This is part of the MENA Politics Newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 2, Fall 2020.
A Note from the Section Chair
As Editor and Chair of the Section, I am delighted to present the Fall 2020 issue of the APSA MENA Politics Newsletter. We lead with a report by Nermin Allam, Gail Buttorff and Marwa Shalaby about the results of a survey of MENA scholars on the impact of COVID-19 on their research and careers. The results are sobering, and pose a profound challenge across generations – particularly for women, who have been disproportionately affected. The impact of COVID-19 is also unevenly distributed across methodologies, and has struck MENA research more than it has other regions of the world, which could produce long-term inequities and imbalances in MENA political science. The leadership of the MENA Politics Section is deeply committed to working with our colleagues and partner institutions to try to mitigate these difficult problems.
The rest of the Fall 2020 issue is dedicated to a symposium on women and gender in the politics of MENA. The symposium, based on papers presented to a virtual workshop organized by Gamze Cavdar, ranges widely across methodologies, countries and issues to paint a fascinating picture of the complex evolution of the role and status of women in MENA. There are few more important issues for the Newsletter to take up, and I’m deeply grateful to Gamze Cavdar and her colleagues for producing this exemplary work of engaged scholarship.
The Newsletter itself is delighted to welcome five new members to its editorial board: Gamze Cavdar (Colorado State University), Justin Gengler (Qatar University), Diana Greenwald (City College of New York), Noora Lori (Boston University), and Daniel Tavana (post-doctoral fellow at Yale University). They bring a diverse set of skills and substantive interests to the editorial board. As they join us, we bid farewell to four of the founding members of the Board: Holger Albrecht (University of Alabama), Jillian Schwedler (Hunter College), Nadav Shelef (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Stacey Philbrick Yadav (Hobart and William Smith College).
Beyond the Newsletter, the MENA Politics Section had a busy and productive year. Working with the Project on Middle East Political Science, the Section sponsored a Virtual Research Workshop for junior scholars in response to the COVID-19 shutdown of most in-person workshop opportunities. The Section held seven workshop sessions over the summer with 25 junior scholars, and has five more scheduled for the fall to workshop another 16 papers. The Section and POMEPS also ran its second annual Research Development Group for junior scholars from the MENA region in conjunction with the APSA’s Annual Meeting. Jillian Schwedler, Bassel Salloukh and Lindsay Benstead organized a terrific slate of seven panels for the 2020 Annual Meeting. We also awarded three Section Awards: Best Book, Best Dissertation, and Best Paper Presented to the APSA (see below for a list of the winners).
Finally, two new members were elected to the leadership of the Section: Matt Buehler (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) replaces Lindsay Benstead (Portland State University) as Vice Chair, and Marwa Shalaby (University of Wisconsin) replaces Bassel Salloukh (Lebanese American University) as At-Large Member. Thanks to Lindsay and Bassel for their service, and a hearty welcome to Matt and Marwa!
We are always looking for ways to better serve the needs of our Section members, so please feel free to get in touch with me or any of the Section’s leaders with any suggestions for programming or other ways we might be able to help. And if you have ideas for the Newsletter – or have an interest in being a candidate to be the next editor of the Newsletter – please to get in touch!
Marc Lynch, Chair of the MENA Politics Section and Newsletter Editor
Washington, D.C. – October 14, 2020
Prerna BalaEddy, Newsletter Assistant Editor