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Appel à articles : Dossier “Research and Methodology in a Post Arab-Spring Environment : Challenges for the Field”, Middle East Law and Governance. An Interdisciplinary Journal— LIMITE : 20/07/2014

MELG Special Issue
 
Call for Papers
 
Research and Methodology in a Post Arab-Spring Environment: Challenges
for the Field
Since January 2011, scholars around the world specializing on the Middle
East and North Africa, have had to reassess how and what to write about
the region. The challenge is compounded by the proliferation of online
venues for publication, which offer an efficient option for publishing
in an environment that is in constant flux, where today’s seminal
insight becomes outdated in a matter of days or weeks. Moreover,
alongside scholars in university settings are journalists and policy
researchers, who arguably write for different audiences, employ
different modes of writing, and adopt varying approaches (if any) to
peer review for quality control. For a double-blind peer reviewed
journal like MELG, these circumstances beg important questions about the
future of scholarship in the field, and how to promote scholarship in a
field that is in flux.
Amidst the varying degrees of transformation, volatility, and
counterrevolution, MELG will devote a special issue to the theme of
research methods. MELG invites proposals for essays reflecting on the
state of the field and where it is going in a post-Arab Spring
environment. The essays would be approximately 3000-5000 words, have
minimal footnotes, and reflect on method and research design in the
current state of affairs in the Middle East and North Africa. Possible
questions to consider might be:
• How might we characterize the current state of scholarship on the MENA
given the events in the past few years? As a corollary, is the very
category of “scholarly” far too rarified given the current state of
affairs in the MENA that call out for writing, analysis and commentary?
• How do we produce scholarship in a context that is quickly changing
and evolving, often faster than our publication cycle can capture? Or
put differently, is a certain level of stability to events in the region
a prerequisite to reliable scholarship, or rather a condition for
publishing relevant scholarship with a shelf life that makes the
publication process economically feasible and meaningful?
• Who is writing now in the field that was not writing before, and what
does that imply about the nature of the scholarly endeavor in the field?
What are the questions being addressed now and how generalizable are
they – if at all – across the different MENA countries? Relatedly, what
can we infer from those questions not only about the region but also
about researchers and the contexts (academic/national/or otherwise) from
which they write?
• What is the relationship among academics based in the West (be they
from Arab descent or not) and those based in the region, and how do
these different voices either relate to, avoid, or counter each other?
• How can we adjust our scholarly agenda to account for a situation in
flux, assuming it is indeed in flux? For instance, can we find better
tools (craft new concepts and adjust our methodologies) to give a better
account of the complex reality of the region?
• In short, what are the capacities and limits of the scholarly
enterprise in a context of such flux?
These questions are not exclusive, but are meant to provoke reflection
among respected members of the scholarly community.
The essays will be collected, and published in volume 7(1), at the start
of MELG’s 2015 publication year.
To submit a proposal for a contribution to the issue, please submit the
following to Anver Emon at anver.emon@utoronto.ca by July 20, 2014.
• A curriculum vita
• A 250 word statement of the intervention you would like to make
Note: If your proposal is accepted, you will be required to submit your
essay in final draft by December 1, 2014.

OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Chargé de diffusion scientifique (11 juin 2014). Appel à articles : Dossier “Research and Methodology in a Post Arab-Spring Environment : Challenges for the Field”, Middle East Law and Governance. An Interdisciplinary Journal— LIMITE : 20/07/2014. IISMM. Consulté le 7 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/pyd3


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