HS 2020
Call for Applications:
Arab Marxism: The Global History of Revolutionary Movements in the Middle East in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
BASEL, 25-26 September 2020
The struggle for political participation, social justice and legal equality was a key element of radical socialist and communist movements that emerged in Arab countries before and after World War I. These movements mobilized the masses, organized the workers, formed political parties and called for political demonstrations or, in some instances, for armed revolution. The spread of radical ideas among workers, the middle class, and intellectuals mirrored the growing integration of Arab societies into a globalized economy from the nineteenth century onwards.
Ideologically, the main domestic opponents of Marxist/Communist movements in many Arab countries were Arab nationalist and Islamist movements both of whom connected citizenship rights to national and/or religious identity and strove to establish a homogeneous nation. In contrast, the radical left recruited followers from all sectors of Arab societies, especially from religious and ethnical minorities as well as members of foreign nationalities. Women participated also in communist/Marxist movements, but sources reveal the male-dominated cultures inside these movements and the little attention they gave to the struggle for women’s rights.
In spite of the political differences, communists throughout history formed part-time alliances with nationalist, Islamists and authoritarian states, often with detrimental results. Moreover, the rigid structures of communist parties did not favour internal democracy. After 1990, the communist movement lost influence and many former supporters moved onwards to liberal or Islamist ideas, as part of an often bitter learning process. The remaining as well as newly emerging leftist groups are experimenting with new forms of organisation, mobilisation, action, and ideological mixture. A higher sensibility for questions of citizenship rights is characteristic for the post-Communist left. In the recent civil uprisings of 2010/11 and 2019/2020 in many Arab countries, many leftist movements are present, but they represent mainly one contested ideological current among others.
Related topics:
1. Socialist and Communist Movements before and after World War I
2. Women Participation and Women Rights in Marxist/Communist Movements
3. Communist/Marxist Movements and Religion
4. Leftism in the Recent Uprisings in the Arab World
HS 2019
HS 2019
Values and Status Negotiation: Media in the Middle East and North Africa
BASEL, 18-19 October 2019
The Inter-University Doctoral Cooperation in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (MUBIT) is pleased to hold its 7th Annual Doctoral Workshop at the University of Basel between October 18th-19th, 2019. The Workshop is entitled "Values and Status Negotiation: Media in the Middle East and North Africa“ and will be offered by our guest lecturer Dr. Roxane Farmanfarmaian (University of Cambridge).
In this workshop, students will engage with understandings of the media in the Middle East and North Africa from the perspective of the role media plays in society, and the position it commands in relation to power. This re-conceives the study of media as a political project on grounds that the media reflects the society that produces it and operates as a socially symbolic resource.
Values and Status Negotiation is therefore a framework for understanding the media from the inside, and in terms of their own environments. In today’s increasingly polarized political atmosphere, scholarly interrogation of the media’s rights and appropriate roles in social context is increasingly relevant, and we seek applicants whose work sets out to discover how these are understood, rationalized, exercised, negotiated and found appropriate and useful within different social milieux. Those interested in the practices and power of media across platforms, within both the private and public spheres, who seek fresh approaches to the media’s engagement with audience norms and historical experiences from perspectives that arise from within the Middle East and North Africa, are particularly encouraged to apply.
Related questions that this workshop will explore include:
1. Defining Free Expression and the Meaning of a Free Media
2. Conceptualizing the Profession of Media and its Instrumental Role in Society
3. The Relationship between Local, Regional and International Media
4. How has the Role of Media changed since the Arab Uprisings?
HS 2018
Digital Media, Islam, and Politics in the Middle East
BASEL, 28-29 September, 2018
Call for Applications for the 6th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, a workshop with Assistant Professor Dr. H. Akın Ünver (Kadir Has University/Oxford University/Alan Turing Institute)
This two-day workshop immerses students in comparative studies of Islamist politics in the Middle East and North Africa through the lens of how violent and non-violent Islamist state and non-actors, as well as their opponents, use and manipulate digital and social media to further their goals. The workshop is specifically interested in exploring themes in how the region’s religious, political and social forces interact and mobilize in digital space, including their competing organizational networks and narrative claims.
As an increasingly more popular and politically-relevant topic in the region and beyond, we seek applicants whose work lie at the intersection of ICTs (information and communication technologies – such as Whatsapp, Signal, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other web channels) and social media platforms on the one hand, and religion, politics, culture, and mobilization on the other. Those that are interested in, and work on how online and offline mobilization, behaviour and organization interact in the Middle East are particularly encouraged to apply.
Related questions that this workshop will explore include:
1. The definition of "Islamism," Islamic vs. Islamist vs. jihadist hierarchies, communication strategies, and organizational networks of influence in the digital world
2. Digital Surveillance, Censorship, Protest, Voice, and Opposition in the Middle East
3. Organized Diversion: Fake News, Trolls Bots
4. Online Radicalization and ICT Use of Extremist Groups
HS 2017
From Unionism to Kemalism: Social and Political Transformation of Turkey
BASEL, 27-28 October, 2017
Call for Applications for the 5th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel: "From Unionism to Kemalism: Social and Political Transformation of Turkey" with Prof. Dr. Asim Karaömerlioglu (Bogazici University) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kuyas (Galatasaray University).
An international workshop organized by MUBIT Inter-University Doctoral Cooperation in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Basel/Zurich & Middle Eastern Studies, The Graduate School of Social Sciences (G3S), University of Basel, Switzerland.
This workshop intends to shed light on specific historiographical questions emerging from the interactions of political developments, demographic realities and social mobilization in Turkey from the Unionist through the Kemalist era (1908-1945). By examining such interactions, we aim to reassess and rethink some of the dominant viewpoints and paradigms relating to the general contours of Turkish history.
FS 2016
The Main Intellectual Currents in the Late Ottoman Empire
BASEL, 20 - 21 May 2016
Call for applications for the 4th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel: “The Main Intellectual Currents in the Late Ottoman Empire”
with Prof. Dr. Sukru Hanioglu (Princeton University)
.
This two-day workshop will concentrate on the major intellectual currents of late Ottoman history. The main thread of the workshop will follow intellectual history in a broad sense, but other topics including social, religious, and political history will receive some coverage as well.
FS 2015
A Modern World in Flux. Studying Migration, Refugees, and Settlement Regimes from the Middle East and Beyond
BASEL, 29.-30. Mai 2015
Die SUK-Doktoratskooperation Basel / Zürich lädt zu einem Workshop mit Prof. Dr. Isa Blumi (Georgia State Universitym Atlanta) ein.
Der zweitägige Workshop wird auf interdisziplinäre Weise die Folgen grosser Migrationsströme in der Moderne diskutieren, theoretisieren und historisieren. Dabei sind sowohl die Migrationsbewegungen von ImmigrantInnen und Geflüchteten wie auch die Reaktionen von Regierungen auf solche Migrationsbewegungen Gegenstand der Analyse. Diskutiert werden zudem die Folgen dieser Prozesse auf die globale Entwicklung.
HS 2014
Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates
BASEL, 11 - 12 September 2014
The 2nd Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, "Arab Nationalism: From Ottoman Empire to Colonial Mandates", is a two-day intensive seminar (September 11-12, 2014) organized by Prof. Dr. Maurus Reinkowski, Dr. Selen Etingü, and Alp Yenen, M.A., Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Social Sciences at the University of Basel.
Two leading scholars of Ottoman-Arab history will take over the instruction of the seminar: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hasan Kayalı and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Provence, University of California, San Diego. The objective of the workshop is for participants to acquire advanced knowledge of the history and historiography of Ottoman-Arab nationalism.
HS 2013
Turkish Nationalism: Approaching Ottoman and Islamic Legacies beyond Ethnicity, Secularism, and Westernism
BASEL, 13-14 September 2013
The doctoral seminar Turkish Nationalism: Approaching Ottoman and Islamic Legacies beyond Ethnicity, Secularism, and Westernism will explore the complex relationship between Turkish nationalism and Islam, which is further complicated by the Ottoman imperial legacy. The seminar is a two-day intensive seminar (September 13-14, 2013) hosted and organized by Prof. Dr. Maurus Reinkowski and Alp Yenen, M.A., from the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel.
Two leading scholars of Turkish nationalism will take over the instruction of the seminar. Prof. Dr. Erik J. Zürcher (University of Leiden), one of the leading scholars of the political and intellectual history of the late Ottoman and early Republican era, will introduce an advance study of the emergence and development of Turkish nationalism from empire to republic. Prof. Dr. M. Hakan Yavuz (University of Utah), a political scientist renowned for his study of political Islam and conservative nationalist movements in Turkey, will lecture on nationalism theories and the complex relationship between nationalism and Islam in the Turkish Republic. The objective of the seminar is for participants to acquire an advanced knowledge of the history, historiography, and theories of Turkish-Muslim nationalism. In addition, the seminar aims to enhance the skills of doctoral candidates in writing, presenting, and discussing conference papers.