TEN YEARS ON: MASS PROTESTS AND UPRISINGS IN THE ARAB WORLD

Background and Scope

December 17, 2020 marked the tenth anniversary of the start of the Arab uprisings in Tunisia. Beginning in 2011, mass uprisings swept North Africa and the Middle East, spreading from the shores of Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and the Eastern Province of the Arabian Peninsula. A “second wave” of mass protests and uprisings manifested during 2019 in Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq. The persistence of demands for popular sovereignty even in the face of re-entrenched authoritarianism, imperial intervention, and civil strife is a critical chapter in regional and global history.

In an effort to mark, interrogate, and reflect on the Arab uprisings, the Arab Studies Institute in collaboration with Princeton’s Arab Barometer, and George Mason’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, and other academic institutions, launched a year-long set of events, reflections, and conversations. The aim of the project is to produce resources for educators, researchers, students, and journalists to understand the last decade of political upheaval historically and in the lived present.

The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar is part of the Ten Years On consortium that includes over a dozen academic institutions and research centers. CIRS’s participation and involvement in the consortium’s activities will be guided by a TYO Oversight Group led by Georgetown faculty members Dr. Abdullah Al Arian, Dr. Mohamed Zayani, Dr. Noha Aboueldahab, and Dr. Sami Hermez of Northwestern University-Qatar, in addition to Zahra Babar, Associate Director of Research at CIRS, and Dean Ahmad Dallal. CIRS organized a panel in fall 2021 titled, “Activism in Exile Diasporic Communities in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings.“

Consortium Partners:

Georgetown University (Center for Contemporary Arab Studies), American University of Beirut (Asfari Institute), Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Brown University (Center for Middle East Studies), UC Santa Barbara (Center for Middle East Studies), Harvard University (Center for Middle East Studies), University of Exeter (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies), Birzeit University (Department of Political Science), University of Chicago (Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory), Stanford University (Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, Stanford University), AUC Affiliates, Georgetown University-Qatar’s Center For International And Regional Studies (CIRS), The Global Academy (MESA Affiliated), Institute of Palestine Studies, Bard College, UC Los Angeles, University of Pittsburg and UC Santa Cruz.

Organized by:

Dr. Bassam Haddad – Arab Studies Institute and George Mason’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Program
Dr. Amaney A. Jamal – Princeton’s Arab Barometer