Within the wider APSA Conference, the Macquarie Centre for Middle East and North African Studies (MUCMENAS) is organising a number of panels specifically focused on the politics of the Middle East and the broader Islamic world. In addition, the MUCMENAS is organising a roundtable on ‘The Future of Middle East Studies in Australia’.

The Special Stream on the Politics of the Middle East and Islam at the APSA Conference will be a convenient moment to discuss a re-launch of the Australasian Middle East Studies Association (AMESA). The conference panels, roundtable and subsequent discussions are aimed at providing scholars based in Australasia, and beyond, with a much needed opportunity to reinvigorate the scholarly debates in Middle Eastern studies.

The streams have been organised into four broad thematic areas:
1. Middle Eastern politics (domestic politics of regional states, democratization, civil society, gender, the politics of development)
2. The Middle East in International Relations (regional and transnational conflicts, water and resources issues, the role of the Global powers in the region, the Arab-Israeli conflicts)
3. The Politics of Islam (including Islamic/Islamist political theory, transnational political Islam, the politics of Muslim diasporas)
4. The Politics of Representation (Orientalism, the Middle East, Islam and Muslims in the media, ‘high’ and popular culture)

Proposals should be 250-words in length and emailed to mecentre@humn.mq.edu.au by 18 May.

For inquiries relating to APSA and conference registration details please visit http://www.pol.mq.edu.au/apsa/index.html.

We kindly ask you to circulate this message to any colleagues and research students who you think may be interested in contributing to the conference or in discussions relating to the re-establishment of AMESA.

Kind Regards,
Dr Gennaro Gervasio, Director
Noah Bassil
Deputy Director
Centre for Middle East and North African Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
www.mq.edu.au/mec