The Revolutionary Movements in Algeria and Lebanon (AfterCorona #12)

This episode delves deep into the ongoing revolutionary movements in Algeria and Lebanon. Ratiba Hadj-Moussa and Rana Sukarieh provide us with a rich and inspiring account of developments, offering social-economic background to the events of the last two years, outlining the main contours of the political struggles in the two countries and drawing comparative insights. In particular we gain: a clear sense of the geographies of the movements, the solidarities and tensions within them, the crucial place of women activists and gender as a focal point, and how the state is reacting to these diverse demands for justice and democracy. We also consider how Covid-19 has shaped developments. Guests: Ratiba Hadj-Moussa is professor of Sociology at York University, Toronto. Her areas of specialization are the sociology of culture and political sociology. Her interests range from common cultural artefacts to art (cinema) and visual culture in general. My work is anchored within the scope of three major fields: 1. Mediascapes, principally new media, in relation to politics and shared spaces as they are constituted and evolve in non-Western contexts; 2. Marginalized forms of protest and new forms of the political; 3, Public Memory and its relations to alternatives and official memories. Her recent publications include La télévision par satellite au Maghreb et ses publics. Espace de résistance, espaces critiques (PUG-2015, English version Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2018). She is the editor of Terrains difficiles, Sujets sensibles, faire de la recherche au Maghreb et sur le Moyen-Orient (Du Croquant, 2019), and the co-editor of Protests and Generations, Legacies and Emergences in the Middle East , North African and the Mediterranean (Brill, 2017) ; Suffering , Arts and Aesthetics (2014), and of Les Mondes méditerranéens . L’émeute au coeur du politique (2013). Rana Sukarieh is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at York University, Toronto, Canada. Her dissertation focuses on the (dis)continuity of political solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the process of transcending activists’ differences in order to build sustained solidarity. Rana's research interests are in the areas of transnational social movements, social movements and political economy in the Middle East, critical qualitative research, and post-colonial studies. She is a recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council award (SSHRC), of Ontario Graduate Studies (OGS), and the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security award at York University. She is currently teaching at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.