This event is co-organized by UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and UCLA Department of Anthropology, and is part of Anthropology's Culture, Power and Social Change Series.
In this book talk, Andrew Gardner will present on his monograph, The Fragmentary City, which frames the contemporary cities of the Arabian Peninsula not as poor imitations of Western urban modernity, but instead as cities on the frontiers of a global, neoliberal, and increasingly urban future. In Qatar and elsewhere on the Arabian Peninsula, nearly nine out of every ten residents are foreign noncitizens. Many of these foreigners reside in the cities that have arisen in Qatar and neighboring states. The book provides an overview of the gulf migration system with its diverse migrant experiences. Gardner focuses on the ways that demography and global mobility have shaped the city of Doha and the urban characteristics of the Arabian Peninsula in general. Building on those migrant experiences, the book turns to the spatial politics of the modern Arabian city, exploring who is placed where in the city and how this social landscape came into historical existence.
About the Speaker
Andrew Gardner is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puget Sound. His scholarship focuses on the Gulf States of the Arabian Peninsula. His first book, City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (Cornell University Press, 2010), explores the everyday experiences of workers from India who have migrated to the Kingdom of Bahrain. His research has been supported by Fulbright Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Georgetown’s Center for International and Regional Studies, Qatar University, the Qatar National Research Fund, the United Nations, the Open Society Foundation, and several other institutions.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Anthropology