Mudarri Initiative Hosts Talk on The Idea of Arab Food
The Corinne Mudarri Arab Civilization Initiative at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University hosted an October 8, 2019 lecture with Sami Zubaida, Professor Emeritus Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London and contributor at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, on “The Idea of Arab Food: Geography and Ethnicity.”
The Mudarri Initiative is designed to support thoughtful and wide-reaching programming and curricular innovation that explores and promotes the many contributions of Arab civilization, culture and society, including, but not limited to, innovations such as mathematics, science, medicine, philosophy, language, art, architecture and horticulture. The permanently endowed fund will provide support for annual student-focused activities, lectures and curricular innovation by faculty and is open to the entire BU community, and in some cases, to all BU friends and alumni throughout the Boston area.
Pardee School Dean Adil Najam introduced the Mudarri Initiative and discussed past events the initiative has hosted including discussions on Arabic scientific thought, positive trends in Arab societies, and the Arab golden age. Houchang E. Chehabi, Pardee School Professor of International Relations and History, introduced Zubaida’s talk.
“The region shared a food culture with differentiation between mountain, coast, and the cities, but it’s very difficult now because you have the claims of different ethnicities — is baklava Arab, Turkish, Greek, or Byzantine as some people have argued?” Zubaida said “My solution is to say it’s not really an ethnic property, it’s part of the larger region.”
Following his lecture, Zubaida opened the discussion up for a question-and-answer session with faculty, students and members of the Boston University community in attendance. The event also provided guests the opportunity to enjoy various cuisines from the region.
Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London and has held visiting positions in Cairo, Istanbul, Beirut, Aix-en-Provence, Berkeley CA, Paris and New York. His research interests include Middle East Politics, Religion and Law, Nationalism, Food and Culture. Professor Zubaida is a regular contributor to the LMEI’s The Middle East in London magazine and has published extensively on the Middle East, most recently an article in openDemocracy on Islam and Reform. He is also a Professorial Research Associate of the Food Studies Centre, SOAS and has published widely on food and culinary cultures including ‘Drink, meals and social boundaries’, in Jakob A. Klein and Anne Murcott (eds), Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. with Richard Tapper, Tauris Parke, 2001).
Corinne Mudarri (DGE ’51) is a retired American Airlines official, where she worked for 25 years. Since retiring, she has published a Massachusetts Almanac of Arab Americans and retains a deep interest in developing better understanding of Arab civilization, especially amongst the young. Earlier, she had also endowed the Nicholas and Eugenie Mudarri Family Student Exchange Fund at Boston Univeristy, in memory of her parents.