Jadaliyya

Overview

In Arabic, جدلية Jadaliyya (derived from the word جدل “jadal”), means “dialectic."

All of Jadaliyya's co-editors are unpaid volunteers and it does not accept advertising. While most of Jadaliyya is either self-funded or funded by barter for "big projects," it has received grants from the Open Society Institute. According to Portal 9: "The Arab uprisings, which gained momentum only a few months after Jadaliyya was established, firmly catapulted it to the forefront of critical debates and analysis of the Arab world."

One of the founding editors, George Mason University professor Bassam Haddad, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Jadaliyya aspires to "offer a scholarly, left-of-center ‘counter discourse’ to the mainstream conversation about the Arab world." Georgetown University professor and contributor Elliot Colla also noted in the Chronicle that, “I couldn’t say there’s a dogma; in fact there’s a lot of argument and debate [….] but there is a political project." Finally, another professor described Jadaliyya to the Chronicle as "friends publishing friends on issues they agree upon."

History

Jadaliyya is one in a series of knowledge production projects under the rubric of the Arab Studies Institute. These include an academic research journal (est. 1992), a documentary film collective (est. in 2003), and a publishing house (est. 2012). According to Haddad (who is also founder of the Arab Studies Institute) the impetus behind Jadaliyya originated in 2002 with the intent to create "a publication that would have a wider circulation" than the scholarly, peer-reviewed Arab Studies Journal. Haddad and his colleague Sinan Antoon believed that "good knowledge was being hoarded in journals that are largely inaccessible to the general public" and wanted "to reach beyond the academic community." The idea was shelved, however, after the Iraq War began in 2003 and their team focused instead on documentary film production producing three films in a period of six years (About Baghdad, What is Said About Arabs and Terrorism, and The Other Threat).

In 2009, influenced by new developments in social media, Haddad revisited the project with Antoon, Sherene Seikaly, Nadya Sbaiti, Noura Erakat, and Maya Mikdashi. They completed a private test launch of Jadaliyya during the summer of 2010 and officially launched the ezine on September 21, 2010. Since then, the editorial team has expanded and currently features a total number of 15 co-editors. Jadaliyya was founded on "an anti-corporate and solidarity-based model of work. Whenever possible, our mode of operation is largely non-hierarchical, though not without leadership." The goal of the co-editors was to make an interactive and "user-friendly" website with open language (English, Arabic, and French) and submission length. The editors also utilized a number of social media formats including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, tablet and mobile phone apps, and Readspeaker. According to Haddad: "nearly every submission goes through a rigorous review process that includes at least two reviews before going to the copy editor."

Response

Jadaliyya has been influential in both educational environments and the media. Ursula Lindsey in The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that Jadaliyya has "become a reference for many professors in the field. It reaches beyond academia as well. Updated daily, the site boasts about half a million unique visitors a month, and its articles are widely shared on social media [....] Jadaliyya’s reception has been largely positive among scholars of the Middle East." In addition, Assistant Professor of Anthropology Julia Elyachar states that:

Jadaliyya has quickly become the go-to place for information and analysis of what is going on in Egypt and the region. Moreover, Jadaliyya is the place where writing of a kind that we associate with the best of anthropology--in the moment, grounded in theory, capturing historical transformation through engagement in events as they unfold--has been published. It seems to provide solutions to many problems we have been engaged with in anthropology -- the production of knowledge in and about the region, particularly in this time of the massive uprisings … Jadaliyya has been the place where some of the best “ethnographic” writing about the region in this time of incredible transformation and change is to be found.

Media outlets such as The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian,Inter Press Service,La Stampa, London Review of Books, The New York Times, NPR, and PBS have also referenced Jadaliyya when discussing events related to the Arab Uprisings, as well as the Middle East more generally. Furthermore, The Guardian states that "the Arab [Studies] Institute’s Jadaliyya website is an invaluable resource” while Al-masry Al-youm (English Edition) suggests that it “quickly became a port of call for many wanting to understand the tumultuous events unfolding across the region” by offering “more nuanced, in-depth coverage than most, but without the delays and exclusivity of academic journals.” In addition, Portal 9 refers to Jadaliyya as "an essential resource for many in and outside the Arab world" while Today's Zaman calls it "one of the leading English language Arab websites."

Various international and regional media outlets including the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Al Jazeera English,BBC,China Central Television,China Radio International, CNN, Democracy Now,Deutsche Welle,El Mundo, The Guardian,Le Figaro,MSNBC,The PBS NewsHour,Russia Today,The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post have featured interviews with Jadaliyya Co-Editors. In addition, media outlets such as The Guardian and Courrier International have republished Jadaliyya articles either in their original form or translated them into different languages.

Book

The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order?, (Pluto Press, 2012) is edited by three of Jadaliyya's co-editors, Bassam Haddad, Rosie Bsheer, and Ziad Abu-Rish. Composed of twenty essays originally published in Jadaliyya, the text (according to the editors) sheds "light on the historical background and initial impact of the mass uprisings which have shaken the Arab world since December 2010 [….] while the book focuses on those states that have been most affected by the uprisings it also covers the impact on Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq."

Timothy Mitchell, professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, observes that "as the work of scholars and activists with a rich knowledge of the region's histories and political aspirations, the essays offer lasting insights into the forces shaping a new moment in world history." Laleh Khalili, Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics, SOAS, University of London suggests that The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? is "a very rare combination - scholarly but also accessible for a broad public." She also argues that it will be "a much-treasured volume for undergraduate students, and its sophistication will also benefit postgraduates and academics."CUNY anthropologist Talal Asad frames the text as "perhaps the best introduction to the political movements that have shaken that region since January 2011. It represents a set of intelligent commentaries on revolutionary events in almost every Arab country, and their repercussions in the area generally and beyond. Essential reading." Lisa Wedeen, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, refers to it as "a primer of importance not only to students of the 'Arab spring,' but also to those concerned with protest more generally, this collection represents relevant writings from the early months of the uprisings. Registering both the exhilarating optimism and crushing disappointment of contemporary political life, this volume is recommended for anyone interested in the interrelationships among domestic, regional, and international affairs; it gives voice to some of the possibilities for and impasses to political transformation." Naira Antoun of Al-masry Al-youm (English Edition) suggests that the essays “offer informed analysis of the region, one that challenges Eurocentric approaches and incorporates political economy, as well as taking account of each country’s regional and international positioning.”