Georgetown Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series:Workers Movements and the Arab Spring

Georgetown University in Qatar hosted the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University, Dr. Joel Beinin, for a Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series titled “Workers Movements and the Arab Popular Uprisings of 2011.”  The event, which was open to the public, was held on the university’s Education City campus on the evening of Tuesday, February 19, 2019.

Dr. Beinin’s research and writing focus has been on the culture, politics, economics, and society of the Middle East and on U.S. policy in the region.  His lecture drew on his most recent publication by a similar title, Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, where he argues that decades of labor and unemployment issues played significant roles in the 2011 uprisings and their outcomes.

The university organizes several lecture series throughout the year, but the Distinguished Faculty series is unique in that it features experts who have come to define the field they work in.

Remarking on the lecture, the dean of GU-Q, Dr. Ahmad Dallal, said: “Joel Beinin is a prominent historian on the Middle East. He brings critical historical context to inform our contemporary understanding of the turbulent forces at play across political and social landscapes in the Middle East.”

Associate professor of history at GU-Q, Dr. Abdullah Al-Arian, organized the event, and served as moderator during the lecture. Reflecting on the importance of bringing leading experts to speak to a Doha audience, he said: “This event was a wonderful opportunity for our students and faculty, as well as the wider community, to engage with a leading thinker like Dr. Beinin, and on a topic that has a real impact for the region.” 

Beinin has written or edited eleven books, most recently Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2015); Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, 2nd edition (Stanford University Press, 2013) co-edited with Frédéric Vairel; and The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt (Solidarity Center, 2010).

His articles have been published in leading scholarly journals in English and French as well as South Atlantic Quarterly, Socialist Register, Carnegie Papers, The Nation, Le Monde Diplomatique, Middle East Report, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He has been interviewed on Al-Jazeera TV, BBC radio, Skye TV, Radio France International, Australian and US National Public Radio, and many other TV and radio programs throughout the world as well by the global print media.