Our Director, Professor Härdig, is looking forward to welcoming our Class of 2022 and the upper cohorts! Get to know him:
What have been the primary focuses of your research?
My general research areas are social movements and civil society in the Middle East and North Africa, although in recent years I’ve spent considerably more time in South Asia than the MENA region. Originally, my main focus was on secular civic movements, which led me to the tensions between secular and faith based actors that would sometimes emerge during specific movement campaigns (for instance, in Lebanon, where secular and faith based actors would cooperate to push for municipal elections, but split on the issue of civil marriage). That, in turn, led me to focus more on Islamist movements and what some scholars have called “the Islamist advantage,” namely the notion that Islamists are better able than secular actors to gain traction and maintain a following. Some years ago, I became intrigued by how the secular Shahbag movement in Bangladesh seemed to transcend those dynamics and mobilize as a fully “indigenous” secular movement, before it was derailed by the massive Islamist Hefazat mobilization. I found it fascinating that even in a country like Bangladesh, where the secular movement could invoke imagery and cultural references from the country’s inception – the foundational movement of Bangladeshi independence was a secular one – and Islamists never did particularly well in elections, the social power of Islamists was evidently strong enough to force the government to take certain actions. It is within that general “puzzle” I’ve been operating in recent years and I just returned from Bangladesh where I researched the parallel development of creeping “secular” authoritarianism and Islamization of politics. There are a lot of comparisons to be made to the MENA region here, so that will most likely be my next step – Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria are all interesting in this regard.
What was your favorite class in undergrad?
I had several favorite classes, so it’s hard to choose just one. I once took a course at the American University of Beirut called Politics in Lebanon, taught by Dr. Farid el-Khazen, who would later become a Member of Parliament in Lebanon, and that was a class that really consumed me, despite the fact that I and Professor el-Khazen had slightly different ideas about theoretical approaches. But it was incredibly stimulating to study the Lebanese civil war when you saw the scars of it on a daily basis (including my bedroom clearly having been hit by a shell at one point, as evidenced by the somewhat sloppy repair work!). Other classes weren’t my favorites at the time, but I realized later on they should have been – as an undergrad I did not fully appreciate the class that introduced me to discourse analysis and Edward Said’s Orientalism. Later, as a grad student, I would realize that understanding the power of discourse is tantamount to being able to see the Matrix that controls our entire understanding of reality, but at the time I’m afraid it was pearls before swine…
What advice do you have for incoming students?
Give every class you take a fair chance, you never know what you’ll wish you had paid attention to in hindsight. Don’t take on too much outside of your coursework – extracurricular activities are important, but don’t let your studies suffer. Also, take care of your physical health – get your sleep, exercise, and don’t eat too much crap!
If you were not a professor, what job would you like to have?
Dog belly scratcher. Seriously though, I would say dog trainer, but in reality I know I wouldn’t be good at it, because I prefer the non-disciplinary interaction with dogs, like wrestling, chasing, and fighting over a stick. I would also have loved to be an architect, because I really enjoy architecture and have very strong opinions about it, but I never had the patience for the mathematical calculations involved. Maybe an architect who exclusively works with esthetic conceptualizations – does that job exist?
What book are you currently reading or read last?
I wish I could say something high-brow, like Kazuo Ishiguro or Svetlana Alexievich, but the truth is I don’t read that kind of literature. I mostly read detective stories and the occasional auto biography because my work involves reading a lot of “heavy” literature. So recreational reading mostly serves as a way to unwind my brain, which means lightweight stuff. Right now I’m reading a book called “The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag,” by Alan Bradley. Good Agatha Cristie-esque murder mystery. In the non-fiction category, I’d recommend “Born a Crime,” by Trevor Noah. He has so much more depth than most people realize and when you read that book you realize why.
What are you most excited for this academic year?
This may sound like pandering, but without a doubt I’m most excited about directing the Global Scholars Program this year. We are turning a corner of sorts – the big program evaluation has been done, we will have our new program suite, and we have so many new things planned that are going to strengthen the program, both in terms of its identity and its ability to help students excel during their college career and beyond. We have plotted a new course and it’s full steam ahead!
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