Prof. Dr. Laila Prager

GRM 2017 Workshop: Gender and Identity in the Gulf: Cultural Constructions and Representations

Senior Research Associate - NYU Abu Dhabi

Prof. Dr. Laila Prager is a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Research Fellowship Program at NYU Abu Dhabi. She is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and a member of AGYA (Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities). Formerly, she worked as a researcher and senior 6 lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Münster and Leipzig (Germany). Dr. Prager’s research interests center on the narrative representation and performance of the past among Bedouin societies in Syria and Jordan; kinship, cosmology, inter-religious conflicts, ritual healing, and migration among the Arab speaking Alawi/Alawite (Nusairy) society in South Eastern Turkey (Hatay/Çukurova) and Alawi migrant communities in Germany. Current projects include a comparative study of the various ways in which heritage is displayed, enacted, and appropriated at local, national, and transnational levels in the Gulf region as well as an interdisciplinary research project on the societal transformations emerging from the increase of major diseases in the Gulf region, such as diabetes type 2, thalassemia, and other genetically induced illnesses. Recent publications include (as guest editor of the Special Issue of Nomadic Peoples), Reshaping Tribal Identities in the Contemporary Arab World. 18 (2); Bedouinity on Stage (2014) The Rise of the Bedouin Soap Opera (Musalsal Badawi) in Arab Television. Nomadic Peoples 18 (2): 53-77 and “Displaying Origins: Heritage Museums, Cultural Festivals, and National Imageries in the UAE” Horizons in Humanities and Social Sciences 1 (2015): 22-46. Dr. Prager received her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Münster, Germany.