What is Pan-Arabism and what is its legacy? From its rise during anti-colonial struggles, over the formation of the Arab League, to the failed revolutions of The Arab Spring, our panellists will explore Pan-Arabism’s popularity in the 50s and 60s and examine its relevance in a contemporary context, in view of the Hamed Abdalla exhibition currently on display at The Mosaic Rooms.

Egyptian artist Hamed Abdalla was an active member of the movement, maintaining ties to organisation such as the Arab League and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, many of which can be seen in some of the archival material on display in the exhibition.

Panelists

Reem Abou-El-Fadl is Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East at SOAS, University of London. Her current research examines the politics of pan-Arabism and transnational solidarity in Egypt, comparing the Nasser and Sadat periods. She is the editor of Revolutionary Egypt: Connecting Domestic and International Struggles (Routledge, 2015), and her book Foreign Policy as Nation Making: Turkey and Egypt in the Cold War is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, researched and taught in Beirut, Paris and Berlin, and is at present, since 2007, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books include: The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published in 15 languages; Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky; The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives; The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising; and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising.

Olivier Hadouchi is an independent researcher and film curator with a PhD in Cinema Studies. He writes regularly for film magazines and journals including CinémAction, Mondes du Cinéma and Third Text. In 2017, he curated a film program for Museum Reina Sofia (Madrid), ZdB (Lisbon) and Bandits-Mages (Bourges). He often works with film Festivals and was a member of the Jury at « Documentary » in Beirut (2013) and in Algiers (2015).

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