UM Frankel Center Event: After “After Jews and Arabs”

Ammiel Alcalay’s groundbreaking work, After Jews and Arabs, published in 1993, redrew the geographic, political, cultural, and emotional map of relations between Jews and Arabs in the Levantine/Mediterranean world over a thousand-year period. Based on over a decade of research and fieldwork in many disciplines—including history and historiography; anthropology, ethnography, and ethnomusicology; political economy and geography; linguistics; philosophy; and the history of science and technology—the book presented a radically different perspective than that presented by received opinion.
Given the radical and iconoclastic nature of Alcalay’s perspective, After Jews and Arabs met great resistance in attempts to publish it. Though completed and already circulating in 1989, it didn’t appear until 1993. In addition, when the book was published, there wasn’t enough space to include its original bibliography, a foundational part of the project.
This spring, A Bibliography for “After Jews and Arabs” will appear with Punctum Books, presenting the original and unchanged bibliography as a glimpse into the historical record of a unique scholarly, political, poetic, and cultural journey, along with three accompanying texts. JMRN is delighted to mark the publication of A Bibliography for “After Jews and Arabs” and reflect on the legacy of After Jews and Arabs, nearly 30 years later, with a conversation between Ammiel Alcalay and Gil Anidjar.