Essential Readings

Studies of the Kurds and their struggle for self-determination largely focus on nationalism and ethnic/minority relations within countries that Kurds are divided between (i.e., Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey). Most of these studies associate Kurdish political organizations in a given state to a b..

Some of the best material for understanding the breadth and depth of displacement frames the refugee movements in historical, political, environmental, social, legal, and economic contexts. This type of writing contrasts with the reports by aid providers or policy work, which are more descriptiv..

This Essential Readings belongs to ASI and MESPI’s year-long effort to mark, interrogate, and reflect on the Arab uprisings by producing resources for educators, researchers, students, and journalists to understand the last decade of political upheaval historically and in the lived present. To c..

This Essential Readings belongs to ASI and MESPI’s year-long effort to mark, interrogate, and reflect on the Arab uprisings by producing resources for educators, researchers, students, and journalists to understand the last decade of political upheaval historically and in the lived present. To c..

We are pleased to share this annual review of our Essential Readings (ER) series. Individual ERs serve as teaching and research resources a specific geographic, temporal, and/or thematic subject by providing annotated lists of key works on the subject. Be..

This collection of texts in English, Arabic and French is a first attempt to gather secondary sources discussing the revolutionary mobilization that started in Algeria in February 2019. Since then, the four-term President Bouteflika has been forced to resign and the longstanding Chief of Staff o..

Things are dire in Palestine. Not only politically, but also environmentally. Palestinians are so continuously forced to live inundated by wastes and a sense of their own wastefulness, that waste and the environment have collapsed to form a single ecology. This ecology shapes much about social, ..

The Essential Readings series is curated by the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) team at the Arab Studies Institute. MESPI invites scholars to contribute to our Essential Readings modules by submitting ..