Becoming Arab American
Scholars have long found that while pan-Arab organizations in the United States called themselves Arab American, few individuals adopted that appellation as a personal identity, preferring Iraqi, for instance, or Syrian. So I was struck, while interviewing 45...Financial Citizenship and the Hidden Crisis of the Working Class in the “New Turkey”
Substantial political, economic and social changes have taken place in Turkey since the early 2000s. Much of this transformation has happened on the watch of the Justice and Development Party (best known by its Turkish acronym, AKP), which has been in power since...North Africa’s Invisible Refugees
It is December 2014, and on a chilly desert night in a refugee camp, a family sits in a circle inside their tent. Each family member wraps as much of his or her person as possible in a shared blanket. The mother, Almuadala, is making tea on a charcoal furnace. All are...Letter from Ellinikon
On a bright and sunny day in early April, outside a terminal at what was once the Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, I listened as Javad, 16, told the story of the second refugee flight of his life. Javad (not his real name) is a member of the Hazara ethnic...Growing Up In Wartime
For years prior to the March 2011 uprising in Syria, writers of the sketch comedy series Buq‘at Daw’ (Spotlight) used symbolism and wordplay to mount a not-so-subtle challenge to the regime on state television. [1. Rebecca Joubin, “Resistance Amid Regime Cooptation on...Mobilizing in Exile
The neighborhood of Narlıca sits on the outskirts of the small city of Antakya, Turkey. A spread of low-rise, brick-and-cement buildings separated by unpaved roads, Narlıca was a lightly populated working-class suburb prior to the outbreak of civil war across the...Putting Refugee Work Permits to Work
For decades, humanitarian experts and international organizations have called upon host countries to give more work permits to refugees. Permits are posed as a way to alleviate the poverty of refugees and lessen their dependency on aid. Host countries have...Oasis in the Desert?
From the summer of 2012 through 2014, there were rapid influxes of refugees from Syria into the Zaatari camp in Jordan. The camp’s population spiked in early 2013—from 56,000 in January to a peak of 202,000 just four months later—overwhelming the UN High Commissioner...Syrian Refugees in the Media
It was September 2, 2015 when the Syrian refugee crisis abruptly came to dominate the English-language media. On that day broadcast and print outlets led with the iconic image of Alan Kurdi, 3, lying lifeless on a Turkish beach after his family’s failed attempt to...NGO Governance and Syrian Refugee “Subjects” in Jordan
The typical image of the Syrian refugee camp in Jordan is one of suffering. Journalistic account after account introduces spectacular stories of devastation and loss. While perhaps dramatized, these tales are not false. Syrian refugee camps have forced hundreds of thousands of strangers to live together in austere, unequal and artificially constructed communities, which are subject to new national laws. To live in the camps is indeed to endure or have endured some form of suffering—but also to be part of a collective of survivors.
Suspend US Military Aid to Egypt
Scholars of the Egypt and the Middle East call on President Obama to stop the longstanding US support for Egypt’s undemocratic military regime.
Open Letter from Scholars of Yemen
Scholars write for the third time to condemn the actions of the US-Saudi-French alliance violating international humanitarian law in the southern Arabian Peninsula.
Éloge de la Naïveté
The attacks in Brussels have inspired grief, fear and questions about transformative politics.
The Day Tehran Shook
Speaking to a journalist days after the February 26 elections in Iran, leading reformist Mohammad Reza Aref stated, “When I saw the results for Tehran coming in, I was shocked.” Aref had expected the top of the list he headed to do well in the contest for Tehran’s 30 seats in the Tenth Majles, or Parliament, of the Islamic Republic. Most pre-election polls, in fact, had predicted that Aref’s slate would come out ahead in the capital. But its first-round sweep of all 30 seats, including many wins by unknown candidates, was a stunner for all involved.
Did Russian Intervention Break the Syrian Stalemate?
It is now a cliché to say that the Syrian conflict is complicated, and has multiple regional and international drivers.
Editor’s Picks (Winter 2015)
Aarts, Paul and Carolien Roelants. Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Peril (London: Hurst, 2015).
Beinin, Joel. Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015).
Bennis, Phyllis. Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer (Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2015).
Burwen, Daniel and Mike de Seve. Operation Ajax: The Story of the CIA Coup That Remade the Middle East (London: Verso, 2015).
Curtis, Edward IV. The Bloomsbury Reader on Islam in the West (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).
Bennis, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror
Phyllis Bennis, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2015).
The amalgamation of Iraqi ex-Baathists, Iraqi and Syrian jihadis, disgruntled locals and outside recruits known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, continues to cast a long shadow over the Middle East and the world. The grip of the would-be caliphate upon its “home” territory in Iraq and Syria is slipping, but groups raising the ISIS banner are winning battles in Afghanistan and Libya. Meanwhile, the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015 has kept the specter of ISIS-inspired attacks hovering over political debate in the West.
Karimi, Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran
Pamela Karimi, Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era (New York: Routledge, 2013).
Mary Ann Tétreault
Mary Ann Tétreault died peacefully in her sleep at home in Newport, Vermont on November 11, 2015. She was a spectacular human being, a gifted intellectual, and a generous mentor and friend.
Mary Ann earned her undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College and her masters and doctorate at Rice University. She wrote her dissertation on the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. She taught at Old Dominion University and Iowa State University before moving to Trinity University in San Antonio where she was the Una Chapman Cox Distinguished Professor of International Affairs from 2000-2012.
