Michael Quinn 

Visiting Fellow

Academic Career

Current Research Project

I am using the fellowship generously awarded by German Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 138 to complete an introductory book for students and general readers on the philosophy of the English utilitarian Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) for the Polity Press. The book centres on Bentham’s role as a theorist of government, which is to say, in his terminology, of legislation, or, in contemporary terminology, of public policy.

Key research activities

Currently, reading (not enough); writing (too slowly); re-writing (too inadequately). My core research interests lie in equality and theories of Justice; history of political thought; the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, with particular reference to the application of the principle of utility to law, government and public policy; utility and truth; universalist principles and context dependent applications; law, culture and normative orders.

Publications

Books

• Forthcoming: Bentham, Cambridge, Polity (Classic Thinkers series), [2021].
• Justice and Egalitarianism: Formal and Substantive Equality in some recent theories of Justice, Garland, New York, 1991 (Reprinted by Routledge, London, 2019).

Edited books

Bentham’s Theory of Law and Public Opinion, ed. X. Zhai and M. Quinn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Edited Volumes in the Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham

• Writings on Political Economy Volume II: Financial Resources including Supply without Burthen and Proposals relative to divers modes of Supply, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2019.
• Writings on Political Economy Volume I: including Defence of Usury, Manual of Political Economy, and A Protest Against Law Taxes, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2016.
• Writings on the Poor Laws Volume II, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2010.
• Writings on the Poor Laws Volume I, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2001.
• (As Co-Editor) Of Sexual Irregularities, and other writings on Sexual Morality, ed. P. Schofield, C. Pease-Watkin and M. Quinn, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2014.

Pre-publication online versions of Bentham Collected Works Volumes

• Writings on Political Economy Volume V: Wealth, Money and Prices; including Thoughts on Paper Money, Defence of a Maximum, and Method and Leading Features of an Institute of Political Economy (uploaded to UCL Digital Repository November 2019). https://rdr.ucl.ac.uk/articles/Writings_on_Political_Economy_Volume_V_Preliminaries_and_preliminary_text_files_1-2_5-15_/10110860
• Writings on Political Economy Volume IV: Circulating Annuities and other writings on National Debt (uploaded to UCL Digital Repository October 2019). https://rdr.ucl.ac.uk/articles/Writings_on_Political_Economy_Volume_IV_Preliminaries_and_Text_files_1-5/9897596/2
• Writings on Political Economy Volume III: Preventive Police (forthcoming from Clarendon Press), (uploaded to UCL Discovery platform August 2018) available at http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10055084/
• (As co-editor) ‘Not Paul, but Jesus. Volume III. Doctrine’, Bentham Project, (uploaded to UCL Discovery platform August 2013) available at http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1392179/

Edited Journal Special Issue

• History of European Ideas 43-1 (2017), ‘Indirect Legislation: Jeremy Bentham’s Regulatory Revolution’, ed. M. Bozzo-Rey, A. Brunon-Ernst, and M. Quinn.

Journal Articles and Chapters in Books

• ‘“The first article to look to is power”: Jeremy Bentham, Happiness, and the Capability Approach’, in Happiness and Utility: Essays presented to Frederick Rosen, ed. G. Varouxakis & M. Philp, London, UCL Press, 2019, 118–42.
• ‘Bentham on Preventive Police: the Calendar of Delinquency in evaluation of policy, and the Police Gazette in manipulation of opinion’, International Criminal Justice Review, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1057567719827343 (published online 26 February 2019).
• ‘Jeremy Bentham, choice architect: law, indirect legislation, and the context of choice’, History of European Ideas, 43-1 (2017), 11-33. doi:10.1080/01916599.2016.1251720
• ‘Jeremy Bentham, “The Psychology of Economic Man”, and Behavioural Economics’, Œconomia 6-1 (2016), 3–32. doi:10.4000/oeconomia.2249
• ‘Fuller on Legal Fictions: A Benthamic Perspective’, in M. Del Mar, & W.L. Twining  eds., Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice. Dordrecht & London, Springer, 2015. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09232-4 (earlier version published in International Journal of Law in Context 9 (2013), 166–84).
• ‘Popular Prejudices, Real Pains: What is the Legislator To Do When the People Err in Assigning Mischief?’, in Bentham’s Theory of Law and Public Opinion, ed. X. Zhai and M. Quinn, Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 63–89.
• ‘Bentham on Mensuration: Calculation and Moral Reasoning’, Utilitas 26 (2014), 61–104. doi:10.1017/S0953820813000241
• ‘Jeremy Bentham on physical disability: a problem for whom?’, Review of Disability Studies 8.4 (2012), 19–32.
• ‘Which comes first, Bentham’s chicken of utility or his egg of truth?’, Journal of Bentham Studies 14 (2012).
• ‘L’archetypation et la recherche d’images significantes: significant et signifié dans la logique de Bentham’, Essaim 28 (2012), 171–81.
• ‘Counting Pleasures and Pains, and Counting Heads’, Philosophy and Public Issues—Filosofia e questioni pubbliche 1 (new series) (2011), 21–9.
• ‘Post-modern moments in the application of empirical principles: power, knowledge, and discourse in the thought of Jeremy Bentham vs. Michel Foucault’, Revue d'études benthamiennes 8 (April 2011).
• ‘A Failure to reconcile the irreconcilable? Security, subsistence and equality in Bentham’s writings on the Civil Code, and on the poor laws’, History of Political Thought 29 (2008), 320–43.
• ‘Mill on poverty, population and poor relief: out of Bentham by Malthus?’, Revue d'études benthamiennes 4 (February 2008).
• ‘The Fallacy of Non-Interference: The Poor Panopticon and Equality of Opportunity’, Journal of Bentham Studies 1 (1996).
• ‘Jeremy Bentham on the Relief of Indigence: An Exercise in Applied Philosophy’, Utilitas 6 (1994), 81–96.
• ‘Liberal Egalitarianism, Utility and Social Justice’, Utilitas 5 (1993), 311–16.
• ‘Aristotle on Justice, Equality, and the Rule of Law’, Polis 9 (1991), 170–86.
• ‘Self-interest, the Common Good and the “New Orthodoxy”’, Utilitas 2 (1990), 143–9.

Mina Ibrahim 

Visiting Fellow

Academic Career

Current Research

My current doctoral dissertation project has to do with victimhood narratives among Coptic Christian misfits in Egypt; in other words, those who are theologically and socially marginalized and negated from constituting such narratives. During my fellowship period at SFB 138, I seek to develop what I call prison and carceral studies of the Middle East and North Africa. The latter is combined to an initiative I currently work on with the Lebanese organization UMAM for Research & Documentation that is called MENA Prison Forum. Moreover, I am currently developing a proposal that tries to link victimhood narratives practiced by religious minorities in the MENA region with the history of black slavery and its current impact.

Research Interests

• Religious Minorities of the MENA Region
• History of Black Slavery and its current impact
• Histories and Cultures of Imprisonment, Torture, and Trauma in the MENA Region

Publications (Selected)

• “Egyptian Dry Nights: Drinking and Selling Alcohol during Islamic Holidays” in Disputes on Alcohol in the Middle East, Elife Biçer-Deveci, Phillipe Bourmaud, and Nicolas Elias (eds.). London: Palgrave. Forthcoming: April 2021.
• “For the Sake of Marguirguis: Coptic Christian Charity as a Divine Community”, Endowments. Forthcoming: November 2020.
• “(Un-)Hiding the Samaritan’s Sexuality: Insights from Coptic Woman’s Notebook” in Sex in the Middle East and North Africa, L.L. Wynn & Angel M. Foster (eds.). Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. Forthcoming: December 2020/January 2021.
• “The Invisible Life-Worlds of a Coptic Christian”, Middle East Topics & Arguments. Vol. 13, December 2019, pp. 89-94.
• “The (Non-)Orthodox Tradition, The (Non-)Orthodox Everydayness (Review on Luehrmann, Sonja: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.]”. In: KULT_online 56 (November 2018).
• “A Minority at the Bar: Revisiting the Coptic Christian (In-) Visibility”, Social Compass 66 (3), June 2019, 366-382.
• “Doing Fieldwork in Revolutionary Times [Review on: Mittermaier, Amira: Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2019.]”. In: KULT_online 60 (2019). 
• “The Absence of Coptic Christians on the Rabaa Square”, Jadaliyya, 14 August 2018: http://jadaliyya.com/Details/37866/The-Absence-of-Coptic-Christians-on-the-Rabaa-Square 
• “What is Missing from the Arab Spring? [Review on: Bayat, Asef: Revolution without Revolutionaries. Making Sense of the Arab Spring. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017.]”. In: KULT_online 53 (January 2018).

Teaching

Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts & Sciences (CILAS), Cairo-Egypt, Fall 2020, “Villains & Misfits” & “Historical Consciousness”, (Two Courses).

University of Marburg, Marburg-Germany, Winter Semester 2019-2020, “Anthropology of/from the Margins”, (Course).

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2019, “Anthropology of the Middle East & North Africa”, (Course). 

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2018, “Conceptualizing Sacred Spaces: Perspectives from the Study of Culture”, (Conference).

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2017, “Heroes & Martyrs: Contested Figures between Agency & Victimhood”, (Workshop).

Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS), Cairo-Egypt, Spring Semester 2016, “Egyptian Piety from the Margins”, (Course).

The American University in Cairo, Cairo-Egypt, Fall Semester 2015, “Ethnographic Research Methods”, (Course).

Awards, Fellowships, and Grants (Selected)

SFB/TRR 138 “Dynamics of Security”/University of Marburg, April 2020-December 2020, Writing-up Fellowship.

German Federal Government Excellence Initiative (DFG), October 2016- March 2020, Doctoral fellowship

Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS), October 2019- February 2020, Grant for the project “An Oral History of the 2011 Egyptian Uprisings” in Cairo, Egypt.

Columbia University Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL), October 2019, Grant to attend publication workshop in Oslo, Norway. 

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 2019, Grant to attend “An Arab Citizen” study program in Washington DC, United States.

Missions chrétiennes et Sociétés au Moyen-Orient (MisSMO), June and September 2019, Fellow in Two-Parts Summer School “Sources and methods for a study of the missionary phenomenon in the Middle East (end 19th century- the Present)”, Rome (June) and Cairo (September).

European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS), March 2019, Fellow in Spring School: “Patronage and Clientalism in the Middle East” in Granada, Spain.

Orient Institute Beirut (OIB)/Max Weber Foundation, January 2018 - December 2018, 12-month doctoral fellowship and residency at the German research center in Beirut, Lebanon.

French Institute for Oriental Archeology in Cairo, March 2018- October 2018. Award for the production of an ethnographic film "El Gameyaa" in Cairo, Egypt.

Central European University (CEU) Full Fellowship, September 2014- June 2015, Graduate fellowship for Master’s degree in Budapest, Hungary.

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), September 2011- January 2012, Undergraduate semester abroad at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Institute of Political Science), Germany.

Marcel Schmeer 

Visiting Fellow

Academic Career

Current Research

My current research project focuses on the conflictual relationship between police and society in Cold War Berlin. Working title: “(In-)Security Theater in the Shadow of the Cold War. Police, Society, and the Staging of Domestic Security in West Berlin, 1945-1989”

Key research activities

• Contemporary German History after 1945
• Police History
• Intelligence History
• Organizational Theory and History

Teaching

Summer term 2020: „Polizei, Gesellschaft und Herrschaft im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert“, Seminar, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (due to the Covid19 pandemic conducted entirely online):

Publications

Edited Volume

• Im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Umstrittene Organisationen im 20. Jahrhundert, Campus: Frankfurt/New York 2020 (ed. together with Marcus Böick).

Articles and Chapters

• Popularizing the Knowledge of Intelligence. The Annual Reports on the Protection of the Constitution in West Germany Between Cold War Propaganda and Government Public Relations (forthcoming in 2021).
• (Un-)Sicherheitsproduzent und Differenzmaschine? Neue Perspektiven auf die Geschichte der West-Berliner Polizei nach 1945 (forthcoming in 2021).
• Aus dem toten Winkel ins „Kreuzfeuer der Kritik“? Organisationen in der zeithistorischen Theorie und Praxis, in: Marcus Böick/Marcel Schmeer (ed.): Im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Umstrittene Organisationen im 20. Jahrhundert, Campus: Frankfurt/New York, Januar 2020, 9—65 (together with Marcus Böick).
• Soziologen, Straßenkämpfer, Psychobullen. Die West-Berliner Polizei als umstrittene Organisation, in: Marcus Böick/Marcel Schmeer (ed.): Im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Umstrittene Organisationen im 20. Jahrhundert, Campus: Frankfurt/New York, 285—
• The ‘Traube Affair’: Transparency as a Legitimation and Action Strategy between Security, Surveillance and Privacy, in: Stefan Berger/Dimitrij Owetschkin (ed.): Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere. Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2019, 173—196 (together with Christopher Kirchberg).
• Erich Gottschalk (1906-1996) – Der (fast) vergessene Fußballmeister aus Bochum, in: Lorenz Peiffer/Arthur Heinrich (ed.): Juden im Sport in der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus. Ein historisches Handbuch für Nordrhein-Westfalen, Wallstein: Göttingen 2019, 793—797 (together with Henry Wahlig).
• Zeitgeschichte nach 1945, in: Clio Guide – Ein Handbuch zu digitalen Ressourcen für die Geschichtswissenschaften, ed. by Laura Busse, Wilfried Enderle, Rüdiger Hohls, Gregor Horstkemper, Thomas Meyer, Jens Prellwitz, Annette Schuhmann, Berlin 2016 (together with Marcus Böick and Rüdiger Graf), URL: https://guides.clio-online.de/guides/epochen/zeitgeschichte-nach-1945/2018

Book Reviews

• Review: Keßelring, Agilolf: Die Organisation Gehlen und die Neuformierung des Militärs in der Bundesrepublik. Berlin 2017, in: H-Soz-Kult, June 14, 2018, URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-26306
• Review: Seibel, Benjamin: Cybernetic Government. Informationstechnologie und Regierungsrationalität von 1943–1970. Wiesbaden 2016, in: H-Soz-Kult, August 15, 2017, URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-25554

Conference Reports

• Zeitgeschichte der Sicherheit. Politikfelder, Akteure und Handlungslogiken im geteilten Deutschland, 17.09.2018 Potsdam, in: H-Soz-Kult, January 31, 2019 (together with Christopher Kirchberg), URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-8076
• „It’s the economy, stupid …“? Begriff und Praxis der Ökonomisierung in der Zeitgeschichte, 01.03.2018 – 03.03.2018 Potsdam, in: H-Soz-Kult, July 2, 2018 (also published in: Soziopolis, July 6, 2018), URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-7773 / https://soziopolis.de/vernetzen/veranstaltungsberichte/artikel/its-the-economy-stupid-begriff-und-praxis-der-oekonomisierung-in-der-zeitgeschichte/
• Wege in die digitale Gesellschaft. Computer und Gesellschaftswandel seit den 1950er Jahren, 30.03.2017 – 31.03.2017 Potsdam, in: H-Soz-Kult, June 9, 2017, URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-7200
• Sektionsbericht Zeitgeschichte zum Historikertag 2016, in: H-Soz-Kult, January 14, 2017 (together with Marcus Böick), URL: https://www.hsozkult.de/debate/id/diskussionen-3995

Mina Ibrahim 

Visiting Fellow

Academic Career

Current Research

My current doctoral dissertation project has to do with victimhood narratives among Coptic Christian misfits in Egypt; in other words, those who are theologically and socially marginalized and negated from constituting such narratives. During my fellowship period at SFB 138, I seek to develop what I call prison and carceral studies of the Middle East and North Africa. The latter is combined to an initiative I currently work on with the Lebanese organization UMAM for Research & Documentation that is called MENA Prison Forum. Moreover, I am currently developing a proposal that tries to link victimhood narratives practiced by religious minorities in the MENA region with the history of black slavery and its current impact.

Research Interests

• Religious Minorities of the MENA Region
• History of Black Slavery and its current impact
• Histories and Cultures of Imprisonment, Torture, and Trauma in the MENA Region

Publications (Selected)

• “Egyptian Dry Nights: Drinking and Selling Alcohol during Islamic Holidays” in Disputes on Alcohol in the Middle East, Elife Biçer-Deveci, Phillipe Bourmaud, and Nicolas Elias (eds.). London: Palgrave. Forthcoming: April 2021.
• “For the Sake of Marguirguis: Coptic Christian Charity as a Divine Community”, Endowments. Forthcoming: November 2020.
• “(Un-)Hiding the Samaritan’s Sexuality: Insights from Coptic Woman’s Notebook” in Sex in the Middle East and North Africa, L.L. Wynn & Angel M. Foster (eds.). Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. Forthcoming: December 2020/January 2021.
• “The Invisible Life-Worlds of a Coptic Christian”, Middle East Topics & Arguments. Vol. 13, December 2019, pp. 89-94.
• “The (Non-)Orthodox Tradition, The (Non-)Orthodox Everydayness (Review on Luehrmann, Sonja: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.]”. In: KULT_online 56 (November 2018).
• “A Minority at the Bar: Revisiting the Coptic Christian (In-) Visibility”, Social Compass 66 (3), June 2019, 366-382.
• “Doing Fieldwork in Revolutionary Times [Review on: Mittermaier, Amira: Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2019.]”. In: KULT_online 60 (2019). 
• “The Absence of Coptic Christians on the Rabaa Square”, Jadaliyya, 14 August 2018: http://jadaliyya.com/Details/37866/The-Absence-of-Coptic-Christians-on-the-Rabaa-Square 
• “What is Missing from the Arab Spring? [Review on: Bayat, Asef: Revolution without Revolutionaries. Making Sense of the Arab Spring. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017.]”. In: KULT_online 53 (January 2018).

Teaching

Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts & Sciences (CILAS), Cairo-Egypt, Fall 2020, “Villains & Misfits” & “Historical Consciousness”, (Two Courses).

University of Marburg, Marburg-Germany, Winter Semester 2019-2020, “Anthropology of/from the Margins”, (Course).

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2019, “Anthropology of the Middle East & North Africa”, (Course). 

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2018, “Conceptualizing Sacred Spaces: Perspectives from the Study of Culture”, (Conference).

University of Giessen, Giessen-Germany, Summer Semester 2017, “Heroes & Martyrs: Contested Figures between Agency & Victimhood”, (Workshop).

Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS), Cairo-Egypt, Spring Semester 2016, “Egyptian Piety from the Margins”, (Course).

The American University in Cairo, Cairo-Egypt, Fall Semester 2015, “Ethnographic Research Methods”, (Course).

Awards, Fellowships, and Grants (Selected)

SFB/TRR 138 “Dynamics of Security”/University of Marburg, April 2020-December 2020, Writing-up Fellowship.

German Federal Government Excellence Initiative (DFG), October 2016- March 2020, Doctoral fellowship

Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS), October 2019- February 2020, Grant for the project “An Oral History of the 2011 Egyptian Uprisings” in Cairo, Egypt.

Columbia University Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL), October 2019, Grant to attend publication workshop in Oslo, Norway. 

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 2019, Grant to attend “An Arab Citizen” study program in Washington DC, United States.

Missions chrétiennes et Sociétés au Moyen-Orient (MisSMO), June and September 2019, Fellow in Two-Parts Summer School “Sources and methods for a study of the missionary phenomenon in the Middle East (end 19th century- the Present)”, Rome (June) and Cairo (September).

European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS), March 2019, Fellow in Spring School: “Patronage and Clientalism in the Middle East” in Granada, Spain.

Orient Institute Beirut (OIB)/Max Weber Foundation, January 2018 - December 2018, 12-month doctoral fellowship and residency at the German research center in Beirut, Lebanon.

French Institute for Oriental Archeology in Cairo, March 2018- October 2018. Award for the production of an ethnographic film "El Gameyaa" in Cairo, Egypt.

Central European University (CEU) Full Fellowship, September 2014- June 2015, Graduate fellowship for Master’s degree in Budapest, Hungary.

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), September 2011- January 2012, Undergraduate semester abroad at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Institute of Political Science), Germany.