Mada Akhar: A journal for cultural and Intellectual Issues

The middle of October (2005) saw the release of the first issue of Mada Akhar - A journal for cultural and Intellectual Issues) ("A Different Scope"), and which Mada al-Carmel – Arab Center for Applied Social Research – intends to publish it biannually. The journal presents the intellectual cutting edge in criticism, reflecting modern thought in a wide range of disciplines. The editorial staff of the journal consists of: Esmaeel Nashef, Marzuq Halabi, Lina Miari, Hunaida Ghanem and Hanin Zo`abi; the co-editors-in-chief of the journal are Nabil Saleh and Nimer Sultani.

The first issue of the journal included eight articles by researchers and authors. Dr. Esmaeel Nashef, wrote about "The Architecture of Palestinian Loss", and Huda Abu Mokh explored "Texts as a Method of Exclusion". Various aspects of language and literature were explored by Tayeb Ghanayem, who wrote an article entitled "Skyscraping Language – Writing and Creating Words"; Dr. Hunaida Ghanem, who explicated patterns of time and place in examples of poems about the Palestinian Nakba; and Lina Miari, whose article discusses gender, national discourse and the modern Arab State from Gender Perspective. Current events and trends were analyzed in Marzuq Halabi's article, "Psych Tourism – The Vanquished who Thought he was the Vanquisher"; and an article by Ra'ef Zureik entitled "Strength, Weakness, Intervention and Continuance". Dr. Amal Jamal critically reviewed Yehuda Shenhav's book, The Arab Jews: Nationality, Religion and Ethnicity. This issue of the journal also included a translated article by the French philosopher and social science critic Pierre Bourdieu.

The visions and goals of "Mada Akhar" were lucidly expressed in the editorial, part of which reads:
It is an invitation to attend the funeral of that which exists, in order to behold the details of the birth of that which is to come, without either a cry of lamentation or joy, but with the delight of a child's first betrayal to his mother, and to be more specific, the precise moment in which he kills his father. Dear reader, please write in this dark gap between the act and reactions to it, hoping it will lighten the geography of betrayal, and turn these groans into sighs of gratification. Write far from what is familiar, and in a style which does not yield or succumb to what is known, for 'that which is known in a familiar way is not known as it should be, because of its familiarity'. Familiarity, because of its inherent simplicity, suppresses the need to dig deeper in order to understand the development of thoughts and phenomena. Dear reader, do not be concerned about the possibility that shaking up and disturbing that which is familiar, can lead you to write. This is our aim through this journal.

Mada center organized a special evening last Saturday, in the city of Nazareth, to announce the release of the first issue of the journal.