Europe and the Arab Spring

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Europe and the Arab Spring: A Mediterranean Dialogue

The University of Pittsburgh
European Union Center of Excellence
European Studies Center

April 20, 2012

    Conference Schedule

The events collectively described as the “Arab Spring” are marked, at the local level, by the invention of novel modes of social and political action. On a transnational scale, these events are reshaping global alliances and raising pressing questions about the relationships between international political institutions and social movements driving change in North Africa and the Middle East. In the context of this rapidly evolving political landscape, this conference considers the implications of the Arab Spring for European politics and cultures. As a way of promoting a broad and interdisciplinary dialogue, the conference sets the Mediterranean, conceived of as an “in-between” space of multiple cultural flows, as its conceptual center.

Questions that speakers are invited to address include, but are not limited to: What are the points of interface between social movements in the international frame? How might current events and the cultural forms that narrate them lead us to re-think colonial and post-colonial histories? How do the political movements in Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria (among others) reflect upon the philosophies of political change? What role (if any) should international political organizations play vis-à-vis local movements that call for change, and how have these political institutions themselves been transformed over the last year?

Supported by the European Union Center for Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh, the conference is scheduled for April 20, 2012 and is free and open to the public.