A “Linear Descendant” of Early Arabic Classics
In a back-and-forth over email, Kurpershoek discussed why this sort of “romantic” poetry has disappeared from the landscape, why he calls it “romantic” at all, and how the survival of this type of poetry “hangs by a very thin, tenuous thread.” This is the first in a two-part series of interviews about Arabian Romantic.
Library of Arabic Literature | October 16, 2018
Social Scientists: Academics and Advocates?
As experts in all realms of human behavior, is it the responsibility of social scientists to generate solutions to social problems?
The Gazelle | October 14, 2018
The Poems of the Story (in Arabic)
Marcel Kupershoek is featured in an episode of a new poetry program. The subject of his episode is on Humeidan al-Shuway'ir, an early 18th-century satirical poet. The program will feature six poets.
Al Arabiya | March 17, 2018
Falconry in Art: A Heritage in Global Perspective
At NYUAD, Yannis Hadjinicolaou will pursue a project focusing on the pictorial history of falconry, which has largely been neglected by art historians and cultural historians alike.
eArtHumanities | Jan 28, 2018
2017
Falconry Research Project: database by UAE researchers shows ubiquity of predatory bird
Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi are compiling a database of falconry imagery through history.
The National | December 7, 2017
In this second part of their discussion, Kurpershoek talks about the available manuscripts, the ways in which the print editions of Hmedan’s work were censored, the Golden Age of Nabati poetry, and more.
Arablit | December 13, 2017
Marcel Kurpershoek on Translating 18th-century Nabati Poetry That Still ‘Smells Like Fresh Bread’
In this first part of their discussion, Kurpershoek touches on the relationship between this poetry and pre-Islamic works; how it illuminates life in the eighteenth-century Najd; what we know about Hmedan’s life; and how his poems live on in contemporary Central Arabia.
Arablit | December 4, 2017
Arabic reads you can find in English this autumn
From memoirs to sci-fi, satire to sleuths, and poetry to boxing, an abundance of stories will emerge from the region.
The National | August 30, 2017
Magical history tour of Al Ain
A bus tour is taking people around the city’s historic buildings, providing social and cultural insights.
The National | March 6, 2017