Stanford University

Human Rights

Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2017 Report Launch

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Please join Freedom House and Stanford's Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPI) for the West Coast launch of the latest edition of Freedom on the Net, Freedom House's annual study of Internet freedom around the world. 

 

Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy

 

Speakers and Panelists

Michael Abramowitz

President, Freedom House

 

Larry Diamond

Senior fellow, FSI and the Hoover Institution

 

Sanja Kelly

Director, Freedom on the Net, Freedom House

 

Xiao Qiang

Founder and editor-in-chief, China Digital Times (CDT)

 

Paola Ricaurte Quijano

Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

 

Dariya Orlova

Mohyla School of Journalism, Kiev, Ukraine 

 

Justine Isola

Product Policy Manager, Facebook

 

 

Moderator

Eileen Donahoe

Executive director, Global Digital Policy Incubator

 

Can't join in person? This event will be Livestreamed here: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordCDDRL/

 

Tweet with us at #NetFreedom2017

 

 

 

Bechtel Conference Center (Encina Hall)

616 Serra St.

Stanford, CA 94305-6055

 

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Panel Discussions
CDDRL Special Events

Labor Activism under Egypt’s New Authoritarianism

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ABSTRACT

Despite security surveillance, forced dismissals of labor activists, and referrals of labor activists and protesters to military trials, labor activism remains at the forefront of societal resistance to authoritarian policies and practices in today’s Egypt. Unionized workers in public and private industrial facilities, as well as civil servants inside the state bureaucracy, continue to demonstrate and organize strikes to articulate their economic and social demands and to defend workers’ rights to freedoms of expression and association. Protests by labor activists have even impacted key sectors, such as public transportation and healthcare. While the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration has settled some formal complaints and requests filed by workers and civil servants, most cases have been referred to labor courts. The ministry has also resorted to providing temporary financial assistance and other short-term benefits to appease some workers and civil servants and to address the upsurge in labor protests. This talk will examine the various administrative, security, legislative, and judicial tools that the regime of Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has employed to undermine labor activism. Joel Beinin will serve as a discussant.

 

SPEAKER BIO

Amr Hamzawy is a Senior Research Scholar at CDDRL. He studied political science and developmental studies in Cairo, The Hague, and Berlin. He was previously an associate professor of political science at Cairo University and a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as a senior fellow in the Middle East program and the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC. 

His research and teaching interests as well as his academic publications focus on democratization processes in Egypt, tensions between freedom and repression in the Egyptian public space, political movements and civil society in Egypt, contemporary debates in Arab political thought, and human rights and governance in the Arab world. He is currently writing a new book on contemporary Egyptian politics, titled Egypt’s New Authoritarianism.

Hamzawy is a former member of the Egyptian parliament, and was elected to office in the country’s first legislative elections following the January 25, 2011 revolution. He is also a former member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. Hamzawy contributes a weekly op-ed to the Egyptian independent newspaper al-Shorouk and a weekly op-ed to the London based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi.

 

DISCUSSANT BIO

Joel Beinin is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1982 before coming to Stanford in 1983.  From 2006 to 2008 he served as Director of Middle East Studies and Professor of History at the American University in Cairo.  In 2002 he served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

Beinin’s research and writing focus on the social and cultural history and political economy of modern Egypt, Palestine, and Israel and on US policy in the Middle East.  He has written or edited eleven books, most recently Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2015); Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, 2nd edition (Stanford University Press, 2013) co-edited with Frédéric Vairel; and The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt (Solidarity Center, 2010).

 Reuben Hills Conference Room
 2nd Floor East Wing E207
 Encina Hall
 616 Serra Street
 Stanford, California 94305

Amr Hamzawy

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Amr Hamzawy is the director of the Carnegie Middle East Program. He studied political science and developmental studies in Cairo, The Hague, and Berlin. He was previously an associate professor of political science at Cairo University and a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo.

His research and teaching interests as well as his academic publications focus on democratization processes in Egypt, tensions between freedom and repression in the Egyptian public space, political movements and civil society in Egypt, contemporary debates in Arab political thought, and human rights and governance in the Arab world. His new book On The Habits of Neoauthoritarianism – Politics in Egypt Between 2013 and 2019 appeared in Arabic in September 2019.

Hamzawy is a former member of the People’s Assembly after being elected in the first Parliamentary elections in Egypt after the January 25, 2011 revolution. He is also a former member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. Hamzawy contributes a weekly op-ed to the Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi.

 

Former Senior Research Scholar, CDDRL
Senior Research Scholar, CDDRL
Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

Oleksandra Matviichuk

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Visiting Scholar, Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program 2017-18
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Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on issues in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present she heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS. The activities of the Center for Civil Liberties are aimed at protecting human rights and establishing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organization is developing legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, conducts educational activities for young people and implements international solidarity programs. 

The Euromaidan SOS initiative group was created in response to the brutal dispersal of a peaceful student rally in Kyiv on November 30, 2013. During three months of mass protests that were called the Revolution of Dignity, several thousand volunteers provided round-the-clock legal and other aid to persecuted people throughout the country. Since the end of the protests and beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the initiative has been monitoring political persecution in occupied Crimea, documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the hybrid war in the Donbas and conducting the “LetMyPeopleGo” international campaign to release political prisoners detained by the Russian authorities. 

Oleksandra Matviichuk has experience in creating horizontal structures for massive involvement of people in human rights activities against attacks on rights and freedoms, as well as a multi-year practice of documenting violations during armed conflict. She is the author of a number of alternative reports to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and the International Criminal Court. In 2016 she received the Democracy Defender Award for "Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from missions to the OSCE.

Inaugural cohort of Ukrainian Emerging Leaders selected

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Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is proud to announce the selected practitioners for the 2017-18 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program. 

“This inaugural program is CDDRL’s first year-long academic program aimed at mid-career professionals,” said Mosbacher Director of CDDRL Director Francis Fukuyama. “We see this as a wonderful opportunity to train Ukrainian leaders and equip them with the networks and resources to advance democratic change in a country where it is urgently needed.”

In its inaugural year, the program received an overwhelming response with 340 applications for just three positions. Starting this September, an outstanding group of Ukrainian leaders who are working to achieve and strengthen democratic reforms, civil society, transparency and economic development in their various sectors will have the opportunity to study at Stanford and to launch a project to support democratization in Ukraine. The following emerging leaders were selected for their contributions to Ukraine’s political development, their leadership potential and strong project proposals:

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on advancing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present, she heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS, which aided persecuted protesters during the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14. In 2016, she received the Democracy Defender Award for "Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from missions to the OSCE.

Dmytro Romanovych works at the Reform Delivery Office for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Romanovych is an advisor to the Minister of Economy, and is responsible for deregulation and improving the business climate in Ukraine. In addition, he is an economic expert in the largest NGO coalition in Ukraine, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, which is the most influential non-governmental reform advocate in the country.

Olexandr Starodubtsev is a Ukrainian reformer who is deeply involved in the creation of a new electronic public procurement system Prozorro. Starodubtsev is the head of the Public Procurement Regulation Department in The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, and is an official policymaker in the spheres of public procurement and economic development in Ukraine.

This program would not have been possible without the support of a set of generous partners and donors. We would like to thank WNISEF, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Tomas Fiala and Astem.Foundation for their generous support of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program. We would also like to acknowledge Oleksandr and Kateryna Akymenko for their work to design and launch this program, and our Draper Hills Summer Fellows alumni Olga Aivazovska, Vasyl Marmazov, Kateryna Ryabiko, and Svitlana Zalishchuk for their assistance in the review process.

A public event to celebrate the launch of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program will take place on October 3, 2017 at Stanford University. More information is forthcoming.

To read more in Ukrainian, please click here. For updates, please sign up for our newsletter here.

 

 

 

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OLEKSANDRA MATVIICHUK


Center for Civil Liberties

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on issues in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present she heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS. The activities of the Center for Civil Liberties are aimed at protecting human rights and establishing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organization is developing legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, conducts educational activities for young people and implements international solidarity programs. 

The Euromaidan SOS initiative group was created in response to the brutal dispersal of a peaceful student rally in Kyiv on November 30, 2013. During three months of mass protests that were called the Revolution of Dignity, several thousand volunteers provided round-the-clock legal and other aid to persecuted people throughout the country. Since the end of the protests and beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the initiative has been monitoring political persecution in occupied Crimea, documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the hybrid war in the Donbas and conducting the “LetMyPeopleGo” international campaign to release political prisoners detained by the Russian authorities. 

Oleksandra Matviichuk has experience in creating horizontal structures for massive involvement of people in human rights activities against attacks on rights and freedoms, as well as a multi-year practice of documenting violations during armed conflict. She is the author of a number of alternative reports to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and the International Criminal Court. In 2016 she received the Democracy Defender Award for "Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from missions to the OSCE.

 

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DMYTRO ROMANOVYCH

Reform Delivery Office for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

 

Dmytro Romanovych works at the Reform Delivery Office for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. With a team of project managers, they work directly with the prime minister by facilitating reforms, monitoring progress and coordinating across ministries. The Reform Delivery Office focuses on issues of public administration reform, business climate improvement, industrial policy and innovations, healthcare reform and privatization. Romanovych is also an advisor to the Minister of Economy, and is responsible for deregulation and improving the business climate in Ukraine. In addition, he is an economic expert in the largest NGO coalition in Ukraine, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, which is the most influential non-governmental reform advocate in the country.

Romanovych's key responsibility is to ensure the Cabinet of Ministers and Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) both adopt Ukraine's deregulation agenda. This includes developing the concept of the deregulation documents, involvement and coordination of the stakeholders, passing documents through approval process, public promotion, etc. Due largely in part to its deregulation reform, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was recognized as a leader in the reform process in comparison with other ministries Over the last year, Romanovych has organized several high-level meetings that have resulted in the adoption of 30 deregulation documents, the abolishment of 500 regulations and the passing of draft laws on state control system reform by the Verkhovna Rada. Prior to this he was among the creators of the Better Regulation Delivery Office institution, which is now is the key think-tank and task force for business climate improvement and restructuring of the government policy-making process. Romanovych graduated from Kharkiv State Economic University with a Master’s Degree in Economic Cybernetics.

 

 

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OLEXANDR STARODUBTSEV

Prozorro

 

Olexandr Starodubtsev is a Ukrainian reformer who is deeply involved in the creation of a new electronic public procurement system Prozorro, which is one of the most famous reforms in the country. Currently Starodubtsev is the Head of the Public Procurement Regulation Department in The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, and is an official policy maker in the spheres of public procurement and economic development in Ukraine.

The Prozorro system is famous for its different approaches to bottom-up reform based on the close collaboration between government, business and civil society. In 2016, the Prozorro system won several distinguished international awards, such as the Open Government Partnership Award, the Public Procurement Award, and was also recognized by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and Open Contracting Partnership. Moreover, Prozorro and its principles became an inspirational example for other Ukrainian reforms.

Starodubtsev was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1979. He graduated from Kharkiv National University in 2002. Previously he worked on the stock market where he made his career as a back-office specialist up to a managing partner of a Ukrainian branch of a multinational financial institution. He received an MBA degree from the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and became Alumnus of the Year in its first competition in 2015. He is married and has a son and a daughter.

 

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Eileen Donahoe

Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 721-5345 (650) 724-2996
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Eileen Donahoe is the co-founder and an affiliated scholar at the Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPI) at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. (Previously, she served as GDPI’s executive director.) GDPI is a global multi-stakeholder collaboration hub for the development of policies that reinforce human rights and democratic values in a digitized society. Current research priorities include: international trends in AI governance, technical methods for aligning AI with democratic norms and standards, evolution of digital authoritarian policies and practices, and emerging blockchain and AI-enabled tools to support democracy.

Eileen served in the Biden administration as US Special Envoy for Digital Freedom at the Department of State. She also served in the Obama administration as the first US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva during a period of significant institutional reform and innovation. After the Obama administration, she joined Human Rights Watch as Director of Global Affairs, where she represented the organization worldwide on human rights foreign policy, with special emphasis on digital rights, cybersecurity, and internet governance. Earlier in her career, she was a technology litigator at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley.

Eileen serves as Vice Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy Board of Directors; on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Board of Directors; and on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. She is a member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), the World Economic Forum AI Governance Alliance, and the Resilient Governance and Regulation working group. Previously, she served on the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, the University of Essex Advisory Board on Human Rights, Big Data and Technology, the NDI Designing for Democracy Advisory Board, and the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network. Degrees: BA, Dartmouth; J.D., Stanford Law School; MA East Asian Studies, Stanford; M.T.S., Harvard; and Ph.D., Ethics & Social Theory, GTU Cooperative Program with UC Berkeley. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

CDDRL Affiliated Scholar
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Taiwan's White Terror from the Vantage of Fiction: A Reading and Discussion

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Shawna Yang Ryan

Green Island: A Novel

A stunning story of love, betrayal, and family set against the backdrop of a changing Taiwan over the course of the 20th century. 

February 28, 1947: Trapped inside the family home amid an uprising that has rocked Taipei, Dr. Tsai delivers his youngest daughter, the unnamed narrator of Green Island, just after midnight as the city is plunged into martial law. In the following weeks, as the Chinese Nationalists act to crush the opposition, Dr. Tsai becomes one of the many thousands of people dragged away from their families and thrown into prison. His return, after more than a decade, is marked by alienation from his loved ones and paranoia among his community - conflicts that loom over the growing bond he forms with his youngest daughter. Years later, this troubled past follows her to the United States, where, as a mother and a wife, she too is forced to decide between what is right and what might save her family - the same choice she witnessed her father make many years before. 

As the novel sweeps across six decades and two continents, the life of the narrator shadows the course of Taiwan's history from the end of Japanese colonial rule to the decades under martial law and, finally, to Taiwan's transformation into a democracy. But, above all, Green Island is a lush and lyrical story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, raising the question: How far would you be willing to go for the ones you love?

 
About the Author
Shawna Yang Ryan teaches fiction in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is the author of Water Ghosts and Green Island, a novel set during Taiwan's White Terror. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Elliot Cades Emerging Writer Award, Hawaii's highest literary honor.

 

 

Oksenberg Room, 3rd Floor

Encina Hall

616 Serrra St.

Shawna Yang Ryan Author University of Hawai'i, Manoa
Lectures

Stanford Draper Hills’ fellow arrested and beaten in Belarus

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The alumni community of the Stanford Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program condemns the arrest of our 2015 fellow from Belarus, Aleś Łahviniec, who suffered a head injury and broken nose after two policemen broke into his home on March 23. He was one of more than a hundred activists arrested, a complete list can be found here. Łahviniec is a prominent civil society activist in Belarus. He attended the prestigious Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program at Stanford University in 2015 and has joined an alumni community of over 300 activists and leaders across 70 countries supported by the Omidyar Network. The program is taught by leading political scientists, including; Michael McFaul, Francis Fukuyama, Larry Diamond, and Kathryn Stoner, among others. As members of the Draper Hills’ alumni community, we call on members of the international community to condemn the attack and demand for his immediate release. We also call upon support by lawyers of conscience in Belarus to support Łahviniec and others wrongfully imprisoned.

 

-Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University, USA

-Michael McFaul, Stanford University, USA

-Sarina Beges, Stanford University, USA

-Sadaf Minapara, Stanford University, USA

-Djurdja Jovanovic Padejski, Stanford University, USA

-Judith February, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa

-Mauricio Alarcón-Salvador, Fundamedios - Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo, Ecuador

-Nino Evgenidze, Economic Policy Research Center, Georgia

-Lilit Petrosyan, Etichs Commission of High-Ranking Officials, Armenia

-Givi Chanukvadze, Economic Policy Research Center, Georgia

-Dmytro Potekhin, European Strategy Group, Ukraine

-Myat Ko Ko, Yangon School of Political Science, Burma

-Ala'a Shehabi, Bahrain Watch; University of Lancasater's Work Foundation, Bahrain

-Eka Kemularia, Democracy and Development Center, Georgia

-Raja Manohar, Hexolabs Interactive Technologies (P) Limited, India

-Alina Belskaya, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Georgia

-Darko Brkan, Informational and Communication Technology, Bosnia and Herzegovina

-Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, Human Rights Founder, Sierra Leon

-Olga Stuzhinskaya, Minsk, Belgium

-Oluseun David Onigbinde,  BudgIT, Nigeria

-Astghik Gevorgyan, The Central Bank (CB) of Armenia Diversity Office, Ontario Public Service (Canada), Armenia

-Roukaya Kasenally, Africian Media Initiative (AMI); Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy (EISA), Mauritius

-Anna Sevortian, EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, Russia

-Mohammed Nosseir, Global Marketing Consultancy, Egypt

-Denis Volkov, Levada Center, Russia

-Lisseth Boon, www.runrun.es, Venezuela

-Olga Aivazovska, All-Ukrainain NGO :Civic Network "OPORA", Ukraine

-Dala Ghandour, Chamber of Commerce of Beirut and Mount-Lebanon, Beirut

-Shain Abbasov, Council of Europe, Azerbaijan

-Laura Gil, Minister of Interior, Colombia

-Chandralal Majuwana, Chulalongkorn University, Sri Lanka

-Yusmadi Yusoff, Lawyer & Chairman of RIGHTS Foundation, Malaysia

-David Tola Winjobi, CAFSO-WRAG for Development, Nigeria

-Huong Le, UNDP, Viet Nam

-Yuri Dzhibladze, President, Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, Russia

-Rafolisy Patrick, Executive Director, NGO Ivorary (Integrity 4 Development), President, MEDEM (Mouvement Ethique et Développement de Madagascar), Madagascar

-Laura Gil, Colombia                         

-Auni Sulaeman, Iraq

-Rabih El Chaer, NGO "Sakker El Dekkene", Lebanon

-Chito Gascon, Commission on Human Rights, Philippines

-Ester Hakobyan, Children of Armenia Fund, Armenia

-Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Nonviolent Initiative for Democracy Inc (NID), Iran

-Thinley Choden, Social Entrepreneur, Bhutan 

-Oludotun Babayemi, Connected Development, Nigeria

-Natalia Yudina, SOVA center, Russia

-Svitlana Zalishchuk, Member of Parliament, Ukraine

-Gladwell Otieno, AfriCOG, Kenya

-Vera Tkachenko, Kazakhstan

-Nkiru Celine Okoro, Nigeria

-Iryna Vidanava, Belarus

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Preventing ISIS 3.0: Winning the Peace in Iraq

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ABSTRACT

The Iraqi government, the Peshmerga, the international coalition and a consortium of militia have been winning the war against ISIS in Iraq.  The concern moving forward is whether Iraq’s state institutions have what it takes to prevent ISIS from reemerging in a new, and more deadly form after the current conflict is over. What does recent history, the current military campaign, and the Donald Trump administration’s current trajectory tell us about Iraq’s prospects?

 

SPEAKER BIO

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Zaid Al-Ali is the Senior Adviser on Constitution-Building for the Arab Region at International IDEA and an independent scholar.  In his work, Al-Ali focuses on constitutional developments throughout the Arab region, with a particular focus on Iraq and the wave of reforms that took place in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen following the start of popular uprisings in December 2010.  Al-Ali has published extensively on constitutional reform in the Arab region, including on process design issues and the impact of external influence.  He is the author of The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy (Yale University Press 2014).  Prior to joining International IDEA, Zaid worked as a legal adviser to the United Nations in Iraq, focusing on constitutional, parliamentary and judicial reform.  He also practiced international commercial arbitration law for 12 years, representing clients in investment and oil and gas disputes mainly as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling LLC in Paris and also as a sole practitioner.  He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a Maitrise en Droit from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and an LL.B. from King’s College London.  He was a Law and Public Affairs Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University in 2015-2016.  He is the founder of the Arab Association of Constitutional Law and is a member of its executive committee.

Reuben Hills Conference Room
2nd Floor East Wing E207
Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, California 94305

Zaid Al-Ali Senior Adviser International IDEA
Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

War Is Coming: Between Past and Future Violence in Lebanon

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ABSTRACT

From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon experienced a long war involving various national and international actors. The peace agreement that followed and officially propelled the country into a "postwar" era did not address many of the root causes of war, nor did it hold main actors accountable. Instead, a politics of "no victor, no vanquished" was promoted, in which the political elite agreed simply to consign the war to the past. However, since then, Lebanon has found itself still entangled in various forms of political violence, from car bombings and assassinations to additional outbreaks of armed combat.

In this talk, Sami Hermez discusses his newly released book War Is Coming. The book argues that the country's political leaders have enabled the continuation of violence and examines how people live between these periods of conflict. What do everyday conversations, practices, and experiences look like during these moments? How do people attempt to find a measure of certainty or stability in such times? Hermez's ethnographic study of everyday life in Lebanon between the volatile years of 2006 and 2009 tackles these questions and reveals how people engage in practices of recollecting past war while anticipating future turmoil. Hermez demonstrates just how social interactions and political relationships with the state unfold and critically engages our understanding of memory and violence, seeing in people's recollections living and spontaneous memories that refuse to forget the past. With an attention to the details of everyday life, War Is Coming shows how even a conversation over lunch, or among friends, may turn into a discussion about both past and future unrest.

Shedding light on the impact of protracted conflict on people's everyday experiences and the way people anticipate political violence, Hermez highlights an urgency for alternative paths to sustaining political and social life in Lebanon.

 

SPEAKER BIO

hermez sami
Sami Hermez, PhD, is assistant professor in residence of anthropology at Northwestern University in Qatar. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University. His recently published book with Penn Press, War is Coming: Between Past and Future Violence in Lebanon (2017), focuses on the everyday life of political violence in Lebanon and how people recollect and anticipate this violence.  His broader research concerns include the study of social movements, the state, memory, security, and human rights in the Arab World. He has held posts as Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, Visiting Professor of Contemporary International Issues at the University of Pittsburgh, Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Mt. Holyoke College, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. At Northwestern in Qatar he teaches classes in anthropology that include topics such as violence, gender, and anthropology in the Middle East.

CISAC Central Conference Room
Encina Hall, 2nd Floor
616 Serra St
Stanford, CA 94305

Sami Hermez Assistant Professor of Anthropology Northwestern University in Qatar
Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

CDDRL’s Statement on President’s Travel Ban

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The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University collaborates widely with academics, policymakers and practitioners around the world to advance knowledge and practice about democracy, broad-based economic development, human rights, and the rule of law. We are deeply concerned by the recent executive order on immigration issued by the new administration. This order impacts members of our community - students, practitioners, academics, and visitors - who come to Stanford to attend our training programs, conferences and conduct research. Ultimately, barring entry into the country of citizens from a specific set of countries compromises the quality of our research, programming and intellectual activities. It also violates our shared values and integrity as an academic research institute.

 

CDDRL is currently in the process of reviewing the applications for our 2017 Draper Hills Summer Fellowship program and we want to assure everyone that each applicant will be equally considered, regardless of their country of origin.

 

In over a decade of working and training democracy activists from all over the world – including Muslim majority countries – we have developed friendships with colleagues who are working against great odds to build democratic institutions. The overwhelming majority is risking their lives to do so. These fellows together with students and researchers challenge our theories about democratic development and help inspire new projects and ideas to enrich our research agenda, not only for our center, but also for our broader institute - The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

 

We will continue to build our relationships equally with all countries around the world regardless of this new policy, and will stand in solidarity with those who are targeted by the adverse effects. The one lesson that recent events have conveyed is the resounding importance of the work we do to understand how countries become just, democratic and well-governed states.

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The class of 2016 Draper Hills Summer Fellows
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