The Women’s Rights Research Seminar (WRRS) is currently convened by Professor Maryam Alemzadeh.
The WRRS was initially founded in 2009 with the aim of both assessing and steering interdisciplinary scholarly research on women in Iran. Since then, the research group has broadened to include the wider Middle East and North Africa region, and more recently, diasporic communities and issues of migration worldwide. Today, this lively series seeks to present current research on the changing Middle East, and how development and globalisation have affected women’s rights. Seminars have also included a historical dimension, exploring the impact of women’s past contributions and their impact on women’s experiences and gender politics in the present-day Middle East.
In the last academic year, combining funds for the Middle East Politics and WRRS workshops enabled the MES programme to invite a number of North American-based scholars to speak. Dr Sarah Bush from the University of Pennsylvania visited in May to speak on ‘Economic Diversification and Climate Change in the Middle East’. Her seminar explored how countries in the Arabian Gulf occupy an unusual position globally in terms of global climate change; they are not only the world’s top oil producers but are also among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Dr Bush discussed how economic diversification shapes support for authoritarian regimes through gendered patterns of economic anxiety. Does economic diversification threaten men’s identities by disempowering them economically, thus undermining support for governments and the costly policies that they need to undertake to prevent the worst repercussions of climate change?
Two other very well-received talks were given by Professor Mona Tajali (Agnes Scott College) and Dr Nermin Allam (Rutgers University), speaking on ‘Women and electoral politics in Iran and Turkey: Undemocratic structures and feminist resistance’ and ‘Afterlife of Women's Participation in the Egyptian Uprising’ respectively. A special ad hoc event with Dr Amal Nazzal also turned out to be extremely popular as she came directly from Birzeit University and discussed the timely issue of feminist trends in Palestine.
In Trinity Term 2025, the speakers will be Dr Emrah Karakuş and Professor Lisa Blaydes.
