Conference: Rethinking Nationalism, Sectarianism and Ethno-Religious Mobilisation in the Middle East (Day 1)

a church and a mosque in beirut lebanon

Conveners: Alex Henley (Pembroke), Ceren Lord (SIAS) and Hiroko Miyokawa (SIAS)

Speakers: Max Weiss (Keynote lecture), Karin Loevy, Sarah Shields, Oren Barak, Raymond Hinnebusch, Michael Marcusa, Jerome Drevon, Michael Clark, Loubna El Amine, Kevin Mazur, Yesim Bayar, Karim Khwanda, Yaacov Yadgar (Chair), Toby Matthiesen (Chair), Laurent Mignon (Chair)

The first day of a three-day event generously supported by Pembroke College, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).

Day 1 - Friday 26th January 2018

9.00-9.30 Registration; Coffee and pastries

9.30-9.45 Opening Remarks and Welcome:

Professor Justin Jones, representing the Islamic Studies group at Pembroke College

Professor Philip Robins, representing the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College

Mr Nobuo Tanaka, chairman of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation

9.45-11.15 Panel 1: Histories of Border-Making and State Formation in the Middle East

Chair: Yaacov Yadgar (SIAS/DPIR, Oxford)

Karin Loevy: Non-Sovereign Territoriality in WW1 Negotiations over the Future of the Middle East

Sarah Shields: Discourses of Identity: The League of Nations in Iraq

Oren Barak: State Expansion and Conflict in Israel/Palestine and Lebanon

11.30-1.00 Panel 2: Challenges to the Nation-State in the Post-2011 Era

Chair: Toby Matthiesen (MEC)

Raymond Hinnebusch: Westphalian Failure? The Case of Syria since the Uprising

Michael Marcusa and Jerome Drevon: The Local Global Jihad: Explaining Sub-National Patterns in Salafi Jihadi Mobilisation

Michael Clark: A Shi‘a Commonwealth: The Iranian Deep State, its Affiliates and the Shi‘a Community

1.00-2.30 Lunch (provided for speakers)

2.30-4.00 Panel 3: State and Non-State Actors in the Governance of Diversity

Chair: Laurent Mignon

Loubna El Amine & Kevin Mazur: Deprovincialising Multiculturalism, or Why We Should Care About the Politics of Difference in Late Industrialising Societies

Yeşim Bayar: Expanding Minority Rights and Establishing Societal Peace: What Can We Learn from Constitutions and Constitution-Writing Processes?

Karim Khwanda: Socio-Religious Pluralism in Syria: The Fault-Line Beyond Secularism Vs. Islamism

Nazli Ozkan: Sectarian ‘Paranoia’ or Religious Discrimination: Journalistic Coverage of Anti-Alevi Discrimination in Turkey

5.00-6.30 Keynote Lecture: Max Weiss (Princeton) speaks on Formations of the Sectarian

Further Information

Pre-booking required via Eventbrite for the whole day except the keynote lecture. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rethinking-nationalism-sectarianism-and-e...

Research Centre

Middle East Studies