Political developments in the Arab countries in the past decades have had significant social and economic consequences well beyond their borders. The uprisings that erupted in early 2011 in the Arab world reflected broad and deep-rooted demands in the population for change in the authoritarian regimes that had come to dominate the region. Though in the subsequent years those movements had little success in establishing new political systems, in the sense that they either stalled or led to civil wars, they did have widespread negative economic effects on many countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as on countries elsewhere. Perhaps more visibly for other regions, the turbulence caused by the internal tensions led to major refugee crises that affected a host of countries, especially in the Middle East and Europe.
Scholars will present the cases of Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Iran, Egypt and Tunisia and place the developments in these countries in the broader context of the developments in the Middle East, Africa, and other regions.
Schedule:
Introductory Remarks
9:00-9:15 am
Hadi Salehi Esfahani, CSAMES Director
Teresa Barnes, CAS Director
Panel 1: Uprisings in Algeria
9:15 am-10:45 am
Hamza Hamouchene, Algerian Campaigner, Writer, and Scholar
Zine Barka, Professor of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Algeria
Coffee Break
10:45-11:00 am
Panel 2: Uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon
11:00 am-12:30 pm
Bassam Yousif, Professor of Economics, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana
Mona Khneisser, PhD Student, Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lunch Break
12:30pm-1:45 pm
Panel 3: Uprisings in Sudan
1:45-3:15 pm
Nada Mustafa Ali, Lecturer of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, College of Liberal Arts
Director, Human Rights Minor, University of Massachusetts Boston
Khalid Mustafa Medani, Professor of Political Science Department and the Islamic Studies Institute and Chair, African Studies Program, McGill University
Coffee Break
3:15-3:30 pm
Panel 4: Uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran
3:30-5:00 pm
Asef Bayat, Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Hadi Salehi Esfahani, CSAMES Director and Professor of Economics and Business Administration, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Concluding Discussion
5:00-5:45 pm
