The Arab Spring Fifteen Years On
The Crown Center's Spring Kickoff Event
Thursday, January 15, 2026
4:30-6PM
Online and In Person (Register for virtual attendance)
Rapaporte Treasure Hall
Middle Eastern food and refreshments will be served.
When 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi self-immolated in response to the confiscation of his produce cart in Tunisia, no one saw how his death would give rise to waves of popular uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Fifteen years later, the ripples from the Arab Spring continue to move across the region. The Crown Center is excited to kick off the 2026 spring semester by bringing together a stellar panel of experts on Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen to revisit and reassess this pivotal period. The panel will move beyond the question of success or failure to explore how the Arab Spring reshaped relations between states and societies, created and foreclosed possibilities for political participation and coalition building, and shaped the region into what it is today.
Panelists
Nader Andrawos is a junior research fellow at the Crown Center.
Eva Bellin is the Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics at the Crown Center and the department of politics at Brandeis University.
Yasser Munif is an associate professor in sociology at Emerson College.
Anna Simone Reumert is the Neubauer Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center.
Moderator
Stacey Philbrick Yadav is professor and chair of the international relations department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center.