Trapped amid tradition and post-modernity, contemporary Arab identity has been misinterpreted and misrepresented. The political landscape of all societies has undergone profound change in recent decades, and the Middle East and North Africa region has not been spared from the world’s transformations either. Despite the promise of events in 2011, the momentum for progress in governance and freedom has broken down violently, and political stagnation has been revived. The elusive nature of globalization, coupled with the unstructured environment of political life, has arguably given way to “liquid times” (Zygmunt Bauman), exacerbated by an emerging “age of anger” (Pankaj Mishra). As a result, many are crying out for a rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frameworks used to narrate the individual human experience and humankind’s joint history.
 
How can Arab societies re-imagine themselves and take ownership of their histories? Novelist Fadia Faqir explored the limits of patriarchy and the voices of women writers, while Amro Ali has been reflecting on karama (dignity) and the social contract in his latest essay. Casa Árabe, with the cooperation of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), is organizing this round table discussion, which at the same time will serve as the official opening session of this new edition of Aula Árabe Universitaria (third edition) and the Master’s degree program in Arab and Islamic Studies at the UAM. Taking part will be Nieves Paradela, a professor of Arab Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Thomas Volk, director of the regional program “Dialogue with the Southern Mediterranean” of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator.  
 
Fadia Faqir authored Nisanit, Pillar of Salt, My Name is Salma / The Cry of the Dove and Willow Trees Don’t Weep. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages and published in 19 countries. The foreword to her fourth novel, At the Midnight Kitchen, was published in Weber Studies, and won its fiction award in 2009. Her short story “Under the Cypress Tree” was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2010. She was the director of the Master’s degree program in Gender Studies - Arab World at Durham University’s Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies until 2004. Her academic writings focus on gender, democracy and Islam, as well as violence against women. She is a writing fellow at Durham University’s St Aidan’s College, where she teaches creative writing. She is also one of the founders of The Banipal Visiting Writer Fellowship, initiator of the Alta’ir Exchange between Durham and Jordan, and a trustee of the Durham Palestine Educational Trust.

Amro Ali is a researcher with the Forum transregionale Studien (EUME) and the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies at the Free University of Berlin, as well as a member of the Young Arab-German Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Prior to that, he was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the American University in Cairo (AUC), an Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network, and a Visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (Berlin Center for Social Sciences, WZB). He holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, an MA in Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies and an MA in Diplomacy from the Australian National University. His fields of research include Arab public spheres, Mediterranean Studies, contemporary Alexandria, intellectual history, cities, citizenship, exile, technological modernity, sociological philosophy and political philosophy, with a focus on Hannah Arendt, Václav Havel and Byung-Chul Han.

The Mediterranean region, connecting South Europe, North Africa and Western Asia, is a complex crisis landscape and hotspot of geopolitical conflicts which can spillover into neighbouring regions. Increasingly, the region is exposed to climate change which is a multiplier of risks, interwoven with the region’s geopolitical dimensions, including natural disasters, water and food shortages, energy transformation, human migration, conflict and cooperation. Climate risks are expected to diminish human livelihood security for a growing population and interact with other pre-existing challenges to regional stability. Cooperation across the Mediterranean is difficult, given the wide disparities and divisions of the area. There is growing concern and awareness of climate-related common security challenges, to be addressed in climate diplomacy initiatives and activities, for instance water and energy partnerships, networks for information exchange and regional governance.

In 1143, Robert de Ketton was given a request by Abbot Peter de Cluny to complete the first translation of the Qur’an into the Latin. This translation, which exists in the form of 24 manuscripts, was one of the main ways in which European readers gained access to the Muslim holy book. Many of those who read it, including Pedro de Cluny himself, did so in order to refute it, because in their mind it was the foundational text for a heretical creed. However, many read the Qur’an for other reasons, which were not always hostile.

In 1543, four centuries after Robert completed his translation, Theodor Bibliander published it in Basel, along with a collection of other texts about Islam and a preface by Martin Luther. For the Protestant writers Bibliander and Luther, the Qur’an may have been a useful tool in the fight against the Catholic Church, a way to demonstrate that, as Luther claimed, “the Pope’s devil is bigger than the Turks’.” Catholic writers quickly developed counterarguments, combing through the Qur’an to find similarities between its “heresies” and those unfurled by Luther or Calvin. The Latin Qur’an, as we shall see, already formed part of Europe’s intellectual and cultural experience in the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, and the interests and uses given to it by European readers were complex and varied.

Casa Árabe has organized this conference on “Readings of the Qur’an in Latin Europe (twelfth-sixteenth centuries)” to be given by John Tolan, a professor of History at the University of Nantes and a member of Barcelona’s Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts and Academia Europæa, with the cooperation of the bachelor’s degree program in History and the Master’s degree program on “The Medieval Iberian World: Hispania, Al-Andalus and Sefarad” at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Moderating the session will be Santiago Palacios Ontalva, a professor of Medieval History from that university. The event will be presented by Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator

Throughout the conference, Prof. Tolan will also be presenting The European Qur’an: The Latin Qur’an, 1143–1500: Translation, Transition, Interpretation (De Gruyter, 2021), a collective work which he has published along with Cándida Ferrero Hernández (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona). It will be coming out on the upcoming date of October 25, as a result of the project “EuQu: The European Qur’an” (2019-2025), coordinated with Mercedes García-Arenal (CSIC), Roberto Tottoli (University of Naples, L’Orientale) and Jan Loop (University of Kent).  

John Tolan is a professor of History at the University of Nantes and a member of Academia Europæa. He has a PhD in History from the University of Chicago, a Master’s degree in History from the same university and graduate studies at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales of Paris (HDR), as well as a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages from Yale University. He has received various awards and distinctions, including two fellowships from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Diane Potier-Boès Award bestowed by the Académie Française. He has authored several books and articles, including: Los Sarracenos: el islam en el imaginario europeo en la Edad Media (The Saracens: Islam in the European imaginary in the Middle Ages, 2007), Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages (2008), Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter (2009) and Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today (2019: translated into the Spanish by Rafael Peinado as “Mahoma el Europeo: Percepciones occidentales del Profeta del Islam desde la Edad Media a nuestro días”, to be published in 2022 by the University of Extremadura’s Publishing House).

Bachelor’s Degree in History (UAM)
The bachelor’s degree in History aims to educate individuals with a high level of cultural knowledge, possessing a wide range of skills, who can analyze and interpret the social realities of the past and present, remaining open to other cultures.
Further information by following this link.

Master’s degree program on “The Medieval Iberian World: Hispania, Al-Andalus and Sefarad”
The University Master’s degree program on “The Medieval Iberian World: Hispania, Al-Andalus and Sefarad” is an innovative offering promoted by the University of Malaga and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, with the goal of attempting to provide more in-depth knowledge and teach further research methods on the medieval Iberian world.
Further information here.

EuQu: The European Qur’an
Further information on the ERC Synergy project  “EuQu: The European Qur’an”
 

Further information about the bachelor’s degree program by following this link. 

The conference given by Aurelia Mañé, a professor of Economic Policy at the University of Barcelona (UB), attempts to explain what the development model of the so-called oil economies consisted of, while at the same time reflecting upon the context in which the New World Order came about in the 1970s.

Over the past few decades, three themes—the state, oil, and war—have shaped both Iraqi politics and Iraqi studies. These themes emerge from Iraq’s modern history and its representation in academia. Academic work on Iraq witnessed a number of shifts that can be traced to two interrelated factors: access to primary source material, and the political context of the time.

Casa Árabe has organized this eighth session in the event series Aula Árabe Universitaria 3, to be given by Adrián Mac Liman, an international political analyst, writer and journalist, with the cooperation of the University Master’s degree program in International Journalism at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). Introducing the event will be Irene Lozano, general director of Casa Árabe, and it will be moderated by  Amal Abuwarda Pérez, a professor in that Master’s degree program.

Casa Árabe is organizing this ninth session in the series Aula Árabe Universitaria 3, to be given by Reem Bassiouney, a writer and professor at the American University of Cairo, in collaboration with the Master’s Degree in Intercultural Communication, Translation and Interpreting in Public Services given at the University of Alcalá de Henares. Introducing the event will be Mohana Sultan, a professor and the Arabic coordinator of the Master’s program. Moderating the session is Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.

Casa Árabe is organizing this conference on Arab countries’ relations in the Horn of Africa and the developments involving conflicts in that region, with the cooperation of the Master’s degree program in International Relations and Arab Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Josep María Royo, a researcher at the Conflict and Peacebuilding Program of the Escola de Cultura de Pau (UAB), will also be taking part. Itziar Ruiz-Giménez Arrieta, coordinator of the UAM’s Master’s program, will be giving her initial reaction to their presentations, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator, will be introducing and moderating the event.

It cannot be denied that the countries on the Arabian Peninsula have been moving increasingly closer to those on the Horn of Africa in terms of trade, security, strategy and politics. But what lies at the roots of these relationships, and how is the Gulf influencing the rise of conflicts in the Horn of Africa? Most of all, what underlying interests are at play? Elizabeth Dickinson will be discussing these topics, on the basis of a report which she drafted for the International Crisis Group, and then Josep Maria Royo will analyze how the new situation arising from the peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 2018 appeared to drive momentum towards peace in the Horn of Africa, though not without risks and fragility, linked also to their Gulf region neighbors. Three years later, the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is once again raising issues about the crucial role of Arab countries and whether it helps build peace or, quite the opposite, increases instability.

Elizabeth Dickinson has been a senior analyst for Colombia at the International Crisis Group (ICG) since 2019, where her work has focused on monitoring conflict dynamics and peace agreement implementation. Prior to that, she worked for ICG in the Middle East as a senior analyst for the Arabian Peninsula, where she lived for eight years, focusing on the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Her research revolved around the Gulf countries’ foreign policies in the Middle East and Horn of Africa. Before joining this organization, she was a journalist for ten years, working for media like Foreign Policy, The National and The Economist. She earned her bachelor’s degree in African and International Studies at Yale University. Follow her on twitter: @dickinsonbeth

Josep María Royo Aspa has been a researcher at the Conflict and Peacebuilding Program of the UAB’s Escola de Cultura de Pau since the year 2000, as well as being coordinator of the graduate course on the Culture of Peace at the same school. He has co-authored Alerta!: Report on Conflict, Human Rights and Peacebuilding since it was created in 2002. He completed a Master’s degree in International Relations and European Integration, a course of graduate study (DEA) on International Relations and International Public Law, and a degree in Political Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.He teaches inside and outside of universities about armed conflicts and peace building in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a researcher and member of the UAM’s African Studies Group. You can follow him on twitter: @josepmroyo

Master’s degree in International Relations and African Studies (UAM) The only graduate study program in all of Spain that combines studies on the international arena and Africa at the same time. It is staffed by some of the finest specialists in both fields of study, from both the African Studies Group (GEA) and the International Studies Group (GERI) at the UAM and other universities (UCM, U LLeida, UAB, Univ. Nova de Lisboa, Univ. of Edinburgh, Univ. Pompeu Fabra, Univ. Miquel Hernández, International Human Rights Institute of Strasbourg, Univ. of the Basque Country, etc.), as well as offering two different specialty fields, one with outside internships at more than 25 prestigious institutions, the most highly acknowledged in the “third sector,” and another for initiation into research and preparation for the PhD program.

The purpose of the Master’s degree program is to provide students with a broad understanding of international and transnational phenomena, the role played by states, international organizations and non-state actors (social movements, armed groups, the media), regional integration processes, the global security and peace-building agenda, development cooperation, human rights, migratory movements, and so on. This training is combined with an in-depth approach to the knowledge of the political, economic, social, cultural and gender realities of Sub-Saharan Africa, and many global and transnational dynamics that influence them.

Further information on the Master’s degree program

When the Arab revolutions broke out in 2010-2011, political Islam seemed as if it were on the verge of becoming the dominant political force in the Arab region. The Muslim Brotherhood, considered the strongest political opposition in most Arab countries, did very well in the region’s first democratic elections, rising to power in both Egypt and Tunisia. In 2011, the Justice and Development Party won a simple majority in Morocco’s parliamentary elections. However, one decade later, the Islamists face not only internal crisis of an unprecedented magnitude, but also massive repression by the region’s authoritarian states, which have regained power. How can this twist of fate be explained? And what does this say about political Islam’s future?

The Netherlands’ ban on face coverings is a clear example of the gender-based racial profiling of Muslims in Europe. To justify the ban, politicians pointed to the face veil as a form of gender oppression, security threat and barrier to integration, thus blurring the lines between ethical stances, and affective and aesthetic sensitivities. Quite to the contrary, the versions told by women who cover their faces, largely ignored, emphasized the positive religious value of the veil as a symbol of faith, pointing out that the ban constitutes a violation of their freedom of religion, expression and movement by the state.

At this conference, the result of a collaborative effort by Casa Árabe and the Master’s degree in Advanced Studies on Islam in Contemporary European Society at the UCM, Annelies Moors will be exploring how “security” has come to the forefront of public debate, impacting the everyday experiences of veiled women, while also pointing to the more mainstream trend referred to as the “securitization” of Muslims. The event will be presented by Laura Mijares, a professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s Department of Linguistics and Oriental Studies, and will include an initial reaction by Johanna Lems, a Margarita Salas post-doctoral researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The event will be moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator.

When intercultural communication occurs, biases and stereotypes rooted within the social environment inevitably arise, thus conditioning how effective communication can be, while also hindering the creation of the “third space,” or intercultural contact. This conference will address the presence of prejudices, stereotypes and reciprocal imaginaries, above all in communication with people from Arab and Islamic cultures, which is usually made even more difficult as a result of inflexible, overly generalized images. Different strategies will also be explored to debunk biased views of “other cultures,” which take the form of Anti-Arab sentiment or Islamophobia, but also “Maurophilia” and idealization, which can short-circuit intercultural encounters. This presentation by Ana Ruth Vidal Luengo will be completed with thoughts on intercultural mediation skills and abilities.

Being a freelance journalist in the Middle East and North Africa is a dangerous job,especially when considering the degree of impunity that exists in the region. But being a woman adds several layers of difficulty and many challenges more, including sexism, gender stereotyping and sexual harassment.

This conference will be held with the cooperation of the University Master’s Degree in International Politics: Sector and Area Studies, given by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Felipe Sahagún, Professor of International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe's International Relations Coordinator, will take part in the event.

Akram Belkaïd (Algiers, 1964) is a French-Algerian journalist and writer. Based in France since 1995, after living in Algeria, he is now deputy editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique. A specialist in news from the Arab world, he also writes for the OrientXXI.info website. He was also a columnist for the Quotidien d’Oran from April 2005 through December 2021. Prior to that, he as a journalist and then assistant director at the economic newspaper La Tribune Desfossés in Paris (1995-2008), as well as contributing to many publications like Time Magazine, Télérama, Info Matin, La Nation (Algeria) and Jeudi d’Algérie. In addition to news from the Arab world, he also tracks developments in oil markets and international economic issues. He has written several books on Algeria, the Maghreb region and the Arab world in general. These include L’Algérie en 100 questions, un pays empêché (Tallandier, 2020) and Pleine Lune sur Bagdad (ErickBonnier, 2017).

Master’s Degree in International Politics: Sector and Area Studies.
Based on a scientific and academic orientation, this Master’s degree provides students with the knowledge they need to deal with international issues. Moreover, it educates students about diplomatic relations between states; political election processes; consultation on security and defense issues; the foreign policy of states, as well as foreign action by the European Union; analysis of international communication; cooperation through international organizations; and research in international conflict resolution.
Further information

After the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, the National Museum of Iraq was looted in 2003. In the ensuing chaos, over fifteen thousand items were stolen from Baghdad's collections of ancient artefacts, not even counting pieces pilfered from archaeological sites in the vicinity. 16 years after the theft, more than half the loot has since been tracked down, recovered and returned to the museum's collection, where the items can now be viewed by the Iraqi public. The first photographs of the damage show Iraq's pre-Islamic cosmopolitan heritage (Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian etc.) reduced to dust and ashes. In enlightening contrast, the “digitized” version of Mesopotamia and pre-Islamic arts at the Louvre Abu Dhabi represents a reenacting mirror of that archaeological heritage.  

Going from bad to worse, Lebanon has been plunged into one crisis after another since 2020: from the financial sector, due to major depreciation by the Lebanese pound and hyperinflation, to the weakened humanitarian aid sector. Added to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic was the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut, which killed 250 people and wiped out important port infrastructures. With the current war in Ukraine, the wheat imports on which the Lebanese depend to survive will most likely lead to a rise in hunger rates. Over half of the country has fallen below the poverty line, and 20% live in extreme poverty.

The Saint Louis University - Madrid Campus Master’s degree in Political Science and Public Affairs specializes in international relations and crises with the aim of familiarizing students with the most essential theoretical, political and social factors in global governance over insecurity and the emergence, management and consequences of crises today. Its academic curriculum includes learning about International Relations theory, the European Union and contemporary global challenges, in addition to other subjects. It also offers various elective courses, including American politics, environmental politics and policy making, along with international political economics in times of crisis and other courses.
Further information