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Today Associate Professor Joseph Massad‘s Desiring Arabs has been awarded the 2008 Lionel Trilling Award, according an email sent to the MEALAC listserv. The award is given each year to honor the book authored by a Columbia faculty member “that is deemed to best exhibit the standards of intellect and scholarship found in Lionel Trilling’s work,” the prize’s website says.
Desiring Arabs is an intellectual history of the last 200 years of the Arabic world that focuses on Arab sexuality and Western interpretations of Arab sexuality. Massad—as well as the book itself—has been the at the center of much heated Middle Eastern controversy over the last four years. Massad was also one of the subjects criticized by the David Project-funded documentary Columbia Unbecoming.
Winners of the Trilling Award—as well as the Mark Van Doren Award—are selected by the Columbia College Student Council and the Academic Awards Committee. A Bwog tipster with a friend involved in the latter explains that AACers have been told to remain mum, so other than the fluke MEALAC email, there have been no announcements about the winner.
According to the Columbia College website, the awards ceremony will be held on May 8th (although half the dates on the website say “2007” and the others say “2008”, this year, May 8th is on a Thursday.)
– JNW
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34 Comments
@agon Obviously, the title is a wordplay suggesting Arabs as both objects and subjects of desire. But then again, one would need to actually read the book to have an idea about that…
@clearly “desiring” is used as an adjective. I spoke to Massad in person. The publishers just wouldn’t let him publish it under “Horny Arabs.”
@DHI See, that’s what I said in the first place, Arabs who are desiring.
@In any case, The depiction of the one in the cover art certainly should clear it up.
@cyang I’m not sure thats true…the man has a desiring gaze and is quite a looker as well.
@Funny The eyebrows ruin it for me
@maybe its supposed to be both. deserious arabs and the people that desire arabs. now there’s a title!
@damn SNEAKY
@perhaps Desirous Arabs would have been a better choice.
@idiots instead of speculating about its name, read the damn book
@DHI Man I can’t go around reading every book that has a name, that doesn’t make me an idiot.
Why don’t you read the goddamn law code of New York State?
#20 – from the Amazon description, it seemed to be discussing the desires of Arabs, and the non-Arab views towards their sexual desires, not whether they were sexually desirable. I agree that your interpretation is closer to what the title implied. It could be that the summary was wrong or I misinterpreted it.
@DHI The name of the book is weird, because it’s easy to read it like “Arabs” is the object of “Desiring” instead of the subject.
“Yes I am desiring Arabs very much”
@???? isn’t “Arabs” intended to be the object? as in, the book is about the sexual views & ideologies both (other) Arabs and non-Arabs have taken towards Arabs?
@sigh and that’s *whose* since the douche is also likely the brand of Douche would feel a thrill at correcting someone on the internets
@Look you’re obviously one of those losers who gets off on being a douche bag on the internets, feels a little thrill with every unprovoked insult. It’s the only realm where you have any sort of say or power, because in all likelihood you’re some fugly loner who’s friends live in his computer. So I’ll let you pat yourself on the back and “win” your silent game of “How can I Out-Douche Myself Today?” Take another look at the tag line of this blog, dumbass. It’s a *gossip* blog. There is no validity threshold for said gossip. But sure, such details easily go unnoticed for self righteous sexually frustrated douches, I understand.
I actually took multiple classes with Massad and loved the experience. The only kernel of validity in this rumor is Massad not standing for a threat; he’s very principled and proud of it. I think he deserves tenure and people are always denied tenure for bullshit reasons. Bringing any possible reason to light would actually help Massad, if enough people knew it was for a petty reason.
@anonymous The implication of what I said, since I’m not sure you grasped it, is that you probably made up this rumor as an excuse for Massad’s not having tenure.
@sigh No, dear moron, your accusation rings loud and clear. This is getting tiring so I’ll spell it out for you a little further. You clearly don’t understand causality.You say that because it’s ridiculous this suggests it is untrue or made up. But just because something is “ridiculous”–even if I concede it’s ridiculous–doesn’t make it untrue. Read the damn news for ample proof of that. Invalidity is not contingent upon what I think is ridiculous or audacious or unfair. Many other divisive professors, especially at other institutions have been denied tenure for ridiculous reasons or ridiculous closed door power struggles.
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I agree with people about the title. “Desiring Arabs” threw me the first time I read it because it’s grammatically ambiguous. Though perhaps that’s his intention.
@anonymous You’re not seriously proposing the “It’s such a crazy story, it HAS to be true!” defense, are you?
Such cognitive dissonance at the mere suggestion that your beloved professor simply might not have deserved tenure for his work so far..
@AffirmativeInaction Dear “Anonymous”: learn to read. Putting words in people’s mouths doesn’t work outside of your cushy internets. And he’s not “beloved”.
“at the mere suggestion”
You’d have to suggest it *first*. Take a bow for your utter Fail.
@anonymous If, as you say, this story is ridiculous, that would suggest that the story is untrue and someone simply made it up.
And here you are repeating it – claiming you heard it ‘from a grad student’.
Why, one might wonder, would you repeat a story that you claim to find ridiculous? Normally one does not repeat a rumor that seems plainly silly.
The best explanation of the situation, then, seems to be that you just made it up.
@To spell it out Well dumbassm it’s just because it is just that ridiculous and unimaginative. What kind of brain damaged student would openly, blatantly threaten a professor? And someone with as much pride as Massad? Maybe I give people (like you) too much credit in general.
@cupcake the guy in that picture looks like the critic from ratatouille.
@hopefully this means he finally gets tenure.
@Hmmm I heard recently that he was denied tenure because years ago a student threatened him over her failing grade. Supposedly it was very egregious (she just didn’t come to class a tall). So she threatens that if he gives her a failing grade, she will use her pull with the Trustees (she was related to one of them) to make sure he never gets tenure.
Any one else hear this? I heard it this week.
@anonymous I bet you made that up and are trying your hardest to turn it into a rumor.
Hardcore fail.
@whatadick Ignoring the fact that I have nothing to gain from a rumor like that, I couldn’t make that up if I tried, asswipe. I heard it in a MEALAC class on Monday from a grad student.
@haha a mealac grad student also once told my class that he was being followed by david project acolytes with hidden spy cameras.
@anonymous Wow, you couldn’t make up a rumor that a student with Trustee connections threatened to keep him from getting tenure over a grade?
Did you make it into Columbia on affirmative action for the imaginatively-impaired?
@nah I heard a rumor that he was denied in a complex deal to grant tenure to nadia abu el-haj. both rumors are dubious…I hope.
@will those same shrill “activists” who protested the tenure of al-haj (sp?) try to discredit this too?
@Note The Award Ceremony will be held on May 7.
@Umm #2 ftl
@why was the suicide bomber’s wife so upset?
Because he exploded too early.
@More Info Want to learn more about the Lionel Trilling Book Award? Do you know something about it you want others to know?
http://www.wikicu.com/Lionel_Trilling_Book_Award