Discussions

Sectarian Games in the Longue Durée 26th Nov 2019

This piece is taken from the SEPAD report ‘Sectarianism in the Longue Duree’ available here: https://www.sepad.org.uk/report/sectarianism-in-the-longue-du...

Iraqi Kurds and De-Sectarianization 15th Nov 2019

A piece by Thanos Trappelides

During the last weeks, thousands of individuals have been protesting in Baghdad and across southern areas of Iraq against the failure of the government to deliver basic goods and economic prosperity f...

Survey on emotional wellbeing 4th Nov 2019

Colleagues working on the Middle East may be interested in the survey detailed below, undertaken by Jan Claudius Völkel on emotional challenges involved in research on the region.

From the survey:

Many MENA researchers ha...

Report: “Beyond ‘Sectarianism’? Towards an Alternative Understanding of Identity Politics and Communal Antagonism” 24-25 October 2019, University of Cambridge 1st Nov 2019

By Emanuelle Degli Esposti

This two-day academic symposium brought together established and early-career scholars from a variety of different disciplines to discuss the multiple and sometimes contradictory mani...

The renewed saliency of Sunni-Shi’ite sectarian identities in the violent conflicts and contentious politics in several Middle Eastern countries has been the focus of a number of important academic work in recent times. The emphasis in th...

Bringing in the Other Islamists - sister project launched 27th Oct 2019

In exciting news, we has a new sister project, run by Morten Valbjørn and Jeroen Gunning, and featuring wonderful colleagues from SEPAD and beyond. If you wish to engage with the project on twitter please use #TheOtherIslamists. All at ...

Contestation of divisive politics in Lebanon and Bosnia: Comparative thoughts 23rd Oct 2019

At the time of writing, a wave of protests is sweeping across Lebanon. The government’s announcement of a plan to impose a tax on WhatsApp appeared to be the final straw for the Lebanese, who have been dealing with months of economic aus...

Desectarianization in Lebanon: Where to begin? 9th Oct 2019

Sectarianism in Lebanon is, literally, hair-raising! Over the summer, I went to Lebanon to conduct some fieldwork for my research. One day, I went to one of the local barbershops in the neighbourhood where I was staying to get a haircut. Th...

De-sectarianization event 24th Sep 2019

On the 10th September, SEPAD held an event discussing de-sectarianization and the contemporary Middle East in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Centre at The Work Foundation in London. Over the course of the day, SEPAD fellows embarked on a ri...

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