Call for Papers: "The Arab Uprisings One Year Later"

The Arab Uprisings One Year Later: Examining the Possibilities and Risks Conference by the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore May 24-25, 2012 www.mei.nus.edu.sg/events/conference

On December 17, 2010 the dramatic self-immolation of a frustrated Tunisian, Mohammed Bouazizi, set in motion a series of uprisings that radically altered the political, economic, and social landscapes of the Middle East and North Africa. This "Arab Awakening" spread with an intensity and import few could have predicted, resulting in the overthrow of some long-standing autocrats and attempts at deeper entrenchment on the part of others. Citizens also exhibited astonishing levels of persistence and coordination in the face of grave threats to their lives and livelihoods, while the international community demonstrated varying degrees of engagement and apprehension. As the fog of the present parts to give us a clearer view of the recent past, observers are gaining ever-widening perspectives on the causes and consequences of these stirring events.

On May 24-25, 2012, the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore will bring together leading experts as well as rising scholars for a two-day conference that will explore and expand upon current debates over the origins, dynamics, and future of the uprisings from a wide range of perspectives. Specifically, the first day of the conference will tackle questions regarding the various factors that help to explain the emergence of these events, the role of media and social networks in their proliferation, and the functions and responses of diverse people, institutions, and ideologies. The second day will examine the cross-national implications, present in-depth case studies of the most affected countries, and explore the multitude of repercussions on the global system. That day will conclude with speculations on the future of the Arab Uprisings and the accompanying regional changes that this new era is likely to witness.

Submission Guidelines:
We invite submissions that directly address the issues described in the proposed panels below or that analyze other relevant themes. We welcome papers from diverse disciplines, reflecting various methodologies, but all should be written for a general academic audience rather than for a specific discipline. Researchers from Asia and the Middle East are especially encouraged to apply.

MEI will provide economy airfare plus the three nights' accommodation for those whose papers are accepted to present at the conference. The authors of papers selected for publication in a conference volume will receive an additional honorarium of SGD$1000 (approx. $830 USD).

Interested contributors should submit a 500-word abstract and a CV by Dec. 20, 2011 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please visit www.mei.nus.edu.sg/events/conference for a detailed conference description, as well as submission and registration details or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for further information.


Proposed Panels and Suggested Topics:

Economic, Social, Cultural and Religious factors:
Economic policies and conditions; Opportunity gaps (employment, education, housing, etc.); Socio-cultural conditions; Historical factors; Demographic, religious, or ideological dynamics; Corruption, security, and political entrenchment; Other possible contributing factors.

Network Effects: Media and Social Communication:
Information technology, media use or media coverage; Social networks and social movements; Civil society, informal politics, and counter-culture

Protest Dynamics: Actors, Discourses, and Conceptualization:
The role of the military and elites; Comparative regime responses; Chain reactions and spillover effects; Conceptualizing the uprisings; Discourses of protest (democracy, Palestine, Islamism, anti-imperialism, artistic expressions); Protester demographics: women, youth, and other groups.

Case Studies:
Case studies of any country in the region impacted by the uprisings, including those which have experienced significant political change, those where further change is likely to occur, or others who have resisted it and why.

Cross-national Perspectives and Reciprocal Relations:
Comparing Middle Eastern and Asian Models; Asia and the Arab Uprisings: Two-Way Effects; Effects on the non-Arab Middle East

Implications for the Regional and Global System:
The "Awakening" and transnational terrorism; China and the awakening Arab world; Washington's ambivalent perspective; The US-Israel strategic design challenged; Saudi Arabia and the "counter-revolution"?; Shifting world powers and regional realignments

The Future of the Arab Uprisings:
Strategies for political reform and reconstruction; The end of imperialism or a new guise?; An Arab world: leaping forward or falling back?; Prospects for democratization

 

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AMIDEAST Looking for Iraqi Women Professionals Group Escort

The successful candidate will escort a group of Iraqi women professionals who have been invited by the U.S. Department of State Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues to participate in a two week training program under the Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative from June 11–June 25, 2011.

The program which will host a group of 10 Iraqi public officials, lawyers, and activists focuses on the issue of gender-based violence and how to combat gender-based violence in general and in Iraq in particular.

For details, please see the flyer

 

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Dissertation Prize Announcement

The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) announces bi-annual prizes for the best U.S. doctoral dissertations on Iraq. Dissertations defended during the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 academic years are eligible. The competition is open to U.S. citizens at any university worldwide and any student at a U.S. university.

One award of $1,500 will be made for the best dissertation on ancient Iraq and one award of $1,500 will be made for the best dissertation on medieval or modern Iraq.

Nominations and submissions should come directly from dissertation advisors. Advisors should submit a pdf copy of the dissertation manuscript and a letter explaining the importance of the dissertation.

Please send all nominations/submissions, along with contact information for dissertation authors, by July 1, 2011, to The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Electronic submissions are required. Queries may be addressed to Beth Kangas, Executive Director, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please see our flyer

 

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In Memory of Dr. Donny George Youkhana

October 3, 1950–March 11, 2011

 

 

 

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NEW HOPE FOR LOST WORKS OF MODERN ART FROM IRAQ

Online Archive Educates and Encourages Public Participation to Trace Lost Works

The Modern Art Iraq Archive (MAIA), located at http://artiraq.org/maia/, was made public this week. MAIA started as the result of a long-term effort to document and preserve the modern artistic works from the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, most of which were lost and damaged in the fires and looting during the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. As the site shows, very little is known about many of the works, including their current whereabouts and their original location in the Museum. The lack of documents about modern Iraqi art prompted the growth of the project to include supporting text. The site makes the works of art available as an open access database in order to raise public awareness of the many lost works and to encourage interested individuals to participate in helping to document the museum’s original and/or lost holdings.

The MAIA site is the culmination of seven years of work by Project Director Nada Shabout, a professor of Art History and the Director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute (CAMCSI, http://www.art.unt.edu/camcsi.html) at the University of North Texas. Since 2003, Shabout has been collecting any and all information on the lost works through intensive
research, interviews with artists, museum personnel, and art gallery owners. Shabout received two fellowships from the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII, http://www.taarii.org/) in 2006 and 2007 to conduct the first phase of data collection. In 2009, she teamed with colleagues at the Alexandria Archive Institute (http://alexandriaarchive.org), a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to opening up global cultural heritage for research, education, and creative works. The team won a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities (http://neh.gov) to create an open,
comprehensive virtual archive of the works that were once housed in Museum’s various galleries. These significant national treasures are displayed in an open format that invites worldwide use, including the Iraqi national and expatriate communities, and users are encouraged to help identify and further document individual pieces.

The aim of MAIA is to map out the modern art’s development in Iraq during the twentieth century and be a research tool to scholars, students, authorities, and the general public, as well as raise awareness of the rich modern heritage of Iraq. Furthermore, the creation of an authoritative and public inventory of the collection will not only act as a reminder of their cultural value and thus hopefully hasten their return, but will help combat smuggling and black market dealings of the works.

For more information, please visit the site (http://artiraq.org/maia/) or contact the project ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

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2011 Patricia Blunt Koldyke Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship in Primary or Secondary Education

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is delighted to announce the call for nominations for its 2011 Patricia Blunt Koldyke Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship in Primary or Secondary Education.

The 2011 Koldyke Fellowship will recognize an emerging leader who is making a unique contribution to primary or secondary education in Iraq. Because good primary and secondary education is critical to success in an era of globalization, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs seeks emerging leaders between the ages of 30 and 45 who are demonstrating a commitment to improving their society through educational innovation, including life skills training and leadership development for youth. An individual with extraordinary passion and commitment to primary or secondary education, the 2011 Fellow will be a leader who is bringing about lasting, positive change by virtue of her or his dedication, imagination, and initiative.

Koldyke Fellows are selected annually to spend one week in Chicago, interacting with Chicago-based educational, civic, government, business, and media professionals in an intense program tailored specifically to the Fellow’s interests, experience, and expertise. The Fellowship is intended to raise awareness of social entrepreneurship and opportunities for social transformation, and to recognize the Fellow’s unique achievements. The Fellow will deliver The Chicago Council’s Annual Patricia Blunt Koldyke Lecture, and be honored at a dinner with leading figures from the city. The Fellow will receive an honorarium of $12,500 and will be provided with transportation, room, and board for the stay in Chicago.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, March 25, 2011. We anticipate selecting our Fellow in June and plan for the Fellow to visit Chicago in November 2011. Please download further information, including a detailed description of the Fellowship(PDF), nomination procedures and form(PDF), and information about previous Fellows using the links provided.

As you may know, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, founded in 1922 as The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, is a leading independent, nonpartisan organization committed to influencing the discourse on global issues through contributions to opinion and policy formation, leadership dialogue, and public learning. You can learn more about us at www.thechicagocouncil.org.

We look forward to hearing from you and receiving your nomination. Please contact Elizabeth Browne at (312) 821-7514 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it should you have any questions.

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Refuge : Canada's Periodical on Refugees

Call For Papers: Special Issue on Iraqi Refugees (Summer 2011)

Guest Editors: Géraldine Chatelard and Tim Morris

For its special issue on Iraqi refugees, Refuge invites submissions addressing a broad range of topics related to Iraqi refugees post the 2003 war in Iraq. Submissions may include critical perspectives on: the humanitarian, legal and policy responses of the international community, of the government of Iraq and host states in the Middle East, and of resettlement and asylum countries in Europe, North America and the Pacific; the political economy of humanitarian aid; the intervention models used by humanitarian actors to manage and provide assistance and information to the refugees; livelihoods of refugees in host countries in the Middle East; psycho-social and gendered aspects of the refugee experience; refugees' social networks; transnationalism and migration patterns between the Middle East and distant asylum countries; challenges associated with third-country resettlement; reception and containment of Iraqi asylum migrants in industrial countries, etc. We are particularly interested in papers based on in-depth field research yet theoretically grounded, that can contribute to the debate on urban refugees yet will highlight the specificity of the Iraqi refugee situation and may also show the limits of the urban refugee approach. We will also consider papers that include IDPs in Iraq in their analyses and strive to bridge between the study of refugees and IDPs. Shorter submissions by humanitarian practitioners are also welcome, especially if reflecting upon the experience of adapting models of intervention to the particular circumstances of the Iraqi refugee in the Middle East (urban context, mixed migration, specific socio-economic profile and policy context in Iraq and host countries, etc.).

Length: up to 7,500 words.

See Refuge's website for author guidelines:

http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/about/submissions#authorGuidelines