Middle East Centre

This MENA Politics Seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 7 May 2026 by Dr Ali Kadivar (Boston College) and chaired by Professor Neil Ketchley (St Antony’s College). What drives the uneven geographic spread of revolutionary episodes? While structural approaches emphasize pre-existing fault lines, contingency approaches highlight emergent processes. We synthesize these perspectives, arguing that specific triggers shape a revolutionary episode's social geography by activating certain fault lines while leaving others dormant. Through a comparative analysis of three revolutionary episodes in Iran (2017–2022), each with a distinct trigger, we demonstrate how different triggers shape patterns of contention. Using event-history and spatial regression analysis of subnational protest data alongside socioeconomic and political variables, we show that a fuel price hike activated grievances in oil-producing areas, while a repressive event targeting a woman from an ethnic and religious minority mobilized protests in minority-populated districts. Our findings illustrate how triggers structure revolutionary mobilization, offering broader insights into the interaction between structural conditions and contingent events in contentious politics.   BIOGRAPHY Mohammad Ali Kadivar is a Fellow at the **Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and an Associate Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College. He received his PhD in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.   His work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by examining the causes, dynamics, and consequences of protest movements. While growing out of his experience as a participant-observer of the pro- democracy movement in Iran, his research agenda extends comparatively to explore these processes globally using historical analysis, case studies, and statistical methods.   His book Popular Politics and the Path to Durable Democracy (2022) was published by Princeton University Press. His research has appeared in journals including American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Comparative Political Studies, European Sociological Review, and Comparative Politics, and has received awards from multiple sections of the American Sociological Association.

This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Professor Nizar Messari (Al Akhawayn University) and was chaired by Professor Michael Willis (St Antony’s College). Nizar Messari is Professor at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. His areas of expertise are International Relations Theory, Critical Security Studies, North African Politics and Latin American Politics. He has published in Arabic, English, Portuguese and French in journals such as Security Dialogue, International Studies Perspectives, Review of International Affairs, Journal of North African Studies, Contexto Internacional (in Portugueses) and Cultures & Conflits(in French) as well as numerous chapters in edited volumes in Portuguese and English. He was a visiting professor at Yale University, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras (Brazil). He is currently finalizing a manuscript on Decolonizing Security Studies. He is the co-author with João Pontes Nogueira of Teoria das Relações Internacionais: Correntes e Debates. (Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier/Campus, 2005).

This MENA Politics Seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Professor Neil Ketchley (St Antony’s College) and was chaired by Dr Maryam Alemzadeh (St Antony’s College). Does public sector employment make graduates less likely to join anti-regime protests? Recent scholarship argues yes, with consequences for bottom-up democratization in late-developing economies with expansive public and higher education sectors. This paper examines whether this thesis travels to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We find that well-educated public sector employees were actually more likely to join anti- regime protests in Algeria and Egypt, while we estimate null effects for state dependency in Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, and Tunisia. Supplementary analyses show that educated public sector employees who protested in Algeria – a critical case for the state-dependency argument – prioritized political rights and grievances over economic considerations. Importantly, these preferences were not visible in surveys from the pre-protest period. The findings put bounds on the external validity of the state middle class thesis, caution against inferring future protest participation from attitudinal data, and identify political conditions when the state middle class may suddenly become more protest prone.

This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 5 February 2026 by Dr Dominik Krell (Wolfson College), and was chaired by Professor Pascal Menoret (Magdalen College). This talk explores how Saudi legal thought is shaping the ways in which Islamic law is applied by Islamic courts beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Since the 1960s, Saudi Arabia has made significant efforts to promote a distinct Saudi understanding of Islam globally, mainly through international students at Saudi universities such as the Islamic University of Medina. Dr Krell examines how this understanding of Islamic law has influenced Islamic courts in two contrasting contexts: The Gambia and Sri Lanka, two countries with a similar number of graduates from Saudi universities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Islamic judges and scholars in both countries, the talk looks beyond simple depictions of “Salafisation” or “Wahhabisation”. It explores both the reasons for, and the consequences of, the differing receptions of Saudi ideas in court practice, and the implications this has for everyday Islamic adjudication in local settings.

This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 20 November by Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, and was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan, St Antony’s College. This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 20 November by Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi and was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan, St Antony’s College. Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is an Emirati columnist and researcher on social, political and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf States. He is also the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, an independent initiative established in 2010 to contribute to the intellectual development of the art scene in the Arab region. He has taught 'Politics of Modern Middle Eastern Art' at New York University, Yale University, Georgetown University, Boston College, The American University of Paris, Brandeis University, Harvard Kennedy School, Columbia University and Bard College Berlin. In 2023, Sultan completed a Fellowship at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and in 2024, Sultan was a Research Associate at SOAS Middle East Institute, London. Sultan is currently an Instructor at the American University of Sharjah. The past century has been a time of great turmoil in much of the world. Europe, perhaps, bore the brunt of this turmoil, with millions killed and entire cities, such as Rotterdam, Dresden, and Warsaw largely reduced to rubble along with their museums, and cultural institutions. The Arab World has also suffered its share of conflicts, compounding the adverse impact of colonialism on everyday life and culture. Events such as the Nakba in Palestine, and conflicts such as the Lebanese Civil War and the 2003 American invasion of Iraq have left a string of structural and cultural devastation in addition to the toll on human life. However, the Arab World has also seen attempts to rebuild, both in lives and livelihoods, some more successful than others. These fragile steps forward can be derailed as conflicts arise such as in Gaza. Even in such dark cases there are some triumphs of humanity. This talk will attempt to shed light on these sparks of inspiration that reflect the vitality of the Arab World. The presentation slides for this episode can be downloaded here: https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/sant/middle_east_studies/2025-11-25-sant-mec-alqassemi-slides.pdf

This MENA Politics Series Seminar was delivered on Tuesday 18 November in the MEC’s Boardroom by Dr May Darwich (University of Birmingham) and was chaired by Professor Neil Ketchley (St Antony’s College). This paper explains Egypt’s foreign policy stagnation, with a novel argument building on role and identity theories. Egypt’s foreign policy exhibits a case where its regional leadership role has changed (and declined), but its identity emphasising Egyptian leadership persists, thus leading to foreign policy that is widely seen as ineffective. This paper examines the theoretical link — and distinction — between national roles and identities. Drawing on previous role research, we argue that, compared to identities, roles are more behaviourally prescriptive, necessarily relational, and are dependent on others’ expectations and acceptance of them. We also discuss the distinct sources of role change and identity change, setting up the possibility that one may change while the other remains stable. We examine the implications of when roles and identities become out of sync with the case of Egypt’s role decay. While Egypt’s leadership role at the regional role has retreated, the leadership identity persists. For Egyptians, Egypt is a ‘natural’ leader of the Arab world and a pivotal state in regional affairs. Herein, we argue, lays the explanations for why Egypt’s foreign policy has suffered from contradictions and ineffectiveness. Empirically, this paper draws upon historical evidence, official statements, memoirs of Egyptian foreign policy makers, and observation of public debates in Egypt’s public sphere.

This seminar was delivered on Thursday 13 November in the MEC’s Investcorp Lecture Theatre by Mustapha El Khalfi (Former Minister of Communications, Morocco) and was chaired by Professor Michael Willis (St Antony’s College).

This seminar was delivered on 28 May 2025 by St Antony’s George Antonius Birzeit Visiting Fellow, Dr Amal Nazzal, and Palestinian political and feminist organizer at Rawa, Soheir Asaad. This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on 28 May 2025 by St Antony’s George Antonius Birzeit, Visiting Fellow, Dr Amal Nazzal, and Palestinian political and feminist organizer at Rawa, Soheir Asaad. Rawa is a community-participatory fund advancing trust- and solidarity-based approaches that return power to communities. The panel was chaired by Dr Maryam Alemzadeh, Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Drawing on lived experience, scholarly critiques, and community narratives, the speakers examined how the donor-driven NGO turn after Oslo reshaped Palestinian civil society—often depoliticizing grassroots activism, fragmenting collective struggle, and entrenching dependency on external funding under long-standing Israeli occupation and genocide in Gaza. The discussion then mapped community-based alternatives rooted in self-determination, mutual aid, and indigenous knowledge, and explored how to reclaim autonomous spaces for organizing that resist co-optation and sustain liberatory practice. By weaving praxis and theory, the event charted actionable pathways beyond NGO-centric models toward moresustainable, rooted, and emancipatory civil society structures in Palestine.

The MEC’s opening Thursday seminar of the 2025-26 academic year was delivered by the former Prime Minister of Türkiye, Ahmet Davutoğlu, and chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan The MEC’s opening Thursday seminar of the 2025-26 academic year was delivered by Ahmet Davutoğlu, former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye. Davutoğlu has authored a number of books on foreign policy, including ‘Systemic Earthquake’ and ‘Alternative Paradigms’, which have been translated into several languages. The seminar was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan, Director of the Middle East Centre.

This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on 30 May 2025 by Dr Samer Abdelnour, University of Edinburgh Business School, and Chaired by St Antony’s George Antonius Birzeit Visiting Fellow, Dr Amal Nazzal. This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on 30 May 2025. Dr Samer Abdelnour, University of Edinburgh Business School, addressed the topic of ‘Big Tech and the Automation of Genocide in Gaza’. It was chaired by St Antony’s George Antonius Birzeit Visiting Fellow, Dr Amal Nazzal.

The Middle East Centre was honoured to host the 2025 Devaki Jain Lecture. This year’s lecture was delivered by Rana Husseini, Jordanian activist, journalist and author. The Middle East Centre was honoured to host the 2025 Devaki Jain Lecture. This year’s lecture was delivered by Rana Husseini, Jordanian activist, journalist and author. The Devaki Jain lecture series, established in 2015 by Devaki Jain, welcomes esteemed women speakers from the South. Past speakers have included Dr Graça Machel, Professor Eudine Barriteau, and Dr Noeleen Heyzer. Rana Husseini is an internationally recognized human rights activist, gender trainer and a senior journalist with more than 25 years’ experience in the Middle East and North Africa. She has published two books, ‘Murder in the Name of Honour’ and ‘Years of Struggle – The Women’s Movement in Jordan’. This lecture was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

The Middle East Centre was honoured to host the 2025 Devaki Jain Lecture. This year’s lecture was delivered by Rana Husseini, Jordanian activist, journalist and author. The Middle East Centre was honoured to host the 2025 Devaki Jain Lecture. This year’s lecture was delivered by Rana Husseini, Jordanian activist, journalist and author. The Devaki Jain lecture series, established in 2015 by Devaki Jain, welcomes esteemed women speakers from the South. Past speakers have included Dr Graça Machel, Professor Eudine Barriteau, and Dr Noeleen Heyzer. Rana Husseini is an internationally recognized human rights activist, gender trainer and a senior journalist with more than 25 years’ experience in the Middle East and North Africa. She has published two books, ‘Murder in the Name of Honour’ and ‘Years of Struggle – The Women’s Movement in Jordan’. This lecture was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Rev. Dr Mitri Alraheb at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Rev. Dr Mitri Alraheb at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Rev. Dr Mitri Alraheb at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Rev. Dr Mitri Alraheb at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Hamdan Taha at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Hamdan Taha at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Hamdan Taha at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Hamdan Taha at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

In this talk anthropologist Munira Khayyat revisits the South Lebanon borderland, where she has conducted long term fieldwork in the wake of its almost total destruction after the latest season of war there. In this talk anthropologist Munira Khayyat revisits the South Lebanon borderland, where she has conducted long term fieldwork in the wake of its almost total destruction after the latest season of war there. This talk reflects on ecologies of resistance and survival through storms of war and the steadfastness of life after the end of the world. Munira Khayyat is Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi and currently also Visiting Professor at NYU New York. Chaired by Pascal Menoret, Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Professor in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World and Professorial Fellow at Magdalen College.

In this talk anthropologist Munira Khayyat revisits the South Lebanon borderland, where she has conducted long term fieldwork in the wake of its almost total destruction after the latest season of war there. In this talk anthropologist Munira Khayyat revisits the South Lebanon borderland, where she has conducted long term fieldwork in the wake of its almost total destruction after the latest season of war there. This talk reflects on ecologies of resistance and survival through storms of war and the steadfastness of life after the end of the world. Munira Khayyat is Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi and currently also Visiting Professor at NYU New York. Chaired by Pascal Menoret, Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Professor in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World and Professorial Fellow at Magdalen College.

A paper delivered by Dr Iman Saca at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Iman Saca at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Iman Saca at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Iman Saca at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Issam Nassar at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Issam Nassar at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Issam Nassar at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Issam Nassar at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Mahmoud Hawari at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Mahmoud Hawari at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Mahmoud Hawari at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Mahmoud Hawari at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

Speech delivered by H.E. Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, Chairman of the Palestine Research Centre and former Palestinian Prime Minister, at a symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. Speech delivered by H.E. Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, Chairman of the Palestine Research Centre and former Palestinian Prime Minister, at a symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025.The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’.

Speech delivered by H.E. Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, Chairman of the Palestine Research Centre and former Palestinian Prime Minister, at a symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. Speech delivered by H.E. Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, Chairman of the Palestine Research Centre and former Palestinian Prime Minister, at a symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025.The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’.

A paper delivered by Dr Ghattas Sayej at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Ghattas Sayej at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

A paper delivered by Dr Ghattas Sayej at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the MEC on Friday 9 May 2025. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan. A paper delivered by Dr Ghattas Sayej at the Palestine Research Centre symposium held at the Middle East Centre on Friday 9 May 2025. The symposium was entitled ‘Toward an Inclusive Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Palestine: The Archaeology and History of Palestine’. This paper was part of a panel chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan.

Former head of design for Dame Zaha Hadid, Philip Michael Wolfson, reflects on her work and career in the first of two lectures marking the 10-year anniversary of the Investcorp Building. Former head of design for Dame Zaha Hadid, Philip Michael Wolfson, reflects on her work and career in the first of two lectures marking the 10-year anniversary of the Investcorp Building. The iconic building, opened by Dame Zaha Hadid in May 2015, is at the heart of the Middle East Centre today. It was the last of her buildings for which she attended the opening ceremony before her tragic death in 2016.

Former head of design for Dame Zaha Hadid, Philip Michael Wolfson, reflects on her work and career in the first of two lectures marking the 10-year anniversary of the Investcorp Building. Former head of design for Dame Zaha Hadid, Philip Michael Wolfson, reflects on her work and career in the first of two lectures marking the 10-year anniversary of the Investcorp Building. The iconic building, opened by Dame Zaha Hadid in May 2015, is at the heart of the Middle East Centre today. It was the last of her buildings for which she attended the opening ceremony before her tragic death in 2016.

On Friday 21 February 2025, Professor Johannes Waardenburg gave the Middle East Centre’s Friday seminar Biography: Professor JST Waardenburg teaches the general history of the Arab world at the IULM in Milan. As a historian, he specialises in the period of the Ba‘th party in power in 20th century Syria. In 2021 he published two volumes with the Nallino Institut in Rome, ‘La Siria contemporanea : ridisegnando la carta del Vicino Oriente’, in which he describes the transformations of the state economy in Syria and the diverse international backing the As‘ad family has enjoyed. Abstract: With the fall of the al-Asad dynasty in Syria in the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024, nearly fourteen years after the start of the Arab Spring, a question arises: Has the warning given by Bashshar al-Asad in his speech at Damascus University in the autumn of 2005 come true? Have his departure and the breakdown of al-muqāwamah wa-l-ṣumūd – identified commonly as the strategy of resistance – really brought chaos to the region? If that is not the case, why did the decisive actors keep him in power in Syria for approximatively another 20 years after he made that presentation? Imagining al-Asad bluffed while he felt the whole international community was after him in the 2005 follow-up to the murder of Rafīq al-Ḥarīrī, the Prime Minister who oversaw Lebanon’s reconstruction*, why did no one at the time call his bluff out? Rather, looking at the remarkably rapid reintroduction of Bashshar al-Asad to the international scene after 2005, this presentation will try to assess critically what the chaos was that everyone was afraid of in the event of the al-Asads falling then. Why does this same chaos seem manageable now? Have Western actors together with Turkey and the Gulf countries simply studied the regional setup better, or might the incidence of Israel’s forever war strategy have been a decisive factor for others to make a shift unthinkable until recently, for the sake of the future of the region. *To clarify: at 23:03 & 24:08 in the recording, the specification of Rafīq al-Ḥarīrī's title (of Prime Minister) should not be understood as referring to his institutional role at the time of his assassination on 14th February 2005. As he didn't occupy that office anymore back then. al-Ḥarīrī had resigned on 20th October 2004 and a government led by ʿUmar Karāmī had been set up less than a week later on 26th of October.

Political strategist and public opinion researcher, Dr Dahlia Scheindlin, shares her analysis of public opinion surveys before and during the war in Gaza. Israelis have shown increasingly hardline, right-wing, nationalist trends in public opinion surveys in recent years, leading to lower support for peace, or faith that any democratic-oriented solution to the conflict is possible. Have October 7 and the war in Gaza changed attitudes? Which trends have displayed continuity, which public attitudes are new, and what kind of future do Israelis support? An analysis of surveys before and during the war shows that Israelis continue to hold hardline attitudes, but they are deeply divided by identity, religion, age and ideology, and angry at their government. They are also responsive to changes in circumstances, and there are still opportunities to re-build support for peace.

A panel with Kamran Matin (University of Sussex), Yasmeen al-Eryani (Tampere Peace Research Institute) and Neil Ketchley (University of Oxford). Chaired by Raihan Ismail (University of Oxford).

A Women’s Rights Research Seminar (WRRS) with Dr Nafiseh Sharifi, Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Dr Nafiseh Sharifi is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and earned her PhD from SOAS, University of London. Her work on gender and sexuality in Iran is detailed in her book ‘Female Bodies and Sexualities in Iran and the Search for Defiance’, grounded in extensive ethnographic research conducted with two generations of Iranian women in Tehran. Her current work expands on these themes by examining shifting masculinities, cultural norms, and sexual attitudes among Tehran’s 1990s generation, drawing on in-depth discussions with both men and women. Dr Sharifi’s research offers insights into the complex gender dynamics within Iranian society and makes a significant contribution to academic debates on gender and sexuality in Iran and the Middle East. Chaired by Dr Maryam Alemzadeh, Fellow at the Middle East Centre.

A talk from Dr Richard Barltrop, Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre, reflecting on the current war in Sudan and exploring lessons from the longer history of peacemaking in Sudan and other recent civil wars. Bio: Richard is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. His research is on contemporary international approaches to peacemaking, and why peace processes fail or succeed, with a particular focus on Yemen, Sudan and South Sudan, and considering other examples. Richard specialises in work on mediation, peace processes and peacebuilding, and international approaches to conflict, development and peace, focusing on the Middle East and Africa. Since 2001 he has worked for the UN Development Programme in Iraq, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and regionally, and for the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan and the UN political mission in Yemen. He is the author of Darfur and the International Community: The Challenges of Conflict Resolution in Sudan (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2011/2015) and was a visiting fellow at Durham University in 2015. He has a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford. Abstract: In April Sudan will enter the third year of a war that has caused enormous harm to lives, has been ruinous for the country, and shows no sign of ending. The war was unexpected; it is different from previous wars in Sudan’s conflict-ridden modern history; and it is occurring at a time when international politics is not favourable for concerted external and multilateral action to bring about and support peace. For Sudanese and outsiders, an immediate priority is how can lives be protected and suffering minimised. Beyond this, a fundamental question is peace: how can the war be ended and a lasting peace be established? This seminar explores what lessons should be drawn from the longer history of peacemaking in Sudan and from the experience and outcomes of peacemaking efforts in other civil wars in recent times. From this, three main recommendations emerge for Sudanese and external actors. The recommendations concern: (i) the need in the immediate and near term for external actors to push for a ceasefire and to accept the relative benefit of the Sudanese Armed Forces having some ascendancy in the war; (ii) the need to take a long-term approach to peace process and peacebuilding; and (iii) the need to prioritise and support the development of Sudanese vision for and ownership of a peace process for Sudan.

A talk from Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Associate Professor of Practice in Political Studies. In this talk, Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Associate Professor of Practice in Political Studies, shares his analysis of the current political situation in Lebanon and Syria.

In this talk, Dr Klug and Professor Lavi explore the following questions, among others: What useful role can definitions play in this controversy? Can the IHRA definition perform this role? Does the JDA give better guidance? Since October 7 2023, the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has led to public protests against Israel and demands for an immediate ceasefire. In this connection, controversy over antisemitism on campuses across the globe, including Oxford, has intensified. At the heart of the controversy is the definition of antisemitism published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The definition has been adopted by numerous states and institutions, including Oxford University. The seminar will raise the following issues, among others: What useful role can definitions play in this controversy? Can the IHRA definition perform this role? Is it, in practice, used in a partisan way? Does the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) give better guidance? More fundamentally, can a clear line be drawn between antisemitic and non-antisemitic critique of Israel, or is there a deep ambiguity in the phenomenon itself?

Mouin Rabbani and Hasmik Egian discuss the impact the crisis in Gaza has had on the Arab world, with a particular focus on the UN Security Council. Mouin Rabbani, Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, examines the extent to which regional dynamics played a role in the 7 October 2023 attacks, the position of Hamas within the coalition known as the Axis of Resistance, and how the Gaza crisis has influenced the region’s politics during the past year. Hasmik Egian, former Director of the UN Security Council Affairs Division, explores the role played by Arab States on the UN Security Council during their terms as non-permanent Council members, and what impact they may have had on issues related to the Middle East.

Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi, Charles (Corky) Goodman Professor of Middle East History and Director for Research at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, describes the role of the family in the 1979 Revolution in Iran.

Professor Amaney A. Jamal discusses findings from surveys in Gaza and the West Bank, as the 46th Annual George Antonius Memorial Lecture. Guest Speaker: Professor Amaney A. Jamal (Dean of Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, University of Princeton) Chair: Professor Eugene Rogan (University of Oxford)

MEC Women's Rights Research Seminar delivered by Dr Heba El-Shazli (George Mason University) Chaired by Dr Maryam Alemzadeh (St Antony's College) The seminar was delivered on Tuesday 7th May

This talk delves into the multifaceted challenges Palestinian women activists face, revealing how intersecting oppressions within a settler-colonized society shape their organizing efforts and experiences, challenging singular analyses of patriarchy. How can we understand the multiple, intersecting webs of oppression that Palestinian women activists face in their everyday organizing? The talk is going to illuminates the context and complexity of the lived experiences of women activists in Palestine, aiming to contribute to feminist perspectives on organizing and how activists’ daily practices and interactions ‘inhabit’ institutions, creating, maintaining and transforming them. The analysis exposes a ‘simultaneity of oppressions’ which highlights the challenges faced by Palestinian women attempting to organize to challenge the social structure, within their quasi-state, settler-colonized context. The talk aims to uncover multiple intersecting inequalities produced by dominant institutional and societal structures, yet experienced differently by women activists, in an oppressed, colonized setting. This distinctive political context, aligned with the collaborative security setting with the occupier, elucidates how violations of the quasi-state, colonizer and other social structures like patriarchy and family manifest and intersect institutionally to violate and undermine women. Dr. Nazzal challenges the singular monolithic analysis of patriarchy, revealing how different patriarchal positions towards women expose different modes of oppression, while serving at times as a protective, supportive system.

This lecture explores how parliamentary activity affects the candidacy list placements of MPs in closed-list PR systems, particularly focusing on the interaction between gender and candidacy list decisions. While it is generally argued that the parliamentary activities of the MPs will increase their chances for re-election, this link is not straightforward in closed-list PR systems, where the party leaderships dominate the candidate selection processes. The determinants of the centralized candidate selection processes are highly ambiguous, making it hard to understand how accountability works for MPs in such settings. Furthermore, existing research pays little attention to how politicians' gender interacts with these processes. This article aims to answer these questions by analyzing the determinants of candidacy list placements using a novel dataset containing over 200,000 parliamentary speeches in Turkey. We present evidence that (1) parliamentary activity has a statistically significant positive effect on the candidacy list placement decisions of the party elites, and yet, (2) this effect is conditional upon politicians' gender. We found that speech is associated with higher candidacy list placements in the next election for women politicians while no such effect exists for men. We suggest that this heterogeneity is driven by intra-party competition and the perception that women MPs would be less threatening for existing party leadership positions compared to men MPs. Dr Tugba Bozcaga joined EIS as a lecturer in politics with a specialisation in political methodology. She earned a PhD in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2020. Before coming to King's, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University. She is also a faculty fellow at the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies (AALIMS). Her research focuses on political economy of development, with a substantive focus on local governance, bureaucracy and state capacity, distributive politics, social welfare, and migration. Her work has been awarded Mancur Olson Best Dissertation Prize in Political Economy (Honorable Mention) from American Political Science Association (APSA). She also received the Best Comparative Policy Paper Award from APSA Public Policy Section, APSA MENA Politics Section Best Paper Award, and APSA Religion and Politics Section Best Paper Award.

In this podcast, Oxford Emeritus Professor Avi Shlaim compares notes with Exeter University Professor Ilan Pappé on the prospects for a binational state in the aftermath of the events of 7 October and the Gaza War.

A discussion of European initiatives to recognize the State of Palestine to advance the prospects for a two-state solution. In this episode, former Israeli Ambassador and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alon Liel speaks with Haizam Amirah-Fernández, Senior Analyst for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern affairs at the Elcano Institute in Madrid, and Chris Doyle, Director of CAABU, the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, to consider European initiatives to recognize the State of Palestine to advance the prospects for a two-state solution. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of 'Political Options Following the Gaza War.' The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each week to discuss the different options facing policy makers in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the 2023-2024 War in Gaza. While some in the Israeli government call for continued security control over all Palestinian territories, many in the international community believe Palestinian statehood and the end of occupation the only sustainable course of action. In one session, speakers from Britain, Spain, and Israel will consider European proposals for recognizing Palestinian statehood. However, Palestinian independence is not the only option. Others continue to argue that a binational state, in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy citizenship, is the most feasible option, given the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements. Yet all recognize that the political environment for substantive change has become far more difficult as a result of the 7 October attack and the Gaza War.

Prof Noura Erakat explores the significance of South Africa's application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice, and the Court's decision to hear the case. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of 'Political Options Following the Gaza War.' The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each week to discuss the different options facing policy makers in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the 2023-2024 War in Gaza. While some in the Israeli government call for continued security control over all Palestinian territories, many in the international community believe Palestinian statehood and the end of occupation the only sustainable course of action. In one session, speakers from Britain, Spain, and Israel will consider European proposals for recognizing Palestinian statehood. However, Palestinian independence is not the only option. Others continue to argue that a binational state, in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy citizenship, is the most feasible option, given the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements. Yet all recognize that the political environment for substantive change has become far more difficult as a result of the 7 October attack and the Gaza War.

Dr Hagar Kotef from SOAS examines the current situation of Israeli settlers both in the West Bank and in the Cabinet to assess the impact of the settler movement in political options following the Gaza War. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each week to discuss the different options facing policy makers in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the 2023-2024 War in Gaza. While some in the Israeli government call for continued security control over all Palestinian territories, many in the international community believe Palestinian statehood and the end of occupation the only sustainable course of action. In one session, speakers from Britain, Spain, and Israel will consider European proposals for recognizing Palestinian statehood. However, Palestinian independence is not the only option. Others continue to argue that a binational state, in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy citizenship, is the most feasible option, given the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements. Yet all recognize that the political environment for substantive change has become far more difficult as a result of the 7 October attack and the Gaza War.

In the opening meeting of the Middle East Centre’s Hilary Term seminar series, the Fellows of the Centre led a panel discussion to set out the agenda for the series examining the political options following the Gaza War. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each week to discuss the different options facing policy makers in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the 2023-2024 War in Gaza. While some in the Israeli government call for continued security control over all Palestinian territories, many in the international community believe Palestinian statehood and the end of occupation the only sustainable course of action. In one session, speakers from Britain, Spain, and Israel will consider European proposals for recognizing Palestinian statehood. However, Palestinian independence is not the only option. Others continue to argue that a binational state, in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy citizenship, is the most feasible option, given the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements. Yet all recognize that the political environment for substantive change has become far more difficult as a result of the 7 October attack and the Gaza War. With presentations by Eugene Rogan, Raihan Ismail, Maryam Alemzadeh and Walter Armbrust, the opening panel set the stage for the next seven sessions to follow. The session attracted an overflow audience that filled the lecture theatre to capacity.

Professor Yuli Tamir considers Israeli public opinion following the 7 October 2023 attack and the constraints that public opinion imposes on the political options moving forward. The Middle East Centre convenes its Hilary Term 2024 seminar each Monday night in term around the theme of ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War.’ The aim is to bring primarily Palestinian and Israeli speakers each week to discuss the different options facing policy makers in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel and the 2023-2024 War in Gaza. While some in the Israeli government call for continued security control over all Palestinian territories, many in the international community believe Palestinian statehood and the end of occupation the only sustainable course of action. In one session, speakers from Britain, Spain, and Israel will consider European proposals for recognizing Palestinian statehood. However, Palestinian independence is not the only option. Others continue to argue that a binational state, in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy citizenship, is the most feasible option, given the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements. Yet all recognize that the political environment for substantive change has become far more difficult as a result of the 7 October attack and the Gaza War. In the second seminar in the Hilary Term series, ‘Political Options Following the Gaza War,’ the Centre welcomed Professor Yael (Yuli) Tamir, President of Beit Berl College, former Member of the Knesset, and former Cabinet Minister, to consider Israeli public opinion following the 7 October 2023 attack and the constraints that public opinion imposes on the political options moving forward. Once again, the lecture theatre was filled to overflow and generated extensive exchange between the audience and the speaker.

Adam Mestyan argues that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were not, as many historians believe, products of European colonialism but of the process of "recycling empire." Adam Mestyan is Associate Professor of History at Duke University. His works include Modern Arab Kingship - Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2023), Primordial History, Print Capitalism, and Egyptology in Nineteenth-Century Cairo (Ifao, 2021); and Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt (Princeton University Press, 2017). He is the PI of the collaborative Islamic digital humanities project, Digital Cairo - Studying Urban Transformation through a TEI XML Database, 1828-1914, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and L'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire (Ifao). In this groundbreaking book, Adam Mestyan argues that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were not, as many historians believe, products of European colonialism but of the process of "recycling empire." Mestyan shows that in the post-World War I Middle East, Allied Powers officials and ex-Ottoman patricians collaborated to remake imperial institutions, recycling earlier Ottoman uses of genealogy and religion in the creation of new polities, with the exception of colonized Palestine. These polities, he contends, should be understood not in terms of colonies and nation-states but as subordinated sovereign local states-localized regimes of religious, ethnic, and dynastic sources of imperial authority. Meanwhile, governance without sovereignty became the new form of Western domination.