An example of an everyday practice is the word "Yalla". For most people from the Middle East, this word has a number of meanings, such as haste and anticipation of movement, but ̩also excitement, hope, and resilience.
About the group
In the research group YALLA: The politics and aesthetics of everyday life in the Middle East and North Africa, we believe that the study of these disparate attitudes is essential to understand the shades and contours of everyday life in the region.
Inspired by theories and methods of humanities and social sciences, we conceive everyday life as the ideal vantage point for an analysis of the social and the political, and a crucial initiator of its transformation.
Within the broader field of Middle East area studies, we apply a bottom-up perspective that captures how ordinary people assert their presence in society, practicing and aspiring to democracy, often in the absence of democratic state institutions.
We are also interested in how these stories are told in a variety of cultural forms, including literature, arts, and visual media.
Researchers involved in YALLA have linguistic and fieldwork expertise from several countries in the region, including Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.
Our approach emphasizes the importance of studying history to understand the present and engages with multiple disciplines, among which are anthropology, literature and culture studies, history, gender studies, critical theory, political science, translation studies and sociolinguistics.
Cooperation
We collaborate with several institutions located in the region among which: the MECAM (Meriam Center for Advanced Studies) center located in Tunis, the Finnish Institute in Beirut, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute and CEDEJ (Le Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales) in Cairo, and the Turkish Research Institute in Istanbul.
Background
The initiative grew out from the need to bring together different bodies of expertise and knowledge on the Middle East and North Africa from disparate institutions located in Norway and elsewhere.
We organise symposia, meetings, workshops, and conferences aimed at fostering an inclusive discussion about the MENA region that offers a platform to scholars from the region and especially to women and young researchers.
We also aim to strengthen the link between academia and cultural institutions in Norway, to convey a broader understanding of the Middle East to the wider society.
Related projects
In 2016: How it felt to live in the Arab World five years after the ‘Arab Spring’