Febe Armanios
Office
Axinn Center 340
Tel
(802) 443-5212
Email
farmanios@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
Fall 2023: Thursdays 10:00AM to 12:30 PM, and by appointment.

Febe Armanios received her BA, MA, and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. She specializes in the history of Christian communities in the Middle East, especially of Egypt’s Copts, in the study of comparative religious practices, as well as food history and media studies. She has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Luce Foundation-ACLS, and Fordham University, among others. She’s been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School (ILSP) and has served on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Recently, she was named a Senior Editor for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies and an editorial board member of the Journal of Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule. In 2021-22, she was the Bennett Boskey Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at Williams College. She is also (with Marion Wells) founding co-Director of Middlebury’s Axinn Center for the Humanities.

Armanios is the author of Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt (Oxford UP, 2011) and co-author with Boğaç Ergene of Halal Food: A History (Oxford UP, 2018). She’s now completing a book-length project on the history of Christian television (terrestrial and satellite) in the Middle East (ca. 1981-present) and has also begun research for another book project, which looks at the history of Christian food practices in Ottoman and post-Ottoman regions, including in Egypt, Cyprus, Lebanon, Greece, and Turkey.

Courses Taught

Course Description

History of Islam and the Middle East, Since 1453
This course is an introduction to the major institutions that evolved under the aegis of what we might call Islamic civilization since the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The principal geographic areas covered are the Middle East and North Africa. Major topics include the rise of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires, Western intervention and colonialism, nationalism and state formation, and the challenges of and responses to modernization. Pre-1800. 2 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2022

Requirements

HIS, MDE

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Course Description

Christians in the Modern Middle East
In the Middle East, Christians have faced fast-paced political, economic, and religious transformations. Focusing on indigenous communities such as Copts, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Assyrians, and Maronites, we will explore Christianity’s place in the region, from the nineteenth century up to the present. Against the backdrop of a waning Ottoman Empire, mounting European colonialism, and the rise of nationalism and Islamism, we will investigate Christians’ status as minorities, who have at times been privileged and at other times been marginalized, exiled, and shunned. We will also pay attention to the ways in which Western governments and Christian missionaries have transformed the lives of Middle Eastern Christians in their quest for evangelism, apocalypticism, and regional domination. Class sources will include memoirs, novels, and films. 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2023

Requirements

AAL, HIS, MDE, SOC

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Course Description

Animals in Middle Eastern History
In this course we will examine attitudes towards animals in Middle Eastern history, with an emphasis on Muslim settings. We will survey the law and ethics of human-animal relations in religious sources and engage with issues such as how humans differ from non-human “animals,” how they should treat animals, and the overall place and roles of animals in divine creation as reflected within different historical periods. We will also consider the impact of the modern animal liberation movement in the Middle East and examine a variety of religious and secular positions formulated by Muslims that have recently prioritized animal welfare and promoted environmental consciousness. (Counts for HSMT credit) Pre-1800. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

CMP, HIS, MDE, SOC

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Course Description

Special research projects may only be taken during the Junior or Senior year, preferable after taking HIST 0600. Approval of department chair and project advisor is required.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Writing History
In this course students discuss historical methods and writing strategies to create convincing historical narratives. With the approval and guidance of the professor, students complete a 20-25-page research paper based on primary and secondary sources. Students take this course in the fall of their junior year or with permission in the spring. If students are away for the entire junior year, they can take the course in the fall of their senior year. 3 hr. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2023, Fall 2024

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study I
The optional History Senior Thesis is written over two terms, with the final grade applying to both terms. Approval is required. Students submit thesis proposals in the spring before the year that they choose to write their thesis. Students generally begin their thesis in the fall and complete it during winter or spring. Approval is required to begin the thesis in winter or spring. All students must attend the Thesis Writer's Workshops in fall and winter semesters and work with a faculty advisor to complete a 55-70 page paper. Please see detailed guidelines under history requirements.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study II
With departmental approval, senior history majors may write a two-term thesis under an advisor in the area of their choosing. The final grade is applied to both terms. Students must submit thesis proposals in the spring before the academic year that they choose to write their thesis. They must attend the Thesis Writers' Workshops held in the fall and winter of the academic year in which they begin the thesis. The department encourages students to write theses during the fall (0700) and winter terms (0701), but with the permission of the chair, fall/spring and winter/spring theses are also acceptable. Under exceptional circumstances, the department may approve a thesis initiated in the spring of an academic year and finished in the fall of the following year. Further information about the thesis is available from the department.

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Publications

Selected Publications:

Halal Food: A History, co-authored with Boğaç Ergene (Oxford University Press, 2018; paperback 2020) -Winner of the Best Book Award 2019 by the Association for the Study of Food and Society

Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt (Oxford University Press, 2011; paperback 2015)

“Coptic Perceptions of Time in Ottoman Egypt,” in Alessandro Bausi, Alberto Camplani, and Stephen Emmel, eds. Time and History in Africa (Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 2019), 67-78.

“A Christian Public Space in Egypt: Historical and Contemporary Reflections,” in Katsumi Fukasawa, Benjamin J. Kaplan, Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, eds. Religious Interactions in Europe and the Mediterranean World Coexistence and Dialogue from the 12th to the 20th Centuries (London: Routledge, 2017), 317-330.

“Emerging Christian Media in Egypt: Clerical Authority and the Visualization of Women in Coptic Video Films,” co-authored with Andrew Amstutz ‘08, the International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2013): 513-533.

“Coptic Faith and Practice in Egyptian Contexts,” in Elizabeth W. Fernea, Farhad Daftary, and Azim Nanji, eds. Living in Historic Cairo: Past and Present in an Islamic City (London and Seattle: The Institute of Ismaili Studies and the University of Washington Press, 2010), 86-92.

“Patriarchs, Archons and the Eighteenth-Century Resurgence of the Coptic Community,” in William Lyster, ed. The Cave Church at the Monastery of St. Paul the First Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul, Egypt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 61-73.

Recent Papers and Invited Presentations:

“Who are Copts? Reflections from the Past and Present,” at “The Coptic Christian Tradition Workshop,” Baylor University, February 6, 2019.

“On Coptic Food Customs in Ottoman Egypt,” at “Christians and Jews in Ottoman Society,” University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, July 3-5, 2017.

“From Marginalia: Writing Coptic History for the Ottoman Period,” at “Recovering the Role of Christians in the History of the Middle East,” the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, May 6-7, 2016.

“Evangelicals and Warlords: Christian Television in the Middle East, 1981-2000,” Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February 10, 2016.

“Télé Lumière: Christian Television in Postwar Lebanon,” the Middle East Studies Association annual meeting, Denver, Colorado, November 23, 2015.