This event was the launch of 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' by Amina Tawasil.
This groundbreaking ethnography on Iranian howzevi (seminarian) women reveals how ideologies of womanhood, institutions, and Islamic practices have played a pivotal role in religiously conservative women's mobility in the Middle East.
This event was co-organised with the Department of Anthropology at LSE.
Meet the speaker and chair:
Amina Tawasil is an anthropologist serving as a Lecturer in the Programs in Anthropology at Columbia University's Teachers College since 2017. She has published several articles from her fieldwork in the Islamic Republic of Iran on seminarian women, and has recently published a book entitled, 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' through Indiana University Press. Previously, she taught at the International Studies Institute, University of New Mexico after serving as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Middle East and North African Studies program, with courtesy appointment in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. She is particularly interested in ethnographic and theoretical framings of anonymity, slow labor, time, urban situations, and performance. She is currently completing her fourth year of ethnographic fieldwork among graffiti writers in New York City, Philadelphia and urban New Jersey, which she has published a chapter on in the 'Ethnography of Reading at Thirty' edited volume.
Yazan Doughan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. Yazan is an anthropologist whose work straddles the linguistic and socio-cultural branches of the discipline, with close engagements with social and legal theory, conceptual and social history, and moral philosophy. His work blends ethnography, genealogy, and history to shed light on the question of social justice in contemporary postcolonial contexts, with Jordan as a primary field site.
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This event was the launch of 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' by Amina Tawasil.
This groundbreaking ethnography on Iranian howzevi (seminarian) women reveals how ideologies of womanhood, institutions, and Islamic practices have played a pivotal role in religiously conservative women's mobility in the Middle East.
This event was co-organised with the Department of Anthropology at LSE.
Meet the speaker and chair:
Amina Tawasil is an anthropologist serving as a Lecturer in the Programs in Anthropology at Columbia University's Teachers College since 2017. She has published several articles from her fieldwork in the Islamic Republic of Iran on seminarian women, and has recently published a book entitled, 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' through Indiana University Press. Previously, she taught at the International Studies Institute, University of New Mexico after serving as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Middle East and North African Studies program, with courtesy appointment in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. She is particularly interested in ethnographic and theoretical framings of anonymity, slow labor, time, urban situations, and performance. She is currently completing her fourth year of ethnographic fieldwork among graffiti writers in New York City, Philadelphia and urban New Jersey, which she has published a chapter on in the 'Ethnography of Reading at Thirty' edited volume.
Yazan Doughan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. Yazan is an anthropologist whose work straddles the linguistic and socio-cultural branches of the discipline, with close engagements with social and legal theory, conceptual and social history, and moral philosophy. His work blends ethnography, genealogy, and history to shed light on the question of social justice in contemporary postcolonial contexts, with Jordan as a primary field site.
The Struggles of Labour Mobilisation in Lebanon and Iraq (Paper Launch)
LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts
55 minutes 57 seconds
7 months ago
The Struggles of Labour Mobilisation in Lebanon and Iraq (Paper Launch)
This event was the launch of Dr Anne Kirstine Rønn's latest paper as part of the LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series on 'The Struggles of Labour Mobilisation in Lebanon and Iraq'.
Despite facing significant challenges, including elite control and repression, labour movements in both Lebanon and Iraq have sought to assert their independence and challenge the status quo. This paper explores the main types of labour organisations in both countries – trade unions and professional syndicates – and the distinct structural and strategic obstacles they face.
The paper discusses the internal debates within these organisations, where the tension between idealism and pragmatic goals often influences their strategies. By drawing on interviews with labour activists and secondary sources, the paper reflects on the potential for strengthening these movements and explores the trade-offs between formal and informal labour organising. It concludes by calling for further research to identify the conditions under which labour mobilisation can be effective in similar political contexts.
Read the paper here: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/127301/3/Struggles_of_Labour_Mobilisation.pdf
Meet our speakers and chair
Anne Kirstine Rønn is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Her research explores opposition movements in ethno-religiously divided societies with a particular focus on Lebanon and Iraq.
Fuad Musallam is an Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. He focuses on activism, labour, the imagination, and how people come together to form community.
Razaw Salihy is the Iraq Researcher at Amnesty International. Since 2014, she has investigated and reported human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts
This event was the launch of 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' by Amina Tawasil.
This groundbreaking ethnography on Iranian howzevi (seminarian) women reveals how ideologies of womanhood, institutions, and Islamic practices have played a pivotal role in religiously conservative women's mobility in the Middle East.
This event was co-organised with the Department of Anthropology at LSE.
Meet the speaker and chair:
Amina Tawasil is an anthropologist serving as a Lecturer in the Programs in Anthropology at Columbia University's Teachers College since 2017. She has published several articles from her fieldwork in the Islamic Republic of Iran on seminarian women, and has recently published a book entitled, 'Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran' through Indiana University Press. Previously, she taught at the International Studies Institute, University of New Mexico after serving as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Middle East and North African Studies program, with courtesy appointment in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. She is particularly interested in ethnographic and theoretical framings of anonymity, slow labor, time, urban situations, and performance. She is currently completing her fourth year of ethnographic fieldwork among graffiti writers in New York City, Philadelphia and urban New Jersey, which she has published a chapter on in the 'Ethnography of Reading at Thirty' edited volume.
Yazan Doughan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. Yazan is an anthropologist whose work straddles the linguistic and socio-cultural branches of the discipline, with close engagements with social and legal theory, conceptual and social history, and moral philosophy. His work blends ethnography, genealogy, and history to shed light on the question of social justice in contemporary postcolonial contexts, with Jordan as a primary field site.
