Institutionalizing Charisma: Comparative Perspectives on the Promise of Higher Education Presented at the London Middle East Institute Conference on Education in the Gulf November 2007 Chapter Four in Christopher Davidson and Peter Mackenzie Smith, eds., Higher Education in the Gulf States: Shaping Economies, Politics, and Culture. SOAS Middle East Issues Series. London: Saqi Books 2008, pp. 73-91. Gregory Starrett Department of Anthropology University of North Carolina at Charlotte gsstarre@uncc.edu