タイトル：平成 19（2007）年度 研究セミナー【前期】
日程：平成 19 年 7 月 25 日（水）～27 日（金）場所：東京外国語大学アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所 3 階 マルチメディアセミナー室（306）” The Muslim Brotherhood Movement: Political Activism in Egypt under Mubarak “Housam DARWISHEH（東京外国語大学大学院地域文化研究科博士後期課程）
The PhD Seminar was an invaluable occasion to provide for me to become acquainted, discussand present my work to many experts on Middle Eastern Studies whose critical comments
and discussions helped to improve my proposal and construct my hypothesis coherently. Theseminar targeted a variety of topics and useful techniques such as practical exercise to givepresentations, exercise for open discussions, and networking of doctoral students in Japan,
which was a very nice opportunity to an overseas student like me. I am a PhD student at theGraduate School of Area and Cultural Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. My PhD
dissertation deals with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement and its politicalactivism during the era of President Muhammad Hosni Said Muraka.
The first presentation, “Necessary Requirements for Submitting Doctoral Dissertation”, byDr. Aiko Nishikida touched upon many important issues and most of the problems
postgraduate students and researchers face from A to Z when they conduct a fieldwork andwrite PhD dissertation. There were many topics of interest during the seminar among which
Miyuki Kinjou’s paper, a PhD Candidate at Ritsumeikan University, “The New History inIsrael: Formation and Change” was very interesting. It shed light on some new historians’
discourse who have challenged the tenets of the Zionist and Israeli historical narrative andethos. As the Arab-Israeli conflict remains in a deadlock, it would be worth researching tounderstand to what extent does each side’s core historical narrative assist conflict resolution.
It might also be interesting to explore if this new reading of historical narrative has
influenced the foreign powers’ approach to the Palestinian problem as most of these works
are written in English and read outside Israel.
Another interesting paper was by Kenichiro Takao, a PhD candidate at Doshisha University,
which dealt with the Great Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, who contributed a lot toIslamic revival in modern Syria. The very few literature available on Sheikh Kuftaro might
be a challenging task for Kenichiro’s study but, at the same time, it is an invaluable
opportunity for him to be the first one, in Japan, to shed light on state-society relation inSyria from a new perspective.
I learned a lot from the seminar, but it would have been more useful if the one in charge had
set a certain guideline for students to follow in their presentations. Also it might have been

more practical and helpful if some professors, present at the seminar, could have given brief
lectures, in the beginning of each day, on writing PhD dissertation and maderecommendations on problem statement and hypothesis, approach and methodology that are
crucial in successfully writing a PhD dissertation. I would like to thank all the organizers
and professors who devoted their time and made this seminar possible and would be very
grateful if I could have the chance again to present my work in the future.