CURRICULUM VITAE
Relli Shechter
Department of Middle East Studies
Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev
Beer Sheva, 84105
Israel
Tel.: 972-8-647-2547
Email: rellish@bgu.ac.il
Website: http://www.relli-shechter.com
Education
Ph.D. HarvardUniversity
History & Middle Eastern Studies, 1999.
Arabic Language - MiddleburyCollege Language School
Program Advanced Level, 1995.
B.A. Tel Aviv University
Middle Eastern and African History
Magna Cum Laude, 1991.
Awards, Fellowships and Grants
2006-2010 - Research Grant, Israeli Science Foundation (ISF)
The ISF is Israel’s predominant source of competitive grants funding basic research in all academic fields.
2009 - Best Articlein a competition organized by the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre, Turkey. Co-winner with Hilary Cooperman.
2000-2006 - Dr. Sam and Edna Lemkin Career Development Chair in Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
2005 - Research Grant, Keren Idud ABG (Ben-Gurion University Support Fund).
2004 - Research Grant, IsraelFoundation Trustees (IFT). IFT is a major funding source for social science research in Israel.
2003 - Research Grant, Committee for Research and Publication Grants, Ben-Gurion University.
2002 - Israeli Junior Research Fellowship. Visiting Fellowship for the academic year 2002-2003,St. Antony’s College, Oxford University.
2002 - Research Grant, Committee for Research and Publication Grants, Ben-Gurion University.
2000 - Research Grant, Committee for Research and Publication Grants, Ben-Gurion University.
1999 - Post-Doctoral Fellowship, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute, The Hebrew University. Declined upon receiving an appointment at BGU.
1997 - CMES Dissertation Research Grant, The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University.
1995 - Mellon Language Study Grant, The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University.
1993-1994 - Fulbright-Hays,Mutual Educational Exchange Grant, The United States and Israeli Governments.
Employment History:
Summer 2010 Greenberg Middle East Scholar in Residence, Skidmore College.
2007- Senior Lecturer, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-GurionUniversity.
2003-2007 Lecturer, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-GurionUniversity.
2002-2003 Visiting Scholar, St. Antony’s College, OxfordUniversity.
1999-2002 Lecturer, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-GurionUniversity.
Professional Activities
Academic Administration
2008- Chair, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
2004-2007 Director, The International MA Program on Middle East Studies (MAPMES), Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
2004-2006 Member, Executive Committee of the Israeli Oriental Society.
Journal Editor and Editorial Boards
2004-2006 Associate Editor,Hagar: Studies in Culture, Polity, and Identity.
2003-2006 Member of the Editorial Board, Hagar: Studies in Culture, Polity, and Identity.
2000-2004 Scientific Editor,Jama’a: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Middle East (in Hebrew).
1997-1998 Member of the Editorial Board, Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, Harvard University.
Professional Consulting
Manuscript Reviewer:International Journal of Middle East Studies (2010), Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies(2010),Enterprise and Society (2009), Bar-Ilan University Press (2007), Yad Ben-Zvi Press (2006), Open University (2004), Pe’amim (2003).
Member and grant reviewer, “Committee on the History of the Middle East,” Israel Science Foundation (ISF).
Organizer of Conferences and Workshops
2010 Panel co-organizer, “Regulation of Commodities: A Historical Perspective.” The Annual Meeting of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel.” Ben-Gurion University.
2009 International workshop, “The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States Today: Society, Politics and Economy.” Organized jointly with Muhammad al-Atawneh. The Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
2007-2008 Discussion Groupon the Economic History of the Middle East. Organized jointly with Haggay Etkes, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Economics, Hebrew University.
2007 International workshopat The Eighth Mediterranean Research Meeting, Florence, “Between Society and the Market: Novel Approaches to the Business History of the Middle East.” Organized jointly with Andrew Godley, director of the Centre for International Business History, University of Reading, UK.
2000-2006 Member of the Organizing Committee, the yearly meetings of the Israeli Oriental Society.
2005 Panel co-organizer, “Commerce and Culture in Egypt: Synergies, Contradictions, and the Creation of Local Meaning.” Annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington DC.
2005 International workshop, “The Middle Eastern Path to Development: A Conversation with Business History and Regional Studies.” Organized jointly with Andrew Godley, director of the Centre for International Business History, University of Reading, England.
2004 International workshop, “Cities in the Middle East—History, Representation, and Politics.” Organized jointly with Haim Yacobi, Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University. The Herzog Center, Ben-Gurion University.
2000-2001 International Workshop, “Considering Consumption, Production, and the Market in the Constitution of Meaning in the Middle East and beyond.” Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
1998 Panel co-organizer, “New Commodifications: Translating and Circulating the Household in Modern Egypt.”Annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Chicago, USA.
Lectures and Presentations (last five years)
October 2010
“Oil and the Remaking of the Modern Middle East.” Invited presentation at Union College, Schenectady, New York, USA.
September 2010
“Consumerism and Islamism in the Middle East.” Greenberg Middle East Scholar in Residence Lecture, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA.
June 2010
“The Taste of State Virtue: Halal Foods and Governmentality in Saudi Arabia.” Paper presented at the international conference “Food, Power, and Meaning in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.” Ben-Gurion University.
May 2010
“Localization through Regulation: Consumer Society and Neo-Conservatism in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s.” Paper presentedat the annual meeting of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel.” Ben-Gurion University (in Hebrew).
November 2009
“Localization through Regulation: Religious Virtue and the Development of Mass Consumer Society in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s.” Paper presentedat the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Boston, USA.
October 2009
“Consumers’ Monarchy: The Political-Economy of Mass Consumer Society in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s.” MA Departmental Seminar, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University, Israel (in Hebrew).
August 2009
“The Cultural Economy of Development in Egypt: Economic Nationalism, Hidden Economy and the Emergence of Mass Consumer Society during Sadat’s infitah.” Paper presented at the XVth Economic History Congress, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
July 2009.
“Branding Consumers: Marketing, Glocalization and New Middle Class in Egypt, 1973-1990.” Department Seminar, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University (in Hebrew).
June 2009
“Consumers’ Monarchy: The Emergence of a Saudi Consumer Society during the First Oil Boom, 1974-1984.” Paper presented at the international conference “The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States Today: Society, Politics and Economy.” The Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
May 2009
“Branding Consumers: Marketing and New Middle Class in Egypt.” School of History Seminar, Ben-Gurion University (in Hebrew).
February 2009
“The Middle East between Two Eras of Globalization: A Comparative Perspective.” The Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University(in Hebrew).
January 2009
“Branding Consumers: Marketing and Leisure Culture in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.” Paper presented at the conference “Leisure Culture in Islamic Societies.” The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies, The Hebrew University, Israel (in Hebrew).
September 2008
“Consumers’ Monarchy: Citizenship, Consumption, and Material Politics in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s.” Paper presented at the international conference “Contemporary Muslim Consumer Cultures – an Emerging Field of Study.” Institute for Islamic Studies, The Free University of Berlin, Germany.
July 2008
“‘Marlboro Country’: Philip Morris and the Emergence of Local Consumer Societies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.” Discussion Group on the Economic History of the Middle East. Ben-Gurion University (in Hebrew).
March 2008
“The Not-So-Lonely Rider in the Non-Dusty Desert: ‘Marlboro Country,’ New Middle Class, and the Geography of Economic Liberalism in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.”Paper presented at the international workshop “Mapping Transnational Networks: Local Logics and Global Processes.” The Ninth Mediterranean Research Meeting, Florence, Italy.
March 2007
“On Material Culture and Life Close to Subsistance: Poverty and Smoking in Egypt, 1890-1956.” The thirty first meeting of the Israeli Historical Society, Tel Aviv University, Israel (in Hebrew).
March 2007
Accommodating Modest Demand: Inconspicuous Consumption”
and Business Integration in the Egyptian Tobacco Market, 1890-1956.” Paper presented at the international workshop “Between Society and the Market: Novel Approaches to the Business History of the Middle East.” The Eighth Mediterranean Research Meeting, Florence, Italy.
November 2006
“Advertising in the Middle East: a Historical Perspective.” Panel discussant at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Boston, USA.
June 2006
“Buyers, Sellers and Social Change in the Middle East.” “Approaches to the Study of the Modern Arab Middle East,” Lecture in Honour of Professor Israel Gershoni, Tel Aviv University, Israel (in Hebrew).
June 2006
“The Re-emergence of Consumer Society in Egypt: The infitah, the Oil-Boom, and Social Change as Reflected in Egyptian Advertising.” Second World Conference for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES 2), Amman, Jordan.
May 2006
“From effendi to infitahi? Consumerism and Its Discontent with the Emergence of Egyptian Market Society.” Paper presented at the international workshop Narrating the Nile: Cultures, Identities, Memories,” Tel Aviv University and the Open University, Israel.
May 2006
“Smoking, Economy and Culture in Egypt: On Economic History after the Cultural Turn.” “Tuesday Afternoon” lecture series, School of History, Tel Aviv University, Israel (in Hebrew).
January 2006
“Political-Economy and Culture in Egyptian Advertising since 1974.” Paper presented at the international workshop Contemporary Capitalism: USA, Europe, and the Middle East in the Beginning of the 21st Century. Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
Professional Associations
2004- Association of Business Historians (ABH), UK.
2000- The British Society for Middle East Studies (BRISMES), UK.
1998- The Middle East Economic Association (MEEA), USA.
1995- The Middle East Studies Association (MESA), USA.
Educational Activities
2007-2009 Head, Economy and Society Studies, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
2006- Member, Advanced Degrees Committee, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
1999-2002 Member, BA Studies Committee, Department of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University.
Graduate Classes (sample)
Buyers, Sellers, and Social Change in the Middle East.
Economy, Society, and State in the Contemporary Middle East.
Market and Market Life in the Middle East.
Oil and Social Transformation in the Middle East.
Undergraduate Classes (sample)
Consumption and Consumerism in the Contemporary Middle East.
Middle East Economies since World War I.
The Political Economy of the Ottoman Empire.
Research Students
Aviad Moreno, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Middle East Studies.
Sharon Mafzir, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Middle East Studies. Jointly supervised with Haggai Ram, Department of Middle East Studies.
Idan Lahav, MA candidate, Department of Middle East Studies.
Ben Zarhi, MA candidate, Department of Middle East Studies.
Graduated:
Asher Orkaby, MA, Department of Middle East Studies (graduated 2010).
Arielle Kandel, MA, Department of Middle East Studies (graduated 2010).
Lior Sternfeld, MA, Department of Middle East Studies. Jointly supervised with Haggai Ram, Department of Middle East Studies (graudated 2009).
Emilie K. LeFebvre-Elimelech, MA, Department of Middle East Studies. Jointly supervised with Henriette Dahan-Kalev, Director of the Gender Studies Program (graduated 2008).
Erela Portugali, MA, Department of Middle East Studies. Jointly supervised with Niv Gordon, Department of Politics and Government (graduated 2007).
Hagit Ezra, MA, Department of Middle East Studies. Jointly supervised with David Newman, Department of Politics and Government (graduated 2006).
