Middle East and Islamic Studies at George Mason University

04/07/2026

Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic, with Hossam El-Hamalawy

Hosted by Bassam Haddad

Hossam addresses how President Sisi rebuilt the state by unifying Egypt’s previously fragmented security apparatus and centralizing power. He also addresses a variety of topics including how the Egyptian state today operates as a colonial occupying power ruling its own population. He concludes by addressing the relationship between Egypt and the struggle for a free Palestine.

Hossam el-Hamalawy is a journalist, scholar, and socialist from Cairo, who was among the organizers of the 2011 uprising. He has been involved in the labor movement and the fight against police brutality in Egypt. He holds a PhD in political science from Freie Universität Berlin and is the recipient of the 2011 Anna Politkovskaya Courage in Journalism Award. He publishes a weekly newsletter on Egyptian politics at 3arabawy.substack.com, and is the author of the forthcoming book from Verso, Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic.

Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).

Tuesday, 7 March 2026, 1 pm EST, Book Talk with Hossam El-Hamalawy: Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic

Organized by Middle East and Islamic Studies at George Mason University and cosponsored by Arab Studies Institute

12/11/2024

Collapse of the Syrian Regime - Featuring Omar Dahi and Bassam Haddad. Moderated by Noura Erakat and Mouin Rabbani

Collapse of the Syrian Regime - Featuring Omar Dahi and Bassam Haddad.

10/03/2024

Israel's Attacks on Lebanon: To What End?

[this video will be re-broadcast in the coming 48 hours]

In the past week, Israel has killed over 1000 people in Lebanon and injured thousands more. Israeli bombs have destroyed entire city blocks in Beirut and a fifth of the population has been displaced. Israel is also threatening a ground invasion. How far will Israel go and what will be the repercussions for Lebanon, the region, the genocide in Gaza, and the safety and security of people around the globe? This event is hosted by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University and the Arab Studies Institute as part of the Gaza in Context project (www.PalestineInContext.com)

Speakers:
Lara Deeb is Laura Vausbinder Hockett Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and the Program in MENA Studies at Scripps College. In addition to numerous articles and chapters, Deeb is the author of Love Across Difference: Mixed Marriage in Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2024), An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon (Princeton University Press, 2006), co-author of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi’ite South Beirut (Princeton University Press, 2013), co-author of Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2015), co-editor of the volume Practicing Sectarianism Archival and Ethnographic Interventions on Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2023).

Karim Makdisi is an Associate Professor of International Politics, and Director of the Program in Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He has also directed the Environmental Policy program within AUB’s Interfaculty Environmental Sciences Program (IGESP) since 2004. Makdisi was a founding member and served on the first Board of Trustees of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS), where he is also currently an associated researcher in the Critical Studies Working Group; and also served as the Associate Director at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB. He is currently working on a book project related to the 2006 Lebanon-Israel war and the larger United Nations framework; and is thinking about what it means to research and teach international relations, security, the UN, and global governance from Beirut.

Maya Mikdashi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University. Her first book Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism and the State in Lebanon (SUP, 2022) theorizes the relationships between sexual difference and political difference, the religious and the secular, and law, bureaucracy, and biopower. Her work is grounded in ethnographic and archival research, and has been translated into Arabic, Turkish, French, Spanish, German and Korean. Maya has been published in several peer reviewed journals, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Gay and Le***an Quarterly, the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, American Ethnologist, Transgender Studies Quarterly, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the Journal of Palestine Studies, and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. She has also been published in peer reviewed edited volumes and in public facing venues. She is a co-founding editor of Jadaliyya, and is a member of the editorial collectives of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Middle East Law and Governance, Agitate!, and Social Text. Maya is co-director of the documentary film About Baghdad (2004), filmed in Iraq in 2003, and director of Notes on the War (2006), filmed in Lebanon in 2006. She holds degrees from the Lebanese American University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University.

Moderator:
Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/?sub_confirmation=1 http://instagram.com/jadaliyya http://twitter.com/jadaliyyahttp://jadaliyya.com

12/02/2023

Gaza in Context Collaborative Teach-In Series produces a weekly convening of conversations/teach-ins and other activities that introduce our common university communities, educators, researchers, and students, as well as the general public, to a host of issues related to the ongoing war on Gaza. The project is also curating a resource portal that will be periodically updated for research and pedagogical purposes under www.PalestineinContext.org.

Our MEIS Program, along with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown and the Arab Studies Institute, have again convened more than 22 University and Research Centers to produce and disseminate this series. Join us here or on the website above. All material is open source and anyone is welcome to make use of it.

Gaza in Context Project Co-Organizers

1. Arab Studies Institute
2. Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
3. George Mason University’s Middle East & Islamic Studies Program
4. Rutgers University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
5. Birzeit University Museum
6. Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
7. Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies
8. University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Theory
9. Brown University’s New Directions in Palestinian Studies
10. Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
11. Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies
12. Georgetown University-Qatar
13. American University of Cairo’s Alternative Policy Studies
14. Middle East Studies Association’s Global Academy
15. University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
16. CUNY’s Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center
17. University of Illinois Chicago’s Arab American Cultural Center
18. George Mason University’s AbuSulayman’s Center for Global Islamic Studies
19. University of Illinois Chicago's Critical Middle East Studies Working Group
20. George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies
21. Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies
22. New York University's Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies

10/26/2023

Gaza in History Teach In with Beshara Doumani, Ilana Feldman, and Sherene Seikaly is live NOW

10/26/2023

Watch Live Now - Gaza in History Teach In, with Beshara Doumani, Ilana Feldman, and Sherene Seikaly

Join us for the second teach-in installment for Gaza in Context, where our speakers, Beshara Doumani and Ilana Feldman, will explore the broader history of Gaza, and how Gaza fits into the Question of Palestine in the past and the present.

Co-organizers: Arab Studies Institute, Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, George Mason University’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, Rutgers Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Birzeit University Museum, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies, University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Theory, Brown University’s New Directions in Palestinian Studies, Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Georgetown University-Qatar, American University in Cairo’s Alternative Policy Studies, Middle East Studies’ Global Academy, University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY’s Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, George Mason University’s Center for Global Islamic Studies, University of Illinios Ghicago’s Arab american cultural Center, George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Middle East and Islamic Studies at George Mason University

Featuring
Beshara Doumani is the inaugural Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies, and former President of Birzeit University. He is also the founding director (2012-2018) of Brown's Center for Middle East Studies (CMES), and founder of New Directions for Palestinian Studies, a CMES initiative since 2012. He also writes on the topics of academic freedom, and the Palestinian condition. His books include Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, and Family Life in the Ottoman Mediterranean: A Social History. Doumani is the editor of a book series on Palestinian Studies published by the University of California Press and co-editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly.

Ilana Feldman is Professor of Anthropology, History, and International Affairs at George Washington University. Her research focuses on the Palestinian experience, both inside and outside of historic Palestine, examining practices of government, humanitarianism, policing, displacement, and citizenship. She is the author of Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917-67; Police Encounters: Security and Surveillance in Gaza under Egyptian Rule; Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics; and co-editor (with Miriam Ticktin) of In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care.

Sherene Seikaly is associate professor of history at UC Santa Barbara. Her book, Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2016) examines British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s through a focus on economy. In a departure from the expected histories of Palestine, this book illuminates dynamic class constructions that aimed to shape a pan-Arab utopia in terms of free trade, profit accumulation, and private property. Seikaly’s new book project follows the trajectory of a peripatetic medical doctor, her great grandfather, to place Palestine in a global history of race, capital, slavery, and dispossession. She is an editorial board member of the American Historical Review, co-editor of the Stanford Studies Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures Series, co-editor of Journal of Palestine Studies, and co-editor of Jadaliyya.

10/20/2023

LIVE NOW: Gaza in Context: A Collaborative Teach-In Series

Today marks the first installment of the new Teach-In Series, “Gaza in Context.” Today’s episode, “Gaza 101” features Ziad Abu-Rish, Fida Adely, Aslı Bali, Rana Barakat, Rochelle Davis, Beshara Doumani, Noura Erakat, Adel Iskandar, Maya Mikdashi, Sherene Seikaly, Lisa Wedeen, and Bassam Haddad

09/19/2023

Woman, Life, Freedom: The State of the Movement One Year Later

Watch Live Here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmfJQ0QuvU0

Moderated by:

Catherine Sameh

Speakers:

Morehshin Allahyari (Persian: موره شین اللهیاری‎), is a NY based Iranian-Kurdish artist using 3D simulation, video, sculpture, and digital fabrication as tools to re-figure myth and history. Through archival practices and storytelling, her work weaves together complex counternarratives in opposition to the lasting influence of Western technological colonialism in the context of MENA (Middle East and North Africa).

Dr. Esha Momeni is an Iranian American scholar and activist. She received her Ph.D. in Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is currently a lecturer. In addition, she holds a master’s degree in mass communication. Her research and teaching specializations include modern Iran and the Middle East, media and popular culture, and gender and sexuality. Her activism started in 2006 when she joined the One Million Signatures Campaign--a non-hierarchical movement demanding an end to discriminatory laws against women in Iran. Since, she has been engaged in various projects concerning gender in the Middle East. Following the tragic killing of Zhina/Mahsa, she has been actively involved in two projects, including Peyvandestan.com, a website designed to chart the diverse groups within the movement and serve as a platform for activists to foster connections and collaborate.

Sama Khosravi Ooryad is a feminist activist and new media studies & digital cultures researcher based in Sweden. She is a member of the transnational network of Feminists4Jina.

The interdisciplinary Middle East Studies Program at George Mason provides students with a firm grounding in the history, politics, and culture of this important region. Follow this page for events and updates about Middle East Studies at GMU.

05/01/2023

Don't miss this superb Publishers Roundtable on Trends in Publishing in Middle East Studies! Live this Thursday!

05/01/2023

Joins us tomorrow with a guest who graced our MEIS pages/events back in 2011, to update us on the Egyptian Revolution! Wael Gamal

05/01/2023

Join us on Wednesday at 12 pm to celebrate our Program Faculty Amal Amireh and Nathaniel Greenberg.

03/31/2023

Happening now. 2023: Twenty Years On—A One-Day Conference on the Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq (31 March).
Watch on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hnyAc0hRQVU………
Omar Sirri