About the Student

Bianca Rosen is a senior at Brown University, where she majors in Middle East Studies and International and Public Affairs. Bianca loves languages and has been studying Arabic for 6 years, both at Brown and on study abroad programs with the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, Middlebury College, and the US Department of State in Oman, Jordan, and Morocco, respectively. At Brown, Bianca is an active member of the Center for Middle East Studies community, serving as the Middle East Studies Undergraduate Fellow and one of CMES’ student assistants. Bianca is also passionate about politics and government and has explored that interest as a Watson Institute research assistant, former Managing Editor of the Brown Political Review, and an intern on Capitol Hill. 

About the Research

The MES Research Travel award will be used to support Bianca’s honors thesis research on Morocco’s political stability during the Arab Spring. She poses the following questions: Why, when other Maghrib countries experienced regime change or conflict during the Arab Spring, did Morocco not undergo the same types of changes? What explains Morocco’s exceptionalism? Bianca examines the role of Amazigh activism during the Arab Spring, arguing that tribalism, when combined with a monarchical system of government, can contribute to political stability. Bianca will use MES Research Travel funds to return to Morocco for a week over winter break, where she will visit archives in Rabat and Casablanca and conduct interviews.