Category Archives: Geography

Faulty approaches to Orientalism-Determinism explaining Kurdistan’s future: Part 2

Kurd map

By Dr. M Koohzad: Orientalism-Determinism: In this section both concepts of Orientalism and determinism will be discussed and criticized. Tribalism and Nomadism fall under a broader concept formulated in the previous century. Geographical location and being landlocked fall under a much older Greek notion of environmental determinism. Being a mountainous landlocked nation is not a…

Faulty approaches to Orientalism-Determinism explaining Kurdistan’s future: Part 1

Kurdistan

By Dr. M. Koohzad Introduction: Nearly a decade ago in November of 2003, the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association was held in Anchorage, Alaska. A written version of some of the talks, later called the “Briefs”, were edited by Hakan Yavuz and Michael Gunter, two of the Association’s members and participants. Five…