The uncertainty of events not only tested their assumptions and beliefs about the region’s political development, but also the efficacy and credibility of their methods.
In response to this challenge, scholars of the region are ‘rethinking’ the study of North Africa. They are engaged in the painstaking and serious task of reassessing their opinions and revising their approaches. Yet this undertaking has only recently begun and many of the pressures that resulted in so many scholars misreading the Arab Spring have resurfaced. In particular, the endurance of the Algerian, Mauritanian and Moroccan regimes as well as the resurgence of older, more dictatorial political practices in Egypt have revitalised the ‘paradigm of authoritarian resilience’, the approach which arguably did more than most to blind specialists to the start, spread and strength of the protests. This workshop aims to contribute to this process and to add to the essential rethinking that is currently taking place.
The workshop, hosted by London School of Economics Middle East Centre will take place on May 25, 2017 in London at the LSE Middle East Centre premises, Room 9.04, Tower 2, Clement’s Inn, with the following program:
13.30–14.00 | Coffee and Registration
14:00-14:10 | Welcome Address
14.10–15.40 | Panel 1 – Regime Change and Research: New Opportunities, New Challenges? | Chair Jonathan Hill, King’s College London
An Uprising in the Social Sciences? Egypt’s Academia in Transformation | Florian Kohstall, Free University of Berlin
Studying Libya Today: Exploring the Past, Understanding the Present and Shaping Future Research Agendas | Anna Baldinetti, University of Perugia
The Politics-Security Nexus in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia | Francesco Milan, King’s College London
15.40–16.00 | Tea and Coffee
16.00–17.30 | Panel 2 – Regime Endurance and Exploration: Same Questions, Same Answers? | Chair: Jonathan Hill, King’s College London
Studying Algeria after the Spring | Rasmus Alenius Boserup, Danish Institute for International Studies
Revisiting the Cultural Field in Morocco and Tunisia after the ‘Arab Spring’ | Cristina Moreno-Almeida, King’s College London
Refugees and ‘Host Communities’ Facing Gender-Based Violence Around Mbera Camp, Mauritania | Olga Martín González, Formerly Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation
17.30–17:45 | Closing Remarks
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