Hans Wehr Part 2: Update!

Dear Fellow Arabophiles and Hans Wehr Devotees!

The wonderful Alaina, who has starred in many of my posts, informs me this very morning that web searching "Hans Wehr biography" yields my blog entry Hans Wehr Part 1 as the #1 result!! This is exciting news!

I have a wonderful Hans Wehr tidbit to share, and then I promise to add a follow up on my research attempts in Leipzig in 2010.

Here is the tidbit...

I found this gem by chance while searching for information about where Hans Wehr is buried. The source is: Zeitschriften der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (1983). There is also an information rich write up on Hans Wehr in German, which I will translate and summarize for the Hans Wehr devotees who haven't had time to learn my favorite foreign language!

You're welcome!

Where you can come to hear about how illiterate women are transforming governance!

I will be presenting my dissertation research on the role of illiterate women in political change at the following three conferences.




Virginia Social Science Association Annual Conference
3:15 – 4:45 PM, Saturday 26 March 2011
Potomac River Room, Webb Center, Old Dominion University
Norfolk VA USA


and

1st Annual Intercultural Communication Graduate Research Expo

10am until 5pm, Saturday 9 April 2011--my presentation will be sometime between 1-2:30 (program)

The Commons building

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore MD 21250

and


Women’s Worlds 2011 “Inclusions, exclusions, and seclusions: Living in a globalized world”
3-7 July 2011
co-hosted by the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University
Morning plenary sessions will take place at the Ottawa Convention Centre
Ottawa Canada

Where do dissertation topics come from?

This is the story of how my dissertation was born. During my 2nd year (fall 2007) of PhD coursework in the Graduate Program in International Studies at ODU, in Dr. Kurt Taylor-Gaubatz' course on democracy in the international system, a great friend and fellow PhD student Kim passed along a fantastic article from Foreign Affairs. Firstly, Kurt is amazing, and definitely one of the best things about GPIS. Secondly, Kim changed my life with that suggestion. The article led to my paper topic for the course on whether electoral quotas for women enhance democracy.

The research for that paper led me to the amazing organization, IDEA, where I hope to work someday (I finally have a concrete, true, and reasonable answer to inquiries about where I hope to end up!). IDEA's work on parliamentary quotas for women is superlative, and their publications drew my attention to the participation of illiterate women in local councils in Pakistan. That tidbit was the next step in the life change that Kim's suggestion sparked.

That spring (2008) Dr. Jennifer Fish taught Gender and Globalization. Jennifer, like Kurt, is one of the gems of ODU--a real treasure. She is the one that nurtured the the idea into the topic that it is today. And of course, as a work in progress, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the chair of my dissertation committee, Dr. Francis Adams, and my 3rd committee member, Dr. Fran Hassencahl. Dr. Adams has a gift for massaging 'ideas' (by which I mean scatter diagrams, really) into cogent organization. Dr. Hassencahl provided invaluable support at the WOCMES 2010 conference in Barcelona, and is the first professor to witness me present my fieldwork from Morocco.

As of this moment, I am moving forward, fast as I can, to become Dr. Baines. There is a deadline with the end of the world scheduled for 2012 and all.

5th annual Virginia Council of Graduate Schools Graduate Student Research Forum

On Thursday 3 February I presented a poster of my research at the 5th annual Virginia Council of Graduate Schools Graduate Student Research Forum. My university, Old Dominion, chose me to present my Morocco field research via a full color 3' x 4' poster at the Library of Virginia. I was the only student from my department, the Graduate Program in International Studies, to be chosen.

I got some useful feedback. I find, as my research develops, and the more I talk about it with people, that there are 2 frustrating reactions.

Firstly, since the working title is: Women, Illiteracy and Public Participation: Barriers to Transforming Governance in Arab states?, many people make a pensive gesture and mutter something like, "oh, I see, you're educating women." No. Not at all. That is not AT ALL what my research is about. In fact, you might say just the opposite. I am DRAWING ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT our notion of 'education' is actually not clearly defined. I am refuting the culturally biased assumption that knowledge ipso facto means being literate. What do we mean by education or literacy anyway? What if your native language isn't written? How are you supposed to be literate, and is it really reasonable for the world to assume that you are doomed to be useless or unproductive in this case?

Secondly, 2 people so far have denied that the stereotype of 'illiterates as obstacles to development' is a common theme throughout development literature. This baffles me, but I have to admit that it merits investigation since more than one person has suggested it. Obviously I will take great pleasure in refuting them. Not only is this stereotype almost universally present, it remains virtually uncontested! This is just one of the treats I will be offering to the world.

Here are the specifics of what I presented in Richmond:

Degree Program: Graduate Program in International Studies (PhD)

Research Working Title: Women, Illiteracy and Public Participation: Barriers to Transforming Governance in Arab states?

Illiteracy is a gendered factor across societies at all levels of development and globalization. Literacy is not simply an indicator of class, social status and educational level, but is assumed to serve as a major barrier to large swathes of society—namely women. Women have marginalized voices, both written and spoken, yet are counted in number in terms of their participation in politics at all levels of governance. "Most women fight wars on two fronts, one for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value, to be a human being."[1] By investigating the ways in which illiteracy affects women’s agency in terms of obtaining, or desiring to obtain positions of influence and decision-making across all levels of governance, this paper analyzes the capacity of literacy to empower and exclude women from public participation.

The role of illiterates in society is complex and largely defined by agents other than the literates themselves. My dissertation focuses in part on the (non)existence of illiterate women in the literature that considers women’s political capacity. Historically where developing states achieved extensive advances in literacy, an increase in political participation also occurred. In Morocco there is expansion of participation without advances in literacy. If literacy is not necessary to empower women as assumed, how does the traditional focus of foreign aid and development regimes on literacy programs miss the mark in terms of the role that illiterate women play in political transition?

---

[1] http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174918

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: WOMEN & NEW MEDIA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS/ABSTRACTS: ISIS CENTER FOR WOMEN & DEVELOPMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: WOMEN & NEW MEDIA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

Source: Isis Center for Women and Development

With the growing dominance of the Internet, blog, chat and mobile telephony, the great "big bang" of the new media has begun. Communication is rapidly changing and becoming mobile, interactive, personalized and multi-channel. This extraordinary revolution is affecting the basic structure of Mediterranean societies, especially those in the south, and is raising various discussions and debates that profoundly impact women: the rapid transformation of the boundaries between the public and the private spaces, the relationship between new technology, orality and women’s literature, changes in the relationship between written and oral languages, the increasing use of mother tongues (mainly oral) in the field of education, and the challenges of new transmissions of women’s knowledges. Deadline for abstracts: March 1, 2011.

These issues are the five main axes of the International Congress Forum on “Women and New Media in the Mediterranean Region”, to be held on June 24, 25 and 26, 2011 at the Palais des Congrès, Fez , Morocco :

1. The transformation of the relationship "gender and public space / private space" in the era of new media

2. New media, orality and literature Women

3.Femmes, written languages and mother tongues

4. The new media and education

5. The challenge of new transmissions of women's knowledge

Papers may be in Arabic, French or English and will last 15-20 minutes.

The deadline for receiving abstracts is March 1, 2011.

The successful participants will be notified by March 31, 2011, and the completed papers need to be emailed send before June 1, 2011.

Participants are responsible for their trip and lodging expenses.

Contact Information:

Fatima Sadiqi - sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr

Senior Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies (MA, PhD)

Co-Founder of International Institute for Languages & Cultures (INLAC )

Director of the Isis Center for Women and Development - Fez, Morocco

http://www.isiscenter.com/Presentation.php

Hans Wehr: Part 1

UPDATE: Hans Wehr Part 2








My Arabic school here in Rabat sometimes has students do presentations. I had avoided them for the most part with my busy work schedule (I’d rather chat in Arabic or go hiking with an Arabic guide or do anything besides presenting to a group of non-native Arabic speakers and a few teachers). Alas, I reached the limit for getting out of these presentations, so I reluctantly told my teacher I’d prepare a talk on Hans Wehr. Or rather Prof. Dr. Hans Wehr. There is almost nothing that the internet doesn’t know; however, Hans Wehr’s life happens to be a total mystery unavailable on the internet. Wikipedia in English, French, German and Arabic is nearly useless. Even WorldCat, my faithful friend, doesn’t yield much. Google can only sell me the books he has written, but can’t do much else for me. I finally came across 3 serviceable sources, and one of those is just a bibliography, the other an epic scholarly tribute. None of the three really reveal anything about the orientalist’s life.

First there is Wolfdietrich Fischer’s article on the event of Hans Wehr’s death.

Wolfdietrich Fischer. Hans Wehr (1909-1981). Der Islam, 59 (1982) p.1

That article led me to the bibliography called ‘Verzeichnis der Schriften von Hans Wehr’ in the Journal of Arabic Linguistics. Issue 8. 1982, p. 7-11. It is finally the one place where all of Prof. Dr. Wehr’s published work is listed together, by H. Bobzin and O. Jastrow. Interestingly, it is the first and only mention my perfunctory research has revealed of a Frau Wehr…that would be Frau A. Wehr…Agnes? Agatha? Some good German name, no doubt.

Then there is the book called Festgabe für Hans Wehr. Zum 60. Geburtstag am 5. Juli 1969 überreicht von seinen Schülern. Edited by Wolfdietrich Fischer. Since it’s a proper book, the closest I can come is the review article by T. M. Johnstone in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 34, No. 1 (1971), p. 144.

The Library of Congress turned up this gem after a key word search: Fünf sprachen unter einem hut by Helene Fera, 1939. But I doubt it is related to the Prof. Dr. Wehr, as the Google Books preview didn’t look promising.

So what does it all mean? I shall write Hans Wehr’s biography! I happen to be visiting Leipzig, his birthplace, in August. I intend to gather any documents I can find there-birth certificate, marriage certificate…whatever else. Also, I contacted the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft photo archivist, who is going to send me a photo they have from 1939. Mysteriously there is a photo of Hans Wehr on the ‘Hans Wehr is my copilot’ Facebook page. I contacted the person who manages it about the photo, but he hasn’t gotten back to me. Since the revered (by me, at least) linguist studied and taught in Halle, where the archives and library of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft are currently located, I’ll make a visit there since it’s just 25 minutes or so from Leipzig. Research is grand! That is my plan for now. The next step will be to seek out this fantastically named Wolfdietrich Fischer and see what he can tell me. Meanwhile, yes, I will still be working on my dissertation, which happens to be totally unrelated. Also, why should you care about Hans Wehr? Well if you don’t know who he is, you shall have to wait till my book is finished. And if you do, then you KNOW why you should care about him.