Celebrating 6 Months of the Ten Years On Project

January's signature event, a two-part panel entitled "Reflections on Mass Protests and Uprisings in the Arab World," featured the critical insights of fifteen scholars of the region. Each of the panels addresses reflections by the speakers on the politics and knowledge production related to the uprisings during the past ten years. This first event was intended to herald the yearlong conversation/activities. This event featured Amaney Jamal, Asli Bali, Rochelle Davis, Ahmad Dallal, Ziad Abu-Rish, Lina Abou Habib, Adam Hanieh, Rashid Khalidi, Bassam Haddad, Sherene Seikaly, Rabab Al-Mahdi, Muriam Haleh-Davis, Amr Adly, Nadje Al-Ali, Lisa Wedeen, and Mohammed Bamyeh.

With a spotlight on pedagogy, In February's two-part panel “Teaching the Arab Uprisings," scholars reflected on the methods used and challenges faced when teaching about the Arab Uprisings. Panelists discussed a range of ideas and reflections related to pedagogy and teaching the Arab Uprisings. The event is an invaluable resource to primary, secondary, and university educators. This event featured Marwan Kraidy, Nadya Sbaiti, Thomas Serres, Rabab El-Mahdi, James Gelvin, Khalid Medani, Sarah Shields, Ali Ahmida, Hatim El-Hibri, Amaney Jamal, and Bassam Haddad.

March’s signature panel “Archives, Revolution, and Historical Thinking," was organized in an effort to mark, interrogate, and reflect on various protests, revolutions, and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in the past ten years. Featuring a collection of scholars of the MENA region from a variety of disciplines, this event placed emphasis on the relationship between archives, historical thinking, and revolution—both in the past and present. This event, organized by Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and UC Santa Barbara's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, featured Reem Bailony, Rosie Bsheer, Muriam Haleh Davis, Pascale Ghazaleh, Sara Pursley, Nadya Sbaiti, and Sherene Seikaly.

In April, the project hosted “Disciplinary Woes and Possibilities: Political Science in the Context of the Uprisings.” This panel explored how the example of the Arab uprisings can be brought to bear on the production of general knowledge in political science. The event brought together Nathan J. Brown, Laryssa Chomiak, Amaney Jamal, Lama Mourad, Jillian Schwedler, and Lisa Wedeen.

The project’s fifth signature event “Exploring the New Regional Dynamics of the Middle East,” was co-sponsored by the Arab Council for Social Sciences and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. This signature event explored themes of displacement, inter-state rivalries, regional alliances, as well as their implications for how we understand the Middle East as a ‘region’ or ‘area’.

May’s panel featured Seda Altug, Olfa Lamloum, Maziyar Ghiabi, Arang Keshavarzian, Rima Majed, Rafeef Ziadah, Seteney Shami, and Adam Hanieh.

In June GMU's Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and the Asfari Institute at AUB presented “Media Framing of Political Events in Lebanon.” The panel explored how the Lebanese media are dealing with recent turmoil, shedding light on the framing of events based on political agendas.The panel included insights from Hatem El-Hibri, Ayman Mhanna, Dima Issa, George Eid, Maria Bou Zeid, and Adel Iskandar.

In addition to organizing signature panels, the Ten Years On project has cosponsored a number of events organized by other institutions. These events include Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law conversation “Islamists and the Arab Uprisings: Featuring Abdullah Al-Arian.” Additionally, the University of Chicago’s Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory hosted “Syria Ten Years On: Art, Journalism, and the Struggle over Narrative.” I highly encourage you to look watch recordings of both events!

The Middle East studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) has also been heavily involved in the Ten Years On project. MESPI has released several products which ensure that students and educators have the resources necessary to properly study the uprisings. These resources include three Engaging Books Series on the Arab Uprisings (Stanford University Press, New York University Press, and Saqi Books). MESPI has also published three Essential Readings on the uprisings (Uprisings, Popular Protest, and Resistance, Revolutions in the Contemporary Middle East, and Uprisings, Resistance, and Popular Mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa).