SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Name:

Mr Matthias Determann

Email address:

m.determann@soas.ac.uk

Thesis title:

'Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia'

Year of Study:

2008-9 (Year Started)

Website:

http://soas.academia.edu/determann

Internal Supervisors

• Konrad Hirschler

Biography

My research interests centre on the history of the Near and Middle East, particularly the modern history of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and the history of historiography. Before coming to SOAS, I studied History and Arabic Studies at the University of Vienna and subsequently taught German at King Saud University in Riyadh.

PhD Research

My doctoral research project has the title 'Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia'. I investigate the development of approaches to, and narratives in, historical writing in the kingdom within its social, intellectual, and political circumstances. I am especially interested in the emergence of a diversity of approaches, including dynastic, local, tribal, and social historiographies, and their different interpretations of the past. I argue that this plurality of voices is the result of a combination of factors inherent in Saudi state formation and the increasing integration of the state in global economies. I explore these connections through a wide reading of Saudi historical texts and numerous interviews with Saudi historians. I am very grateful to Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah Foundation, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, the Society for Arabian Studies and SOAS for supporting my research.

PhD Publications

Refereed article:
‘The Crusades in Arab School Textbooks’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 19, no. 2 (2008): 199–214.
Short article:
‘How Saudis Write Their History: Historiography in Saudi Arabia’, Bulletin of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia 17 (2012): 4–5.
Reviews:
‘The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam. Sean Foley’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39, no. 1 (2012): 143–44.
‘Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia. Steffen Hertog’, Bulletin of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia 17 (2012), 53–54.
‘A Global History of Modern Historiography. By Georg G. Iggers and Q. Edward Wang with contributions from Supriya Mukherjee’, Journal of World History 22, no. 2 (June 2011): 369–72.
‘Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab: The Man and His Works. ‘Abd Allah al-‘Uthaymin’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 38, no. 1 (2011): 135–36.
‘Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia. Toby Craig Jones’, Middle Eastern Studies 47, no. 3 (2011): 557–59.
‘Yoav Di-Capua: Gatekeepers of the Arab Past: Historians and History Writing in Twentieth-Century Egypt’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 74, no. 1 (2011): 142–43.
‘Fahd Al-Semmari (ed.); Salma K. Jayyusi (trans.): A History of the Arabian Peninsula’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73, no. 2 (2010): 318–19.
‘Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia, exhibition in the Brunei Gallery 

PhD Conferences

• ‘Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia’, paper presented at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Annual Conference 2011 at the University of Exeter in association with the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies and the Asian Federation of Middle East Associations, 29 June 2011.
• ‘Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia, 1924–2010’, paper presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) in San Diego, California, on 21 November 2010.
• ‘Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia, 1932–2010’, paper presented at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, Barcelona, on 23 July 2010.
• ‘The Emergence and Challenges of a National Historiography in Saudi Arabia’, paper presented at the workshop ‘Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiography’, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan University, and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on 18 September 2009.
• ‘Spaces in Contemporary Historiography in Saudi Arabia’, paper presented at the BRISMES Annual Conference, ‘Frontiers: Space, Separation and Contact in the Middle East’, at the University of Manchester, 4 July 2009.

PhD Affiliations

I am a member of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient (DAVO), the Society for Arabian Studies, the Saudi Historical Society (الجمعية التاريخية السعودية), the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, the Saudi-British Society, the London Middle East Institute (LMEI), and the History Lab at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR).