Narratives of success and failure related to the 2011 uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East have been particularly ubiquitous this year in public debates marking their ten-year anniversary. Departing from these perspectives, the seminar draws attention to long-term transformative processes happening at intimate scales, with a focus on Libya and Syria. The discussion will explore the ways in which gender roles and relations are being reconfigured as part of or in response to revolution and displacement.
Based on their ethnographic fieldwork in Tunisia and Turkey, where large numbers of Libyans and Syrians respectively have taken refuge since 2011, the speakers will provide granular perspectives on the ways in which women understand and engage in political and societal change. How are women making sense of and bargaining across a multiplicity of authorities in their everyday lives? How do they form networks of mutual-aid and employment while establishing themselves in the immediate vicinity of their home countries, often in neighbourhoods populated by other Libyans/Syrians? And finally, what are their political and social imaginaries for a future Libya/Syria?
In addition, the discussion will reflect upon the challenges of doing fieldwork in and about Libya and Syria from the vantage point of neighbouring countries, under current conditions of instability and pandemic-related difficulties. It will highlight the importance of an approach that takes into account both the longue-durée of transnational connectivity in the region, as well as the grassroots perspectives of displaced communities inhabiting specific neighbourhoods in host countries, from which they continue creating new spaces for political and social transformation unbounded by national containers.
Zoom registration link, here.
This webinar will be held on the record and posted on the website of SFM.
Event Contact
Jaafar Bambouk
Project Coordinator
sfm@ceu.edu