"The Ottoman Caliphate's Mystical Turn" by Dr. Husyein Yilmaz (Fall for the Book Festival)

The medieval theory of the caliphate, epitomized by the Abbasids (750–1258), was the construct of jurists who conceived it as a contractual leadership of the Muslim community in succession to the Prophet Muhammed’s political authority. In this book, Hüseyin Yilmaz traces how a new conception of the caliphate emerged under the Ottomans, who redefined the caliph as at once a ruler, a spiritual guide, and a lawmaker corresponding to the prophet’s three natures.

"In the Last Days of the City": Screening and discussion with Tamer El Said

Wednesday, 10 October, 7:30pm
Johnson Center Cinema
George Mason University

Reports from Abroad: Two Roundtables

Join us for Schar faculty's first-hand observations from Pakistan, UK, Spain, China, Mexico, South Korea, Palestine, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Central Asia, Lebanon, Scotland, Russia, and Ukraine!

Followed by a Q&A conversation!

Humanitarian Predicaments: Protracted Displacement and Palestinian Refugee Politics - A Talk by Ilana Feldman

Ilana Feldman is Professor of Anthropology, History, and International Affairs at George Washington University. She is the author of Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917 - 1967 (Duke University Press, 2008), Police Encounters: Security and Surveillance in Gaza under Egyptian Rule (Stanford University Press, 2015), Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics (University of California Press, 2018); and co-editor (with Miriam Ticktin) of In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care (Duke University Press, 2010).

The Home that Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria- A Book Talk with Alia Malek (Fall for the Book Festival)

Journalist Training Workshop

Syria Alternative Development Paradigm Workshop

Wednesday, 7 November 12:00PM
Johnson Center, Room G 
George Mason University

During the mid-1950s, an almost unknown and erased-from-history armed anti-colonial revolt – the Fellaga/Youssefite rebellion – rippled across the Tunisian countryside, sweeping across the width and depth of the country, even penetrating urban cores. My dissertation, Farmers, Fellaga, and Frenchmen: National Liberation and Post-Colonial Development in Tunisia, recovers the historical memory of that revolt, writing the armed struggle and its repression into the history of the Tunisian national liberation struggle and its effects on subsequent state-building efforts. In so doing I locate the place of the rural smallholder and newly landless, who although central to national liberation would be marginal to post-colonial development. This story cuts against the grain of dominant post-colonial historiography, which depicts a unitary and largely non-violent Western-oriented national struggle as the agent of independence. Such a narrative is the cement which the party has used to justify both its rule, post-colonial developmentalism, and subsequent social inclusions and exclusions. My dissertation shows how moments of collective violence, fueled by regional pan-Arab solidarities and material, propelled the political party which led the liberation movement, the Neo-Destour, to victory and secured the country’s sovereignty from France. Simultaneously, the repression of that struggle led to the exclusion of the marginalized countryside from subsequent state-formation and economic development plans. 

High-School Teachers Teach-In on Current Events in the Arab World: Return to Business As Usual?

November 10, 10:00am-3:00pm
Merten Hall 1204
George Mason University

The Arab uprisings captured our attention eight years ago, dominating the news cycle. Since then, the situation in the region has been characterized by catastrophic humanitarian crises, reconsiderations of governance structures and policies toward both liberalization and authoritarianism, and military consolidations and responses. The underlying demographic, economic, and social issues faced by citizens have persisted or even deteriorated. This teach-in brings scholars and journalists to discuss Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia over the past decade. Teachers of world history and geography, global studies and regional studies will gain perspectives from the experts and acquire teaching resources on these challenging and crucial topics.

Lunch will be served. Click here to register for this event.

Workshop on Governance in Syria

December 3-4
LSE (London School of Economics)

[Details to be announced]