Intersectarian and interreligious marriages frequently provoke strong social opposition from Lebanese of all sects and faiths. In this talk, Lara Deeb will describe her new research project that takes this social opposition as a lens to shed light on social sectarianism in Lebanon and its diaspora. The talk will describe the stakes of this project and its driving questions, and share some preliminary observations based on field research thus far.
Lara Deeb is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Scripps College. She is the author of An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon (Princeton University Press 2006), co-author with Mona Harb of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi’ite South Beirut (Princeton University Press, 2013), which won the British Society for Middle East Studies book prize, and co-author with Jessica Winegar of Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2015). Deeb has published widely on the politics of knowledge production, gender and Islam, piety and morality, Hizbullah’s cultural production, and transnational feminism. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Her current book project uses family and social responses to intersectarian and interreligious relationships and marriages in Lebanon to better understand social sectarianism and sect as a form of social difference.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Anthropology Dept. Culture, Power, and Social Change (CPSC) interest group