A panel discussion with BANU BARGU (UC Santa Cruz) MURAD IDRIS (University of Virginia) moderated by ROXANNE EUBEN (University of Pennsylvania).

JOIN TWO SCHOLARS UNIQUELY QUALIFIED to delve into the vexed topic of political violence. In her first book, Starve and Immolate: The Politics of Human Weapons, BANU BARGU explored the use of the body in self-destructive protest in the specific context of Turkish prisons through the ethnography of a radical movement. On the one hand, the book sought to bring into view a dark archive of Turkish democracy and the treatment of dissent in a country where prisons have become sites of political confrontation. On the other hand, utilizing the in-depth study of the Death Fast Struggle, the book sought to theorize the voluntary, protracted, and strategic deployment of self-destructive practices around the globe, practices which the author has called the weaponization of life. MURAD IDRIS is the author of War for Peace: Genealogies of a Violent Ideal in Western and Islamic Thought, which argues that dominant idealizations of peace in fact facilitate war, violence, and exclusion. He p rovides a critical language for understanding the history of peace as an ideal, how it blurs into war, and its links to other ideas like security, law, and religion.

A panel discussion with FAWAZ GERGES (London School of Economics and Political Science) and TIM MITCHELL (Columbia University) moderated by NADA MATTA (Drexel University) and EILEEN RYAN (Temple University).

THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA has long been shaped by regional and global politics. Sitting at the crossroads of trade and migration, it has been a site of imperial conflict, a cradle of world religions, a major source of the twentieth century’s most valuable commodity, and a focus of Great Power foreign policy. In considering the impact of the current constellation of regional and foreign relations on the Middle East’s internal development, FAWAZ GERGES and TIM MITCHELL will grapple with a wide range of questions. What are the most salient geostrategic rivalries now at play? How does international pressure influence movement toward (or away from) democracy and women’s employment and rights, among other forms of social change? How do capitalism and imperialism continue to shape the region’s infrastructure, economic development, and public policies? What is the role of religion in public policy and regional politics in the MENA, and how has it changed over the years?

Religion and Political Transformation

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A panel discussion with TAREK MASOUD (Harvard Kennedy School) and ZAKIA SALIME (Rutgers University) moderated by SA’ED ATSHAN (Emory University).

THE RISE OF ISLAMIZATION HAS HAD ENORMOUS IMPACTS on the political and social landscapes of Egypt, Morocco, and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. TAREK MASOUD and ZAKIA SALIME will address the complexity of these impacts across a varied region.How are Islamic and Islamist social movements and political parties positioning themselves within their national contexts? How do the various movements relate to each other across the MENA region? What are their prospects for bolstering- or undermining-pluralism in terms of gender equality, political diversity, and religious tolerance?

Citizenship

A panel discussion with SINAN ANTOON (NYU Gallatin) and SIMA SHAKHSARI (University of Minnesota) moderated by ZAINAB SALEH (Haverford College).

THROUGHOUT THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES, debates on citizenship and belonging in Iran and Iraq have shaped government practices and popular struggles alike. They have become embedded in national discourses and practices of state formation, imperial interventions and geopolitical calculations, and popular mobilizations to (re)configure belonging and boundaries. The disparities between ideologies of citizenship and their daily operations are tied to the construction of racial, ethnic, class, political, and religious differences within the state and civil society. SIMA SHAKHSARI and SINAN ANTOON address the ways citizenship have been articulated, rearticulated, and disarticulated in nexuses of power and empire, mobility and diaspora, political activism, class and gender, and media technologies.

Social Change and Contentious Politics

A panel discussion with JOEL BEININ (Stanford) and RASHID KHALIDI (Columbia University) moderated by SEAN YOM (Temple University).

THE MIDDLE EAST HAS A LONGSTANDING REPUTATION as a place of contention, where ethnic groups and global powers alike have struggled over land, trade routes and, more recently, valuable resources such as oil. The Arab Spring of the early 2010s added a new dimension to the region’s contentious politics, as internal tensions between rulers and populaces erupted into a series of revolts, which have since inspired similar protests around the world. A decade later, two leading thinkers on the impact of the Arab Spring, JOEL BEININ and RASHID KHALIDI, assess the prospects for the region  going forward. They will discuss the likelihood of democratic change, the factors that inhibit social transformation, the historical context of the current era of contentious politics, the often overlooked actors at the urban and regional peripheries, how patterns of political activism have changed over time – and the enduring relevance of these movements to popular struggles for dignity, justice, and bread the world over.

An Evening with Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman

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A lecture and discussion with Yemeni journalist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate TAWAKKOL KARMAN.

THE MITCHELL CENTER AND MIDDLE EAST CENTER’S YEAR-LONG EXAMINATION of the possibilities and challenges facing the Middle East begins with a conversation with TAWAKKOL KARMAN, Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician, and human rights activist, and leader the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising and a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize. As a leader of the Arab Spring, she offers her perspective on its legacy ten years later, as well as her views on the dire crisis in Yemen, the risks faced by activists and journalists in Middle Eastern countries, and the current prospects for change in the region.