Lecture Series

BEYOND THE ARAB SPRING

Easter 2012

Thursdays 3, 10, 17 May 2012
Time: 5.15 – 6.45pm
Place: Thomas Gray Room, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge

Programme:

3 May
Dr Michael Willis, University of Oxford
‘Evolution not Revolution? Morocco and the Arab Spring’

10 May
Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
‘An Islamic awakening? Iran and the Arab uprisings’

17 May
Dr Yair Wallach, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
‘Israel and the Arab Revolutions: It's Complicated’

Sponsored by the Centre of Islamic Studies, the Centre for the International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa (CIRMENA) at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge

The events of 2011 have both underlined the centrality of the Middle East and North Africa to world affairs and profoundly challenged conventional assumptions about the Arab and Muslim worlds.  Not only did they demonstrate that Arabs and Muslims have political aspirations little different from those of the developed world itself – despite convictions to the contrary that had emerged in Europe and American during the last decade – but the way in which they unfurled underlined a popular capacity for peaceful mass demonstration to achieve release from decades of authoritarian rule.  Quite apart from these internal developments, the recent events also raise questions about how we understand political and social dynamics in the region and to what extent our perceptions have been conditioned by the policies of securitisation of the Middle East and North Africa which have been the dominant theme of Western discourse on the region for the past ten years.

Those assumptions must now be questioned, as events inside the region continue to unfold.  Given both the on-going significance of the region to the economic and security interests of Europe and the United States, and the more immediate social and political fortunes of the region’s inhabitants in the face of such radical change, we believe that we have observed only the opening moves in what will prove to be a complex and lengthy process that will profoundly change our understandings both of the region and of the ways in which fundamental socio-political change occurs.  Given the region’s centrality to global geopolitics and to world energy, events there will have profound implications for our understanding of international affairs in the future.

We therefore propose to institute a standing seminar to discuss, within the University, what has happened and what is yet to come.  We feel that such an initiative should be open to all members of the University and should encourage as wide a discussion as possible of the social, political and economic evolution within the region, as it develops.  The seminar will take place four times a term, beginning in Michaelmas term 2011, and will be located in King’s College, at the Wine Room between 5.15 pm and 6.45 pm.  Initially, the meetings will be led by specialists from within the University itself but will expand to include experts from the wider academic and professional community as well.  However, the quality of discussion will arise from the wider debate amongst all those who attend, which the speakers’ introductions will be designed to encourage.  Do join us in what we believe will be an exciting and illuminating venture to understand one of the most challenging events on the global stage that has occurred in the past two decades. 

Professor Yasir Suleiman; FAMES, Cambridge Centre of Islamic Studies and King’s College, Cambridge.

George Joffé; POLIS, Cirmena

The event is free and open to all (poster).
Map is available here.

Lent 2012

Thursdays 19 January, 2 & 16 February, 1 March 2012
Time: 5.15 – 6.45pm
Place: Keynes Hall, King’s College, University of Cambridge

Programme:

19 January:
Professor Yasir Suleiman CBE, FRSE, University of Cambridge
‘Narrating the Arab Spring’

2 February:
Professor Fawaz Gerges, London School of Economics
‘The Islamist moment: Domestic and geostrategic implications?’

16 February:
Dr Maha Abdelrahman, University of Cambridge
'Political transformation in post-Mubarak Egypt'

1 March:
Dr Abdelwahab El-Affendi, University of Westminster, Visiting Fellow of Centre of Islamic Studies
‘The Arab Spring: Islamist revolution or revolution within Islamism?’

The event is free and open to all (poster).

Fridays 14 & 28 October, 11 & 25 November
Time: 5.15 – 6.45pm
Place: Wine Room, King’s College, University of Cambridge

Programme:

October 14:
Professor Yasir Suleiman CBE, FRSE, University of Cambridge
Introduction

Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, University of Cambridge and University of Utah
The implications of the Arab Spring

October 28:
George Joffé, University of Cambridge
Tunisia after the elections

November 11:
Mohamad Al Akari, Advisor, National Transitional Council, Libya
The Libyan Spring: from a revolution to modern state

November 25:
Dr Alan George, University of Oxford
Crisis in Syria

The event is free and open to all (poster).

WRIGHT LECTURE SERIES

Lent 2012

Thursdays 2 & 23 February, 15 March 2012
Time: 5pm
Place: Rooms 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, University of Cambridge

William Wright (1830-1889) was Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge and was renowned as a Semiticist and a philologist. The Wright Lecture Series, named in his honour, is run by the Department of Middle Eastern Studies in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in association with the Centre of Islamic Studies. Reflecting the spread of the Department's academic interests, the Wright Lecture Series addresses topics of relevance to the study and understanding of the Middle East, Iran and India, ancient and modern.

Programme:

2 February:
Professor Nicholas de Lange, University of Cambridge
Byzantium in the Cairo Genizah

23 February:
Dr Torsten Tschacher, University of Göttingen
The Compulsions of Language or the Choice of Poets?: A Tamil Perspective on the Study of Islamic Literatures in South Asia

15 March:
Professor Adel Gamal, University of Arizona
The Moral Values of pre-Islamic Arabia

Poster is available here.

Michaelmas 2011

Thursdays 27 October, 10 & 24 November
Time: 5pm
Place: Rooms 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, University of Cambridge

Programme:

27 October:
Professor Bernhard Maier, University of Tübingen
My friends mostly consider me 'German-mad': William Wright's life and work in an international context

10 November:
Professor Ahmed Etman, Cairo University
The Graeco-Roman heritage and the Egyptian Revolution: Reflections of a Classicist and Playwright

24 November:
Dr Mohammad M. Mojahedi, University of Leiden
'Westoxification' in Reverse: Post-Revolutionary Politics in Iran

Poster is available here.