In an excerpt of their new book, "Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria," Nasser Rabbat and @deensharp.bsky.social call for reconstruction in the country to take on a new look—one directed at "a just peace, community building and decolonization."
A graphic advertising a new collection of papers in Transactions called 'Geography in the World 3: Area Studies' with the title curved around a black and white image of the globe in the centre, and the Transactions logo next to the Royal Geographical Society logo at the top of the red background. With contributions from: Aya Nassar, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Deen Sharp, Han Cheng, Maano Ramutsindela & Vera Smirnova
New in TIBG!
Geography in the World, part 3: Area Studies
Han Cheng & @deensharp.bsky.social's collection draws together authors from Egypt, Singapore, China, South Africa & Russia to explore non-Western geography's relationship with Area Studies.
Read all papers here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/5n72yt46
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Transactions by Han Cheng & Deen Sharp (2025) entitled 'Worlding geography, area studies and the study of area' with a red banner at the top. This paper introduces the collection of five short papers written by scholars from Egypt, Russia, Singapore, China and South Africa that advance this journal's ‘Geography in the World’ initiative through a more robust engagement between geography and area studies. Geographers have increasingly addressed the troubled relationship that their discipline has with the field of area studies. Less registered, however, in Anglophone debates are the presence and politics of other geographical traditions of area studies. In this themed intervention, we propose a reoriented critical geography of ‘area’ by closely assessing non-Western geography's relationship with its area studies counterpart across a range of (geo)political, economic, institutional and cultural contexts beyond the Anglo-American ‘core’.
1) 'Worlding geography, area studies and the study of area'
Han Cheng & @deensharp.bsky.social's introduction to the collection proposes a reoriented critical geography of 'area' by examining geography's relationship with area studies beyond the Anglo-American tradition.
doi.org/10.1111/tran...
In some parts of the Arab world, architects are repurposing ancient methods to naturally lower building temperatures without using modern air conditioning, @mariannedhe.bsky.social reports.
But can it be deployed at scale in a region so thoroughly reliant on ACs?
#middleeast #climate
Episode 1 of the MERIP Podcast is now live!
Check out this interview with Mona Tajali about her recent article "Women and Politics in Post-Jina Iran" below on Spotify!
buff.ly/Ln6sCrw
On LBC @zoejardiniere.bsky.social lists 3 previous instances where military aircraft have been targeted by campaigners in order to prevent them being used in war crimes, and she describes the govt banning Palestine Action as terrorists as an abuse of state power.
Well said.
You have to love these incredible puff pieces of billionaires by the @financialtimes.com. This profile details how billionaire Walton drives humble Volvo (after a “clapped-out Subaru Forester”). Wonder if FT asked if he also owns private jet, or a luxury yacht along with that?
on.ft.com/40aMIWg
New research ⬇️
Urbicide in Khartoum, co-published with @smallarmssurvey.bsky.social
➡️ Examines how the war is reshaping Sudan’s capital through deliberate destruction, spatial control and targeting of civilian infrastructure
www.armedgroupscentre.org/reports-and-...
@deensharp.bsky.social
#Urbicide —the deliberate destruction of urban environments—is rife throughout #Khartoum, and a tactic in the #Sudan war. Co-published with @armedgroups.bsky.social, our new publication examines this weaponisation of civilian spaces in modern warfare
www.smallarmssurvey.org/resource/urb...
Our report on urbicide in Khartoum is out! It provides an Urbicide anaAnalysis of the Al-Amarat and Mayo Neighbourhoods from 2023-2024.
www.armedgroupscentre.org/reports-and-...
My piece in Cityscapes:
Between the hammer and the rubble
On the 16th of April 2023, a military projectile exploded in the courtyard of my home in Khartoum, blowing a large hole through the exterior wall and exposing my neighbour’s toilet….
Read here: cityscapesmag.com/cs-magazine/...
My piece in Cityscapes:
Between the hammer and the rubble
On the 16th of April 2023, a military projectile exploded in the courtyard of my home in Khartoum, blowing a large hole through the exterior wall and exposing my neighbour’s toilet….
Read here: cityscapesmag.com/cs-magazine/...
Cityscapes is online! See my essays on the intersection of war, power and urbanization and on defining an Arab region.
cityscapesmag.com
BOOK LAUNCH
9 Jun 2025, 17:00 – 19:00
Join myself, architect Sawsan Abou Zainedin, Ammar Azzouz (University of Oxford), Wendy Pullan (University of Cambridge) and Emma DiNapoli for the launch of our book: Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria.
Full details: www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/eve...
A man uses a handheld power tool to smooth a wooden dowel while sitting barefoot in a workshop filled with wooden sticks.
Who decides what gets rebuilt after conflict and how? Too often, reconstruction serves politics over communities.
Our latest piece explores why bottom-up rebuilding is key to lasting peace in the MENA region.
Insights from @deensharp.bsky.social, Zozan Alloush & Nourah Shuaibi: bit.ly/3FDgpYQ
So most the British army…
Webinar Recording Now Live! 🚨
How does post-conflict reconstruction shape political transitions in MENA? @deensharp.bsky.social, Zozan Alloush & Nourah Shuaibi break it down in this powerful discussion.
Don’t miss their insights—watch now 👉 youtu.be/-0i_ZepvpqE
Final day to submit your abstract is tomorrow!!
Background of blue world map showing lights of cities at night. White and yellow text reads: CRITICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ADVANCES IN URBAN STUDIES: CALL FOR PAPERS. The Urbanisation of Conflict and Conflict Urbanisation. In this inaugural call for papers, which focuses on armed conflict, the Journal invites both empirical and conceptual papers on the urbanisation of conflict and conflict-driven urbanisation. Visit urbanstudiesonline.com/callforpapers for details
Last chance to submit your abstracts for prioritised asssessment for The Urbanisation of #Conflict and Conflict Urbanisation #CallforPapers
Visit our website for details: https://buff.ly/4gw8zgb
@deensharp.bsky.social
📣 Only 2 weeks left to submit your abstracts for our #CallforPapers: The Urbanisation of Conflict and Conflict Urbanisation ⏰
#UrbanStudies Journal invites contributions that explore #ArmedConflict and #violence in urban contexts.
https://buff.ly/42M9WUN
@deensharp.bsky.social
that's the Harvard we know and love
…for pathogens.”
It’s just on the next page and we can’t see it, right?
NEW: Previewing Issue 313, Samer Abboud dives into the proliferation of data-driven and AI-assisted refugee response across the Middle East, and the problems it poses to the future of humanitarianism.
READ NOW
Deadline has been extended until the end of February for abstracts.
Cover of The Time beneath the Concrete: Palestine between Camp and Colony by Nasser Abourahme. Cover is blue and features an image of an art installation featuring six human figures in concrete. There is some Arabic text above them on the right. The title is in white at the top of the design, the subtitle beneath that in red, and the author name at the bottom in white.
In "The Time beneath the Concrete," Nasser Abourahme argues that settler colonialism in #Palestine is always as much an attempt to conquer time as it is to conquer land. Read the introduction for free now.
https://buff.ly/3BwdKyr
Any journalist or anyone with press contacts able to get some coverage of horrendous crackdown on peaceful protest at NYU, please get in touch!
For today, it’s a wonder to see my Syrian friends’ joy.
Now Syria can dream of a future again on.ft.com/4gluGq3
MIT has a set of books labelled "Open Access" but it's a little clunky to find them on the MIT Press site, and so I've gone ahead and mirrored 400+ of them here:
archive.org/details/mit_...
