Contemporary Arab cities are dynamic entities within and through which larger national, regional and global political-economic, technological and cultural forces interact. Global discourses of urban development and redevelopment, for example, contribute to traumatic dislocations in predictable ways, but also open new pathways to power and new dynamics of place- and community-making as local forces turn such discourses to their own purposes. Social conflict and war, too, have their own political economies and logics of creation and destruction, as politicians and profiteers speculate, and rebels and refugees improvise and innovate survival strategies and new forms of self-government. Reconstruction further reorganizes urban space and economic opportunity, as it gives rise to new and innovative approaches to urban planning, architecture and heritage preservation. Burgeoning creative scenes introduce new aesthetics and make possible new identities and forms of resistance. At the same time, they commodify culture and anchor emergent art markets with increasingly global connections.  Just as Kurds, Copts, Armenians and Chaldeans have contributed to the creative flux of Arab cities, so too does contemporary migration from the Arab world create hybrid cultural and political formations and new linguistic landscapes as migrants adapt to and alter metropolitan spaces around the world. 

This conference will explore not only the physicality of Arab cities or the sociality of Arab urban environments, but also the place of the urban in Arab history, philosophy, literature and the arts.

This conference will explore not only the physicality of Arab cities or the sociality of Arab urban environments, but also the place of the urban in Arab history, philosophy, literature and the arts.

Education Under Siege: Attacks on Scholars and Scholarship in Turbulent Times

We are witnessing today what many scholars characterize as the collapse of the post-Cold War liberal order—with serious consequences for Muslims in predominantly Muslim countries as well as for those living in minority communities around the world. The collapse is marked by intensifying violence between state and non-state actors, by deepening social, economic, and environmental crisis, and by the reemergence of autocratic and despotic rule as viable and desirable forms of governance. Political, ethnic, and religious minorities are suspect, and political and economic refugees are viewed as clear and present dangers. In this new world (dis)order, academia is but one of the casualties. This is witnessed by the attack and scapegoating of scholars and their scholarship as threats to national solidarity, economic prosperity, and/or state security.  Such attacks take on different modes of repression and violence depending on the nature of the conflict and the strategies available to those state and non-state actors who see themselves as arbiters of national or communal order. In this context, scholars have suffered intimidation, firings, arrest, exile, and assassination. Schools and institutions of higher education have been defunded, besieged, closed, and violently attacked. Scholarly research and curriculums deemed contrary to the moral fabric of society or to the larger national interest have been denounced, censored, and/or outlawed. Taking "Education Under Siege" as the theme of this conference, we suggest a focus on the following areas:

Education Under Siege: Attacks on Scholars and Scholarship in Turbulent Times

We are witnessing today what many scholars characterize as the collapse of the post-Cold War liberal order—with serious consequences for Muslims in predominantly Muslim countries as well as for those living in minority communities around the world. The collapse is marked by intensifying violence between state and non-state actors, by deepening social, economic, and environmental crisis, and by the reemergence of autocratic and despotic rule as viable and desirable forms of governance. Political, ethnic, and religious minorities are suspect, and political and economic refugees are viewed as clear and present dangers. In this new world (dis)order, academia is but one of the casualties. This is witnessed by the attack and scapegoating of scholars and their scholarship as threats to national solidarity, economic prosperity, and/or state security.  Such attacks take on different modes of repression and violence depending on the nature of the conflict and the strategies available to those state and non-state actors who see themselves as arbiters of national or communal order. In this context, scholars have suffered intimidation, firings, arrest, exile, and assassination. Schools and institutions of higher education have been defunded, besieged, closed, and violently attacked. Scholarly research and curriculums deemed contrary to the moral fabric of society or to the larger national interest have been denounced, censored, and/or outlawed.