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Flagg Miller
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Professor, Religious Studies B.A. (cum laude), Dartmouth College, 1991 Office: 916 Sproul Hall |
Research Areas
Dr. Miller's research focuses on the roles of language ideology and poetry in contemporary Muslim reform in the Middle East and especially Yemen. His interdisciplinary work on religion draws from linguistic and cultural anthropology, history, media theory, poetics, philosophy, and cultural studies. He has lived and studied in the Middle East and North Africa for over four years, including Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen.
Current Projects
(In preparation). "The Armament of Verse: Osama bin Laden’s 1996 Declaration of War Reconsidered."
This book focuses on what I argue to be the most important speech Osama Bin Laden has delivered, the 1996 "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Two Holy Places." Delivered at a formative juncture of Bin Laden's career, the speech mobilized young audiences by deploying key themes in Muslim homily, while also venturing in new, more secular directions. Through re-translation and analysis of the Declaration, I introduce a general readership to seven genres of political discourse in the Arab-Islamic world, and show how Bin Laden skillfully negotiates each as he crafts his message for listeners. Bin Laden's final recourse to poetry in the last third of his speech reveals both the power, and the limits, of his formula for global jihad. The effects of the speech are explored through chapters on the history of Bin Laden's militant initiatives both before and after the speech, and on his use of media to achieve his aims.
Recent Publications
"Al-Qa`ida as a 'Pragmatic Base': Contributions of Area Studies to Sociolinguistics," Language and Communication. (Forthcoming in 2008)
The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen (Harvard University Middle Eastern Monographs series, 2007).
"Forms of Suffering in Muslim Prison Poetry," in Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak. Ed. Marc Falkoff. The University of Iowa Press, 2007. Pp.7-16.
"Of Songs and Signs: Audiocassette Poetry, Moral Character, and the Culture of Circulation in Yemen," American Ethnologist, 32(1): 82-99. (2005)
“Metaphors of Commerce: Trans-valuing Tribalism in Yemeni Audiocassette Poetry,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 34(1): 29-57. (2002)
"Public Words and Body Politics: Reflections on the Strategies of Women Poets in Rural Yemen," Journal of Women's History, 14(1): 94-122. (2002)
(Co-author Ulrike Freitag). "Three Poems on British Involvement in Yemen, from the Yemeni Press 1937," The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History. Eds. C. Amin, B. Fortna, E. Frierson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp.492-500.
Entries for “Yemen,” “Aden,” and “Sanaa” in Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, vol.2: Locations. Continuum Press, United Kingdom, 2005.
Review of Charles Hirschkind’s The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics, in Contemporary Islam. (Forthcoming in 2008).
Review of Jillian Schwedler’s Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen, in International Journal of Middle East Studies. (Forthcoming in 2008).
Review of Niloofar Haeri’s Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt, in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 17(2): 305-7. (2007)
Review of Paul Dresch’s A History of Modern Yemen, in Yemen Update, Spring issue. (2003)
Review of Martha Mundy's Domestic Government: Kinship, Community, and Polity in North Yemen, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 29(2): 182-5. (1998)
Selected List of Grants and Fellowships
- National Humanities Center Fellowship, 2007-8 (declined)
- Institute for Research in the Humanities Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fall, 2006
- University of Wisconsin Global Studies Faculty Research Grant, 2006.
- American Institute for Yemeni Studies grants in 2005-6, 1997, 1995-6
- The Franke Institute for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2001-2
- Social Science Research Council - International Dissertation Research Fellowship, 1998-9
- Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, 1998
- Fulbright Fixed-Sum Grant, 1991-2
Invited Talks
“Guantanamo Poetry: Contested Translations and the Problem of Origins,” Post-American Poetics Symposium, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, April 17-19, 2008.
“The Moral Resonance of Arab Media,” Workshop on censorship, speech, and media in the Middle East, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, April 20-21, 2007.
“The Pragmatic Precept" (al-Qaeda): On the Contribution of Ethnolinguistics to Arabic Language Ideologies,” Language and Globalization workshop, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Boston, MA, September 7-9, 2006.
“Challenges of Muslim Counter-American Activism in Egypt”: Workshop on Americanism and Anti-Americanism (panel discussant), The University of Iowa, Iowa City, April 22, 2006.
“Contests of Innovation (bid`): The Culture of Politics in Yemeni Reform Movements,” Middle East Studies Association meeting, Boston, MA, December 18-21, 2006.
“al-Qaeda's First Summit: An Analysis of Osama Bin Laden's Oratory”: Anthropology Department, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, September 23, 2005.
“Osama Bin Laden’s 1996 Declaration of War Reassessed”: Invited Lecture, The International Institute, Center for Middle East Studies, and Anthropology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 17, 2005.
“Transcending Invention in Islam: Circulation, Textual Authority, and the Politics of Audiocassettes in Yemen”: Religious Witness: Mediating the Intimate, the Everyday and the World, New York University, NY, May 2004.
“Pop Goes the Audience: Islamist Song, Music, and Politics in Yemen”: Song and Politics in the Arab World Lecture Series, The University of Washington, Seattle, WA, May 2003.
“The ‘Pasha’s’ Broken Verse: An Historical Poetics of Alienation in the Arabic Qasidah”: The Kelly Writer’s House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, January 2003.
“Spectral Character: Authorship and the Marking of Circulation in Yemeni Audiocassette Poetry”: Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 2002.
“The Spectral Character of Commerce: Circulation and the Problem of Authorship in Yemeni Audiocassette Poetry”: Main Hall Forum, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, February 2002.
"Metaphors of Commerce: Trans-valuing Tribalism in Yemen Audiocassette Poetry": Conference on Middle Eastern Popular Culture, Magdalen College, Oxford University, England, November 2000.
"'Yafi`a Has Only One Name': Shared Histories and Cultural Linkages between Yafi`a and Hadramawt": Peter-the-Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia, November 1996.
Courses Taught
- Religion Today
- Religion in Critical Perspective
- The Social Life of Islam
- History of Islamic Thought: Between Text and Action
- Performance and Politics
- Culture and Media
- Text and Context
- Cultural Anthropology and Human Diversity
- Cultural Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography
- Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa