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Editors : Gholam Khiabany, Tarik Sabry, Helga Tawil-SouriThe aim of the Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East is todirect attention to the multivalent and multi-local characteristics of knowledge production,media, and culture in the region. It highlights the necessity, once again,of the need and the possibilities of going beyond the false binaries, andof speaking with a 'third voice'. It addresses key questions such as:- Is Middle Eastern Media Studies a periphery or should it be regardedas part of a wider project of (social) science of society?- Does it have a particular hermeneutics?- How do we address the particularities of the region while alsoconsidering broader socio-cultural and media shifts?While challenging the provincialism of perceived 'universal' theory ofmedia and society, this handbook also highlights the perceived'alternative', i.e. militant particularism, which is just the flipside ofthe vacuous universalism it deplores, rather than a genuine alternativeto it.The handbook will articulate the questions of media and culture in theMiddle East beyond the limitations of presentism by focusing on thesymbiotic relationship that exists between both old and new media. It alsopromises to highlight the role (and meaning) of culture as a dynamic siteof struggle and contestation. The handbook is also an attempt to test someprevailing approaches regarding the role of empire, among other exogenousand endogenous factors, and its consequences for culture and politics.The handbook takes an interdisciplinary approach to media and culture inthe Middle East and brings together internationally recognised scholarsfrom around the world. The more recent revolutionary fervour in the ArabWorld has further brought the region into the attention of the world likenever before. However, while this collection will certainly be an attemptat 'catching history on the wing', to quote Benjamin, we are seekingcontributions, from various disciplines, that advance our understandings ofthe past and present and the struggle for the future of media and culturalresources, forms of organisations and expressions, as well as production,distribution, and consumption.This volume will be published by Blackwell as part of the prestigiousseries The Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research, designedto define an intellectual terrain: its historic emergence; its keytheoretical paradigms; its transnational evolution, its key empiricalresearch and possible future directions. For more information and examplesof the series see: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-410903.htmlSubmissions will be assessed for their scholarly merit and the extent towhich they contribute to our greater understanding of the mediated culturesin the Middle East. Contributors should limit their articles to between6000 and 8000 words (including references).Abstracts (250 words) are due by 28 March 2014.Upon acceptance, full articles will be due by 20 October 2014.For further information about the handbook, or to submit your abstract,please contact:Helga Tawil-Souri, New York University (helga@nyu.edu)