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Blog

The Protest Movement in Lebanon

10/29/2015

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Picture
29 October 2015 @ 6pm - 8pm
Research Hall 163
George Mason University


Sponsored by the Arab Studies Institute, GMU Middle East and Islamic Studies Program GMU Global Programs Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, GMU School of Policy, Government and International Affairs and GMU's Middle East Studies Student Association 


Pizza and Refreshments Served
 
​
Speakers - 

Paul Salem, Middle East Institute
The Challenges of Protest and Reform within Lebanon’s Sectarian Political System 
A young, civil, and urban vanguard has played important roles in Lebanon’s recent history from protests to end the civil war in the 1980s all the way through to the latest YouStink movement. This vanguard expresses a wider desire among the Lebanese public to get beyond corrupt sectarian and oligarchic politics toward more efficient, representative and accountable government. Yet these movements have failed to break through the system or to force it to reform in fundamental ways. What are the challenges that face these movements and is there indeed a path forward toward reform and better governance in Lebanon? 
 
Maya Mikdashi, Rutgers University
Breaking Through Dominant Frames for Understanding Lebanon: The Trash Uprisings and Sectarianism, Liberalism, Gender, & Class 
This presentation suggests that the current protest movement, sparked by government failure to collect and process the country's garbage, poses challenges to dominant political and academic frames used to explain or study Lebanon. It outlines ways that activist coalitions, discourses, strategies, and practices trouble the "common sense" of sectarianism and political sectarianism, discourses on the weak and/or liberal state and its de-mobilized citizenry, and the place of gender or class in the political analysis of Lebanon. 
 
Rola el-Husseini, George Washington University
The Unbearable Stench of Lebanese Politics: 
Sunni Representation and the Recent Garbage Crisis
This presentation will address the garbage issue as another epiphenomenon of the continuing disintegration of political life. I will draw a direct connection between the popular revolts and the inability of the Sunni community to find adequate representation. I argue that the failure of Saad Hariri's future movement to keep the loyalty of the Sunnis, the inability of the Lebanese Islamists to attract the Sunni masses, and the lack of alternative candidates for Sunni leadership show the disarray the community finds itself in. This disarray is a reflection of the state of Lebanese politics as a whole.
 
Ziad Abu-Rish, Ohio University
Garbage Politics and Strategic Dilemmas in Lebanon’s Protest Movements
This presentation will highlight some of the institutional and strategic constraints animating the mobilizations around the garbage crisis and corruption in Lebanon more generally. It will outline the different stages in the development of the protest movement(s) with particular attention to the demands, tactics, and alliances that underpin them.
 
Moderated by Bassam Haddad, Director of Middle East and Islamic Studies, George Mason University



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The Syrian Refugee Crisis - Part II of Refugees & Migrants Series

10/26/2015

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Picture
26 October 2015 @ 7:30pm - 9pm
Research Hall 163
George Mason University

Sponsored by the Arab Studies Institute, George Mason University's Middle East Studies Program, Roosevelt@Mason, Global Affairs, and Global Programs 

Pizza & Refreshments Served





​

A panel discussion and audience question and answer session on the roots, nature, and implications of the Syrian Refugee Crisis . 


Schedule - 
Introductory Remarks

Lisa Breglia, Director of Global Affairs and Global Programs, GMU
On the Syrian Political Context
Bassam Haddad, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, GMU


Panel

On International Law and Refugees
Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor, New Century College, GMU
The Complexities of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
Nidal Betari, Senior Program Manager at People Demand Change, and co-founder of Refugees Without Borders (RWB)

Statistics and Personal Narratives
Musaab Balchi, Researcher and M.A. candidate in the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, GMU



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Migrant States, Mobile Economies - Part I: Rethinking the Political in Contemporary Turkey

10/8/2015

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Picture

​8 October 2015 @ 3:00-8:00pm
Merten Hall 1201
George Mason University


Sponsored by Middle East & Islamic Studies, Arab Studies Institute, Global Programs, Political Economy Project, Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Middle East Studies, Global Affairs, Middle East Studies Student Assoc., SPGIA ​

Open to the public 
Pizza & Refreshments Served


 This event brought together scholars from anthropology and political science to interrogate the conceptual relationship between state formation and capital accumulation as related but distinct technologies of power in contemporary Turkey.  From gold traffic between Turkey and Iran and smuggling economies in Turkey’s Kurdistan to the historical development of energy infrastructures and im/mobilities across the Turkey-Syria border, the authors aimed to chronicle the shifting and transnational operations of economic and political power. By exploring states of migrancy as well as economies of mobility in conjunction with state formation and capital accumulation, Migrant States & Mobile Economies aimed to rethink the political in both political economy and political theory through the historiography and ethnography of contemporary Turkey. 
 
 
Schedule -
 
Introductory Remarks 
Huseyin Yilmaz, Co-Director, Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, GMU
Bassam Haddad, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, GMU
 
Panel 1 
Money in Black or Blood? The Political-Moral in the Smuggling Economies of Turkey’s Kurdistan
Firat Bozcali, Stanford University 
 
Rethinking the History of Turkey's Political Economy: Generating Consent by Infrastructure  
Cihan Tekay, CUNY—The Graduate Center 
 
Panel 2 
Who/What Can Cross the Border? Mobilities and Immobilities at the Turkey-Syria Border 
Elif Sari, Cornell University 
 
Golden Shoes and Tobacco Seats: Scaling Sanctions and Transactions across the Iran/Turkey Border 
Emrah Yildiz, Harvard University 
 
Keynote Address 
Introduction by Huseyin Yilmaz, Co-Director, Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies
 
Seeking Refuge: Lip-Sewing and Truth-Telling 
Banu Bargu, Associate Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research


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  • FAMA
  • Researchers
  • Projects
    • MESPI
    • Knowledge Production Project >
      • ME-KP
    • Political Economy Project >
      • Development and the Uprisings
      • Class Formations and Dynamics
      • The Palestinian Economy: Fragmentation and Colonization
      • Tunisia: A Political Economy in Transition
      • Migrant States, Mobile Economies: Rethinking the Political in Contemporary Turkey
      • Political Economy of the Middle East: Continuities & Discontinuities in Teaching & Research
      • 2016 Political Economy Institute
    • The Lebanon Project >
      • Research Working Group: State-Building, Public Institutions, & Social Mobilization in Lebanon, 1943-1958 >
        • Inaugural Workshop: State-Building, Public Institutions, & Social Mobilization in Lebanon, 1943-1958
      • Lebanon Dissertation Summer Institute
    • The Palestine Project >
      • Gaza in Context Film
      • Alternative Strategies for Realizing Justice in Palestine
      • Audio Content
    • The Civil Society Project >
      • Exploring an Agenda on Active Citizenship
      • NGOs in the Arab World Post-Arab Uprisings
      • Academia & Social Justice
    • Middle East Media Project >
      • Journalism Against the Grain
    • The Egypt Project >
      • Towards a Cultural Cartography
      • After Tahrir
      • Audio Content
    • Refugees and Migrants Project >
      • Refugees in Lebanon
      • Study Week Beirut
    • Black-Palestinian Transnational Solidarities Project
  • Initiatives
    • Political Islam, ISIS, and Sectarianism >
      • Understanding the ISIS Phenomenon
      • Sectarianism, Identity and Conflict in Islamic Contexts
    • SAND
    • MED RESET
  • Events
    • Mailing List
    • 2015 Events
    • 2014 Events
    • 2013 Events
    • 2012 Events
    • 2011 Events
    • 2010 Events
  • Summer Institutes
  • Internships
    • Application Form
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