Avenues of Social and Political Change: Five Years of Contention in the Middle East and North Africa Friday, April 8 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM 365 Fifth Ave., Room 5318 Register here: https://avenue-of-socia-change.squarespace.com/ Five years after the eruption of mass protests across North Africa and the Middle East, citizens of these countries now live under contrasting conditions. While some countries, such as Tunisia, have made headway on the road to freedom and social justice, others, are embroiled in civil strife, like Syria, or are being crushed by the return of authoritarianism, like Egypt. Yet despite the zigzagging trajectory that these uprisings have thus far treaded, new channels and imaginings of social, political and economic change have opened up over the past five years. This conference will explore current possibilities that have been opened up through and in the aftermath of the grassroots uprisings that have swept through the region since 2011 and the sustained struggles for these arenas as well as the counter-efforts that have attempted to constrain and constrict them. Instead of succumbing to a choice between either presenting a triumphant narrative or emphasizing the democratic setbacks facing social movements, activists, and the population at large, this conference will attempt to reframe the question to ask what actual and concrete opportunities for economic, social and political transformation have unfolded beyond and despite of the historical and structural constraints that are in place. SCHEDULE Coffee and registration 9:00-9:30 (Room 5318) Panel 1: Urbanity and Violence 9:30 -10:30 (Room 5318) Deen Sharp (Geography, CUNY Graduate Center) "Urbicide and the Arrangement of Violence in Syria" Omnia Khalil (Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center) "Cairo Spaces...Between Militarization and Gentrification" Sami Tayeb (Middle East Studies, American University in Beirut) "The Rawabi Urban Development Project: Occupied Space, Class Formation, and Social Change in Palestine" Panel 2: The State, Memory, and Subjectivity 10:45-12:15 (Room 5318) Elizabeth Nugent (Princeton) "The Politics of Repression: Collective Memory and Elite Polarization in Authoritarian Regimes" Mohammed Ezzedine (History, CUNY Graduate Center) "Abrupt Traditions, Stillborn Temporalities: Arwa Salih and the Post-1967 Generation in Egypt" Nada El-Kouny (Anthropology, Rutgers) "Ambivalent Aspirations: Generational Disjunctures and Sovereignty Making in Rural Egypt" Habiba Al-Awady (Sociology-Anthropology, American University in Cairo) "Egypt: A Case for Chaos" Shima Houshyar (Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center) "Memory, Mourning, and the Politics of Reconciliation in Post-Green Movement Iran" Lunch 12:15-1:15 (Room 5109) Panel 3: Politics, Contention, and "Reform" 1:15-2:30 (Room 5318) Daniel Tavana (Princeton) "Mass Partisanship after the 'Arab Spring': Evidence from Tunisia" Eliana Abu Hamdi (UC Berkeley) "The Closure of the Amman Institute for Urban Development: Accusations, Anti-Corruption, and the Threat to Unregulated Development" Mohamed Hodeib (Middle East Studies, CUNY Graduate Center) "Summer Protests in Lebanon 2015: Military Courts Discipline and Punishment" Yosr Ben Slima (Middle East & Mediterranean Studies, King's College London) "Reclaiming Space: Irreligiosity in Urban and Virtual Spaces in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia" Key-Note Speaker 2:45-3:30 (Room 5318) Jillian Schwedler (Political Science, Hunter College). Closing Remarks 3:30-3:45 (Room 5318) Anthropology Colloquium: 4:15-6:00 (Room C415a) Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (History: Urbana-Champaign) "Foucault, Spirituality, and the Perils of Universal History" Reception 6:00 (Room 6402)