Rethinking Nationalism, Sectarianism and Ethno-Religious Mobilisation in the Middle East

26th:

9.00-9.30: Registration; Coffee and pastries

9.30-9.45: Opening Remarks and Welcome

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

Prof 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

Karin Loevy: Non-Sovereign Territoriality in WWI 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

11.30-13.00:
Panel 2: Challenges to the Nation-State in the Post-2011 Era
Chair: Toby Matthiesen

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

Michael Marcusa & 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

13.00-14.30: Lunch (provided for speakers)

14.30-16.00:
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