New Direction

I got the idea to start this blog after last year's MESA meeting. There was a panel on bloggers, and how there haven't really been any new MESA bloggers. The president then (Juan Cole) basically challenged us to start blogs, and I took that challenge. Unfortunately, mine seems to be a case of 'if someone blogged in the woods and no one was there to read it, would it really matter?' That started me thinking and I've come up with some new goals for 2008. First of all, I intend to start doing more analysis on the news, not just acting as a news aggregate. Secondly, I'm going to try to increase my readership. I read a number of blogs so I intend to start commenting more, when appropriate, to try and get the Ali Gator name out there and more read. For those of you who do read the blog, thank you for your support and tell your friends!

MESA: Middle East Studies Association

Each year MESA has it's annual meeting just before Thanksgiving. This year it was in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And it was fabulous! I was at MESA and had a blast. When you study the Middle East, it's often hard to find people to discuss that topic with. Unless you want to talk about how all Arabs are terrorists. MESA gives us all a chance to come together and pursue our specific interests. So if you're interested in 14th century Persian poetry, odds are good that someone else who likes that will show up at MESA. That's why I enjoy going to MESA. I get to speak with people who share my specific interests and I get to be a tourist. Montreal was great and I hope to be able to visit it again soon.