What does it mean to be cosmopolitan? To be a crossroads, a gathering
place, a center for world commerce? Explore the meaning of Dubai as a
nation-state at the corssroads of the world, gathering people together
from around the world. Much like Syros in ancient Greece was once at the
center of world commerce, Dubai has evolved into a twenty-first-century
nexus for new cosmopolitanisms. Both as a port and desert city, Adrianne
Kalfopoulou imagines how Dubai has projected itself onto these screens
as an idea for the future -- and the present. By exploring the
development of Dubai both through the lens of philosophers like
Baudrillard and his " hyperreal" as well as by digging into the city's
history, from its disastrous collapse as a pearl-diving mecca through
its complex evolution into a member of the United Arab Emirates. On The
Gaze: Dubai and it's new Cosmopolitanisms fleshes out the story of
Dubai, revealing it through multiple gazes. Kalfopoulou's fantastic
writing and inward searching brings readers along as as she examines
what Dubai means to her, to the Arab world, and to the world as a whole.
" We follow Kalfopoulou's multiple gazes-- temporal, abstract, theore
