Identities in Motion - Annual Conference 14th Dec 2023 The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have caused a ripple effect across the world, displacing people within and beyond national borders, and triggering further conflict around identity. Within two decades, ethnoconfessional and national identities...
Call for Contributions 19th May 2023 SEPAD, in collaboration with Clingendael is publishing a short report engaging in a comparative analysis of transformative visions deployed by states in the Gulf.  While Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has received a great deal of attention...
Interview with Javier Guirado 1st Jun 2022 1. How did you end up in the academy? After finishing my MA, I took a few years to work as a high school teacher. However, I found myself participating in conferences and doing research as much as possible during this time. So, in a way, when I found...
Interview with Dr. Hadeel Abdelhameed 1st Jun 2022 1. How did you end up in the academy? I find in academia a dynamic and effective space to share my personal experience and knowledge of Iraq. Like many other Iraqi researchers who survived the atrocities of the previous regime, and the US-led war in 2003,...
Interview with Thomas McGee 1st Jun 2022 1. How did you end up in the academy? In 2009, I moved to Syria and was living there until the intensification of conflict in late 2011 made it necessary to leave. Thereafter, I did a Masters in Kurdish Studies and then worked with international...
Citizenship, Sectarianism & Belonging 16th Dec 2021 Ten years after the Arab Uprisings, the struggle between rulers and ruled continues to shape the contours of political life across the region. Central to these struggles are questions about citizenship and its capacity to order political and social life...
Political Reform in Bahrain since the 1990s: A Workshop on Political Parties and the Constitution 11th Nov 2021 Following the Uprising of Dignity in Bahrain from 1994 to 1999, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa came into power.  In 2001, he promulgated the National Action Charter of Bahrain which received overwhelming support by referendum. The Charter symbolized...
Kuwait and Iran: Reflecting on Regional Relations 13th Sep 2021 After the 2011 Arab Spring protests, relations between Kuwait and Iran faced a number of challenges stemming from Kuwait's support for the GCC intervention in Yemen, the arrest of Iranian spy cells by the Kuwaiti authorities, and the maritime border...
Call for Papers: Sects and the City II 26th Jul 2021 Sects and the City II In recent years, politics across the Middle East and beyond has been shaped by myriad forms of social movement contestation that have fed into the re-imagining of relations between rulers and ruled. With 65% of the Middle East’s...
Call for Papers: Oil in Saudi-Iranian Relations 1st Jul 2021 In recent years a great amount of literature has been produced looking at the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran (Mabon, Keynoush, Mason, Fraihat, Rubin). In spite of this, little work has been done looking at the role of oil in the rivalry. In light...
Call for Papers: Discoursing Sectarianism: Patterns, Trajectories and Identities from 1979 Onwards 30th Jun 2021 Within the study of sectarianism there is a growing interest in the role of discourse.  The sectarianisation and de-sectarianisation literature seeks to explore how actors construct and reconstruct different meanings of Sectarianism to serve...
Discoursing Sectarianism: Patterns, Trajectories and Identities from 1979 onwards 30th Jun 2021 NB: registration is needed for this event. Please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webina...  9:00-9:15     – Introduction 9:15-10.45   – Panel 1: Discoursing Saudi-Iranian Relations ‘Let us Rid the World...
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