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Dr. R.A.F.L. (Robbert) Woltering

Faculty of Humanities
Capaciteitsgroep Semitische talen en culturen
Photographer: Bob Bronshoff

Visiting address
  • Spuistraat 134
Postal address
  • Postbus 1641
    1000 BP Amsterdam
  • Profiel

    Dr. R.A.F.L. Woltering

    Associate Professor Arabic Language and Culture

     

    Robbert Woltering obtained his propaedeutics  in Oriental Languages and Communication from Maastricht University, before proceeding to study toward an MA in Arabic Studies and an MSc in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He wrote his PhD under the supervision of Asef Bayat at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), on the representation of the West in post-Cold War Egyptian non-fiction. He was awarded his doctorate at Leiden University in 2009. His PhD thesis was published by IB Tauris in 2011: Occidentalisms in the Arab World. Ideology and Images of the West in the Egyptian Media.

    Since 2010 he is Assistant Professor of Arabic studies at the University of Amsterdam. In 2012 he initiated the establishment of the Amsterdam Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (ACMES), which was inaugurated in November 2013. ACMES has since been active in organizing lecture series, inviting international key scholars to the UvA and securing external research funding for innovative research projects.

    Woltering’s publications range from the philological (research into the literary revival of Queen Zenobia in the 19th century Arabic novel) to a somewhat anthropological approach (e.g. his research into the Egyptian football ultras). Most of his work however is based on discourse analysis and falls within the area of contemporary Arabic ideological discourse and its relation to the West. He has also authored a general introduction to the Koran (in Dutch, with Michiel Leezenberg) and a guide to Egyptian architectural history (with Jorrit Kelder).

     

    Recent and current research projects are:

    Abd al-Wahhab al-Masiri (Elmessiri) and the perception of Judaism and Zionism in the Arab world, Forthcoming in the International Journal of Middle East Studies

    A study into the relevance of ‘post-Islamism’ in post-Mubarak Egypt, Welt des Islams.

    Pseudo-Arabic in Renaissance European art, Forthcoming.

    Perceptions of the West in Egypt after the Arab Spring

    A study into the political meaning of the Egyptian revolutionary Facebook page Kullina Khaled Said.

     

    Master in Middle Eastern Studies

    Robbert Woltering is the coordinator of the MA Middle Eastern studies. This is a one-year master programme open to students who have obtained a BA in the Humanities or the Social Sciences with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. (Alternatively, they should be able to demonstrate that they have studied topics of relevance to Middle Eastern Studies, together totaling 30 ec.) The master is focused on the contemporary Middle East and offers an interdisciplinary approach with a range of courses hailing from Arabic studies, Religious studies, Political Science and Law. See the website of the Graduate School for the Humanities for more information.

    Verschenen in 2010

    De koran voor beginners

    Robbert Woltering & Michiel Leezenberg

    'De koran voor beginners' wil de lezer een eerste inleiding geven op een veelbesproken maar weinig gelezen tekst. Het beschrijft hoe de huidige korantekst tot stand is gekomen, wat de belangrijkste discussies onder moslimgeleerden zijn over de juiste lezing ervan, en hoe de koran in de loop der tijden door gelovigen is gebruikt. Daarbij worden ookgevoelige kwesties, zoals de (on)gelijkheid van man en vrouw, (homo)seksualiteit en het gebruik van geweld tegen andersdenkenden of ongelovigenniet uit de weg gegaan. Zo biedt het een nuchtere kijk op eenbelangwekkende heilige tekst, en een helder inzicht in de zin en onzin van een langlopende discussie. Aanschaffen bij bol.com.

    Onderwijs verzorgd in voorgaande jaren:   

    Arabische cultuurgeschiedenis, Arabische Literatuur, Wetenschapsfilosofie, Islam & Transnationalisme, Geschiedenis van het Moderne Midden-Oosten, Sociale & Politieke Ideologieën in de Islam, Islamitische Kunst & Architectuur, Koran, Occidentalisme, Inleiding regiostudies, Jihad.

  • Publications

    2023

    2022

    2021

    2019

    • Woltering, R. (2019). Moderation as Orthodoxy in Sunni Islam: Or, Why Nobody Wants to Be the Kharijite. In I. de Haan, & M. Lok (Eds.), The Politics of Moderation in Modern European History (pp. 223-236). (Palgrave Studies in Political History). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27415-3_12 [details]

    2018

    • Abdulla, R., Poell, T., Rieder, B., Woltering, R., & Zack, L. (2018). Facebook polls as proto-democratic instruments in the Egyptian revolution: The ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ Facebook page. Global Media and Communication, 14(1), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742766518760085 [details]
    • Riphagen, W., & Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2018). Tales of a Square: The Production and Transformation of Political Space in the Egyptian (Counter)Revolution. Arab Studies Quarterly, 40(2), 117-133. https://doi.org/10.13169/arabstudquar.40.2.0117 [details]
    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2018). Encompassing Judaism: Elmessiri and the "Islamic Humanist" Self. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 50(2), 233-246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743818000041 [details]
    • Woltering, R., & Hamad, H. (2018). Télémaque, Ṭahṭāwī and the (Counter-) Enlightenment in the Arab world. International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 6. https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.513 [details]
    • van den Bent, J., Woltering, R., & Van de Wijngaert, L. (2018). Representations of the West in Post-Mubarak Egypt. In M. Del Fiol, & C. C. Mitatre (Eds.), Les Occidents des mondes arabes et musulmans: Afrique du nord. XIXe-XXIe siècles (pp. 225-237). Geuthner. [details]

    2016

    2015

    2014

    2013

    2011

    • Woltering, R. (2011). Occidentalisms in the Arab world: ideology and images of the West in the Egyptian media. (Library of modern Middle East studies; No. 96). London: I.B. Tauris. [details]

    2009

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2009). 'Wanneer vergeet je nu eens dat ik een vrouw ben?': Leven en Nachleben van Zenobia, een Arabische koningin. In M. van Berkel, E. Buchheim, E. Geudeker, F. Gouda, E. Jonker, C. Laarman, & C. Rasterhoff (Eds.), Zenobia, Khadîja en Dolle Amina's: gender en macht in de islamitsiche geschiedenis (pp. 79-96, 204). (Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis; No. 29). Aksant. [details]

    2007

    2002

    2022

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2022). Roshnbireki Kurd la zankoi Amsterdam. Galawezhi New, 67-68, 190-195.

    2018

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2018). [Review of: E. Beška (2016) From Ambivalence to Hostility: The Arabic Newspaper Filastin and Zionizm, 1911-1914 (Studia Orientalia Monographica, 6)]. Bibliotheca Orientalis, 2018(3/4), 453-457. https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.75.3.3285903 [details]

    2014

    2010

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2010). Occidentalisme of beeldvorming over het Westen. Christen democratische verkenningen, 2010(2), 56-64.
    • Woltering, R., & Leezenberg, M. (2010). De Koran voor beginners. - 2e, herz. dr. Bert Bakker. [details]

    2009

    • Woltering, R., & Leezenberg, M. (2009). De Koran in een notendop. Bakker. [details]

    2008

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2008). Arab Windows. In M. Wintle (Ed.), Imagining Europe. Europe and Earopean Civilization as Seen from its Margins and by the Rest of the World, in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (pp. 177). Bruxelles: Peter Lang.

    2007

    2003

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2003). Het nieuwe antisemitisme. Sociologische Gids, 50, 323-332.

    2002

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2002). Huntington's ongelijk : geschiedenis van Ugandese moslims. Skript: historisch tijdschrift, 24(3).

    2014

    2011

    2010

    • Woltering, R. (2010). Oriëntalisme & Occidentalisme. Tussen exotisme, vooruitgangsdenken en kosmopolitisme. Simulacrum, 18(2/3), 30-33.
    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2010). [Review of: S. Schiffer (2005) Die Darstellung des Islams in der Presse: Sprache, Bilder, Suggestionen: eine Auswahl von Techniken und Beispielen]. Bibliotheca Orientalis, 67(1-2), 240-242. https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.67.1.2052751

    2008

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2008). [Review of: W. Mayer, P. Speiser (2007) A future for the past: restorations in Islamic Cairo 1973-2004]. Bibliotheca Orientalis, 65(3-4), 508-510. https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.65.3.2033379

    2004

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2004). [Bespreking van: L'islam mondialisé]. Sharqiyyat, (1).
    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2004). [Bespreking van: Occidentalism. The West in the Eyes of its Enemies]. Eutopia.

    2002

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2002). Een Nieuw Amerikaans Sudanbeleid sinds Bush jr. Internationale Spectator, 56(11), 555-559.

    2021

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2021). Mahmoud Darwish en Jozef: De Profeet Dichter, Dichter de Profeet. Paper presented at Zenobiacongres XVI | Jozef.
    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2021). REMEMBERING NASSER WITHOUT NASSERISM: USES AND ABUSES OF A GRANDIOSE LEGACY IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES. Paper presented at MSA africa Chapter Annual Conference 2021.

    2018

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2018). Just give money to poor people? Egyptian poverty alleviation strategies since 2014. Paper presented at WOCMES (World Conference on Middle East Studies), Seville, Spain.

    2016

    • Woltering, R. A. F. L. (2016). Islam as "a community of the middle". Paper presented at Conference Third Ways: The Politics of Moderation, Amsterdam, 22-11-2016 / 23-11-2016, .

    Media appearance

    2021

    • Admiraal, L. R. E. (2021). Entangled loyalties in the Middle East: Discussions on Fascism, Nazism and antisemitism in the Arabic Jewish press, 1933-1948. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    No ancillary activities