The Arab Council for the Social Sciences is offering a ‘Summer Institute on Critical Security Studies in the Arab World‘ from 17-21 July 2017. Registration is possible until 30 January 2017.
You can find more information here:
Call for Letters of Interest
Summer Institute on Critical Security Studies in the Arab World
July 17-21, 2017
Beirut, Lebanon
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences is soliciting letters of interest from doctoral students, junior scholars, and other researchers for the first Summer Institute on Critical Security Studies in the Arab World, which will be held on July 17-21, 2017 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Theme
The theme of the summer institute is “Security Beyond the State”. This theme reflects a concern with thinking beyond and outside the state as the purveyor of security, while at the same time considering the multiple and complicated ways in which security and insecurity are produced in the Arab World. In the region today, security and insecurity are increasingly defined by both plurality, reflecting the multiple sources of security and insecurity, such as states, armed groups, militias, local committees, foreign armies, and occupying forces; and precarity, reflecting the inherently unstable nature of individual and collective senses of (in)security. This summer institute will introduce participants to the ways in which we can research such plural and precarious patterns of security and insecurity in the Arab World and will be structured around five key topics:
1. Sovereign/ty (and beyond)
2. Everyday life
3. Resilience and resistance
4. Political economy of (in)security
5. Knowledge production and discourses
Objectives
This initiative comes from the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies Working Group funded by the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) and led by Omar Dahi and Samer Abboud. The aim of the summer institute is to bring together doctoral students, junior scholars, and researchers working within critical approaches to questions of security in the Arab World with established faculty members who will provide sessions on a range of methodological, theoretical, and professional issues.
Structure
The summer institute will consist of three main parts and will be conducted in Arabic and English with simultaneous translation. The first part will involve participants presenting their research and receiving verbal and written feedback from the faculty session leaders as well as from other participants. The second part of the institute will involve targeted sessions led by faculty leaders. The central aim of these sessions is to introduce participants to the ways in which critical research on security issues in the Arab World can be conducted. Faculty leaders will provide a range of readings for participants that will structure the theoretical and methodological sessions and will help prepare participants to conduct critical research on security issues in the Arab World. 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. Participants in the institute will be invited to prepare essays to be published online at the ‘Beirut Forum for Critical Arab Security Studies’. These contributions may either appear as part of a larger workshop symposium or as individual essays. Participants may equally be eligible to take part in an additional three-day workshop on methods and research ethics.
Registration, Travel and Accommodation
There is no registration fee for the institute. 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
Interested applicants must submit the following documents:
- Letter of interest to attend the institute
- Application form [Application Form (Arabic) | Application Form (English)]
Documents can be submitted in English or Arabic.
Documents must be sent to Jamil Mouawad at mouawad@theacss.org by no later than January 30, 2017.
The Working Group will review the letters and invite selected participants to submit more detailed proposals. Those contacted for a more detailed proposal are not guaranteed admission to the summer institute. Final participants will be selected based on the merits of their proposals.
About the Working Group Coordinators
Omar Dahi is associate professor of economics at Hampshire College in Amherst, USA. He specializes in economic development and international trade, with a focus on South-South economic relations and the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Dahi also serves on the editorial committee of the Middle East Report and is co-editor of the Syria page at Jadaliyya. His work has been published in various academic journals, including the Journal of Development Economics, Applied Economics, and the Southern Economic Journal.
Samer Abboud is assistant professor of international studies at Arcadia University, Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the Middle East (particularly Lebanon and Syria), political economy, and conflict and reconstruction. Abboud has published extensively on Syria’s political economy, including two monographs on Syrian trade and marketization. His work has been featured in a number of edited collections, including: Economic Transformation and Diffusion of Authoritarian Power in Syria (2012); Antinomies of Economic Governance in Contemporary Syria (with Fred Lawson, 2012); and Locating the “Social” in the Social Market Economy (2013). Abboud has contributed regularly to numerous media outlets, such as Al-Jazeera English, Huffington Post Live, and Jadaliyya. He is the author of Syria, published by Polity Books in 2015.