This research initiative, led by Nadje Al-Ali, Robert Family Professor of International Studies, and professor of anthropology and Middle East studies, is based on the recognition that a gendered intersectional lens is central, not marginal, to a deeper analysis and understanding of political mobilizations, economic developments, social inequalities and cultural expressions in the Middle East and amongst diasporas of the region. The most recent publication associated with the wider research initiative is titled: Resisting Far-Right Politics in the Middle East and Europe: Queer Feminist Critiques.
As part of this broader initiative, CMES is collaborating with the Columbia University’s Middle East Institute (MEI) on a project titled “Gender and Body Politics: Arts in the Middle East and its Diasporas,” which examines intersecting inequalities and body politics expressed, represented and transgressed in both visual and performance art. Against the backdrop of war and conflict, the growth of political authoritarianism, displacement and diaspora mobilization, Islamophobia, ongoing orientalist depictions, this research explores the ways in which artists are informed by and/or contribute to anti-racist, transnational feminist, and queer praxis.