Since the second half of the 20th century, the Arab region has witnessed pivotal and transformative political events that have shaped its modern history. Arab(ic) autobiographical literature has flourished in these contexts. A plethora of these texts have been written by women. This Essay aims to present a brief history of Arab women writing about their experiences of war and political upheavals in autobiographical texts.

Interlinking the historic ties between Africa and Palestine from the 1950s to the present day, Senior Fellow Dahlia El Zein provides a chronological overview of African solidarity towards the Palestinian question, and how it has evolved over the decades. From Libya to Nairobi, Africans have demonstrated that their historic solidarity with Palestine should not be forgotten.

Historically, the heterogeneous nature of the Middle East represented an opportunity for foreign and colonial actors to justify their political and military interventions in the region, manipulating sectarian identities for realpolitik gains. This Essay aims to examine anti-sectarian discourse in Ottoman Syria, which included modern day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, during the late 19th century. It will do so through a careful mapping of Butrus al-Bustani’s works.

“Dramas of transition” were modern experiments that showcased how Gulf intellectuals and artists at the time dealt and engaged with the early emergence of modernity in their countries. The works are best understood as tragi-comic tales of mock heroic characters, and since the actors and screenwriters were either born or came of age in the era depicted in the dramas, the acting becomes in and of itself an act of remembering.

While some common understandings suggest that Arab intra-regional transport
prospered before falling into obsolescence, it is more accurate to say that its state
fluctuates in line with changing circumstances in an ever-dynamic regional landscape. This Essay examines these interconnected and overlapping processes to study cross-border transport modes in a more critical light. In doing so, it attempts to show that Arab mobility is intimately and intricately enmeshed within broader political and historical dynamics.

Any attempt to sketch an overview of feminist thought in Syrian art today is indebted to Leila Nseir’s thinking and her revolutionary strength. Nseir devoted her life to art, sacrificing her health in the process. Yet, she was never given the credit she deserved within Syria as one of the founding figures of contemporary Syrian art and her work was never properly documented.

The École de Tunis is a movement that dominated art production in Tunisia between 1956 and the late 1980s and has been recognized as the ‘Golden Age’ of Tunisian art. This Essay explores the institutional context that paved the way for the École’s rise, situating it in a broader post-colonial economic development agenda & changing government priorities.

Regional literature traces the seeds of Arab nationalism to the intellectual scene of the 19th century, when thinkers sought to infuse Arabist sentiment throughout society. This essay contextualizes Arab nationalism as a historically situated phenomenon, chronologically retracing the paradigms introduced by the Arab World’s earliest nationalist philosophers.