Workshop: Ethno-religious ‘Minorities’ and Mobilisation in the Middle East

Space for this event is limited, please register for a place on Eventbrite.

Ethno-religious ‘Minorities’ and Mobilisation in the Middle East Workshop

Thursday, 9 March 2017 – 9.30am to 5.45pm

The Middle East and North Africa region has been undergoing a series of major upheavals and transformation particularly in the wake of the regional uprisings which began in 2011. The confluence of external intervention and internal struggles are increasingly undermining national borders, resulting in large-scale demographic shifts owing to ethnic-cleansing, mass displacement and migration. The rise of radical actors such as the Islamic State (IS) have further exacerbated these trends. These dynamics in turn are both precipitating, and at the same time re-enforcing, the intensification of identity struggles and the (re)drawing of majority-minority communal and ethno-religious boundaries. In order to examine these shifts in identity and their consequences for the changing map of the Middle East, we will examine the following questions in a one-day workshop on ethno-religious mobilisation in the region:

• What are the patterns of ethno-religious mobilisation and changes in group boundaries particularly since 2011?
• To what extent are the current challenges faced by ethno-religious ‘minorities’ comparable with previous bouts of instability and crisis in the Middle East?
• How do current patterns of ethno-religious mobilisation differ (or not) from previous experiences, including the minoritisation of non-Muslims during the period of nation-building?

This workshop will therefore seek to situate and contextualise current developments both historically and identify emerging patterns of mobilisation since 2011. The particular areas of focus include research on identity struggles and shifts facing diverse communities such as Alevis, Alawites, Yezidis, Copts, Syriac-speaking Christians as well as Sunni-Shi'a relations and the broader intensification of sectarian politics in the region.

Programme:

09.30-10.00 Registration & Coffee

10.00-10.15 Opening Remarks and Welcome

10.15-11.30 Session 1: Between nationalism and communalism

Chair: Dr Philip Robins (Oxford)

Dr Hiroko Miyokawa (Oxford) The making of ‘modern sons of Pharaohs’ in early twentieth century Egypt

Dr Elizabeth Monier (Cambridge) Minority-ness in the modern Middle East

11.30-11.45 Refreshments

11.45-13.00 Session 2: War and ethno-religious mobilisation since 2011

Chair: Dr Laurent Mignon (Oxford)

Dr Erica C. D. Hunter (SOAS/Cambridge) Christians and Yezidis in northern Iraq: what next after Da'esh?

Dr Durukan Kuzu (Coventry) Religious sectarianism among the Kurds and its impacts on their capacity to mobilise

13.00-13.45 Lunch

13.45-15.00 Session 3: Negotiating power and ‘minority’ identity in Syria and Egypt

Chair: Dr Ahmed al-Shahi (Oxford)

Dr Amjed Rasheed (Durham) Alawites of Syria, past and future

Dr Mariz Tadros (Sussex) Copts under el Sisi, for better or for worse for whom?

15.00-16.15 Session 4: ‘New’ sectarianism in the post-2011 Middle East

Chair: Dr Toby Matthiesen (Oxford)

Dr Michael David Clark (Cambridge) Understanding the Shia response to ISIS

Dr Ceren Lord (Oxford) Securitisation of sectarianism? The Turkish state and the Alevis in the post-2011 era

16.15-16.30 Refreshments

16.30-17.45 Session 5: Challenges of research, methodology and comparative approaches

Dr Laurent Mignon (Oxford) The People of the Other Books: New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities in Turkey

Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi (Oxford)