Mark Levine
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Radio: Bio of Mark Levine
November 20, 2005
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Mark LeVine is a leader of the new generation of historians and analysts of the modern Middle East and Islam. With a command of Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Persian, as well as Italian, French and German, LeVine spent the last eight years living, researching and reporting from the region, including Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Morocco. He has interviewed senior international political figures, reported from Beirut's green line, taught Qur'an to Muslim Brothers, performed from Woodstock to Paris to Damascus Gate, lived next door to Hamas mosques, stood against bulldozers, dodged terrorist bombs, and uncovered damning files in dusty archives. He knows the history, politics, religions–and most important, the peoples–of the region as a friend, but with a highly critical eye.
LeVine's wide and deep knowledge of the politics and history of the Middle East and North Africa (from Morocco to Afghanhistan), its religions and its cultures, and its relations with Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States, enables a unique breadth of insight into the broader dynamics that have produced the events that dominate the news today. Moreover, He remains singularly unafraid to write the truth, no matter who it upsets, based solely on facts and data he can confirm, as well as to challenge the actions and opinions of rulers and ruled, oppressed and oppressor alike. Such a philosophy allows his writings to challenge the accepted paradigms for writing about the region, and about hot-button issues such as globalization, terrorism, politics and popular culture. He is a radical voice of reason and honesty at a time when Left and Right remain locked within out-dated arguments and paradigms.
Besides his academic, journalistic and consulting activities, LeVine has a long history of blending art, scholarship and activism. As a musician he has recorded, performed and toured all over the world with artists including Mick Jagger, Chuck D, Michael Franti, Dr. John, Ozomatli, Hassan Hakmoun, Arab/Muslim heavy metal and hiphop artists The Kordz (Lebanon), MC Rai (Tunisia), Salman Ahmed (Junoon-Pakistan), Reda Zine (Morocco), Ghidian Qaymari (Palestine), blues greats Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins, world music artists Sara Alexander and al-Andalus, and numerous R&B and hiphop acts. He was also a lead organizer of both of 2000's wildly successful Shadow Conventions and the Re-Imagining Politics and Society Conference, both sponsored by dozens of America's leading progressive organizations and which brought together hundreds of leading scholars, politicians, activists and artists from the US and around the world. He is also a founding member of the Culture Jamming movement, and has organized and hosted culture jams in the US, Europe and Middle East that have brought into much-needed dialog an innovative combination of leading artists, intellectuals and activists from Jonathan Kozol to Jello Biafra.
LeVine received his BA in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter College. His MA and Ph.D. were done at New York University's prestigious Department of Middle Eastern Studies, home of the most acclaimed new generation of Middle Eastern scholars in America. There he focused on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and modern Islamic religious and political thought and movements. His dissertation, "Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine," is published by the University of California Press, while his new book, "Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil," was just published by the Oxford-based Oneworld Publications. He also is the editor, with Viggo Mortensen and Pilar Perez, of "Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation," which features leading scholars and activists from the US and the Muslim world writing about the US occupation of Iraq (including Naomi Klein, Mike Davis, Nadia Yassine, Jerry Quickley, Amir Hussein, Jodie Evans, Amb. Joseph Wilson, and others. Click here for information about how to order the book), and recorded with Moroccan Gnawa and world music star Hassan Hakmoun on Ozomatli's new CD, Street Signs, which won the 2005 Grammy for Best Latin Rock/Alternative album.
Before being hired at the University of California-Irvine, he was a fellow at numerous research institutions, including the International Center for Advanced Studies at NYU, the Stuttgart Seminar in Cultural Studies, in Stuttgart Germany, the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where he has a continuing relationship and co-directs an innovative program bringing Israeli and Palestinian scholars together to imagine new ways to approach their country's history and current trouble. His publications have appeared in leading newspapers and journals around the world such as the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, and the Christian Science Monitor, and he has appeared as a guest and consultant on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Hannity & Colmes, NPR, Pacifica Radio, KPFK, KPFA, WHYY, KABC, WBAI, The O'Reilly Factor, KCAL 9/Channel 2 News, KCET's Life and Times, KPCA, the Ian Masters Show, KKLA, the Dennis Prager Show, Charles Perez, and NYC's Channel 11. He has been extensively quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, and other leading newspapers and magazines. He was also historical consultant for the Oscar-nominated and double Emmy award-winning "Promises" documentary about the lives, dreams and realities of six young Israeli and Palestinian children.
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