Survival Politics: Baghdad’s Citizens from Saddam Hussein to the 2025 Elections
A Crown Seminar with Alissa Walter
November 12, 2025
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube channel.
Iraq’s parliamentary elections took place on November 11, 2025. The following day, we held a Crown Seminar that situated the elections within the context of Iraq’s modern history with Alissa Walter, author of the 2025 book Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad, and Prof. Marsin Alshamary. Their conversation examined the ongoing struggle over state power and political order in Iraq—and how ordinary citizens have long negotiated with state officials, militias, and political parties to survive and assert their rights.
Alissa Walter is associate professor of history at Seattle Pacific University
Marsin Alshamary is assistant professor of political science at Boston College.