Middle East Studies

A talk by Dr. Kenny Schmitt of Al-Quds Bard College.
Sponsored by Middle East Studies, Global Affairs, Arabic and Islamic Studies, and History. Please contact Prof. Jeremy Pressman for the link to the talk.

Gaza has been governed by no less than six political regimes over the past century. The Ottoman Empire, British Mandate authorities, Egyptian and Israeli Occupations, and two separate Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have administrated the territory. Such repetitive political transitions have, unsurprisingly, led to the stifling and deterioration of all government and civil society institutions. Yet one institution has maintained a consistent presence, weathering the overwhelming upheavals of each regime change—the Ahli Arab Hospital. The hospital was founded in 1882 by Anglican Missionaries from the Church Mission Society (CMS) and has maintained its Christian heritage and identity since its establishment. Offering medical services to a predominantly Muslim community plagued by political transition and humanitarian crisis, the hospital has navigated countless challenges and opportunities, dilemmas and contradictions. This lecture highlights these obstacles and paradoxes through the lens of several critical junctures in the hospital’s history, demonstrating how the hospital has reconciled imperial entanglements and missionary motives with specific legitimating practices and community service.

Kenny Schmitt, Ph.D., is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Spatial Practices at Al-Quds Bard College in Abu Dis, Jerusalem. His research interests lie at the intersection of Muslim religious practices and contentious political spaces in addition to the social history of the Middle East and Muslim-Christian relations. He earned his Ph.D. in Arab and Islamic Studies from Exeter University in 2018. His current research project, titled “Gazan Christians: The Social History of a Community on the Precipice,” is funded by the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Schmitt has held visiting fellowships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2015-2016) and the Department of Sociology at Yale University (2016-2017).