Located in Amman, the Center has the advantage of drawing from the diverse array of socio-political structures from within Jordan as well as among its neighbors, including Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Through student programs based on constitutional engineering and conferences on refugee integration, the Amman Center is able to engage with regional experts and scholars to encourage continued research and education on the timely and relevant issues that continue to surround this region.
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Conversation on the Middle Eastern Conflict
Call for Papers - A Century of Palestinian Nationalism: Modes of Political Organization and Representation since 1919
Urban Displacement Alliance Workshop
On October 10 and 11, 2018, a workshop for the Urban Displacement Alliance was held at the Columbia Global Centers | Amman, bringing together strategic partners to discuss the vision of the Alliance and the best approach towards achieving its goals.
Call for Applications: Fellowship Program for Emerging Displaced Scholars
Through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Program in Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities, Columbia Global Centers | Amman has established a fellowship program starting on January 1, 2019 that offers 12-month fellowships for emerging displaced scholars interested in the humanities to continue and further develop their scholarly pursuits.
Call for Papers - Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East - March 2-3, 2019
The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) at Columbia University in collaboration with the Columbia Global Centers | Amman and co-sponsored by our partners in Europe, are organizing a conference entitled - Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East.
Call for Papers: “Pluralisms in Emergenc(i)es: Movement, Space, and Religious Difference” – Tunis
Regional Perspectives on International Mobility: Contextualizing the Model International Mobility Convention
This workshop brought together experts to critically examine the question of international mobility and theoretically and practically explore the MIMC. The meeting served as a platform for Professor Doyle to present and promote the MIMC, which proposes a framework for mobility with the goals of reaffirming the existing rights afforded to mobile people (and the corresponding rights and responsibilities of states), as well as expanding those basic rights where warranted.
The War in Yemen: Consequences of the Crisis and Prospects for Peace
The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies held an interdisciplinary panel discussion at Columbia Global Centers | Amman on the consequences of the conflict in Yemen, and strategies to address mental health in humanitarian and conflict resolution efforts.
Call for Papers: “Pluralisms in Emergenc(i)es: Movement, Space, and Religious Difference” – Tunis
The Institute for Religion, Culture & Public Life and Columbia Global Centers are organizing a conference entitled "Pluralism(s) in Emergencies: Movement, Space, and Religious Difference" in Tunis, Tunisia on July 11-12, 2018. The project is being organized with support from the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at the University of Oslo; and the Centre for Religion, Conflict, and Globalization at the University of Groningen.
Book Launch - Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly
Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut will be hosting a book talk event that will include a discussion between Maha Yahya, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, and Safwan M. Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University, for the launch of his new book on January 9, 2018.
Newsletter: The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Columbia University Joint Cultural Heritage Workshop
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in partnership with Columbia University, will be holding the third regional cultural heritage workshop, The Future of the Past: Addressing the Cultural Heritage Crisis in Iraq and Syria.
Newsletter: Where now for the Palestinian Right of Return: Special Balfour Centenary Workshop
To commemorate the one hundred year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Columbia Global Centers | Amman hosted a workshop in partnership with Dr. Ghada Karmi, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, on October 28.
Mental Health and the Psychological Impact of War on Individuals, Families and Communities in Yemen
This project remains ongoing and aims to address the adverse effects of armed conflict on the mental health of individuals, families and communities in Yemen, to bring mental health concerns into Yemen’s peace and reconciliation processes, and to strengthen recognition of the human right to mental health in Yemen and internationally.
Newsletter: How is Violence Framed and Treated in Relation to Gender?
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How is pluralism activated in emergency situations?
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Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly, by Safwan M Masri
In his book explaining why Tunisia is an “Arab anomaly”, Safwan Masri says it was “predisposed to democracy because of ingredients that are uniquely indigenous to it”. This is a controversial proposition but Masri sustains it, in a hymn to Tunisia that is also an examination of Arab shortcomings elsewhere — above all in education.
Call for Papers – Pluralism in Emergencies: Movement, Space, and Religious Difference
The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) at Columbia University is requesting paper proposals to present for its conference series “Pluralism in Emergenc(i)es: Movement, Space, and Religious Difference,” which will convene first in Amman and then in Tunis.
President’s Global Innovation Fund 2017
Provost John H. Coatsworth has announced the fifth round of grants from the President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF) on June 1, 2017. 11 projects received awards this year after being selected by a review committee of senior faculty drawn from both the Morningside and medical campuses.
The Evolving Visa and Border Regime by Elizabeth Redden
President Trump has said he wants “extreme vetting” and ideological testing of visa applicants. What will that look like, exactly? As American colleges wait to hear whether accepted applicants will take up their admission offers for the fall, what can they expect students who are coming from other countries to encounter when they apply for visas and when they show up at border security checkpoints at U.S. airports?
قراءة نفسية للأمين: ‘‘داعش‘‘ منح القاتل فرصة لتحويل جريمته لقضية عليا
عمان - قدم الصحفي والكاتب في "الحياة" اللندنية حازم الأمين، مقاربة حول صلة علم التحليل النفسي بظاهرة منتسبي "داعش"، من خلال قراءة استكشافية ميدانية للعشرات منهم، أظهرت وجود دوافع غير منسجمة فيما بينهم للالتحاق بالتنظيم و"الانتحار والقتل" كظاهرة جماعية، فيما اعتبر ان "داعش" "ابن انقسام مذهبي وفشل سياسات المجتمع الدولي والأنظمة العربية".
The Insidious Harm Of The Turn On Immigration - The Huffington Post Op-Ed by Professor Safwan Masri
Ways of life long relied upon are being overturned.
The Lucky Few: a historical perspective on migration with Professor Robert Young
We went into the vault for today’s episode, all the way back to a lecture that Professor Robert Young gave last year at the Columbia Global Center in Amman. We chose this particular lecture because Professor Young offers a historical perspective on an issue facing today’s society: migration.
Bollinger condemns Trump’s immigration ban as “discriminatory, damaging”
University President Lee Bollinger denounced President Donald Trump's executive order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States and advised community members and visitors from the designated countries to postpone international travel.
Reform Learning to Enable Arab Democracy - Financial Times Op-Ed by Professor Safwan Masri
To understand the despondent state of affairs in the Arab world today, one need only look at the region's education systems and how they have evolved through decades of deliberate attempts to suppress the Arab mind. Hyper-nationalist propaganda, exclusionary rhetoric and dogmatic religious discourse have been their defining features. The result has been that generations of Arabs have not only been deprived of a good education, but they have been taught to be narrow-minded, intolerant and ill-equipped for participation in a globalised world.
British filmmaker examines water theft in Jordan
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Exploring a Region in Transition as Change Sweeps the Middle East
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World leaders must do more to educate refugee children, say top academics and influencers
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Redefining a University’s Role for a World in Crisis
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Talk and book launch of "Return: A Palestinian Memoir" with Ghada Karmi
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2015-2016 Speaker Series
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President's Global Innovation Fund 2016
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PODCAST: The Case for Lasting U.S. Engagement in the Middle East - a Talk by Ambassador Alice Wells
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During the most tumultuous period the region has experienced in decades, the U.S. relationship with the Middle East has been the subject of intense interest and debate. Ambassador Wells made the case for why U.S. interests in the Middle East transcend the profound current challenges, and discussed how America’s national interests demand continued and deepened engagement with the region.
The Search for a Mideast Solution: A Discussion between Professor Safwan Masri and Nicolas Pelham
On April 11, 2016, Columbia Global Reports hosted a discussion about the book Holy Lands: Reviving Pluralism in the Middle East, published by Columbia Global Reports in 2016. The speakers included author of the book, Nicolas Pelham, Middle East correspondent for The Economist and Professor Safwan M.
Is the American Century Over
For more than a century, the United States has been the world's most powerful state. Now, some analysts predict that China will soon take its place. Does this mean that the American Century is over? Will China's rapid rise spark a new Cold War between the two titans?
Call for Applications: Sixth Annual Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Palestine Studies
The Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University's Middle East Institute is pleased to announce the 2016-17 Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (IAL) Award in Palestine Studies.
Save the Date: International Legal Dialogue—Middle East North Africa
The Columbia Global Centers | Middle East, Columbia Law School, and the American Society of International Law are holding a conference on the theme “International Legal Dialogue—Middle East North Africa” on December 14 - 15, 2015.
PODCAST: Qatar: Small State, Big Politics - A Talk by Mehran Kamrava
MENA religious leaders prepare strategy against incitement to violence
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PODCAST: Gulf States’ Hard Power vs. Soft Power: A Line in the Sand - A Talk by Sultan Al Qassemi
Syria’s Refugee Crisis: Public Health Challenges
In March 2011, pro-democracy protests erupted in Syria. Violent conflict between demonstrators and government forces spiraled into what is now, four and a half years later, a civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people and forced more than 4 million people to flee the country, with millions more families displaced inside Syria’s borders.
Columbia's global center strategy prioritizes engagement over NYU's 'one-way exchange of knowledge'
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The Role of Local Government in Addressing the Impact of Syrian Refugees: Jordan Case Study
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Academic Visit by Professor Ari Goldman
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Visit to Tunisia
Professor Safwan Masri visited Tunisia on July 27 - August 1 in follow up to his week-long exploratory visit in January 2015 with Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger and Jean Magnano Bollinger.
Announcing the fifth recipient of the Ibrahim Abu Lughod Award in Palestine Studies
Announcing the fifth recipient of the Ibrahim Abu Lughod Award in Palestine Studies, Areej Sabbagh-Khoury
Register for Columbia GlobeMUN Istanbul, Nov. 5-8
High school students from Jordan and the region are invited to register for the Columbia GlobeMUN conference to be held in Istanbul on November 5 to 8, 2015.
PODCAST - The Tunisian Democratic Transition in Comparative Perspective: A Talk by Alfred Stepan
Summer Program on Democracy and Constitutional Engineering in the Middle East
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Symposium: Global Think-In on Time and Trauma - Memory in Global Perspective
The Columbia Global Centers | Middle East hosted the Global Think-In on Time and Trauma: Memory in Global Perspective on April 18. The event included a film screening of "Letter to a Refusing Pilot" by filmmaker Akram Zaatari.
Looking at Tunisia: A Series of Talks
The Columbia Global Centers | Middle East organized a thematic speaker series entitled “Looking at Tunisia” that ran at the Center from March-June 2015.
US reacting to, rather than preventing terrorism in Middle East — journalist
In a lecture Wednesday at Columbia University Middle East Research Centre about America’s policy in the region, Ignatius said Iraq is the most obvious example of the “limits of American power to solve the region’s problems”.