Misplaced Pages

Brenda Shaffer: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 20:44, 11 February 2007 editIcez (talk | contribs)291 editsm Clean up (especially for the TOC)← Previous edit Revision as of 20:45, 11 February 2007 edit undoIcez (talk | contribs)291 editsm Filled in more information that are available in article.Next edit →
Line 5: Line 5:
| caption = | caption =
| birth_date = | birth_date =
| birth_place = | birth_place = ]
| Nationality = | Nationality = ]
| occupation = | occupation = ]
| website = | website =
}} }}

Revision as of 20:45, 11 February 2007

Dr. Brenda Shaffer
BornUnited States
OccupationWriter

Dr. Brenda Shaffer is an American-born Israeli-educated writer and research fellow at Harvard.

Biography

Dr. Shaffer received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and has worked for a number of years as a researcher and policy analyst for the Government of Israel; and served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). She reads a number of languages, including Turkish, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Hebrew.

Dr. Shaffer is currently a postdoctoral fellow (a temporary research position held by anyone who has completed his/her doctoral studies) at the International Security Program and she is the former Research Director of the Caspian Studies Project at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Publications

Books

  • Author of "Partners in Need: The Strategic Relationship of Russia and Iran" (the Washington Institute for Near East Policy).
  • Author of "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity" (MIT Press, 2002).
  • Editor of "The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy" (MIT Press, 2006).

Articles, Papers, etc

Dr. Shaffer's articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and journals, including an article in Current History entitled “Is there a Muslim Foreign Policy?” and “Iran at the Nuclear Threshold” (Arms Control Today; November 2003). Her Opinion Editorials have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and The Jerusalem Post. "

Reviews

The following are two reviews of Brenda Shaffer's book Borders and Brethren.

By Evan Siegel

Evan Siegel (a Professor of New Jersey City University) in his review states "The book suffers from some general weaknesses. Its author is prone to make plausible generalizations which, however, are underdocumented when they are documented at all. At one point she claims, In the second half of the nineteenth century, some Azerbaijanis espoused Pan-Islamic ideology, and many of the supporters of Pan-Islam identified with Iran at this time. In addition, many Azerbaijanis were interested in their Turkic identity in a cultural sense, but few supported political unity with other Turkic peoples. The source she cites for this says nothing of the sort. "

Evan Siegel strongly criticises the book for being full of mistakes; inaccuracies; misinterpretation and misquoting sources and the book's failure to provide documentations to support Shaffer’s observations.

In conclusion Evan Siegel adds "Brethren and Borders is a highly political book on an emotional subject which needs careful, dispassionate analysis. Its chapters on the historical background is full of inaccuracies. Its chapters on current events and trends include a few interesting observations which don’t appear in the literature, but most of it is readily available elsewhere."

By Touraj Atabaki

Dr Atabaki (a Professor of International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands) strongly criticises the book for its lack of academic values and its unbalanced and sometimes even biased political appraisal. Atabaki also criticises Shaffer for her vivid shortcomings in the methodology; and her lack of academic accuracy in the data she offers. Atabaki in his review says “With Brenda Shaffer's Borders and Brethren one would expect a contribution to our understanding of future developments in Iran as well as in the neighboring countries. Within the first two chapters, however, the reader becomes disappointed with the unbalanced and sometimes even biased political appraisal that not only dominates the author's methodology but also shapes her selective amnesia in recalling historical data." Atabaki concludes his review by stating "Borders and Brethren is an excellent example of how a political agenda can dehistoricize and decontextualize history".

See also

References

  1. http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/publication_list_by_person.cfm?item_id=312
  2. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/recent_history/atoor/schafferjunkbook.htm
  3. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/recent_history/atoor/atabakishaffer.pdf

External links

Stub icon

This article about an American writer is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories:
Brenda Shaffer: Difference between revisions Add topic