Arab Barometer Wave IV

This event is co-sponsored with The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.

ABSTRACT

The Arab Barometer is the first and largest project of its kind that gives voice to the opinions and concerns of ordinary citizens across the Middle East and North Africa. Beginning in 2006, it has conducted rigorous and representative public opinion surveys in 15 countries over four waves. To date, across these waves, more than 45,000 face-to-face interviews have been conducted in the respondent’s place of residence. Among the topics explored are attitudes and values pertaining to politics, economics, religion, democracy, quality of governance, women’s rights, and identity. Arab Barometer data, which are publicly accessible through the Barometer’s website, are a valuable resource for research that seeks not only to describe but also to explain public attitudes on important issues affecting the MENA region. The Arab Barometer is directed by a steering committee composed of team leaders from four institutions in the Arab world and researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan. In this workshop, Amaney Jamal, Mark Tessler and Michael Robbins will present results from the fourth wave of data and an overview of the upcoming fifth wave.

SPEAKERS BIO

Amaney A. Jamal is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics at Princeton University and director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. Jamal also directs the Workshop on Arab Political Development. She currently is President of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS). The focus of her current research is democratization and the politics of civic engagement in the Arab world. Her interests also include the study of Muslim and Arab Americans and the pathways that structure their patterns of civic engagement in the United States. Jamal’s books include: Barriers to Democracy(2007), which explores the role of civic associations in promoting democratic effects in the Arab world (winner of the 2008 APSA Best Book Award in comparative democratization).

Mark Tessler is Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Politics at the University of Michigan, where he also previously served as Vice-Provost for International Affairs. He has conducted research in Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Palestine and hasdirected or co-directed social science training and capacity-building programs in nine Arab countries. Tessler is also co-founder and a past president of the American Institution for Maghrib Studies. Among the fifteen books he has authored or coauthored are Public Opinion in the Middle East: Survey Research and the Political Orientations of Ordinary Citizens (2011); and Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens (2015). His current research examines the way that ordinary citizens in the MENA region think about women’s rights and status and the degree to which their attitudes are, or are not, shaped by religious attachments and understandings.

Michael Robbins is Director of the Arab Barometer. He has led or overseen more than 50 surveys in international contexts and is a leading expert in survey methods to prevent data fabrication. His work on Arab public opinion, political Islam and political parties has been published inComparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution and the Journal of Democracy. He received the American Political Science Association Aaron Wildavsky Award for the Best Dissertation in the field of Religion and Politics. Previously, he has served as a research fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and aresearch associate at the Pew Research Center.

Following this event, Stanford student presentations will take place in the Reuben Hills Conference Room (2nd Floor Encina East Wing, E207) from 1:30pm to 2:30pm.

Christiana Parreira 
Title: Modernization and the Politics of Contemporary Kinship in the Middle East 
Comments: Amaney Jamal

Scott Williamson 
Title: Electoral Legitimacy and Compliance in Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from the Arab World 
Comments: Michael Robbins

Salma Mousa 
Title: The Casual Effect of Sectarian Violence: Terrorism, Political Preferences, and Religiosity in Iraq 
Comments: Mark Tessler