The momentous events of recent years have brought unprecedented change to the Middle East and North Africa. They have also reasserted a key feature of the region since at least the rise of Islam – the centrality of popular movements in engendering change. The 2013 BRISMES Annual Conference will focus on the challenges posed for analysis both by the emergence of new popular movements and by the resurgence of more traditional ones such as religious organisations, tribal groupings, and trade unions across the region. The political implications of change in the MENA region are clearly very significant, but the conference organisers also welcome submissions that focus on the impact of change on other areas of public life, including language, literature and the arts, and on changes in the broader Muslim world. Andrea Teti, ECIA Senior Fellow, will be the Chair of the opening session “Analytical Implication of the Arab Uprings: Conceptual Tool, Area Studies Theory” as well as of “Local Networks and Everyday Life” and of “Issues in Israeli and Jordanian Policy”.

BRISMES Annual Conference 2013 Website