This interdisciplinary international conference is an attempt to examine why and how the MENA region is not immune to democratic social movements. We propose that these revolutions were indicative of deep-rooted socio-cultural and structural transformations in contemporary MENA; they symbolized a popular quest for human dignity, social justice and freedom. The genie is out of the bottle and more progressive changes have yet to come. The contemporary social movements in MENA are open-ended and unfinished projects.

The conference and the subsequent publications aim to study these movements and their aftermath with an eye to the socio-political opportunities and potentials for progressive change they left behind. We will examine the local, regional and global impediments to grassroots democracy in the region. We will problematize the impact of global and regional politics, political economy, post-colonial condition, and socio-cultural factors – gender, ethnicity, class, and religion – on the rise and the current crisis of contemporary social movements in the region. The conference is an attempt for theorizing/problematizing these uprisings and imagining an alternative perspective for the future of popular and progressive social movements in MENA.

Paper proposals may address, but are not limited to, one or more of the following themes:

1. “The Quiet Encroachment” of the counterrevolutionary forces: Why are the ancient forces coming back?
2. Social Movements in MENA: Is the “Return of the Repressed” Possible?
3. What the liberal and the Left-wing forces could have done to prevent the crisis.
4. Problematizing the faults and failure of Islamist forces in MENA social movements
5. The myth and reality of Army as a “midwife” of MENA social movements
6. Is the “Post-Islamist turn” over? 
7. Are contemporary social movements in MENA open-ended/unfinished projects?
8. “Muslim/Middle East Exceptionalism”, Islamophobia and the West: Past and present
9. Impact of global/regional politics on the rise and crisis of the MENA social movements
10. Political economy of the MENA social movements (The Arab Spring, Iran’s Green Movement, the Gezi Park in Turkey)
11. Political economy of Islamism
12. Gendering the MENA social Movements: The question of women, LGTB, etc.   
13. The MENA social movements and minorities (religious, ethnic, etc.)
14. Postcolonial critique of the implementation of R2P in Libya
15. Postcolonial critique of the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria