Biography
Christa Salamandra is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Lehman College, City University of New York. She received a Ph.D. from the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, where she also served as Postdoctoral Research Associate, exploring the local/global dynamics in the development of what may be called an Arab London. She has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at Lebanese American University in Beirut. Her current project examines the recent expansion of the Syrian TV drama industry, based on intensive fieldwork among television creators. She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Arab Media and Society.
Publications:
Book A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Book Chapters “Consumption, Display, and Gender.” In Samir Khalaf and Roseanne Khalaf, eds., Arab Culture and Society. London: Saqi Books. Reprinted from Christa Salamandra, A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria, pp. 48-64. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. In Press.
“Syrian Television Makers between Secularism and Islamization.” In Kai Hafez ed., Arab Media: Power and Weakness. New York: Continuum, November 2008.
“La television à l’heure du feuilleton.” In Baudoiun Dupret, Zouhair Ghazzal, Youssef Courbage and Mohammed al-Dbyat, eds., La Syrie au present: Reflets d’une société. Paris: Actes Sud, 2007.
“Chastity Capital: Display, Distinction and Hierarchy in Damascus.” In Samir Khalaf and John Gagnon, eds., Sexuality in the Arab World. London: Saqi Books, 2006.
“Cultural Construction, the Gulf, and Arab London.” In Paul Dresch and James Piscatori, eds., Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf. London: I. B. Tauris, 2005.
"Consuming Damascus: Public Culture and the Construction of Social Identity." In Walter Armbrust, ed., Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Peer Review Articles
"Creative Compromise: Syrian Television Makers between Secularism and Islamism," Contemporary Islam. Normal 0 Vol. 2(3), 2008
“Television and the Ethnographic Endeavor: The Case of Syrian Drama,” Transnational Broadcasting Studies, Vol. 14 (Spring/Summer 2005).
“London’s Arab Media and the Construction of Arabness,” Transnational Broadcasting Studies, Vol. 10, Spring 2003.
“Globalisation and Cultural Mediation: The Construction of Arabia in London,” Global Networks, Vol. 2(4), 2002.
"Moustache Hairs Lost: Ramadan Television Serials and the Construction of Identity in Damascus, Syria," Visual Anthropology, Vol. 10(2-4) 1998. Reprinted in Toby Miller, ed., Television, Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. 2. London: Routledge, 2003.
Non-Peer Reviewed Articles
Poetry translation, “Hole in the Head” and “The Last Time,” by Rima Buaini. Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arabic Literature, Vol. 31, Spring 2008.
“Damascus: New Dynamics in and about an Old City,” Anthropology News, January, 2007.
Guest Editor, ArteNews Quarterly Feature: “Ambivalent Nostalgias.” October 2007.
http://www.arteeast.dreamhosters.com/pages/artenews/nostalgias/
“Nostalgia Commodified: Old Damascus,” ArteNews Quarterly Feature, October 2007.
http://www.arteeast.dreamhosters.com/pages/artenews/nostalgias/
Translation from the Arabic, with Suhail Shadoud, “Canons of the Past,” by Najib Nusair, October 2007. http://www.arteeast.dreamhosters.com/pages/artenews/nostalgias/
Encyclopedia Entries
“Cities: Urban Movement: Arab States (excepting North Africa).” In Suad Joseph, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Vol.6. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
“Space: Female Space.” In Suad Joseph, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Vol.4. Leiden: Brill, 2007.