Researching Biology and Evolution in the Gulf States: Networks of Science in the Middle East

Description

Officials and religious scholars in the Gulf states have repeatedly banned the teaching of the theory of evolution because of its association with atheism. But Jorg Matthias Determann argues here that, despite official prohibition, research on biological evolution has flourished, due in large part to the development of academic and professional networks. This book traces these networks through the history of various branches of biology, including botany, conservation research, ornithology and palaeontology. Typical of rentier societies, some of the scientific networks in this region consist of vertical patron-client relationships. For example, those in power who are interested in wildlife conservation have been known to offer patronage to biologists working on desert ecology. However, just as important are the horizontal links between scientists both within the Gulf region and beyond. Given the strengths and importance of these two forms of professional networks, Determann argues that we should look at the Arab world as an area interconnected with global science, and therefore fully integrated into the scientific and technological advances being pioneered worldwide.

Jorg Matthias Determann is Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He holds a PhD in History from SOAS, University of London, for which in 2013, he was one of the two joint winners of the BRISMES Leigh Douglas Memorial Prizefor the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic. He is the author of Historiography in Saudi Arabia: Globalization and the State in the Middle East (I.B.Tauris, 2013)."

"The efforts of Arab Gulf states to create "knowledge economies" by investing their resource wealth in universities and scientific institutions are a controversial and rapidly changing aspect of the contemporary Middle East. By tracing half a century of biological research in these states, Determann sheds new light on the challenges that these efforts face, as well as on the surprising resources-not only oil-that have contributed to the growth of scientific networks in this region. By situating Gulf biology in relation to the activities of oil companies, princes, and publishers, in addition to botanists, ecologists, and conservationists, Determann shows how life science in the Gulf has been deeply transnational, yet also particular to the unique and understudied environment in which it occurs." - Dr Daniel Stolz, Northwestern University; "Determann raises a number of interesting and important issues on a topic too often ignored in scholarly accounts of the modern Gulf. This is a book worth reading." - Dr Toby C. Jones, Rutgers University