Here and Now: Arabs in Singapore with Roots in Yemen

(This event was organised by The Arab Network @ Singapore and supported by Middle East Institute, NUS.) 

Abstract

This two-panel seminar began with a brief presentation on the historical journey of Hadramis from Yemen to the South-east Asian region and the impact they made in this region in general. Specific attention was paid to Singapore right up to post-independence.

The second speaker’s presentation focused on contemporary South Yemen, from the onset of the war to the humanitarian crisis that has resulted from it, along with efforts by the Hadrami diaspora, including AN@S, in helping the affected.

 

This event is in conjunction with the exhibition Here and Now: Arabs in Singapore happening from 14th to 20th April 2019, at Gallery II of the same venue. For more information about the exhibition, please click here.

For more photos of the event, please click on the photo below.

About the Speakers
Professor Syed Farid Alatas
Sociology
National University of Singapore

Dr Susanne Dahlgren
Academic Visitor
Middle East Institute
National University of Singapore

Syed Farid Alatas is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to joining NUS. His areas of interest are historical sociology, the sociology of social science, the sociology of religion and inter-religious dialogue. Among his recent books is Alternative Discourse in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism (Sage, 2006). His latest book, published in 2013, is Ibn Khaldun (Makers of Islamic Civilization), Oxford University Press.

 

Susanne Dahlgren is former Visiting Research Associate Professor at the MEI who now acts as an Academic Visitor here during her sabbatical from Tampere University. She is an anthropologist with a long-time research interest in Yemen where she has conducted field studies on social movements, public moralities, court practice, and gender regimes. She has been consulted by the Office of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Yemen on peace prospects in the country.

Her publications include Contesting Realities. Morality and the Public Sphere in Southern Yemen (Syracuse University Press 2010); Popular revolution advances towards state building in Southern Yemen, in POMEPS series on Politics, Governance and Reconstruction after Yemen’s War, eds. Marc Lynch, Stacey Philbrick Yadav and Lauren Baker (George Washington University 2018); Yemen (1870-2014), in Arab Family Studies, Critical Reviews, (ed.) Suad Joseph (Syracuse University Press 2018); and Making Intimate “Civilpolitics” in Southern Yemen, in Freedom without Permission. Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions, eds. Frances S. Hasso and Zakia Salime (Duke University Press 2016).   She is a regular commentator on Yemeni politics in the media and writes to the Middle East Report, as compiled in Arabia Incognita. Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf, ed. Sheila Carapico (Just World Books 2014).

She is currently preparing two book manuscripts, one on Different Roads to Modernity in Yemen (working title) and the other on court practice and history of marriage law in South Arabia.

Event Details

The Living Room, Level 2
The Arts House, Old Parliament Lane
Singapore 179429

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