A two day academic conference held in Beirut, Lebanon, Cosponsored by the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice.

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In this conference, we seek to assess social movement changes and emerging social justice policies, or the lack thereof, in the Arab world since 2010 – at both the national and local policy levels. We are particularly interested in examining local dynamics to learn about changes in people’s everyday living conditions since 2010, how people organize and mobilize to express their grievances and seek to promote policy changes, and whether any measurable or meaningful changes in state policies related to social justice demands have occurred. The conference brings together researchers from the region and abroad who can clarify developments in areas that include the evolution of social inequalities; organized and informal social and political protest movements; citizen grievances and social justice demands; new forms of organization and activism; roles of trade unions and professional associations; reform of state institutions; decentralization and the role of local authorities; changes in people’s living conditions since 2010.

Senior members of Princeton University’s Department of Politics will travel to the conference to speak, to teach and to learn as part of the collaborative initiative inspired and fostered by the generous efforts of Mrs. Mamdouha Bobst and the Bobst Foundation.

The first Keynote speech will be given by Stephen Macedo, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics, Princeton University, who will speak about some traditions of thinking about social justice and democracy, with a particular eye to the question of how we should think about local and diverse ways of creating a legitimate — morally and not only sociologically legitimate — and cooperative social order. Do leading Western models of constitutional democracy furnish standards for political legitimacy that apply globally? Do they provide guidance as to which social justice demands are morally most urgent? Do human rights furnish such guidance? How great is the danger that such models and traditions of thought might lead scholars or policy-makers to ignore diverse local traditions and conditions on the ground, producing more harm than good? The title of his speech is “Universal Human Rights and Social Justice vs. Diversity and Self-Determination: Can they be Reconciled?”

The second Keynote will be given by Amaney Jamal,  Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics, Princeton University, who in her speech “Trump’s Presidency: Islamophobia and the Middle East” will address Islamophobia in light of the recent U.S. elections. The Trump presidency has raised anxieties world-wide. What does his election mean for stability and the future of democracy in the Middle East? Will authoritarianism become even more entrenched? What challenges and opportunities might arise under his leadership? And further what does his election mean for America’s Muslim community.