Representing the Arab Spring, March 22
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is partnering with the UNC Department of History; the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense; the Triangle Institute for Security Studies; the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies; and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations to present “Representing the ‘Arab Spring’” on March 22 a 5 p.m. in the Carroll Hall auditorium.
This program seeks to complicate the developing narratives about the causes, methods and consequences of the Arab Liberation Movement that have been sweeping the Middle East and North Africa since late fall 2010. Although pundits commonly refer to these social movements as Twitter or Facebook revolutions, scholars, participants and local journalists have been working to embed the uprisings in a broader context that accounts for the sweeping social, economic and political changes that have rocked the region since the end of the Cold War.
The program will convene two speakers who have written extensively about recent events in the region.
Amjad Atallah, Al-Jazeera bureau chief for the Americas, has followed recent events closely, helping to shape the ways in which they have been narrated for broad global audiences. UCLA history professor James Gelvin has recently completed a book on the Arab uprisings, intended for public audiences as well as classroom use.