In the early 2000s, I shared some political science articles on Jordan—including my own work—with one of my Jordanian colleagues. I later asked what they thought, and the comment was devastating: “I just don’t recognize Jordan.”
Jillian Schwedler
Jillian Schwedler is Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and the Graduate Center and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Crown Center for the Middle East at Brandeis University. Her books include the award-winning Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen (2006) and (with Laleh Khalili) Policing and Prisons in the Middle East (2010). Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, including World Politics, Comparative Politics, Contention, and Social Movement Studies. Her newest book, Protesting Jordan: Geographies of Power and Dissent, was published by Stanford University Press in April 2022.