Syria in Transition: The First 45 Days
Speakers
Lisa Wedeen
Omar S. Dahi
Commentary
Bassam Haddad
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
4:30 PM EST | 11:30 PM Damascus
This event is the third in a series of events under the Syria Research Project (SRP), coorganized by Jadaliyya, Syrian Center for Policy Research, and Security in Context Network.
Our speakers will evaluate the first three months after the collapse of the Syrian regime on 8 December 2024. They will address domestic and regional matters, including initial exuberance, ongoing struggles of civil society, intensified sectarian violence, discursive changes, and U.S. foreign policy.
Featuring
Lisa Wedeen is the Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College, Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory, and Associate Faculty in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her publications include three books: Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (1999; with a new preface, 2015); Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen (2008); and Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria (2019). For this newest book, she has received four awards. Wedeen’s co-edited volume with Joseph Masco, entitled Conspiracy/Theory, was published in January 2024. She is beginning work on a new book on revolutionary disappointment.
Omar S. Dahi is a co-editor at Jadaliyya. He is a Professor of Economics at Hampshire College and Founding Director of Security in Context, a research network on peace, conflict, and international affairs. He has published in academic outlets such as the Journal of Development Economics and Applied Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Political Geography, Middle East Report, Forced Migration Review, and Critical Studies on Security. His last book was South-South Trade and Finance in the 21st Century: Rise of the South or a Second Great Divergence (co-authored with Firat Demir). Dahi serves as an associate editor of the Review of Social Economy and is a founding member of the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies within the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). Dahi has served as a lead expert on the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of West Asia's National Agenda for the Future of Syria program.
Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).