Edited Books

The Beirut Call is a book on resilience & resistance culture in Lebanon, featuring artists, poets, authors, activists, and academics testimonials, analyses, narratives, and stories of initiatives for social change. It brings together individuals who think, do and create to inspire and communicate diverse approaches in facing wars, crises, instability, and despair; people who are turning to the arts and culture as a way to engage audiences through deep and emotional connections to bring about change, and who are imbuing their work with social and political messaging to advance the issues about which they feel most passionate.

The Beirut Call presents diverse perceptions and expressions that speak to Lebanese in their homeland and in the diaspora, but it also transcends the borders of Lebanon as contributors address glocal (local-global) issues — war, peace, memory, history, identity, creativity, cultural resistance, resilience, artistic activism, human rights, feminism, social justice, intercultural dialogue… — which can be discussed in a range of settings such as in schools and universities, arts & culture workshops and learning programs, youth and community centers, women’s groups, NGOs, as well as alternative education programs.

Neil Leadbeater Review of “The Beirut Call” in Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2022.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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Featured authors and artists: Dr. Pamela Chrabieh | Norah Al Nimer | Katia Aoun Hage | Malak El Gohary | Amal Chehayeb | Lana AlBeik | Dr. Frank Darwiche | Noor Husain | Joelle Sfeir | Maram El Hendy | Dr. Omar Sabbagh | Karma Bou Saab | Farah Nasser | Haeley Ahn | Masooma Rana | Sandra Malki | Maya Khadra | Nour Zahi Al-Hassanieh

What influence does gender have on art production in nowadays Southwestern Asia? Does gender embody everyday life experiences, including the artistic experience? Are gendered spaces of the region Orientalized, demystified, or both? Are bodies, especially women’s bodies, described as asexualized, passive, and silent? Do local authors and artists living in diaspora reproduce totalizing or essentialist tendencies? Are power relations between the former colonizers and colonized uncovered? Has the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring given women a greater voice and are more individuals willing to talk about gender openly? Is the view that assumes that women in Southwestern Asia are oppressed and left out of cultural debates a misconception?

These are a few of the many questions I had in mind when I decided to explore the issue of gender and arts. The diversity of Southwestern Asian voices is so vast that it is unlikely to work on an exhaustive review, and this is definitely not the goal of this book; neither is it to obtain a fixed view of the gender and art relation. In fact, this book is not an essentialist celebration of identity and differences with authors and artists speaking for “the Middle Eastern Woman”- as Ella Shohat states: “We cannot reduce any community to one representative, speaking on its behalf.”It presents just a sampling of a rich body of voices, thus only a glimpse at the visions, values, desires, practices, and struggles this region has witnessed. It gathers the visions, journeys, statements, biographies, and artworks of some authors and artists who either self-define or reject the gender binary by emphasizing the fluidity of gender and subverting gender conformity. It also displays a mosaic of languages and local dialects, visual techniques, and writing styles; reeds that vibrate and produce different sounds and pitch range out of empowered lips.

Most of the authors and artists who contributed to this collective work are part of the Red Lips High Heels’ movement (redlipshighheels.com), an online gathering project of writers and artists I launched in 2012 in Lebanon. This movement advocates peacebuilding, human rights, and women’s rights in Southwestern Asia. It involves individuals from various ethnic, religious, cultural, socio-economic, and political backgrounds, living in the region and in the diaspora. Academics, lawyers, psychologists, artists, educators, employees of the private and public sectors, businesswomen and housewives, students, men, women, and people of different sexual orientations, of gender identities and expressions, have been engaging in writing, drawing, reading, commenting on content from various feminist and human rights/peacebuilding perspectives, and in demonstrating their commitments to intermingling causes. Southwestern Asia has unfortunately been too often stereotyped, viewed as homogeneous, and demonized, but the authors and artists featured in this book deconstruct prejudices. They tell stories of the rich pasts and current diversities of this part of the world. They prove somehow that the local belongings, realities, memories, and histories are not to be analyzed through a binary perspective – they are far too complex, a mélange of grey zones and multiple shades.

The book’s contributors also unveil their innermost selves. Their works are critical engagements with contexts, interpretations of self and other, and cultural memory; they materialize and visualize embodied visions and experiences. Indeed, these artists and authors write about their lives and what they see happening in the heart of their respective societies and for some, in their post-modern nomadic lifestyles. Through their texts and images, they carry somehow diverse refrains of the cities and lands they come from and/or inhabit; in other words, diverse orchestrations.

Critics may argue that the arts and real life are two different matters; that shapes, colors, and letters tell us something about visual arts, literature, and poetry but not about gender constructions and relations. However, for the authors and artists featured in this book, artistic and literary contents and formats serve as a barometer by which one can understand some of the numerous intricate individual and collective identities, and how gender intersects with ethnicity, religion, economy, politics, age, disability, etc.; at least, one can understand a main function of art which is to contribute to change.

AUD School of Arts and Sciences Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Dr. Pamela Chrabieh has recently edited and published a book entitled Reeds from Red Lips on Arts and Gender in Southwestern Asia.

The book includes diverse stories told through poetry and prose in English, French, Modern Standard Arabic and Lebanese, and encompasses a selection of conceptual photography artworks, digital visuals, cartoons and paintings. It features established scholars, poets and authors, journalists, artists and students, from Southwestern Asia or living in the region: Dr. Pamela Chrabieh, Norah Al Nimer, Katia Aoun Hage, Malak El Gohary, Amal Chehayeb, Lana AlBeik, Dr. Frank Darwiche, Noor Husain, Joelle Sfeir, Maram El Hendy, Dr. Omar Sabbagh, Karma Bou Saab, Farah Nasser, Haeley Ahn, Masooma Rana, Sandra Malki, Maya Khadra and Nour Zahi Al-Hassanieh.

In her book foreword, Dr. Chrabieh explains that the diversity of Southwestern Asian voices is “so vast that it is unlikely to work on an exhaustive review, and this is definitely not the goal of the book; neither is it to obtain a fixed view of the gender and art relation (…). The book gathers the visions, journeys, statements, biographies and artworks of some authors and artists who either self-define or reject the gender binary by emphasizing the fluidity of gender and subverting gender conformity. It also displays a mosaic of languages and local dialects, visual techniques and writing styles; reeds that vibrate and produce different sounds and pitch range out of empowered lips”.

According to Dr. Chrabieh, “most of those who contributed to this collective work are part of the Red Lips High Heels’ movement (http://www.redlipshighheels.com/), an online gathering project of writers and artists I launched in 2012 in Lebanon. This movement advocates peacebuilding, human rights, and women’s rights in Southwestern Asia. (…) Southwestern Asia has unfortunately been too often stereotyped, viewed as homogeneous, and demonized, but the authors and artists featured in this book deconstruct prejudices. They tell stories of the rich pasts and current diversities of this part of the world. They prove somehow that the local belongings, realities, memories, and histories are quite complex, a mélange of grey zones and multiple shades”.

Dr. Chrabieh adds: “I would like to express my gratitude to the many peoples who have been providing support to the Red Lips High Heels’ movement since 2012 and to this book’s project. I would like to thank in particular the authors and artists who allowed me to publish their works and my assistant researcher Haeley Ahn for her dedication and valuable input in the editing, proofreading, and design of the book. To my students and former students at the American University in Dubai: thank you for inspiring me with your life stories, talents, skills, and knowledge”.

Reeds from Red Lips is available on amazon.com

SOURCE: AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN DUBAI NEWS

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Books

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Book Chapters

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Peer-Reviewed Papers

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“Peace, Islam and the Arts in Dubai”, in Hawliyat, Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Balamand, issue 18 (2017-2018), 111-134.

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“Pratiques de réconciliation au Liban: un état des lieux”, Théologiques, Revue de l’institut d’études religieuses de l’Université de Montréal, vol. 23, no. 2, 2015 (publié en décembre 2017), p. 229-252.

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التربية من أجل السلام في لبنان: دراسة المسألة في الإطار الجامعي، المشرق، الجامعة اليسوعية في بيروت، ألسنة التسعون، الجزء الأول، ٢٠١٦، ص. ١٠٩-١٣٦

‘Peace Education in Lebanon. A Case Study in the University Context’, International Journal of Arts and Sciences, Volume 8, Number 7, 2015, p. 201- 213.

‘Théologies libanaises du dialogue islamo-chrétien : Georges Khodr et Mahmoud Ayoub’, Théologiques, Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences des Religions, Université de Montréal, Volume 19, numéro 2, 2011 (publié en 2014), p.101-135.

ممارسات حوار الأديان، افراحه، عقباته وتحدياته، المشرق، الجامعة اليسوعية في بيروت، الجزء الأول، ٢٠١٤، ٢٣٩-٢٥٢

وسائل إعلامية جديدة، دمقرطة وبناء السلام: ظاهرة العالم العربي، المشرق، الجامعة اليسوعية في بيروت، الجزء الثاني،٢٠١١،.٣٥٧-٣٧١

‘La gestion de la diversité religieuse au Liban – Pistes de réflexion’, Théologique – Faculté Pontificale de Théologie, 2/2008, Presses de l’Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon, 2009, p. 117-146.

حقوق الإنسان في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا العام ٢٠٠٨ : مطالعة تقرير منظمة رصد حقوق الإنسان هيومن رايتس وتش ٢٠٠٩

المشرق، الجامعة اليسوعية في بيروت، الجزء الثاني ، ٢٠٠٩، ص. ٣٤٥-٣٥

ايقونات بطريركية انطاكية، رسالة سلام إلى لبنان اليوم, المشرق، الجامعة اليسوعية في بيروت، الجزء الأول, ٢٠٠٩، ص. ١٨٥-٢٠١

‘En mémoire de Gebran Badine, victime de la violence meurtrière’, Scriptura Nouvelle Série, Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences des Religions, Université de Montréal, 9/1, 2007, p.109-118.

‘The Culture of Resistance against War: Contributions of the 25-35 Lebanese Age Group’, Bulletin semestriel de l’Institut d’Études Islamo-Chrétiennes, Fi Rihab El Hiwar, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Année II, no.2, 2007, p. 20-33.

‘De l’art sacré à l’écriture interspirituelle : un parcours en devenir’, Scriptura Nouvelle Série, Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences des Religions, Université de Montréal, 8/1, 2006, p.33-39.

‘Religion, politique et violence : pour une relecture de la guerre au Liban’, Religiologiques, Québec, no.31, 2005, p. 37-47.

‘Théologies pragmatiques et dialogue interreligieux : une pratique et une discipline de la parole plurielle’, publication conjointe avec Jean-François Roussel, Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses, 34/3–4, 2005, p. 375–390.

‘Colonialismes et sociétés proche-orientales : un divorce inconsommé’, Scriptura Nouvelle Série, Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences des Religions, Université de Montréal, 6/1, 2004, p.71-83.

‘Dialogues islamo-chrétiens contemporains dans les sociétés proche-orientales : Enjeux actuels et perspectives d’avenir’, Studies in Religion/ Sciences Religieuses, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses, 32/3, 2003, p.243-259.

‘Islam et prostitution’, Scriptura Nouvelle Série, , Faculté de Théologie et de Sciences des Religions, Université de Montréal, 5/1, 2003, p.41-44.

‘Enquête sur les chrétiens du Proche-Orient. Présents conflictuels, avenirs incertains’, Dire, Université de Montréal, 2003, 12/3, p.43-45.

Further information about other publications, including conference proceedings and online articles is available upon request.