Application Deadline: December 31, 2017
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Second Summer Institute on Critical Security Studies in the Arab World to be held on June 19-24, 2018 in Beirut, Lebanon. This training workshop is an activity of the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies, which is supported by the ACSS within its Working Group Series. The Institute targets doctoral students, junior scholars, and other researchers working within critical approaches to questions of security in the Arab World.
About the “Beirut School of Critical Security Studies”
The Beirut School of Critical Security Studies is coordinated by Professors Samer Abboud (Arcadia University) and Omar Dahi (Hampshire College). Its goal is to engage critically with existing academic and policy debates about ‘security’ and international relations of the Arab region while developing alternative approaches and understandings that focus on the concerns and experiences of scholars and societies within the region, and more broadly, the Global South. The work of this project is organized under several themes managed by a network of scholars based in and with ties to the Arab region. These themes serve as a basis for the Summer Institute and currently include the following:
- Political economy of (in)security: This theme explores the ways in which violence and insecurity are increasingly tethered to the political economies of the Arab region and, in turn, how these political-economic landscapes are shaped by the exercise and production of insecurity. This is developed through three broad lines of inquiry: commodification of security, the relationship between capital accumulation and violence, and the connections between aid provision and violence.
- (In)security of everyday life: This theme explores the micro-relations of everyday experiences of (in)security by taking people’s experiences, understandings, and terminologies as starting points for what it means to feel (in)secure and further looks into the strategies people employ to live with some form of insecurity. The theme explores questions of how fear, risk, precarity, and instability operate in the daily maneuverings of people’s lives, and how aspiration, hope, and well-being are achieved and sustained.
- Technologies of security: This theme addresses the relationship between technology and security in the region. It seeks to investigate the implications of a wide range of technologies from GIS applications to biometric border management on the governance of security and production of (in)security.
- Discourses and knowledge production and rethinking global norms and practices: This theme focuses on the politics of knowledge production in the field of International Relations of the Middle East and seeks to produce alternative approaches of theorizing knowledge on the region. The problematic is addressed by questioning the construction of global norms and engaging with conceptions that place the experience of peoples and states in the region at the center of theorizing.
- Borders, migration, and mobility: This theme aims to unpack the making and remaking of borders in the Middle East in light of unfolding conflicts, and the so called "migration/refugee" crisis. It uses multiple approaches to exploring the resilience or erosion of borders: ethnographies of borders (everyday smuggling, mobility of dwellers), unpacking deep historical (dis) connections (trade, exodus), or more contemporary practices of governing and securing the borders (surveillance, policing).
For more information on the broader project, visit this page.
Objectives of the Summer Institute
The Summer Institute brings together doctoral students, early career scholars, and other researchers for training and mentoring with a team of established scholars who will provide sessions on a range of methodological, theoretical, and professional issues that will equip the participants with the theoretical tools and practical skills necessary for conducting critical research on security issues in the Arab World.
Structure of the Summer Institute
The Summer Institute will consist of three main parts and sessions will be conducted in Arabic and English with simultaneous translation. The central aim of these sessions is to introduce participants to some of the above-mentioned themes and the ways in which they can be researched. Faculty leaders will provide a range of readings for participants that will structure the theoretical and methodological sessions.
- The first part of the Institute will involve participants presenting their research and receiving written feedback from the faculty session leaders as well as from other participants.
- The second part of the Institute will involve substantive thematic sessions led by faculty.
- The final part of the Institute will consist of sessions on professionalization where participants and faculty leaders come together to discuss issues around publishing, fieldwork, teaching, and other professional concerns.
Speakers
Confirmed speakers for the Second Summer Institute include:
- Mark Salter, Professor of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Nicole Grove, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii-Manoa, US
- Omar Dahi, Associate Professor of Economics, Hampshire College, US
- Sami Hermez, Assistant Professor in Residence, Northwestern University-Qatar, Qatar
- Waleed Hazbun, Associate Professor of Political Studies, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Expected Outputs
Participants in the Institute will be asked to prepare essays to be published on the Beirut School's website, "Beirut Forum for Critical Arab Security Studies," which will be launched soon. These contributions may either appear as part of a larger workshop symposium or as individual essays.
Registration, Travel, and Accommodation
There is no registration fee. Arab nationals and those affiliated with institutions in the Arab World will be eligible for a travel subsidy. Students and researchers from outside the Arab World are expected to cover their own travel expenses to and within Lebanon. Accommodation and meals will be provided for all participants for the duration of the Institute.
How to Apply
Those interested in attending are asked to submit an electronic application.
Applications must include:
- Research Proposal/Narrative (2,000 words)
- Two brief statements on expectations and relevant background (500 words each)
- CV, which includes a list of publications, grants and distinctions (where applicable)
The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2017.
Selection Process
The working group will review applications and decide on a list of finalists. Those finalists may be asked to submit more detailed information before they are officially accepted into the Institute. Final participants will be selected based on the merits of their proposals and the relevance of their research interests and backgrounds to the topic of critical security studies. Final decisions will be announced towards the end of January 2018.
Timeline
- December 31, 2017: Application deadline.
- January 30, 2018: Selection notification.
- February 15, 2018: Confirmation of participation.
- June 19-24, 2018: Summer Institute takes place.
If you have any queries or for more information about the application process, please contact Jana Chammaa, ACSS Program Coordinator, at chammaa@theacss.org.