[ecrea] cfp - special issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism in the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Special issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism

Deadline for abstracts: 17 June 2017

The question of Arab cosmopolitanism has been a complex and highly 
shifting one in light of a region that has experienced vast and ongoing 
socio-cultural transformation over the last century. The decline of the 
Ottoman Empire, the fall of Western colonial imperialism, the onset of 
the Palestinian crisis and the ongoing war with Israel, the emergence 
and widespread popularity of Arab nationalism and Islamic 
fundamentalism, and the recent rise of different Arab populations 
against their authoritarian regimes – all have raised vital questions 
about this region’s relationship to the world.


Problematically, many cosmopolitan analyses of the Arab region have been 
driven by a tendency to examine this part of the world through an 
orientalist lens, thus departing from an assumption of /colonial/ 
dependency (Zubaida, 1999; Meijer 1999), or more recently, a state of 
/economic/ dependency on the west as befitting a globalised era of 
western cultural dominance (Gahannam, 2006; Schielke, 2012).

In spite of these shortcomings, the most recent turn towards Arab 
cosmopolitanism has remained vital in paving the way for a more 
thoroughly situated and contextualised understanding of the specific 
mechanisms of Arab everyday life from below, revealing a nuanced reality 
of power, repression, inequality, but also one of intense cosmopolitan 
interaction – on both internal and external levels (Bayat, 2010). The 
2010-2011 Arab Spring, signalling a new socio-economic and political 
chapter in contemporary Arab history, has further opened a new 
conversation whether new possibilities are now available for Arab 
cosmopolitanism (Leichtman and Schulz, 2012; Webb, 2014).


This Special Issue seeks to take a step back from current events and to 
develop:

1) a /synchronic/ understanding of how we can formulate new theoretical 
perspectives and concepts that will allow us to make sense of the 
present moment in light of the recent episode of Arab socio-cultural and 
political change, and

2) a more historically contextualised /diachronic/ understanding of how 
Arab cosmopolitanism has evolved to its current state.


More specifically, we ask: to what extent have the Arab uprisings acted 
as a catalyst resurrecting new forms of Arab cosmopolitanism and a sense 
of belonging to the wider world? What are the continuities and 
differences compared to older forms of cosmopolitanism? In what ways 
have recent patterns of exile, migration and militant occupation 
encouraged Arab citizens, governments and organisations to rethink ideas 
of inside and outside, and to reformulate their relationship to the 
nation, God and the world in new ways? What specific mechanisms of 
communication underpin such divergent processes?

We welcome theoretical, historical and empirical contributions around, 
but not limited to, the following suggested topics:

-The historical development of cosmopolitanism in the Arab region

-Migration/diaspora

-Cosmopolitanism and everyday life in post-uprising Arab countries

-Media and cosmopolitanism

-Activism and a cosmopolitan agenda

-Sate-driven cosmopolitanisms

-Religion and cosmopolitanism

*
*

*Deadline for submission of abstracts: Saturday 17 June 2017*

Please email your abstracts (300 words max) and a short biography to Dr 
Heba Elsayed and Professor Adam Webb:


Email addresses:

(elsayed.h85 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(elsayed.h85 /at/ gmail.com)>

(awebb13 /at/ jhu.edu) <mailto:(awebb13 /at/ jhu.edu)>

*Deadline for submission of complete manuscripts is Monday 15 January 2018*

*Please note that submitted manuscripts are not guaranteed automatic 
acceptance for publication, as the journal follows a strict 
blind-refereeing process.


On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 11:23 PM, nico carpentier 
<(nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be) <mailto:(nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)>> wrote:

    Dear Heba,

    I'm sure you read in the guidelines at commlist.org
    <http://commlist.org> that we can't post attachments.

    regards,
    n




    On 09/05/2017 20:50, Heba Elsayed wrote:

        Dear Dr. Carpentier,

        My colleague and I, Professor Adam Webb, have put together a 
special
        issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism in the Middle East Journal of
        Culture and
        Communication. I would be very grateful if you could circulate
        the call
        on the COMMLIST.

        The cfp is attached and the info. to be included in the body of the
        email is below.

        Many thanks in advance.

        Heba

        ......................

        Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

        Special issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism

        Deadline for abstracts: 17 June 2017


        Dear all,

        This email is regarding a forthcoming special issue of Middle East
        Journal of Culture and Communication, coedited by myself and
        Professor
        Adam Webb.  The title is "Cosmopolitanism in the Arab World:
        Developments, Continuities and Changes."  As you can see in the
        attached
        call for papers, the themes cluster around the question of how
        the ideas
        and practices of cosmopolitanism in the Arab world are being
        reshaped in
        the recent context of the Arab Spring.  We are aiming for a diverse
        range of contributors from different disciplines, but with the
        ability
        to add some theoretical insight to the discussion.
               We are issuing a general call for papers, with the due
        date for
        abstracts on 17 June 2017 and the due date for complete
        manuscripts 15
        January 2018. The edition is expected to be published early
        2019. This
        is an open process and all contributions will go through a blind
        peer
        review process. More details are included in the attached call for
        proposals.


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