THE ARAB SPRING POLSCI 222/AMES 229 Spring 2014

Home , February 25th Movement, Jadaliyya, Tunisian Revolution

Professors Abdeslam Maghraoui and Ellen McLarney Teaching Assistants: Yakein Abdelmagid & Jared Daugherty Time: T-TH 10:05 – 11:20 Room: Social Psychology 130

Tapestry of “Arab Spring” at Institut du Monde Arabe (Fall 2012)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the series of popular uprisings that shook the Arab World during the last three years. Known as the Arab Spring, the uprisings foretell of profound structural and ideological transformations that could last several decades. Yet, much about dynamics and outcomes of the uprisings is still unknown. What is exactly the nature of these popular uprisings? What are their causes? Who is driving the change and what types of governments might emerge in the near future? How would these transformations affect regional power politics and the Arab states’ relations with the rest of the world?

Through lectures, readings, documentaries, engaged discussions, and students’ collaborative projects, we will gain an insider view on events as they unfold. The first part of the course will focus on the political dimension of the Arab Spring. We will begin by examining the uprisings through the lenses of theories of revolution and democratic transition. Then, we will focus on unfolding dynamics in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia to discern similarities and differences. We then turn to the main actors and their shifting political influence. The second part of the course will cover new modes of social and cultural activism, which have profound political ramifications. We will examine how youths, women, artists, cyber activists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers confront and challenge authoritarian regimes and their socioeconomic legacies.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course has three objectives: (1) Introduce students to the political, social, and cultural dynamics that led to the popular uprisings. (2) Develop the analytical skills to examine the uprisings in light of theories of revolutions and democratic transitions. (3) Gain solid, empirical knowledge to identify similarities and differences among countries that seem homogenous.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

1. Attendance and Participation. Students are expected to attend all lectures, complete the assigned readings on time, and refrain from using the Internet. Three non-justified absences will result in the loss of a half letter grade in the final grade (for example, if your overall course grade is an A-, it will become a B+).

2. Take-Home Exam: 30% of the final grade. Students will have 8 hours to write a five-page essay addressing ONE out of TWO distributed questions. The questions will be sent via Sakai and will draw on course materials covered between January 10 and February 14, 2013. Students are allowed to consult their readings and notes for this exam. The mid-term exam date is Saturday, February 15, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Midterm exams should be sent as an attached pdf document to: Jared Daugherty: [email protected]. The midterm exam document should be named as follows: FirstName.LastName.QuestionNumber.AS14. Please note that if we can’t open an attached document, then we have not received the exam.

3. Collaborative Project: 25% of the final grade. By the third week of the class, each student will have signed up for one of 8 group projects of their choice. Each group will make an in-class group presentation on EITHER drawing a political roadmap OR drafting a new constitution for one of 4 countries transformed by the Arab Spring. A sign-up sheet is posted on Sakai. You can select the topic of your choice on a FCFS basis. NO MORE THAN 7 STUDENTS CAN JOIN A GIVEN GROUP (if class enrollment changes, we will adjust accordingly). More detailed instructions and guidelines on the group project will follow. The topics and dates of the presentations are:

Group 1. Tunisia: Political Roadmap (February 18). Group 2. Tunisia: A New Constitution (February 18). Group 3. Egypt: Political Roadmap (February 18). Group 4. Egypt: A New Constitution (February 20). Group 5. Libya: Political Roadmap (February 20). Group 6. Libya: A New Constitution (February 20). Group 7. Syria: Political Roadmap (February 25). Group 8. Syria: A New Constitution (February 25).

4. Final Take-Home Exam: 45% of the final grade. Students will have 24 hours to write 2 five- page essays addressing 2 out of 4 questions. The questions will draw on materials covered in the second half of the course. Students can consult their readings and notes for this exam. Questions will be sent via Sakai on Thursday, April 24 at 10 a.m. Essays should be returned by Friday, April 25 at 10 a.m. Final exams should be sent as an attached pdf document to: Yakein Abdelmagid: [email protected]. The final exam document should be named as follows: FirstName.LastName.QuestionNumbers. Please note that if we can’t open an attached document, then we have not received the exam.

5. Grading Scale and Formula.

A: 94 – 100 A-: 90 - 93 B+: 87 – 89 B: 83 – 86 B-: 80 – 82 C+: 77 – 79 C: 73 – 76 C-: 70 – 72 D+: 67 – 69 D: 60 – 62

1. Midterm Exam: ME=100. 2. Group Project: GP=100. 3. Final Exam: FE=100. Final Grade = (.30)xME + (.25)xGP + (.45)xFE

ACADEMIC CONDUCT

Duke University policy on academic integrity will be enforced in this course. On academic conduct matters please consult: http://www.integrity.duke.edu/ugrad/.

The take-home exams should conform to the following: A. The essays must be typed, double-spaced with one-inch margins and 12 pt font, and printable on a 8.5”x11” page. B. To be fair to students who turn in their exams within the allocated time, unexcused late exams will be downgraded by half a letter grade. Extensions will be granted on the basis of valid documentation from the university health clinic, the university counseling service, or your academic dean.

INSTRUCTORS’ CONTACTS & OFFICE HOURS

Abdeslam Maghraoui: [email protected] (Thursday 1:00 – 3:00). Ellen McLarney: [email protected] (by appointment) Yakein Abdelmagid: [email protected] (by appointment) Jared Daugherty: [email protected] (no office hours)

COURSE MATERIALS

1. Books available for purchase at the Duke University Bookstore

Khalil ASHRAF, Liberation Square: Inside the Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation (New York: Saint Martin, 2012).

Jean Pierre FILIEU, The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

Wael GHONIM, Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater Than the People in Power (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2012).

Philip N. HOWARD and Muzammil M. HUSSAIN, Democracy’s Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring (New York: Oxford, 2013).

David LESH, Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).

2. Papers published in journals and individual book chapters can be accessed through Sakai. Click on this course “Resources” and a list of pdf documents should appear.

Students are encouraged to check the following newspapers or magazines on a regular basis to keep up with unfolding events: The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com), The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk), and Foreign Policy (www.foreignpolicy.com).

From the Middle East, several newspapers are published in English including al- Ahram Weekly (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/). There are three prominent Arabic newspapers you should check if you read Arabic: al-Hayat (www.alhayat.com); al-Quds al-Arabi (www.alquds.co.uk); and al-Sharq al-Awsat (www.asharqalawsat.com). Finally, al-Jazeera in English provides around-the-clock news from the region (http://english.aljazeera.net/).

SCHEDULE OF THE CLASSES AND READINGS

PART I: THE POLITICS OF THE ARAB SPRING Professor Abdeslam Maghraoui

January 09: COURSE INTRODUCTION What is the Arab Spring? Jean Pierre FILIEU, The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising. Entire book.

Beginning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/world-middle-east-16212447 Timeline: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144489844/timeline-the-major-events-of-the-arab-spring 2 Years: http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,2540524380001_2147348,00.html

January 14: Revolutions or Democratic Transitions? Jack A. Goldstone: “Toward a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory.” Lisa Anderson: “Introduction.” Dankwart Rostow: “Transition to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model.”

January 16: THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE ARAB SPRING (1) The Regimes’ Social and Political Deficits Arab Human Reports (TBD) Eva Bellin: “The Robustness of Arab Authoritarianism.”

January 21: THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE ARAB SPRING (2) Major Social Divisions (a) On Islam. FRIDE Policy Brief: “Religion and Politics in Arab Transitions.” (b) On Minorities. Michael Hudson: “Cultural Pluralism in the Arab World.” (c) On Women. Beverly Milton-Edwards: “Women: The Invisible Population.”

4 January 23: THE FRONTLINE COUNTRIES (Egypt) Special session: anniversary of the Egyptian uprisings: 240 John Hope Franklin Center News from the ground: Skype with Cairo’s Wall Street Journal correspondent Matt Bradley.

Khalil ASHRAF, Liberation Square: Inside the Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation.

January 28: THE FRONTLINE COUNTRIES (Syria) Syria: From Revolution to Civil War http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/syria-undercover/#a (“the regime” part).

David LESH, Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).

January 30: THE EPICENTER (Tunisia and Libya) “Popular Protests in North Africa & Middle East: Tunisia’s Way” (Tunisia.1.pdf). “Tunisia: Violence and the Salafi Challenge.” (Tunisia.2.pdf).

“Popular Protests in North Africa & Middle East: Making Sense of Libya” (Libya.1.pdf). “Trial by Error: Justice in Post-Qadhafi Libya.” (Libya.2.pdf).

February 4: THE MAIN ACTORS (1) Youths/Civil Society/Non-religious Opposition Ramah Halaseh: “Civil Society, Youth and the Arab Spring.” Sean Yom: “Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World.” Marnia Ottoway & Amr Hamzawy: “Fighting on Two fronts: Secular Parties in the Arab World.”

February 6: THE MAIN ACTORS (2) Women & The Islamists Review ASHRAF, FILIEU, LESH

February 11: THE MAIN ACTORS (3) The Military Steven Cook: Ruling but not Governing, chapters 2 and 3.

February 13: Midterm Review Session

MIDTERM TAKE-HOME EXAM. The questions will be sent via Sakai on Saturday, February 15 at 9 a.m. The 5 page essay should be returned as a pdf document the same day (February 15) at 5 p.m. at [email protected]. Please note that if we can’t open an attached document, then we have not received the exam.

February 18: Group Presentations (1, 2 & 3) 240 John Hope Franklin Center

February 20: Group Presentations (4, 5 & 6) 240 John Hope Franklin Center

February 25: Group Presentations (7 & 8) 240 John Hope Franklin Center (TBC)

5 PART II: THE CULTURE OF THE ARAB SPRING Professor Ellen McLarney

Thursday, February 27: TUNISIA: THE SPARK Unemployment and Youth Movements Alcinda Honwana, “Youth and the Tunisian Revolution,” SSRC Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (2011)

Lauren Bohn, “Tunisia’s Forgotten Revolutionaries,” Foreign Policy (July 14, 2011) http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/13/tunisia_s_forgotten_revolutionaries?page=0 %2C4

Amira Aleya-Sghaier, “The Tunisian Revolution: The Revolution of Dignity” Revolution, Revolt, and Reform in North Africa: The Arab Spring and Beyond, pp. 30-52

Tuesday, March 4 The Political Economy of Authoritarianism Roger Owen, The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life “Centralized State Systems: Tunisia,” pp. 72-9

Béatrice Hibou, The Force of Obedience: The Political Economy of Repression in Tunisia, Preface, pp. xiii-xxii Introduction, pp. 1-21 Conclusion, pp. 267-91

Thursday, March 6: The Political Economy of Revolt WATCH IN CLASS: Cursed be the Phosphate by Sami Tlili http://vimeo.com/51321241 http://variety.com/2012/film/reviews/cursed-be-the-phosphate-1117948689/

March 7th to 16th SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, March 18: THE ROOTS OF THE EGYPTIAN UPRISINGS Workers and Youth Movements Joel Beinin, “The Militancy of Mahalla al-Kubra,” MERIP, http://www.merip.org/mero/mero092907

Joel Beinin, “The Working Class and the Popular Movement in Egypt,” The Journey to Tahrir, pp. 92-106

April 6th Youth Movement, Frontline PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/revolution-in-cairo/inside-april6-movement/ WATCH: “Egypt’s Facebook Faceoff”

EXPLORE the April 6th movement’s blog: http://6aprilmove.blogspot.com/

6 Thursday, March 20 The Political Economy of Uprisings Roger Owen, The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life “Centralized State Systems: Egypt,” pp. 63-72

Karen Pfeifer, “Economic Reform and Privatization in Egypt,” The Journey to Tahrir, pp. 203-223

Zaynab Abul-Magd, “The Army and the Economy in Egypt, Jadaliyya, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3732/the-army-and-the-economy-in-egypt

Gaye B. Muderrisoglu and Jonathan Hanson, “Authoritarian States and IMF Conditionality” Paper prepared for the International Security Association Conference (2009)

SUGGESTED Walter Ambrust, “The Revolution Against Neoliberalism,” The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings

Timothy Mitchell, “Dreamland: The Neoliberalism of Your Desires,” The Journey to Tahrir, pp. 224-53

Thierry Lalevée, “Egypt and the IMF: Is A Break Coming?” EIR (October 4, 1985)

Saturday, March 22nd and Sunday, March 23rd VISITING GRAFFITI ARTIST: AMMAR ABOU BAKR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0VgV_y_Lg https://www.facebook.com/Ammar.Abo.Bakr http://suzeeinthecity.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/belal-ali-saber-graffiti-by-ammar-abo- bakr-and-el-zeft/

Tuesday, March 25th Cyberactivism & Revolution Wael Ghonim, Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater than the People in Power: A Memoir

Thursday, March 27 Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain Democracy’s Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring

WATCH IN CLASS: The Battle for the Arab Viewer by Nordin Lasfar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVK-CfS4ZDs http://icarusfilms.com/new2012/aview.html Bobby Gulshan, “The Tale of Two Networks,” Al Jadid Magazine, http://www.aljadid.com/content/battle-arab-viewer

Friday, March 28th and Saturday, March 29th CONFERENCE: THE ART OF REVOLUTION

7 Tuesday, April 1: THE CULTURE OF REVOLUTION Poetry & Revolution Mohamed Salah-Omri, “A Revolution of Dignity and Poetry,” http://boundary2.dukejournals.org/content/39/1/137.full.pdf+html

Ahmed Fouad Negm, “Writing a Revolution,” al-Jazeera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcqKMtyUooc

WATCH IN CLASS: POETIC PORTRAITS OF THE REVOLUTION http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOWpIjeX-HQ

SUGGESTED Anna M. Agathangelou, “Making Anew an Arab Regional Order? On Poetry, Sex, and Revolution” In Arab Revolutions and World Transformations, pp. 31-44

Elliott Colla, “The Poetry of Revolt,” Jadaliyya (January 31, 2011) http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/506/the-poetry-of-revolt

Wednesday, April 2nd 7 p.m. Richard White Auditorium SCREENING: Microphone http://www.microphone-film.com/

Thursday, April 3 Music & Revolution VISITING SPEAKER: Yakein Abdelmagid, Doctoral Candidate, Cultural Anthropology

Mark Levine, “The New Hybridities of Arab Musical Intifadas,” Jadaliyya http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3008/the-new-hybridities-of-arab-musical-intifadas

Ted Swedenburg, “Egypt’s Music of Protest: From Sayyid Darwish to DJ Haha,” MERIP http://www.merip.org/mer/mer265/egypts-music-protest

SUGGESTED Lauren Bohn, “Rapping the Revolution,” Foreign Policy http://mideastafrica.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/22/rapping_the_revolution#sthash.WgkrAu b5.dpbs

Zakia Salime, “Rapping the Revolution,” in Muftah: Free and Open Date from Morocco to Pakistan http://muftah.org/rapping-the-revolution/

8 Tuesday, April 8 Art & Revolution VISITING SPEAKER: Yakein Abdelmagid, Doctoral Candidate, Cultural Anthropology

Nancy Demerdash “Consuming Revolution: Ethics, Art and Ambivalence in the Arab Spring” http://www.brismes.ac.uk/nmes/archives/970

Yakein Abdemagid, “The Emergence of the Mona Lisa: Graffiti Art Networks in Post-Revolutionary Egypt”

Ebony Coletu, “Visualizing Revolution: The Politics of Pain in Tahrir,” Jadaliyya (April 18, 2012) http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5136/visualizing-revolution_the-politics-of-paint-in-ta

Curator sees the power of Egypt activist art, BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/9452074.stm

Mélissa Leclézio, “Fighting for Democracy: Street Art in Tunisia” http://theculturetrip.com/africa/tunisia/articles/fighting-for-democracy-street-art-in-tunisia/

SUGGESTED Soumeia Abushagur, The Art of Uprising: The Libyan Revolution in Graffiti (2011)

Mia Gröndahl, Revolution Graffiti: Street Art of the New Egypt (2012)

Don Stone Karl and Besma Hamdy, Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution (March 2014)

El Seed, Lost Walls: Graffiti Road Trip in Tunisia (April 2014)

Thursday, April 10: THE GENDERED POLITICS OF THE REVOLUTIONS Women & Gender Paul Amar, “Turning the Gendered Politics of the Security State Inside Out?” International Feminist Journal of Politics, pp. 299-328

Lede Blog, Egyptian Women’s March in Egypt http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/video-of-egyptian-womens-march-in-cairo/

Zakaria Ramhani, You Were My Only Love, oil on canvas (2012)

9 Tuesday, April 15 “Islamic Democracy” Heba Raouf Ezzat and Ahmed Mohamed Abdallah, “Towards an Islamically Democratic Secularism,” in Faith and Secularism (London: British Council, 2004)

Egyptian Constitution (December 2012) http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-s-draft-constitution-translated

Joseph Nye, “Soft Power,” Foreign Policy

SUGGESTED “The General Features of the Nahda Project,” http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=29932 (the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s political platform after the revolution)

Asef Bayat, Making Islam Democratic Ch 2: “Revolution without Movement, Movement without Revolution,” pp. 16-48

Thursday, April 17 Gender & “Islamic Democracy” Ellen McLarney, “Women’s Rights and Equality in the Egyptian Constitution,” Jadaliyya (2013) http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/11852/womens-rights-in-the-egyptian- constitution_%28neo%29li

READ at least one report in the US media on women’s rights in 2012 Egyptian constitution: “Egypt Constitution Bad News for Women” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/11/egypt-constitution-women- rights/1784135/ “Women’s Equality Absent from Egyptian Constitution” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57556568/womens-equality-absent-from-egyptian- constitution/ “Women’s Rights at Odds in Egypt’s Constitution Wars” http://world.time.com/2012/12/09/womens-rights-at-odds-in-egypts-constitution-wars/ “Egyptian Women Worry Constitution Limits Rights” http://www.npr.org/2012/10/12/162767819/egyptian-woman-worry-constitution-will-limit-rights

Tuesday, April 22nd REVIEW FOR FINAL

FINAL TAKE-HOME EXAM. Students will have 24 hours to write 2 five-page essays addressing TWO out of FOUR questions. The questions will draw on materials covered in the second half of the course. Students are allowed to consult their readings and notes for this exam. Questions will be send via Sakai on Thursday, April 24 at 10 a.m. and should be returned as a pdf document to Yakein Abdelmagid [email protected] by Friday, April 25 at 10 a.m. Note that if we can’t open an attached document, then we have not received the exam.