Evanston Community Partnerships
MENA Monday Night at the Evanston Public Library
In January 2015, MENA established a partnership with Evanston Public Library as one of its new initiatives in community outreach. This collaboration is built around a series of lectures and public events, all of which are aimed at improving the public's understanding of the region and allowing the space for questions and discussion.
"Evanston residents are interested in the world, and in exploring and interpreting that world through a wide lens. The expertise and quality of Northwestern's MENA faculty and visiting faculty allows us to provide access to renowned academics exploring this region from a great variety of perspectives," said Karen Danczak Lyons, Director of Evanston Public Library.
"Northwestern's MENA program is dedicated to expanding knowledge about and facilitating discussion of a complex and frequently misunderstood region of the world. We are delighted to collaborate with the Evanston Public Library in our shared commitment to public engagement and outreach," said Brian Edwards, Director of Northwestern's Program in Middle East and North African Studies.
2019-2020 Series
Monday September 30
Documenting Syria: Film-Making, Video Activism & Revolution
Joshka Wessels, Malmö University, Sweden
Monday October 21
The Criminalization of Kindness: The Politics of Migrant Rescue across the Sahara and the Mediterranean
Galya Ben-Arieh, Northwestern University
Monday November 4
The Rise of Populist Majoritarianism in Turkey and Greece
Ioannis Grigoriadis, Bilkent University, Turkey
Monday November 25
Water, Gender and Politics in Morocco
Anthropologist & Human Rights Activist Jamila Bargach
2018-2019 Series
2017-2018 Series
Monday April 23: When Law is Not Enough: Controversies over Muslim Rights in the US — A Talk by Tunisian political scientist Nadia Marzouki
(co-sponsored by One Book One Northwestern, the Global Politics and Religion Research Group, and the Department of Political Science)
Monday May 7: Religious Freedom in Arab States: Who Is Free and What Are They Free to Do? A Talk by Nathan Brown
(co-sponsored by One Book One Northwestern. the Global Politics and Religion Research Group, and the Department of Political Science)
Monday June 4: Why is Sectarian Conflict on the Rise in the Middle East? A Talk by Danny Postel, Assistant Director, MENA Program, Northwestern University
Past Events
2018
Monday February 26: Turkish-American writer Elif Batuman reads from and discusses her novel The Idiot (co-sponsored by the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program) (details)
Monday January 8: The Middle East and North Africa: 2017 in Review—and What to Look for in 2018 — A Talk by Marc Lynch (details)
2017
December 11: The Risk of War with Iran: Will Trump Kill Obama’s Iran Deal? A Talk by Trita Parsi (details)
November 13: Israel’s Occupation @ 50: What are the Prospects for a Future Solution? A Talk by Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon (details)
October 2: Book Presentation by MENA faculty member Wendy Pearlman — We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria (details)
June 5: Understanding Iran’s Presidential Election
Saeid Golkar, Northwestern University
May 22: The Afterlives of Torture: Executive Power versus International Law in the Age of Trump
Lisa Hajjar, University of California – Santa Barbara
April 3: "Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt"
Joel Beinin, Stanford University
February 13: "Islamophobia and Islamophilia in Europe: How White Converts to Islam Shape Debates about Race, Immigration, and Religion"
Esra Özyürek, European Institute, London School of Economics & Political Science
January 30: “Prospects for US Middle East Policy in the Next Four Years”
Bassam Haddad, George Mason University
2016
November 21: “Is the Quran a ‘Good Book’?”
Zareena Grewal, Yale University
October 24: “What is Happening in Turkey? A Discussion with Journalist Amberin Zaman”
Amberin Zaman, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
September 26: "Understanding the Real Threat of ISIS"
Rami Khouri, American University of Beirut (AUB)
June 6: "Return to Casablanca: Jews, Muslims, and an Israeli Anthropologist"
Andre Levy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
May 2: "Social Media and the Arab World: Lessons Learned"
Driss Ksikes, CESEM/HEM and Editor of Economia, Rabat, Morocco
April 11: "Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War"
Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami
March 21: "Islamophobia 101"
Tahera Ahmad, Northwestern University
February 1: "Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion"
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University
2015
November 30: "After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East"
Brian Edwards, Northwestern University
October 26: "The Basij Militia and Social Control in Iran"
Saeid Golkar, Northwestern University
September 28: "Transcending Nationalism in the Armenian Genocide Debate"
Meline Toumani, Journalist and Author; Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University; Ipek Yosmaoğlu, Northwestern University
May 11: “The History of Iranian Photography”
Ali Behdad, University of California, Los Angeles
April 13: “Four Myths about the Middle East”
Brian Edwards, Henri Lauzière, Wendy Pearlman, Jessica Winegar, Northwestern MENA Faculty
March 2: “The Rise of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony: 1860-2014”
Ussama Makdisi, Rice University
January 26: “Diplomacy on the Front Lines in the Middle East”
Nabeel Khoury, Northwestern University