Middle East Centre

A talk from Dr Richard Barltrop, Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre, reflecting on the current war in Sudan and exploring lessons from the longer history of peacemaking in Sudan and other recent civil wars. Bio: Richard is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. His research is on contemporary international approaches to peacemaking, and why peace processes fail o...

A talk from Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Associate Professor of Practice in Political Studies. In this talk, Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Associate Professor...

In this talk, Dr Klug and Professor Lavi explore the following questions, among others: What useful role can definitions play in this controversy? Can the IHRA definition perform this role? Does the JDA give better guidance? Since October 7 2023, the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has led to public protests against Israel and demands for an immediate ceasefire. In this connection, controvers...

Mouin Rabbani and Hasmik Egian discuss the impact the crisis in Gaza has had on the Arab world, with a particular focus on the UN Security Council. Mouin Rabbani, Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, examines the extent to which regional dynamics played a role in the 7 October 2023 attacks, the position of Hamas within the coalition known as the Axis of Resistance, and how the Gaza crisis has influenced the re...

Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi, Charles (Corky) Goodman Professor of Middle East History and Director for Research at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, describes the role of the family in the 1979 Revolution in Iran.

Professor Amaney A. Jamal discusses findings from surveys in Gaza and the West Bank, as the 46th Annual George Antonius Memorial Lecture. Guest Speaker: Professor Amaney A. Jamal (Dean of Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, University of Princeton) Chair: Professor Eugene Rogan (University of Oxford)

MEC Women's Rights Research Seminar delivered by Dr Heba El-Shazli (George Mason University) Chaired by Dr Maryam Alemzadeh (St Antony's College) The seminar was delivered on Tuesday 7th May

This talk delves into the multifaceted challenges Palestinian women activists face, revealing how intersecting oppressions within a settler-colonized society shape their organizing efforts and experiences, challenging singular analyses of patriarchy. How can we understand the multiple, intersecting webs of oppression that Palestinian women activists face in their everyday organizing? The talk is g...

This lecture explores how parliamentary activity affects the candidacy list placements of MPs in closed-list PR systems, particularly focusing on the interaction between gender and candidacy list decisions. While it is generally argued that the parliamentary activities of the MPs will increase their chances for re-election, this link is not straightforward in closed-list PR systems, where the part...

In this podcast, Oxford Emeritus Professor Avi Shlaim compares notes with Exeter University Professor Ilan Pappé on the prospects for a binational state in the aftermath of the events of 7 October and the Gaza War.

A discussion of European initiatives to recognize the State of Palestine to advance the prospects for a two-state solution. In this episode, former Israeli Ambassador and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alon Liel speaks with Haizam Amirah-Fernández, Senior Analyst for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern affairs at the Elcano Institute in Madrid, and Chris Doyle, Director o...

Prof Noura Erakat explores the significance of South Africa's application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice, and the Court's decision to hear the case. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of 'Political Options Following the Gaza W...

Dr Hagar Kotef from SOAS examines the current situation of Israeli settlers both in the West Bank and in the Cabinet to assess the impact of the settler movement in political options following the Gaza War. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian...

In the opening meeting of the Middle East Centre’s Hilary Term seminar series, the Fellows of the Centre led a panel discussion to set out the agenda for the series examining the political options following the Gaza War. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primaril...

Professor Yuli Tamir considers Israeli public opinion following the 7 October 2023 attack and the constraints that public opinion imposes on the political options moving forward. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each we...

Adam Mestyan argues that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were not, as many historians believe, products of European colonialism but of the process of "recycling empire." Adam Mestyan is Associate Professor of History at Duke University. His works include Modern Arab Kingship - Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2023), Primordial History...

Join Professor Ghassan Salamé for his Lecture on 'Lessons from 2003 Iraq: Twenty Years Later.' Jointly organised by Invisible East and St Antony's College, University of Oxford, with the generous support of the Middle East Centre, the Reza Hosseini Memorial Lecture Series connects individual stories to larger questions on the history and contemporary issues of the Middle East. The series aims to r...

Professor Yoav di Capua offers a comprehensive empirical, theoretical, and methodological reassessment of the Arab 60s as a global pursuit with lessons that transcend the geography of the Middle East - the fruit of a decade of research on Arab thought. A common understanding of the 1960s is that of an integrated global era marked by a revolutionary quest for self-liberation, transnational solidari...

Professor Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab offers some reflections on the challenges that a post-2011 Arab critique might be facing. What have the Arab Uprisings done to "Contemporary Arab Thought"? It is an undisputable fact that the Arab uprisings since 2011 have been a most dramatic turn in the Arab region since the founding of the modern Arab states: an unexpected and explainable event that continues...

Professor Avi Shlaim gives the George Antonius Memorial Lecture 2023, examining the Jewish exodus from Iraq in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and arguing the Zionist movement played an active part in the uprooting of Iraqi Jews. This annual lecture is also a launch for Avi Shlaim’s new book, 'Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab-Jew' which will be published by Oneworld on 8 June. The three...

The Director and Fellows of the Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College convened a memorial in honour of Derek Hopwood OBE, Emeritus Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies (1933-2020) and Celia Kerslake, Emeritus Fellow in Turkish (1946-2023). Guest Speakers and times: 0:00 - 4:17 Eugene Rogan, Middle East Centre Director (moderator and opening remarks) 4:17 - 15:30 Roger Goodman, Warden of St Antony's...

Women's Rights Research Seminar where guest speaker, Dr Roel Meijer (Guest Lecturer in Islam Studies, Radboud Universiteit) presents on Women’s movements and citizenship in the Middle East. Citizenship is not often mentioned in relation to women in the Middle East. Mostly women’s movements are analyzed in relation to nationalism, Islamism, law, and civil society. Citizenship, however, predates nat...

Dr Haytham Alhamwi draws on his personal experiences to explain the story of the conflict in Syria. Through his personal story as a previous political prisoner, he starts by describing the situation in Syria before the Arab Spring in 2011, followed by how the Syrian uprising began, and his personal involvement in the non-violent movement. The presentation will cover how Assad’s regime reacted with...

This lecture examines the resilience of the Iraqi state and nation before and after the 2003 invasion. Since 1980, Iraq weathered the longest conventional war of the 20th century, the Iran-Iraq War, followed by one of the shortest, the 1991 Gulf War, and the subsequent uprisings that swept through 15 of its 18 provinces, and a decade of sanctions. Since the 2003 war, Iraq has witnessed an occupati...

The Rt Hon Sir Peter Gross (Formerly, Lead Judge for International Relations) shares his insight into the Judicial and Rule of Law developments in Iraq. Abstract: IRAQ 2018-2019: The Rule of Law: a perspective At the invitation of the President of the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, Chief Justice Dr Faiq Zidan, and supported by the FCDO, I visited Iraq in early 2018 and again in 2019, on each oc...