2022 Conference

 

APSA MENA Political Science Conference
New Landscapes in MENA Politics Research
Amman, Jordan | July 28-30, 2022

The 2022 APSA MENA Political Science Research Conference was held in Amman from July 28-30. Organized in partnership with Columbia Global Centers | Amman and the Special Commission on Social Science Research (REMENA), the conference provided a unique opportunity to share and receive critical feedback on research manuscripts, network with colleagues from across the MENA region, and contribute to contemporary debates in the discipline. Attending authors included 39 PhD students and early-career scholars from across the MENA region, Europe and North America, including 19 APSA MENA Workshops alumni. In addition to the authors, 15 leading faculty in the field of MENA Political Science attended the conference as discussants. The three-day program (see schedule.pdf) consisted of simultaneous morning research paper panels in which authors received intensive feedback on their papers from discussants and fellow participants. The working groups covered a wide range of themes, including “Civil War, Militias, and Critical Security Studies,” “Grievance, Protest, and Resistance,” “Migration,” “Political Economy,” and “Identity and Colonial Legacies.”


In the afternoon, plenary sessions, roundtables, and professional development discussions were held and open to all conference attendees, local scholars, and attendees from academic institutions in Jordan. The Arab Political Science Network (APSN) organized a panel titled “Research Agenda Stocktaking: Where do Regional Institutions Stand?” featuring representatives from research and policy institutes in the Arab world. Panelists examined the opportunities for social science research and the challenges for the discipline from the perspective of MENA-based institutions.

An Exhibit Hall reception was held featuring various scholarly and policy-oriented research organizations in Amman. Featured organizations included the Information and Research Center – King Hussein Foundation (IRCKHF), Columbia Global Centers | Amman, American Center of Research, Politics and Society Institute (PSI), and several others.

Following the conference, attendees were encouraged to revise their research manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed international journals. Attendees may also be invited to contribute their research to potential journal special issues in collaboration with other scholars. The conference is part of APSA’s effort to support early-career scholars from the MENA region in their research, networking, and professional development and engage them with the international political science community. This is the second MENA Political Science Conference APSA has organized since the launch of the MENA Program in 2013. In 2017, the first MENA Political Science Research and Publication Conference was held in Tunis in collaboration with the Center for Maghreb Studies in Tunis (CEMAT) and the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS), which was attended by approximately 50 scholars from the region.   

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