Dr. Brinkley Messick, YCMES Board

Dr. Brinkley Messick

Professor of Anthropology

Chairman, Department of Anthropology

Columbia University

Address

Department of Anthropology bmm23@columbia.edu

Columbia University 212-854-7459

New York, NY 10027 Fax: 212-854-7347

Education

1978 Princeton University, Ph.D. Anthropology

1974 Princeton University, M.A. Anthropology and Near East Studies

1969 University of Pennsylvania, B.A. Economics

Employment

Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 1997-

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1993-98

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1991-93

Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, 1987-91

Visiting Assistant Professor, Near East Studies, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1986-87

Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1984-86 .

Visiting Fellow, Near East Studies, Princeton University, 1983-84

Research Associate, School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 1982-83

Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Washington University, 1980-81

Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Colorado College, 1979

Instructor, Department of Anthropology, Temple University, 1977-78

Grants and Fellowships

1997-8 Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan (declined)

1995-6 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship

1995 Faculty Recognition Fund (Michigan)

1995 Discretionary Funds (OVPR-Michigan)

1994-5 Seed Grant (Islamic Legal Studies), International Institute (Michigan)

1993-5 Fulbright (CIES) lecturing and research grant, serial, 3 years

1992-3 Shelby Cullom Davis Center, Princeton University, Visiting Fellow

1991 Social Science Research Council, Post-doctoral Grant

1991 Faculty Recognition Fund (Michigan)

1980 Social Science Research Council, Post-doctoral Research Grant

1974-76 Social Science Research Council, Foreign Area Fellowship

1973 Center for Arabic Studies Abroad, Cairo, summer

1970-77 National Defense Education Act (Title VI), Arabic Fellowships

Awards

1995 Henry Russel Award, University of Michigan (teaching and scholarship)

1995-6 Michigan Humanities Award

1993 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association,

for The Calligraphic State

Field Research

1970-72 Morocco (As Peace Corps Volunteer), Arabic, Berber, weaving

1974-76 Yemen Dissertation research on law and political economy; social

history and ethnography; photo archive of documents

1979-80 Yemen Legal interpretation, law courts, scholarly education,

1982-83 Morocco Field Director, Morocco Literacy Project. Quranic school

reading instruction, rote memorization; interdisciplinary, anthropology & psychology

1991 Yemen Local Texts: Law and Political Economy in Yemen

1992 Yemen Consultant, AMIDEAST, legal institutions sector survey,

(February-March)

1993 Yemen Shari`a court records; social history and textual ethnography

1995 Yemen Law and History in Yemen

Books

1993 The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society.

University of California Press. (paperback edition 1996)

1996 Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas. Co-edited with Khalid

Masud and David Powers. Harvard University Press.

The Book of Flowers: Shari`a Law , Islamic State (ms). Two volumes.

Other Publications

1978 "Transactions in Ibb: Economy and Society in a Yemeni Highland Town,"

Ph.D. Thesis, Anthropology, Princeton University (University Microfilms)

1983 "Legal Documents and the Concept of `Restricted Literacy'," International

Journal of the Sociology of Language 4:41-52.

1983 "Prosecution in Yemen: The Introduction of the Niyaba," International

Journal of Middle East Studies 15:507-518.

1986 "The Mufti, the Text and the World: Legal Interpretation in Yemen," Man (n.s.) 21:102-119.

1986 "Studying Literacy in Morocco," with D. Wagner and J. Spratt, In B.B.

Schieffelin and P. Gilmore eds., The Acquisition of Literacy: Ethnographic Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX, pp. 233-260.

1986 Review of Stevenson, Social Change in a Yemeni Highlands Town.

American Anthropologist, 88(4):986-7.

1987 "Subordinate Discourse: Women, Weaving and Gender Relations in North

Africa," American Ethnologist 14(2):20-35.

1988 "Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Shari`a Discourse,"

Law and Society Review 22(4):601-622.

(reprint 2007)

1988 Review of Weir, Qat in Yemen: Consumption and Social Change.

American Ethnologist 15(1):175-6.

1989 "Just Writing: Paradox and Political Economy in Yemeni Legal Documents,"

Cultural Anthropology 4(1):26-50.

1989 Review of Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, American Anthropologist

91(1):222-3.

1990 "Literacy and the Law: Documents and Document Specialists in Yemen," In D.H. Dwyer, ed., Law and Islam in the Middle East. New York: Bergen & Garvey, pp. 61-76.

1991 Review, Weiner and Schneider, Cloth and Experience, American

Anthropologist.

1995 "Textual Properties: Writing and Wealth in a Yemeni Shari`a Case,"

Anthropology Quarterly 68(3):157-170.

1995 "Fatwa: Process and Function," The Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.

Vol. 2:10-13. Oxford University Press.

1995 Review, Boyarin, The Ethnography of Reading, American Anthropologist

97(1):188-9.

1996 "Introduction," (with K. Masud and D. Powers), Islamic Legal Interpretation:

Muftis and their Fatwas. Harvard University Press, pp. 1-32.

1996 "Media Muftis: Radio Fatwas in Yemen," In Masud, Messick, and Powers,

Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Harvard, 310-320.

(Reprint, in Arabic translation, 2005)

1997a "On the Question of Lithography," Culture & History.(Copenhagen) 15:158-176.

1997b "Genealogies of Reading and the Scholarly Cultures of Islam," In S.

Humphreys, ed. Cultures of Scholarship. University of Michigan Press.

pp. 387-412.

1998a “L’ecriture en proces: les recits d’un meurtre devant un tribunal shar`i,” Droit et

societe 39:237-256.

1998b “Written Identities: Legal Subjects in an Islamic State,” History of Religions

38(1):25-51.

(Reprinted, Martha Mundy, ed. Law and Anthropology. Ashgate Publishing. 2003)

1998c “Just Writing: Paradox and Political Economy in Yemeni Legal Documents,”

(Arabic Translation) Ed. Lucine Taminian. American Institute for Yemeni Studies, San`a'.

2001 “Indexing the Self: Wording and Intentionality in Legal Acts,” Islamic Law &

Society 8(2):151-78.

2002 “Evidence: From Memory to Archive,” Islamic Law & Society 9,2:1-40.

2003 “Property and the Private in a Sharia System,” Social Research 70(3):201-224.

2003 “Notes on Transliteration,” In P. G. Rubel and A. Rosman, eds. Translating

Cultures. Oxford and New York: Berg, pp. 177-196.

2005 “Cover Stories: A Genealogy of the Legal-Public Sphere in Yemen,” Armando

Salvatore and Mark LeVine, Eds., Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies: Reconstructing the Public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

2005 “Madhhabs and Modernity,” The Islamic School of Law. Eds. P. Bearman, R.

Peters and F.E. Vogel. Harvard, 159-174.

2006 “Commercial Litigation in a Shari`a Court,” In Dispensing Justice in Islam , Ed.

M.K. Masud, D.S. Powers and R. Peters. Leiden: Brill: 195-218.

2007 “Provincial Judges: The Shari` Judiciary of Mid-twentieth Century Yemen,” In

Law, Custom, and Statute in the Muslim World, Ed. Ron Shaham, pp. 149-71.

N.d. (a) “Interpreting Tears: A Marriage Case from Imamic Yemen,” The Islamic

Marriage Contract. (Harvard University Press).

N.d. (b) “Legal Narratives in a Shari`a Court,” Telling Stories about Law in Muslim

Societies, Ed. Baudouin Dupret.

N.d. (c) “Fatwa,” Encyclopedia of Legal History, Ed. Stanley Katz, Oxford UP.

N.d. (d) “Yemen,” Encyclopedia of Legal History. Ed. Stanley Katz, Oxford UP.

N.d.(e) “Shari`a Ethnography,” in volume in honor of Frank Vogel. Harvard.

Selected Presentations

2007 “The Shari`a Archive,” African Studies Workshop, Northwestern, Oct. 22-23.

2007 “Shari`a Law, Islamic State: An Historical Anthropology,” Department of

Anthropology, UC Berkeley, Oct. 18.

2007 “Shari`a Law, Islamic State: An Historical Anthropology,” CNES, UCLA, Oct. 17.

2007 “Anthropology, Philology and Islamic Texts,” New York Academy of Sciences,

Jan. 29.

2006 “Historical Anthropology of the Shari`a ,” NYU, Kevorkian center, Oct. 30.

2006 “Veiled Appearances: a Shari`a Court Case,” Law & Culture, Law School

(Columbia), April12

2006 “A Shari`a Marriage Case from mid-Century Yemen,” Arabic Seminar

(Columbia), April 20.

2005 “Shari`a Society,”Middle East Institute, University of Chicago, October 15.

2004 “Shari`a Texts,” Keynote Talk, Workshop on the Use of Legal Sources in the

Study of Islamic History, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, May 14

2003 “Archival Anthropology: Shari`a Courts in Mid-Century Yemen,” University of

Wisconsin, Madison, November 17.

2003 “Legal Narratives from Shari`a Courts,” Conference on “Telling Stories About

Islamic Law,” Cairo, Oct. 24-6.

2003 “Archival Anthropology: Shari`a Cases from Mid-century Yemen,” Department of

Anthropology, Yale University, March 27.

2003 “Islamic Law Texts,” Interview, Dutch TV, Mar. 12, Leiden.

2003 “Archival Anthropology and Islamic Law,” Anthropology of Islamic Law, ISIM,

Leiden, March 14-16.

2002 “Property and the Private in a Shari`a System,” Conference on the Islamic Public

Sphere, New School, December 6.

2002 “The Elementary Forms of the Archival Act,” Venice, March 18.

2002 “Cover Stories: A Genealogy of the Legal-Public in Yemen,” Workshop on the

Public Sphere in Islam, Florence, European University, March 20-24.

2002 “The Genealogy of the Legal-Public Sphere: Reflections on A Case Study,”

University of Florence, Dept. of Comparative Law, Mar. 25.

2002 “Justice and Written Law in a Muslim Court,” Series: “Culture, Power, Islam,”

Swarthmore College, Feb. 7.

2001 Invited lecture, International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, Dec. 20.

2001 “Theory of Practice/ Practice of Theory in Islamic Law,” Three Lectures as

Directeur d’Etudes Associé, Ecole des Hautes Etudes SS, Paris, December-January.

2001 “Judgments from Twentieth Century Shari`a Courts in Yemen,” Conference on

The Application of Law in Muslim Courts, ISIM, Leiden, Oct. 26-8.

2001 9/11 Columbia Teach-in. Moderator and Statement. Synod Hall. Sept. 20.

2001 Faculty convenor, Graduate Student Workshop (Columbia, NYU, Chicago),

University of Chicago, May 5-6.

2001 “Indexing the Self: Intent and Expression in Legal Acts,” Irvine Seminar on the

Anthropology of Modernity, UC-Irvine, April 19.

2001 “Indexing the Self,” Nation and Nationalism Workshop, University of Chicago,

April 11.

2001 “Intent in Islamic Law,” Symposium on Legal Systems in the Arab World,

Georgetown University, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, April 5.

2001 “Islamic Justice in Shari`a Courts,” talk to Muslim Student’s Association, Feb.

27.

2000 “Intent in Islamic Law,” Muslim Law Students Association, Nov. 21.

2000 “The Calligraphic State under the microscope,” Middle East Studies Association

Meetings, Orlando, Nov. 18.

2000 “Indexing the Self,” Workshop on the Legal Person in Islamic Law, Cornell, Sept.

9-10.

2000 “Madhhabs and Modernity,” III International Conference on Islamic Legal

Studies, Harvard Law School., May 4-6.

1999 “Muslim Legal Texts on Capitalism and Colonialism,” CNWS, Leiden, Dec. 8.

1999 “Textual Cultures,” Dept. of Languages and Cultures of the Islamic Middle East,

University of Leiden, Dec. 7.

1999 “Reflections on The Calligraphic State,” ISIM, Leiden, Dec. 6.

1999 “Indexing the Self: Properties of the Shari`a Subject,” Workshop on Fabrications:

The Technique of Ownership,” LSE, London, Dec. 4.

1999 “Muslim Legal Texts on Capitalism and Colonialism,” LSE, London, Dec. 3.

1999 “Islamic Law in Contemporary Practice,” American Bar Association, Middle

Eastern Law Committee, New York, Nov. 16.

1999 “Muslim Legal Texts on Capitalism and Colonialism,” NYU, series Communities

of Knowledge and Modes of Transmission, Oct. 18.

1999 “Evidential Praxis,” Conference on Evidence in Islamic Law. New York

University, April 2-3.

1999 “Justice in an Arab Court,” Sabbagh Lecture, University of Arizona, Feb. 28

1999 “Interpreting Tears: A Marriage Case from Imamic Yemen,” Conference on the

Islamic Marriage Contract, Harvard University, Jan. 29-31.

1998 “A Note on Transliteration,” Conference on Translation in Anthropology,

Barnard College, Nov, 10-12.

1998 “Comparative Perspectives on Court Processes,” Islamic Legal Studies

Program, Harvard Law School, Jan 30-Feb.1

1997 “Court Order in Twentieth Century Imamic Yemen,” Keynote Address, II

Joseph Schacht Conference on Theory and Practice in Islamic Law,

Granada, Dec.16-20

1997 “Religious Law in an Islamic State,” American Anthropological Association,

Washington, Nov. 19-23

1997 “Millennium East,” Society for Cultural Anthropology, San Francisco, May 17

1997 “The Trial of Writing,” Dept. of Anthropology, University of Chicago, April 21

1997 “Archival Intentions,” Dept. of Middle Eastern Studies, N.Y.U. Feb. 24

1997 “Archival Acts,” Dept. Of Anthropology, Columbia University, Jan. 29

1997 “Written Identities,” Sawyer Seminar, University of Chicago, Jan. 9

1996 “The Trial of Writing,” CSST (Michigan), Dec. 4.

1996 “Legal Transformation in Yemen,” Middle East Studies Association, November

1996 “The Trial of Writing,” Dept. Of Anthropology, Harvard University

Professional Service

1980-83 Screening Committee, International Doctoral Research Program,

Social Science Research Council

1995 Screening Committee, Post-Doctoral Fellowships, Social Science

Research Council

1984-86 Vice-President, American Institute for Yemeni Studies

1986-9 Secretary and Fellowship Officer, American Institute for Yemeni

Studies

1984-96 Board Member, American Institute for Yemeni Studies

1991-4 Fellowship Officer, American Institute for Yemeni Studies

1985-91 Member, Amherst Seminar on Law

1987-91 Editor, APLA Newsletter (Newsletter of the Association of Political and

Legal Anthropology, a publication of the American Anthropological

Association)

1987-8 APLA Section Editor, Anthropology Newletter.

1987-9 Associate, Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University

1990- Member, Islamic Law Forum (American Oriental Society)

1992-4 Editorial Advisory Board, Law & Society Review

1999 Albert Hourani Book Award Committee, MESA

2001- Advisory Board, Islamic Law & Society

2003-5 Charlotte Newcombe Foundation, Final Selection Committee

Reviews

Books

State University of New York Press

Yale University Press

University of Pennsylvania Press

University of Toronto Press

University of California Press

Cambridge University Press

Princeton University Press

Columbia University Press

Articles

American Anthropologist

American Ethnologist

Journal of Legal Pluralism

Law & Society Review

Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Int'l Journal of Middle East Studies

Islamic Law & Society

Cultural Anthropology

Man

Proposals

National Science Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

Social Science Research Council

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Charlotte Newcombe (Woodrow Wilson)

New York University

Society of Fellows (Columbia)

Reid Hall Fellows (Columbia)

University Service

(1993-7) Michigan

Rackham Graduate School

Divisional Board III, Social Sciences, 1993-5

(faculty research proposals review)

Department of Anthropology

Executive Committee 1993-5

Promotion and Tenure Case, 1996 (Coronil)

Third year faculty review, 1994 (Rouse)

Third year faculty review, 1994 (Bierwert)

Colloquiums coordinator 1993-4

Faculty Advisor, Titiev Library, 1994-5

Faculty Search Committee (China) 1994-5

Interdepartmental Program in Anthropology and History

Chair 1993-4, Co-Chair 1994-5

Executive & Admissions Committee, 1993-1997

Center for Middle East and North African Studies

Program Committee 1993-6

Admissions Committee 1993-6

FLAS Selection Committee 1994-5, 1997

Faculty Colloquiums Coordinator 1993-4

Islamic Law Lecture Series Coordinator

Social Science Subcommittee

International Institute

Steering Committee, Advanced Study Center, 1995

Advisory Council, Advanced Study Center, 1996-7

Working Group on Health & Society, 1994-5

Comparative Studies in Social Transformation

Steering Committee 1994-5

(1997- ) Columbia

Department of Anthropology

Chair (2004-)

Associate Chair (2001-02)

Director of Graduate Studies (1997-02)

Chair, Admissions Committee (1997-02)

Director of Undergraduate Studies (2003-5)

1999 Chair, Junior Faculty Search

2001 Faculty Promotion report

2004 Faculty review committee (Barnard)

Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures

Executive Committee (2005-7); faculty 2007-

Director of Graduate Studies (2005-07)

Chair, Admissions Committee (2006, 2007)

Co-Chair, Arabic Search, 2006

Co-Chair, Islamic Studies Search, 2007

Other hiring Committees

1998 MEALAC

1998 Anthropology (Barnard College)

2003-4 Specialist Librarian–Middle East collections

SIPA

Member, Advisory Committee, Area Studies, (1999-)

Task Force on regional institutes (2000-1)

Middle East Institute

Executive Committee, 2003-

Administrative Committee, 2004-

Workshop in Middle East Studies, Convenor

FLAS selection committee, 2004-

Africa Institute

Executive Committee, 2003-4

Islamic Studies Reading Room, Butler Library

Proposal author (1999)

Committee Member (2000-)

Arts and Sciences

Ad Hoc committees, 1998, 2003

2002 Department Review (Spanish), ARC

Reid Hall Fellows Selection Committee, 2003-6

Chair 2005-6

Reid Hall Steering Committee, 2007-

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Advisory Committee, convened by Paul Anderer, 2006-

Africa Initiative committee, 2006-

Native American Initiative committee, 2005-

Columbia College

Faculty Committee on Study Abroad (2003-

Committee on Major Cultures, 2006-

Society of Fellows

Governing Board, 2004-7

Admissions committee, 2006-7

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Scientific member, 2004-5

Courses Taught

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Introduction to Sociology

Theory and Method in Anthropology

Graduate Ethnology Core Course (Michigan, Anthro 527)

Graduate Core Course (Columbia)

Undergraduate Senior Honors Seminar (Brandeis, Columbia)

Reading Ethnography

The Ethnography of Writing / Written Culture

Symbolic Anthropology/ Semiotics

Political Anthropology; Political Economy

Economic Anthropology & Development

Anthropology of Law

Islamic Law (Michigan Law School-Law 812;

Columbia, Anthropology W4282)

Law, History and Anthropology (Columbia)

Legal Anthropology; Seminar on Legal Texts

Cultures of the Middle East

Graduate Middle East Seminar

Arabia Imagined (Columbia)

Cultures of North Africa

Muslim Societies (Columbia)

Social Organization

Peasant Societies

Religion and Ritual; Magic, Myth & Witchcraft

Culture Through Film (UMass)

Urban Anthropology; Urban Development

Early & Modern History of the Middle East

Islam & Theory

Specializations

Muslim cultures, Islam

Islamic Law

North Africa, Arabia

Cultural theory, semiotics, hermeneutics,

post-structuralism, post-modernism

Political economy, critical theory

Anthropology of Law

Anthropology and History

Education and Literacy

Written Culture

Foreign Languages

French

Italian

Literary Arabic

Moroccan Colloquial Arabic

Yemeni Colloquial Arabic

Memberships in Professional Associations

American Anthropological Association

American Ethnological Society

Middle East Studies Association

Law & Society Association

American Institute for Yemeni Studies

American Institute for Maghrebi Studies