New article from @biffpm.bsky.social on a little-noticed court decision to outlaw Jordan’s teacher’s union. Her analysis? The muted response underscores how Jordan’s political landscape has shifted as attention/activism center on Gaza. https://loom.ly/D97MUsU

POMEPS is pleased to call for proposals for the POMEPS Junior Scholar Book Development Workshops to be held in a virtual format throughout the academic year 2025-2026. The deadline to apply is Sept. 15. More info: pomeps.org/pomeps-junio...

Oh so it does have phd level intelligence

I wrote a piece for @jodemocracy.bsky.social on a little-noticed court decision last week to effectively permanently outlaw Jordan’s teacher’s union www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

"'This was an amazing success tonight,' Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview. 'They should make peace immediately or they'll get hit again.'" That does not sound like a leader who wants this to be "one and done." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

NEW: Why are women overrepresented in STEM fields in the Arab world, despite broader gender inequality? Fida Adely, Jennifer Olmsted and Sana Odeh surveyed members of Arab Women in Computing to find out, and the results defy simplistic economic explanations. READ NOW

10 million people "President Donald Trump on Monday urged everyone to immediately evacuate Tehran, and reiterated that Iran should have signed a nuclear deal with the United States." (as a quick reminder, it did.) www.reuters.com/world/middle...

list experiment in the wild

Days before masked ICE agents detained Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, Dept determined that the admin had not produced any evidence showing she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Join us next week! Polisky Dictatorsky On Tuesday April 8 at 11:00-12:00pm EST/5:00-6:00pm CET Ahmed Ezzeldin Mohamed (Toulouse) will present "Monopolizing Clientelism During Regime Transition" followed by comments by @shalaby12.bsky.social (Wisconsin-Madison) and @biffpm.bsky.social (@harvard.edu)

"Creating a ruckus" is his euphemism for wrote an op-ed in a newspaper. The Constitution protects all people under U.S. jurisdiction (not just citizens) from government actions penalizing them for speech, use of the free press, or peaceful assembly.

It's a rare bit of good news to (belatedly) see this order re: the Columbia student been in hiding. Hopefully it's followed Honest q is when will we see lawsuits on the legal rationale for Rubio unilaterally revoking visas? Would that go to the Supreme Court? www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/n...

Many “savvy” folks argue protests can’t work. Evidence suggests otherwise. “Muslim ban set off a fury of protests across US, garnering tremendous media attention and discussion… Portraying ‘Ban’ at odds with inclusive elements of American identity prompted some citizens to shift their attitudes…”

Our article “Social Media Narratives Across Conflict: Evidence from Syria” is now ahead of print at the Journal of Politics!

"In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...

1/ So this Fulbright scholar wasn’t a protest organizer or even participant, got kettled coming back to campus and released, had liked some posts about human rights and signed an open letter, and DHS came to her door three times to arrest and deport her www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/n...

The detention of Mahmoud Khalil puts all Americans fundamental rights at risk. And if you can’t see that because you oppose his politics, well that’s exactly the reaction Trump and his cronies are counting on. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"the moderator, began the off-the-record event by explaining Harvard’s guidelines on disruption, noting that dissenting audience members who interrupt the speaker would be removed. Bennett then interrupted to add: `I think we’ll just give them a pager.'" www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Ripping a student from their home, challenging their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint will chill student speech and advocacy across campuses nationwide. Political speech should never be a basis of punishment or lead to deportation.

"Bringing hell to Boston is like bringing sand to the beach" www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/04/m...

However if you’re in Boston you *can* see this film at the Coolidge Corner theater in Brookline, where it’s sold out multiple times in recent weeks

Excited to share my new article in the American Journal of Political Science (@ajpseditor.bsky.social)! "Endogenous Opposition: Identity and Ideology in Kuwaiti Electoral Politics" explores how authoritarian elections generate opposition to incumbent autocrats. Link: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ukrer...

fascinating paper -- bsky.app/profile/chag...

I've received amazing, queer affirming care for years at Boston's Fenway Health. Every time I'm there, I think of how many orgs. like Fenway grew out of the catastrophic denial of healthcare to gay men in the AIDS epidemic. We will look back at this latest moral panic in similar shame

proposals to "clean" Gaza of Palestinians are so beyond any normative conception that it's difficult to respond to them with anything other than moral outrage but Trump does appear entirely serious about cutting Jordan + Egypt aid if they don't agree www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/u...

It's hard to respond to this because two things are true at the same time: 1. I believe one (1) trans woman has competed in the Olympics as a woman. Absurd to spend this much time fussing about one person. 2. Even if there were thousands of trans women competing, this would still be shameful!

Polisky Dictatorsky The deadline is approaching! Submit your proposal by February 16 for our Third Conference on Authoritarian Politics!

A rare win-win for both the (really minimally salvageable) state of New Jersey and (admittedly perhaps unsalvageable) U.S. foreign policy in MENA www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/29/n...

Very useful post from @abuaardvark.bsky.social on why Trump's proposal to "clean" Gaza of Palestinians is truly existential for Jordan bsky.app/profile/abua...

Very excited that our article about the redistribution of political power within precolonial institutions under indirect colonial rule is available on First View @apsrjournal.bsky.social @msaleh-econhistory.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Trump wants to “clean” Gaza of Palestinians Calls King Abdullah directly after US pauses all foreign military + development aid to Jordan but not Egypt and Israel. Those are top 3 recipients of US $ globally. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Call for papers for migration and displacement scholars from/in MENA. Workshop to be held in Istanbul, in conjunction with Koç University’s Migration Research Center Proposals due March 1. www.bakerinstitute.org/research/cal...

Looking forward to serving on the @apsamena.bsky.social Best Paper Award committee this year. Reminder to submit your papers by February 1! 👇 bsky.app/profile/apsa...

Last day to apply for our summer research program (see below)

#Syria: The Qadam station was the workhorse of the iconic Hejaz Railway that was built under the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Abdulhamid II. In 2012 it became a strategic point for Assad's forces on Yarmouk refugee camp, and other nearby #Damascus neighborhoods. @apnews.com apnews.com/article/syri...

reading new articles about about military spending in MENA and can only think of this Dril tweet

My latest with @brookings.edu www.brookings.edu/articles/syr...

📢Spring Season 2025 Schedule is out! We are thrilled to announce a new season featuring fantastic work and great discussants! To participate remember to subscribe at tinyurl.com/37tcabwa (for Zoom links and updates) Full info in the image and thread below!

of all the news i've read in recent weeks, these stories of companies pre-emptively laying off workers for "discrepancies in their government records" feel particularly dystopian gothamist.com/arts-enterta... www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/10/b...

🧵 Only 3,106 Syrian refugees out of 717,000 registered with the UN in Jordan have returned to Syria since Assad fell, as crossing the border is a one-way trip to a country that is not yet stable. 🔗 bit.ly/4fGHerl

Relatively few Syrians in Jordan risk one-way trip home syriadirect.org/relatively-f...

Kabir was a student on our hall at MIT, flying his drones in front of our dorm and being a regular, kind college student amid COVID-19, border closures and all that Delighted to see that his start-up is still thriving and that I still don't really understand any of it news.mit.edu/2024/corvus-...

this is a great program for undergrads to get a sense of what PhD research is really like! (while being paid and housed and learning some new skills at MIT) bsky.app/profile/arie...

Ghazzal previously played role in Salvation Government rationalizing local councils, including merit-based selection of new members and financial restructuring to make more sustainable and less dependent on donor funds. See: • youtube.com/watch?v=DdLp...; • web.archive.org/web/20200713...

"Another man introduced his Reconstruction and Rehabilitation department: set up in 2012 to rebuild areas destroyed in the civil war, it waited over a decade for long-promised funds that never came. Ghazal jotted down the information, muttering `fictional' out loud, in English." on.ft.com/4ix6lzj

I have a new article out in Democratization on Saudi Arabia & MBS, personalism/personalization, and domestic policymaking -- an exploratory case study of the early years of Vision 2030, and what it can tell poli sci about policy processes in non-democracies. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....