Status/الوضع

How are the politics of Islamic studies gendered, and what does this mean for the field? Professor Kecia Ali's keynote speech addressed this and other questions at the 17th Annual Duke-UNC Middle East and Islamic Studies Graduate Student Conference.

Courtesy of the Islamicate Graduate Student Association (IGSA) https://heellife.unc.edu/organization/igsa
https://islamicstudiesconf2020.web.unc.edu/

In this interview, Jonathan Adler, managing editor of Tadween Publishing, sits down with Ziad Abu-Rish to discuss The Dawn of the Uprisings, the growth of Jadaliyya as an archive, and the current wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa.

About the Book
The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings sheds light on the historical background and initial impact of the mass uprisings that have shaken the Arab world since December 2010. The book brings together the best writers from the online journal Jadaliyya, which has established itself as an unparalleled source of information and critical analysis on the Middle East. 



The authors, many of whom live in the countries affected, provide unique understanding and first-hand accounts of events that have received superficial and partial coverage in Western and Arab media alike. While the book focuses on those states that have been most affected by the uprisings, it also covers the impact on Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.



The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings covers the full range of issues involved in these historic events, from political economy and the role of social media, to international politics, gender and labor, making this the ideal one-stop introduction to the events for the novice and specialist alike.

To read more about this book, follow this link:
https://tadweenpublishing.com/collections/books/products/dawn-of-the-arab-uprisings-1

Status host Omar Shanti traces Raï throughout its history from its inception in the 1930’s until the early 2000’s. This podcast episode will analyze Raï not as a strictly musical phenomenon, but as a vehicle for articulating and embodying complex narratives. In the tradition of Schade-Poulsen (1999), it will treat Raï as a total social fact defined by the situated practices of performance and listening - which in the age of records also translate to production and consumption.

In this timely interview with Ziad Abu-Rish, VOMENA's Shahram Aghamir asks about Lebanon's economic crisis, it's worst in decades. Part 1 features discussion on the roots of the economic crisis and its connection to developmental failures. Part 2 centers on the protest movement and the implications of the coronavirus.

In this timely interview with Ziad Abu-Rish, VOMENA's Shahram Aghamir asks about Lebanon's economic crisis, it's worst in decades. Part 1 features discussion on the roots of the economic crisis and its connection to developmental failures. Part 2 centers on the protest movement and the implications of the coronavirus.

From Hong Kong to Chile, from Lebanon to India, from Iraq to Colombia, from Algeria to Argentina, from Iran to France, from Sudan to Haiti, from Ecuador to Guinea and beyond, “Protest is the new normal,” as Serge Halimi recently wrote in Le Monde diplomatique. Yet, we're confronted with a paradox: we are also living through another global wave - the rise of right-wing, authoritarian-populist forces, movements, and strong men around the world: Orbán in Hungary, Modi in India, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Erdoğan in Turkey, Salvini in Italy, Duterte in the Philippines, Sisi in Egypt, and lest we omit ourselves: Trump in the United States.

How do we make sense of this apparent paradox? How should we understand these momentous global developments? Are the various protest movements around the world connected somehow? If so, what are their common features or through lines? At the same time, what are specific dynamics and characteristics that make each case distinct? One can't address all of the aforementioned countries in a single panel discussion, but on January 20, 2020 (Martin Luther King Jr., Day) the Center for International and Area Studies at Northwestern University hosted a panel discussion that examined five of them - Lebanon, Hong Kong, Chile, India, and Iran.

Please Note: The City of Vancouver, where this interview was conducted, is on the unceded territories of three First Nations: the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh

This interview is about Istanbul’s Tarlabaşı neighborhood, where a decade-long urban transformation project continues to shape politics of the city, impacts the lives of residents, and reveals the political economy of Turkish construction businesses. Alize Arıcan tells us about her award-winning research on how delays shift power dynamics between builders and politicians, and how communities living around the construction site make use of these delays to remain in the neighborhood. She argues that delays should be understood not as failures of urban transformation, but as generating new forms of accumulation and dispossession, as well as resistance to these processes. As plans for residential luxury buildings and business complexes displace neighborhood residents including Kurdish and Roma communities, West African immigrants, Middle Eastern refugees, and trans sex workers, those who are still living in the neighborhood come up with strategies to remain resilient. We talk about a range of issues tied to urban transformation in Turkey’s cities, including: historical landmarking and property expropriation, displacement of marginalized communities who depend on informal economies, long-term relationships between companies and the government, the pervasive practice of subcontracting, and the effects of the current economic downturn.

Resources:

From Home to Real Estate: Urban Redevelopment on the Axis of Speculation in Istanbul: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/31310/From-Home-to-Real-Estate-Urban-Redevelopment-on-the-Axis-of-Speculation-in-Istanbul

Ekümenopolis and Beyond (Podcast in Turkish with English translation of transcript): http://statushour.com/en/Interview/119

Networks of Disposession: https://burak-arikan.com/networks-of-dispossession/

It is About the Park: A Struggle For Turkey’s Cities: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/28789

Bio-Istanbul: A Speculative, Segregationist, and Sustainable Urbanism: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/31785/Bio-Istanbul-A-Speculative,-Segregationist,-and-Sustainable-Urbanism

Meydan Politics: Taksim in Flux After Gezi: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32242

Courtesy of VOMENA.

The tension between the countries entered a dangerous phase when on January 3rd the US assassinated Maj. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. The assassination had been ordered by Donald Trump.

The killing of Maj. Qasem Soleimani put in motion a series of events that many people feared may lead to another devastating war in the Middle East - but for now there seems to be a worldwide sigh of relief as the U.S. and Iran both appear to signal a desire to avoid further conflict.

So, how did it all begin? Why did the US decide to assassinate Soleimani, and what are the ramifications of this move on Iranian domestic and regional policies as well as the future of any possible negotiations between the US and Iran?

To explore these issues, Shahram Aghamir spoke with Mohammad Ali Kadivar – an Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College, whose work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by exploring the interaction between protest movements and democratization - and Mansour Farhang, Professor emeritus of international relations at Bennington College, who served as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first ambassador to the U.N. from 1979 to 1980, stepping down in protest after Khomeini's government did not release the 52 Americans held during the embassy siege.

In this conversation with Mezna Qato and Ala’a Shehabi, Bassam Haddad inquires about MERIP’s recent 'Paper Trail’ Issue. Mezna and Ala’a address the background, content, and details of the issue and some of the surrounding topics.

This issue of Middle East Report explores how the Middle East is on the cutting edge of struggles to hide or reveal secret or important documents and paper trails that shape the lives of those across the region. The issue explores how the powerful utilize secrecy or deception to hide their paper trails from publics and how others weaponize archives and documents to serve their interests. At the same, time the issue explores how citizens and activists can fight for transparency to uncover the secret documents that hold clues over how they are governed and what is being hidden behind closed doors. The issue also explores how paper trails can be created through activism that turns the tables on the powerful or can be mined to explore and revive the past.

SUBSCRIBE TO MERIP!

There has never been a better time to subscribe to MERIP. You will receive four copies of our quarterly magazine Middle East Report and have full access to all our new content, plus our entire 45-year archive of critical analysis of the region, as well as more perks for subscribers on social media and the MERIP website. Subscribe today to get instant access to cutting-edge analysis of the Middle East.

يتناول هذا الحوار بين بسام حداد ووائل جمال عدة مواضيع في اقتصاد مصر السياسي منذ ٢٠١٣، مع تشديد على بنى السلطة المهيمنة، السياسات النيوليبرالية، إعادة التوزيع، والعدالة الاجتماعية