AMHP 23A13 - Culture and Revolutions in the Contemporary Arab Region

The 2011 uprisings did not simply shake political systems; they triggered deep transformations in cultural expression, religious authority, and collective political imagination across the Arab region. What shifted was not only who wields power, but how people understand themselves, how they express dissent, and how culture and religion function within society.

This interdisciplinary seminar—situated at the crossroads of philosophy, anthropology, and cultural studies—analyzes the major paradigm shifts that are deeply transforming the cultures and societies of South West Asia (Middle East) and North Africa today. The course highlights the need for new approaches to understand the cultural and religious dynamics of Arab societies after the 2011 Revolutions, as well as the importance of examining the contemporary reshuffling of cultural boundaries, artistic centers, and cultural territories.

The course primarily focuses on the trajectories of social activists, journalists, scholars, intellectuals, new religious entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural producers in the region and its diasporas, including migrant communities and minorities. This focus is accompanied by an attempt to define new theoretical approaches to the study of contemporary Arab political thought and to question the concepts of culture and revolution, examining how they interact with new religious and cultural expressions. The course’s interdisciplinary framework will finally engage with the idea that the accelerated globalization of cultural expressions is reshaping all cultural and religious dynamics in the region.