The Arab Studies Institute's Open Access Resources for Teaching the Middle East

The Arab Studies Institute's Open Access Resources for Teaching the Middle East

The Arab Studies Institute's Open Access Resources for Teaching the Middle East

By : Jadaliyya Co-Editors

As teachers, students, and researchers limit their in-person contact, below are some open access resources in the form of online articles, audio interviews, and video segments to facilitate classroom learning and additional research on the Middle East and North Africa.

Below, we’ve curated a selection of our pedagogy content, specifically this on the topics of Uprisings; the making of modern Iran; gender; political Islam; infrastructure and vulnerability; and environment, climate change, health, and disease. 

We also provide links to e-books and journal articles that are available for free download.

Teaching Environment, Climate Change, Health, and Disease


The Climate of Middle East Studies 
[Article]
by Owain Lawson

Climate Change and Water Rights in Palestine [Article]
by Muna Dajani

The Ouarzazate Solar Plant in Morocco: Triumphal 'Green' Capitalism and the Privatization of Nature [Article]
by Hamza Hamouchene

The Violence of Climate Change in Egypt [Article]
by Mika Minio-Paluello

Imider vs. COP22: Understanding Climate Justice from Morocco’s Peripheries [Article]
by Koenraad Bogaert
 

Vulnerability, Infrastructure, and Displacement: The Role of Public Services in Lebanese Spaces of Migration [Audio Interview]
by Hanna Baumann and Samar Kanafani

We Made Every Living Thing From Water: An Interview with Karim Eid-Sabbagh [Article]
by Kieran Garrard

Algeria Seen from the Sea [Article]
by Thomas Serres 

Bio-Istanbul: A Speculative, Segregationist, and Sustainable Urbanism [Article]
by Elvan Arik

Cancer, Catharsis, and Corruption in Lebanon [Article]
by Joelle M. Abi-Rached

The Toxicity of Everyday Survival in Iraq [Article]
by Omar Dewachi

The Lived Nile: Environment, Diseasae, and Material COlonial Economy in Egypt (New Texts Out Now)
by Jennifer L. Derr

Battling Cancer with Spirit in Gaza [Article]
by Lara Aburamadan

For Iranians, Coronavirus Quarantine Not That Novel [Article]
by Donna Honarpisheh

Lebanon's Economic Context, The Protest Movement, and Covid-19 [Audio Interview]
Shahram Aghamir Interviews Ziad Abu-Rish

Epicures and Experts: The Drinking Water Controversy in British Colonial Cairo (New Texts Out Now)
by Shehab Ismail

Teaching the Uprisings


Teachers Teach-In on Current Events in the Arab World: Return to Business As Usual after the Uprisings?
[Video]
featuring Samia Errazzouki, Sama’a Al-Hamdani, Bassam Haddad, Mouin Rabbani, and Hibba Abugideiri 

Toward a Political Economy of the Arab Uprisings (Part One) [Article]
by Melani Cammett and Ishac Diwan

Toward a Political Economy of the Arab Uprisings (Part Two) [Article]
by Melani Cammett and Ishac Diwan

Commemoration for the Syrian Uprising: Selections by Syria Page Editors (2011-2020)
by Jadaliyya Syria Page Editors

Roundtable on Political Islam after the Arab Uprisings [Roundtable]
featuring Nathan Brown, Asef Bayet, John Voll, and Jillian Schwedler

 
by Raymond Hinnebusch

Teaching Gender


How Not to Study Gender in the Middle East 
[Article]
by Maya Mikdashi

Decolonizing Middle East Men and Masculinities Scholarship: An Axiomatic Approach [Article]
by Frances S. Hasso

Here We Go Again: Saving #Muslim Women and Queers in the Age of Trump [Article]
by Nadine Naber


"1979 Generation": Manijeh Nasrabadi interviews Homa Hoodfar on Feminism and Revolution in Iran [Audio Interview]
by Manijeh Nasrabadi

Women & War in Yemen: Actors or Victims? [Audio Interview]
by Mira Nabulsi for VOMENA Radio

Woman Healers with Rola Yasmine [Audio Interview]
by Rola Yasmine 

"The Arab Uprisings: Why Women Matter" [Video]
by Hibba Abugideiri

The Empty Promise of State-Sponsored Feminism in the Arabian Peninsula [Article]
by Saher Naumaan

Women and the Iraqi Revolution [Article]
by Zahra Ali
 

Who’s Your Daddy: Why a Feminist Lens and Praxis are Necessary for the Lebanese Revolution [Article]
by Maya El Helou

Manifesto Against the Woman [Article]
by Mona Kareem


Women’s Candidacy and Violence against Women in the Politics of Iraq [Article]
by Mona Tajali and Sarah Farhan 

Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies, and Israeli Settler Colonialism [Article]
by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Sarah Ihmoud, and Suhad Dahir-Nashif 

How the West Undermined Women’s Rights in the Arab World [Article]
By Nicola Pratt

Reflecting on Multiple Fragmentations in a City of Men [Article]
by Zahra Ali

Essential Readings: Women & Gender; Migration; Arab Uprisings [Annotated Bibliography]
by Wilson Chacko Jacob, Judith Tucker, and Jeffery Fitzgibbons


Essential Readings: Masculinity in the Middle East [Annotated Bibliography]
by Farha Ghannam

"Trapped Escape: Young Palestinian Women and the Israeli National-Civic Service" [Article]
Suhad Daher-Nashif

Teaching Iran


Documenting Anglo-Iranian Oil at the BP Archive 
[Article]
by Katayoun Shafiee

Oil Nationalization and the 1953 Coup in Iran: A Conversation with Ervand Abrahamian  [Audio Interview]
by Malihe Razazan

"1979 Generation": Homa Hoodfar on Feminism and Revolution in Iran [Audio Interview]
by Manijeh Nasrabadi

Covering Race and Rebellion [Article]
by Naveed Mansoori

Roundtable on Iran’s Domestic Politics and Political Economy (Part 1) [Roundtable]
featuring Arash Davari, Peyman Jafari, Ali Kadivar, Zep Kalb, Arang Keshavarzian, Azam Khatam, Saira Rafiee, and Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

Roundtable on Iran’s Domestic Politics and Political Economy (Part 2) [Roundtable]
featuring Arash Davari, Peyman Jafari, Ali Kadivar, Zep Kalb, Arang Keshavarzian, Azam Khatam, Saira Rafiee, and Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

Roundtable: Backdrop & Reverberations of Soleimani’s Assassination (Part 1: Iran) [Roundtable]
by Maryam Alemzadeh, Eric Lob, and Arshin Adib-Moghaddam

Essential Readings: Postrevolutionary Iran [Annotated Bibliography]
by Arang Keshavarzian


Teaching Political Islam


Roundtable: Political Islam after the Arab Uprisings
[Roundtable]
featuring Nathan Brown, Asef Bayet, John Voll, and Jillian Schwedler

Roundtable: The Future of Political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa under the Changing Regional Order [Roundtable]
by Francesco Cavatorta, Courtney Freer, M. Tahir Kilavuz, Peter Mandaville, and Samer Shehata, Stacey Philbrick Yadav

Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam with Lahouari Addi [Article]

Hassan Al-Banna: A Profile from the Archives [Article]

Sayyed Qutb: A Profile from the Archives [Article]

The United States and the Muslim Brotherhood: A Century of Mistrust and Realism [Article]

by Mohamed-Ali Adraoui

Undoing the 'Terrorist Metanarrative' [Audio Interview]
by Abdullah Al-Arian

Ennahda: A Party in Transition [Article]
by Fabio Merone and Francesco Cavatorta

Essential Readings: Political Islam [Annotated Bibliography]
by Peter Mandaville 
 

Teaching Infrastructure and Vulnerability


Vulnerability, Infrastructure, and Displacement: The Role of Public Services in Lebanese Spaces of Migration
 [Audio Interview]

by Hanna Baumann and Samar Kanafani

Roundtable on the Past and Present of Electricity in Lebanon (Part 1) [Roundtable]
featuring Ziad Abu-Rish, Owain Lawson, Joanne Nucho, Eric Verdeil, and Dana Abi Ghanem 

Roundtable on the Past and Present of Electricity in Lebanon (Part 2) [Roundtable]
featuring Ziad Abu-Rish, Owain Lawson, Joanne Nucho, Eric Verdeil, and Dana Abi Ghanem

Structured Precarity: The Plight of Syrian Refugees in Turkey [Audio Interview]
featuring Cihan Tekay

Essential Readings: Infrastructure [Annotated Bibliography]
by Joanne Randa Nucho

For the People of the River, Not Investors: Toward a “Declaration of Principles” Guaranteeing Farmers’ Rights to the Waters of the Nile [Article]
by Sakr Al-nour

Racism and Syrians in Turkey: The Political Economy of Discrimination [Article]
by Helen Mackreath

Do Fuel Prices Define the Fate of the People’s Politics in Iran? [Article]
by Omid Mehrgan and Setareh Shohadaei

Roundtable: Considering the Past and Future of UNRWA [Roundtable]
featuring Karen Koning AbuZayd, Francesca Albanese, Ardi Imseis, Jo Kelcey, Mouin Rabbani, and Terry Rempel

The European Union's Complicity in Refugee Abuse in Libya with Marwa Mohamed and Gabriele Proglio [Audio Interview]

Infrastructure Crises in Beirut and the Struggle to (Not) Reform the Lebanese State" [Article]
by Eric Verdeil

COVID-19 and the Middle East


Politics in the Time of Corona: Gaza [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Issam Adwan and Salama Khashan

Politics in the Time of Corona: Dublin [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with John Reynolds

Politics in the Time of Corona: Cairo [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Amr Adly

Politics in the Time of Corona: Tehran [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Hoda Katebi and Alex Shams

Politics in the Time of Corona: Beyond Incarceration in Iran [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Golnar Nikpour

Politics in the Time of Corona: San Francisco [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Jessica Malaty Rivera

Politics in the Time of Corona: Doha [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Ahmad Dallal

Politics in the Time of Corona: Vancouver [Video]
Hosted by Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad with Adel Iskandar

For Iranians, Coronavirus Quarantine Not That Novel [Article]
by Donna Honarpisheh

All Prisoners Are Political Prisoners: Rethinking the Campaign to #FreeThemAll Beyond Borders and Beyond COVID-19 [Article]
by Golnar Nikpour

In Palestine, the Unequal Effects of an Epidemic in a Settler Colony  [Article]
by Osama Tanous

Lebanon's Economic Context, The Protest Movement, and Covid-19 [Audio Interview]
Shahram Aghamir Interviews Ziad Abu-Rish

Free E-JadMag Resources


JadMag Issue 1.4 "'Resistance Everywhere': The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey"
by Anthony Alessandrini, Nazan Üstündağ, and Emrah Yildiz

JadMag Issue 1.2 "Beyond Dominant Narratives on the Western Sahara"
by Samia Errazzouki and Allison L McManus

JadMag Issue 1.2 "1967"
by Sherene Seikaly  

Free Arab Studies Journal Articles


"The Nahda in Parliament: Taha Husayn’s Career Building Knowledge Production Institutions, 1922-1952”
By Hussam R. Ahmed
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2018)]

"'Jerusalem, We Have a Problem': Larissa Sansour’s Sci-Fi Trilogy and the Impetus of Dystopic Imagination"
By Gil Z. Hochberg
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2018)]

"'A Fever for an Education': Pedagogical Thought and Social Transformation in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, 1861-1914"
By Susanna Ferguson
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2018)]

"Infrastructure Crises in Beirut and the Struggle to (Not) Reform the Lebanese State"
By Eric Verdeil
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2018)]

"If We All Leave, Who Will Cut the String: Exiled Intellectuals in Ghada al-Samman’s Thought”
By Louis Yako
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2018)]

"Jungle Films in Egypt: Race, Anti-Blackness, and Empire"
By Ifdal Iskalat
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2017)]

"Trapped Escape: Young Palestinian Women and the Israeli National-Civic Service"
By Suhad Daher-Nashif
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2017)]

"Spiritual Capital and the Copy: Painting, Photography, and the Production of the Image in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine"
By Nisa Ari
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2017)]

"The Inequality Puzzle in Egypt: What Do We Really Know?"
By Tamer El Gindi
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2017)]

"Arab Self-Criticism after 1967 Revisited: The Normative Turn in Marxist Thought and Its Heuristic Fallacies”
By Manfred Sing
[Published in Arab Studies Journal XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2017)]

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Education in the Time of Virality

Widespread access to the internet has facilitated means of acquiring news and information at rates unseen in earlier eras. As individuals, we have the ability to post and spread political information, social commentary, and other thoughts at will. This has caused an information overload for users of social networking sites. In a fight for views, reposts, and clicks, creators, both corporate and not, have been forced to develop new tactics to inform their audiences. This response to a new mode of information consumption also forces a reconsideration of how we understand knowledge production. Much of the information put forth into the world is absorbed passively, such as through characters’ storylines in books, films, and television - and this information accumulates over a lifetime. What, then, happens when knowledge is actively consumed (as is done when reading, watching, or listening to news stories), but the manner through which the information is presented still conforms to the brevity generally associated with more passive knowledge intake?

Pew Research estimates that over 70% of Americans use their phone to read the news. This is nearly a 25% increase since 2013. The constant barrage of advertisements in online articles does not make consuming news easy to do on a phone, thereby forcing media outlets and their competitors to change and adopt new tactics. Applications such as Flipboard have tried to mitigate these frustrations by simply providing the full article without the ads on their own platform, but many people still turn to sources like The Skimm. In attempting to distill a day’s worth of news coverage on domestic affairs, foreign affairs, pop culture, and sports into a few quips, undeniably both texture and nuance are lost. To compete with these services, CNN, the New York Times, and other mainstream news sources are doing the same and producing articles that give the, “Top 5 News Moments to Start Your Day,” or a, “Daily Brief.” Of course, looking at the language differences between the New York Times daily summary versus The Skimm’s, one can tell which is a more comprehensive news source. Even so, slashing the word count still takes a toll on clearly informing the public. The question then becomes, after quickly skimming through these summaries, are people doing more readings to cover what was lost? Or has “the brief” become the new standard for knowledge production and awareness?

It is more than likely that a significant portion of The Skimm’s subscribers do go on to read the full article linked in the email, but the growing popularity of similarly quick and fast news sources has had an impact on how much information viewers and readers actually understand. Between 2011 and 2014, The Skimm was founded, along with AJ+, Now This, Upworthy, and BuzzFeed News’ more serious journalism section. Undeniably, all of these sources produce and publish very important information, and make this information accessible to a larger audience. However, their production and marketing strategies hinge upon condensing very nuanced topics into videos that are, on average, only seven minutes long, as well as optimizing their materials for social media audiences. Now, it is ridiculous to expect highly textured and complicated issues to be thoroughly represented in these videos or posts. Even research based texts do not touch upon all of the complexities of a topic. The problems arise when looking at how viewers perceive themselves and their level of knowledge after actively searching out the products of, for example, AJ+ and Buzzfeed, for information. Carefully refining their materials to fit the shortened attention span of people scrolling through Facebook, social media news organizations have found their niche audience. Their products provide a simple way to deliver information to those who want gather knowledge on the “hot topics of today,” but do not what to do the leg work to be truly informed. These videos are spread throughout Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms in a manner that says, “Watch this, and you will know what is going on in the world.”

Understanding how information is being pushed out into the world is almost as important as the content of the information. None of these outlets claim to provide comprehensive knowledge, but in being popular sites for information, the question becomes: do they have a responsibility to encourage their viewers to continue to inform themselves about these issues? Having a well-informed society is phenomenal, but if in informing society we are also forever altering how we consume knowledge to favor brevity over nuance, what consequences could come with this change? We must ensure that the consumption of these videos does not become a license for people to see themselves as truly informed and thus appropriate for them to take the microphones at protests and speak over those who have a solid and textured understanding of the issues. Information content is incredibly important, as is spreading knowledge, and AJ+, Now This, and the like have become important role models in showing how issues should be accessible to everyone and not clouted in jargon. But we must simultaneously consider the unintended side effects that these styles of videos have on knowledge production. Ultimately, it is a mutual effort. Just as producers must be watchful of their content and method of dissemination, we as consumers must be mindful of how we digest and understand the news we take in.


[This article was published originally Tadween`s Al-Diwan blog by Diwan`s editor, Mekarem Eljamal.]