In this talk, Dr Olivia Mason traced the history of Jordan's nature reserves in the British archives, exploring how nature reserves bring global and situated resource narratives into conversation, how they continue imperial spatial imaginations after periods of administrative colonialism, and the connections between conservation agendas and imperia…

With Israel’s assault on Lebanon increasing and its war on Gaza continuing without a diplomatic resolution in sight, the Israeli government is involved in a multi-front conflict across the Middle East. This panel discussion brought together academics and political analysts to discuss the growing regional ramifications of the conflict. How have regi…

This event was a student careers panel, providing an opportunity to hear insights from panellists covering diverse fields of academia and research, journalism and consultancy in/around the Middle East.Meet the speakersRichard Barltrop is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Since 2001 he has worked for the UN Development Programm…

In this lecture, Professor Amnon Aran will explore the interplay between domestic politics and strategy in Israeli foreign policy, from the end of the Cold War to the 2023-24 Israel-Hamas war. Reflecting upon this tumultuous period in Israel’s history, he shall examine key events and foreign policies shaping this era. Meet the speakerAmnon Aran is …

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of Mustafa Kemal Topal's latest book 'Women Fighters in the Kurdish National Movement: Transforming Gender Politics and the PKK' published by I.B. Tauris.This book examines how the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has become a platform for shifts in gender poli…

This event was a launch of Professor Christopher Phillips' latest book 'Battleground: 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East' published by Yale University Press.The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but in…

How did the radio, a major technological development in the history of sound and music, change the social, cultural and political landscape of the region? In this last episode of the season, we speak to audio curator Hazem Jamjoum, and Elias Anastas and Saeed Abu Jaber, two of the co-founders of the Palestinian radio station Radio Al Hara. We find …

As of April 2024, according to UN experts, over 80% of schools have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, with 5479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors killed and many thousands injured. Every university in Gaza is partially or wholly destroyed, whether by bombing or demolition. Amidst the systematic destruction …

This webinar was a launch of 'Industrial Policy in Turkey: Rise, Retreat and Return' by William Hale, Mustafa Kutlay and Mina Toksoz published by Edinburgh University Press.At a time when many advanced and emerging economies are adopting more active industrial policies, this book provides an in-depth historical–empirical account of industrial polic…

This episode explores the link between technology, warfare and nationalism. Turkey and Israel are two countries in the region who have developed their technological capabilities for both domestic and international conflict. We speak to two researchers who have been tracing the use of military technologies and the effect they have had on a sense of …

What does the era of ‘big data’ mean for development technologies in MENA? How can data be used for good, to ensure projects working with vulnerable communities such as informal workers and women are seen and supported? What kind of repercussions does poor data collection have on emerging technologies? How can data-driven research and technology im…

Writer and art critic, Rahel Aima, who grew up and currently lives in Dubai, talks to us about living in the Gulf, a region rapidly developing itself as the place to be for smart cities and high-tech living. Rahel explores a concept she has been thinking about for some time, the Khaleeji Ideology, which meets at the intersection of technology, econ…

This event, co-organised with LSE IDEAS, was the launch of the special issue ‘Arab Constitutional Responses to the Revolutions and Transformations in the Region’ published in the Journal of Constitutional Law in the Middle East and North Africa. The special issue is the result of a two year collaboration between the Carnegie Corporation, the Arab A…

Nearly ten years since the onset of the crisis in Yemen this discussion provided an in-depth assessment of the conflict over the past decade. Panellists examined the local origins of the war, the humanitarian catastrophe that has ensued, and the challenges for sustainable development given the prolonged violence. Regional dynamics fueling the crisi…

How can art complicate claims of progress, innovation and the use of rapidly developing emerging technologies in MENA? In this episode, Cima Chehab speaks to visual artist Nadim Choufi about how he incorporates technology into his artwork both as subject matter and as medium.In the conversation, they discuss Nadim’s own artistic practice, his use o…

Majd Al-Shihabi of 'Palestine Open Maps' and Sana Yazigi of the 'Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution' talk to us about how they have centered their archiving processes around maps, and what digital archiving can do for Palestinian and Syrian community-building.This episode also features comment from Dr Sara Salem and Dr Mai Taha of LSE, who ex…

This event was the launch Zoe Hurley's new book 'Social Media Influencing in the City of Likes: Dubai and the Postdigital Condition'.Evaluating the cases of multiple influencers, from local to transnational content creators, Hurley reveals how residents, non-citizens and migrant workers survive as influencers in the city of ‘likes.’ Providing de-We…

This event was co-organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the LSE Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa.This panel explored the crisis in Sudan through the prism of ‘disconnection’, exploring the various disconnects and discordances that have formed between Sudanese popular groups, state institutions and international institutions. Stopping the viol…

Iraq’s engagement with fintech is new but rapidly developing, amidst a contemporary economic history that has struggled with foreign intervention and internal corruption, while Iranians have been engaging with a form of fintech - alternative digital currencies - for some time, to evade and work around sanctions and a crippled economy.In this episod…

This event was the launch Eylaf Bader Eddin's new book 'Translating the Language of the Syrian Revolution' published by De Gruyter Press.For activists, researchers, and journalists, the Syrian Revolution was primarily a revolution in language; a break with the linguistic oppression and rigidity of old regimes. This break was accompanied by the emer…

What kind of advancements have we seen in artificial intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa in the contemporary period, how has this technology been used for good and where has it maintained structures of inequality?In this talk by Nagla Rizk, Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo, the potential opportunities and chal…

Smartphones, food-only debit cards, biometric data checks at border crossings, these are some of the ways refugees and migrants interact with technology in their daily lives both in the region and the diaspora.This episode unpacks the benefits, ambivalences and concerns surrounding these technologies. Our guests, Dr Reem Talhouk and Dr Yener Bayram…

The Abbasid and British Empires are the nexus through which our two guests, Dr Ahmed Ragab and Dr Katayoun Shafiee explore technology, knowledge production and power. This episode charts medieval paper production and Abbasid-era hospitals to the "discovery" of oil by foreign entrepreneurs in southern Iran, exploring the different ways technological…

What kinds of obstacles are people in MENA facing with regards to access to technological opportunity and concerns around digital rights abuses? How are they tied to global challenges? Dr Nakeema Stefflbauer, tech executive, investor and digital rights advocate shares her thinking.This episode also features comment from Kassem Mnejja and Marwa Fata…

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of 'Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey' by Marlene Schäfers, published by the University of Chicago Press.In Turkey, recent decades have seen Kurdish voices gain increasing moral and political value as met…

This event launched 'Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region' edited by Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell, published by Pluto Press.The Arab region is a focus of world politics, with authoritarian regimes, significant fossil fuel reserves and histories of colonialism and imperialism. It is also the site of pot…

This event was the launch of 'Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 2013–22' by Abdelrahman Ayyash, Amr ElAfifi, and Noha Ezzat published by Century International.In this original Century International book, the authors argue that the Brotherhood is experiencing multiple crises—of identity, legitimacy, and membership—w…

This panel was an opportunity for students to hear about different pathways into Middle East related fields.Meet the speakers:Marwa Baabbad is Director of the Yemen Policy Centre. She is a researcher and development consultant with over ten years of experience working in the fields of community engagement, gender, peace and security, and youth poli…

This event was the launch of the paper 'A New Diaspora of Saudi Exiles: Challenging Repression from Abroad' by Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed published under the LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series.Since the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in 2017, a new wave of exodus began, that has pushed feminists, young students, secularists, Islam…

This event was the launch of the paper 'Art and Activism in Iraqi Kurdistan: Feminist Fault Lines, Body Politics and the Struggle for Space' by Dr Isabel Käser and Houzan Mahmoud. This paper is the outcome of a project run under the LSE Middle East Centre's Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme.Meet the speakers:Isabel Käser is a …

This event was a discussion around Dr Nora Derbal's latest book 'Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society under Authoritarianism' published by Cambridge University Press.In this study of everyday charity practices in Jeddah, Nora Derbal employs a 'bottom-up' approach to challenge dominant narratives about state-society relations in Saudi Arabia. Expl…

This event was the launch of Jamie Allinson's latest book The Age of Counter-Revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East published by Cambridge University Press.The 'Arab Spring' has come to symbolise defeated hopes for democracy and social justice in the Middle East. In this book, Allinson demonstrates how these defeats were far from ine…

In order to survive in a hostile environment in the Middle East, Israeli decision makers developed a regional foreign policy designed to find ways to approach states, leaders and minorities willing to cooperate with it against mutual regional challenges. Examples include the Periphery Alliance with Iran and Turkey until 1979, cooperation with the K…

Professor Martin van Bruinessen delivered a keynote lecture on the history and development of Kurdish Studies as part of a series of activities surrounding the LSE Middle East Centre's inaugural Kurdish Studies Conference on 24-25 April, 2023.The first attempts at institutionalising Kurdish Studies in European academia emerged as a result of the Fi…

Life in Abu Dhabi is centred around cars. Its urban development and open space infrastructure has impacted the walkability of the city, increasing residents' reliance on cars for mobility. This pattern of development is embedded in a social and spatial practice of not only urban life, but also urban governance and planning. This seminar explores so…

This event opened the exhibition 'Ruptured Domesticity: Mapping Spaces of Refuge in Iraq' by Dr Sana Murrani, hosted at LSE until 12 May 2023. Using photographs, illustrative maps and drawings, Murrani examines the domestic and intimate spaces of refuge created by Iraqis in preparation for, and in response to, wartime and violence. This work is fun…

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 ref…

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…

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 …

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 p…

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 Ha…

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 W…

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…

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 a…

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 soc…

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 a…

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 gr…

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…

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 s…