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Elizabeth Brownson

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Middle Eastern History


Alumna
B.A., Colorado State University Fort Collins; Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara

My dissertation examines Palestinian women's interactions and negotiations in the male-privileged and dominated context of the Jerusalem Shari'a Court during the British Mandate period. Far from being passive and silenced, Palestinian Muslim women regularly initiated lawuits and demanded their rights in court. I am most interested in the various strategies that women employed in order to meet their needs within a patriarchal legal system, particularly in regard to nafaqa ("maintenance"), female-initiated divorce, and child custody cases.

Dissertation Title

  • Gender, Muslim Family Law, and Contesting Patriarchy in Mandate Palestine, 1925-1939

Teaching Fields

  • Modern Middle Eastern History
  • Gender in Islamic History
  • History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  • Modern World History

Courses Taught

  • History 146P: Proseminar on Gender and Conflict in the Middle East
    UCSB, Spring 2008
  • History 146: The History of the Modern Middle East
    UCSB Ventura, Fall 2007

Teaching Assistantships

  • History 46: Survey of Middle Eastern History
    Winter 2008
  • History 2C: World History, 1700-present
    Spring 2007
  • History 2A: World History, pre-history-1000 CE
    Winter 2007
  • History 46: Survey of Middle Eastern History
    Spring 2005
  • History 2B: World History, 1000-1700
    Winter 2005
  • History 8: History of Latin America
    Fall 2004

Publications

  • "Lord Curzon," "Ayatollah Khomeini," and "Huda Sha’rawi"
    The Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, Thomas Benjamin, ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, August 2006.
  • "Yasser Arafat," "Baathism," "Christian Zionism," "Gender in Dar al-Islam," "Jews for Jesus," "Midde East Peace Process,"...
    The Encyclopedia of World History, Carolyn Neel, ed. ABC-CLIO, (Forthcoming).
  • "Middle Eastern Wars," "The PLO," "Shi'a Islam," "Wahabism"
    The Encyclopedia of World History, Carolyn Neel, ed. ABC-CLIO, (Forthcoming).
  • Review of Randa Ghazy, Dreaming of Palestine
    Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, June 2004, vol 38, no. 1, 126-127.

Awards

  • Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellow
    Israel/Palestine and the UK, 2005-2006
  • FLAS award for Arabic study (summer)
    American University in Cairo, 2004
  • FLAS award for Arabic study (full-year)
    UCSB, 2003-2004
  • FLAS award for Arabic study (full-year)
    UCSB, 2002-2003
  • FLAS award for Arabic study (summer)
    University of Damascus, 2002

Conference Presentations

  • “Government Control Efforts, Palestinian Nationalism, and the Politics of Teaching History in Mandate Palestine”
    Presented at the MESA Annual Conference, 2007
  • “Controlling and ‘Protecting’ Palestinian-Arab Midwives in Mandate Palestine: Gender, the Colonial State and Resistance”
    Presented at the MESA Annual Conference, 2006
  • Zionist Constructions of Jewish and Arab Women in Palestine, 1929-1936”
    Presented at the Middle East Studies Regional Conference UCSB, 2004