LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

What is the relationship between archiving and collective visions for liberation? Where does the practice of archiving fit within contemporary subaltern struggles? This conversation, co-curated between historian Leyla Dakhli, Yasmine Kherfi (LSE Middle East Centre), and Mai Taha (LSE Human Rights), builds on the work of Dakhli, who joined us to reflect on archival projects from the Middle East and...

How does the political and cultural shape the linguistic? How does power seep into terminology? What vocabulary is left for a people facing accumulated traumas caused by authoritarian brutality and imperial interventions recently compounded by natural disasters? This panel focuses on Syria to explore these questions about conducting cultural studies in times of disaster. It brings together the edi...

This panel, co-organised with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), focused on the role that representations of femininities, masculinities, and sexualities in media and cultural productions play in maintaining or challenging stereotypes, and the gendered norms and regimes that these give rise to. Drawing on feminist approaches to media and cultural studies, speakers will discuss how different medi...

This event was the launch of Spyros A. Sofos' latest book 'Turkish Politics and ‘The People’: Mass Mobilisation and Populism' published by Edinburgh University Press. By analysing Turkish political culture and institutional architecture through archival research and a critical rereading of the historiography of the Turkish state and society, Sofos proposes key conceptual tools to study popular and...

This panel, co-organised with Hamad Bin Khalifa University, was the launch of 'Tunisia's Economic Development: Why Better than Most of the Middle East but not East Asia' co-authored by Mustapha K. Nabil and Jeffrey B. Nugent. Recently published as part of the Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Series edited by Hassan Hakimian, 'Tunisia's Economic Development' provides...

This panel, co-organised with the Society for Algerian Studies, explored the relationship between sports and society in the Maghreb. Panellists from across academia and the media discussed the historical development of sport in the region, as well as the relationship between gender and sport. With Morocco and Tunisia qualifying for the 2022 Men's World Cup, and Morocco qualifying for the 2023 Wome...

This event was the launch of 'The Untold Story of the Golan Heights: Occupation, Colonization and Jawlani Resistance' edited by Muna Dajani, Munir Fakher Eldin and Michael Mason. This landmark volume is the first academic study in English of Arab politics and culture in the occupied Golan Heights. It focuses on an indigenous community, known as the Jawlanis, and their experience of everyday coloni...

This panel, co-organised with the Department of Gender Studies and the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at LSE, combined reflections from Ethiopia and Iran to query the legacies of revolutionary politics in our present, with particular focus on the current protests in Iran. Arash Davari is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His w...

This event was the launch of Tilde Rosmer's latest book 'The Islamic Movement in Israel' published by University of Texas Press. Since its establishment in the late 1970s, Israel’s Islamic Movement has grown from a small religious revivalist organization focused on strengthening the faith of Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel to a countrywide sociopolitical movement with representation in the I...

Students at all levels and institutions were invited to this careers panel where practitioners in various Middle East-related fields will talk through their career paths. Reza Afshar is the Executive Director of Independent Diplomat, a non-profit non-governmental organisation founded in 2004 by British former diplomat Carne Ross to give advice and assistance in diplomatic strategy and technique to...

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of Francis O'Connor's latest book 'Understanding Insurgency: Popular Support for the PKK in Turkey' published by Cambridge University Press. No insurgent movement can survive without some degree of popular support, but what does it mean to support an armed group? Focusing on the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)...

In this event, Makan, a Palestinian-led education organisation that strengthens voices for Palestinian rights, launched their curated online course, 'Understanding Palestine'. The launch included a discussion with the head of Inclusive Education at the LSE Eden Centre for Educational Enhancement, Akile Ahmet.

This keynote lecture took place at the Gramsci in the Middle East & North Africa Conference organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in cooperation with Ghent University. The conference explored, through empirically-grounded research, how Gramsci’s work can help us make sense of our contemporary moment in the region marked by a significant expansion in resistance and uprising. Sunaina Maira is Prof...

This keynote lecture took place at the Gramsci in the Middle East & North Africa Conference organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in cooperation with Ghent University from 9-10 May, 2022. The conference explored, through empirically-grounded research, how Gramsci’s work can help us make sense of our contemporary moment in the region marked by a significant expansion in resistance and uprising. A...

This keynote lecture took place at the Gramsci in the Middle East & North Africa Conference organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in cooperation with Ghent University from 9-10 May, 2022. The conference explored, through empirically-grounded research, how Gramsci’s work can help us make sense of our contemporary moment in the region marked by a significant expansion in resistance and uprising. P...

This event was the launch of Jessica Watkins' latest book 'Creating Consent in an Illiberal Order: Policing Disputes in Jordan' published by Cambridge University Press. Middle Eastern police forces have a reputation for carrying out repression and surveillance on behalf of authoritarian regimes, despite frequently under enforcing the law. But what is their role in co-creating and sustaining social...

This panel explored the interconnectedness of Turkey’s domestic and foreign politics over the past two decades. How do geopolitical histories and imaginaries affect Turkey’s foreign policy? What are the links between everyday culture and Turkey’s foreign policy? To what extent have global and regional developments impacted on and informed domestic politics? In what ways has foreign policy been use...

This event was the launch of three papers authored by Courtney Freer and Spyros Sofos of the LSE Middle East Centre as part of the Global Transitions Series, a research output from PeaceRep – the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform funded by the UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). 1. Qatar and the UAE in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding by Courtney Freer...

The Arabic-language news environment is facing significant challenges. Arab journalists work under multiple pressures including the lack of political freedoms, the proliferation of digital technologies and social media, the assumed disinterest of younger audiences and financial constraints facing many outlets. As part of the research project Arab News Futures (led by Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi, LSE and Dr...

This event was the launch of Leïla Vignal's latest book 'War-Torn: The Unmaking of Syria, 2011–2021' published by Hurst. In order to consider the future of Syria, it is crucial to assess not only what has been destroyed, but also how it was destroyed. It is equally vital to address the structural and possibly enduring results of large-scale destruction and displacement. These dynamics are not only...

This webinar was the launch of Mariam Salehi's latest book Transitional Justice in Process: Plans and Politics in Tunisia published by Manchester University Press. Transitional Justice in Process is the first book to comprehensively study the Tunisian transitional justice process. After the fall of the Ben Ali regime in 2011, Tunisia swiftly began dealing with its authoritarian past and initiated...

This webinar, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of Marouf Cabi's latest book 'The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran: Modernity, Modernization and Social Change 1921-1979' published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Although the Kurds have attracted widespread international attention, Iranian Kurdistan has been largely overlooked. This book examines th...

This webinar presented the results of two LSE Kuwait Programme research projects: 1. Urban Governance and Spatial Patterns in Kuwait: Exploring the Links Between the Physical and the Socioeconomic - Dhari Alrasheed and Nuno F. da Cruz 2. Can Smart Cities Solve the Housing Crisis? A Study on Korea-Kuwait Partnership for a New Smart City in Kuwait - Hyun Bang Shin and Do Young Oh Nuno F. da Cruz is...

This event, with research drawn from Dr. Golnar Nikpour's book manuscript 'The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran', examined the making of the carceral state in modern Iran. Until the turn of the 20th century, prisons were virtually nonexistent in Iran. Even by the 1920s, as the first modern prison network was being built in central Tehran, there were only a few hundred detainees...

This event was the launch of Yaniv Voller's latest book Second-Generation Liberation Wars: Rethinking Colonialism in Iraqi Kurdistan and Southern Sudan published by Cambridge University Press. The formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separatist wars, Yaniv Voller examines the strategies that both...