MER Article "This Is Our Square" In June 2013 popular anger, excitement and apprehension rippled through Cairo. Lines at gas stations snaked into major roadways, paralyzing traffic. Artists occupied the Ministry of Culture to oppose a new minister from the Muslim Brothers’ Freedom and Justice Party who had fired respected cultural Vickie Langohr • 21 min read
MER Article Gender and Counterrevolution in Egypt The 18 days of revolution beginning on January 25, 2011 united Egypt. A wide range of citizens, men and women, veiled and unveiled, young and old, middle-class and working-class, stood behind the goals of ending the 30-year rule of Husni Mubarak and stopping the planned succession of his son to the Mervat Hatem • 16 min read
MER Article Glossary Gender is commonly understood to be the analysis of the social construction of categories of identity (feminine and masculine), as opposed to the biological determinism of physiological sex (female and male). “Gender” is nonetheless often uncritically conflated with “women,” and physiological or bio Norma Claire Moruzzi • 1 min read
MER Article Gender and the Revolutions How is gender related to revolutions? What is the connection between “gender” and women or, for that matter, between gender and women and men? If gender is generally understood to be the social construction of sexual difference, what explains the differences in gendered identities across cultures or Norma Claire Moruzzi • 16 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2013) A major victory for the hawks in the post-Vietnam era was to define “intervention” as military action and its opposite as inaction. Thus, in the recurrent debate over what to do about the civil war in Syria, the options are reduced to some sort of US strike, on the one hand, and nothing, on the oth The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Sojourners and Settlers The United States is a nation of common people from marginal environments. In spite of contemporary America’s preoccupation with coats of arms, few of our ancestors were the children of privilege. Nor did they come from lush plains or fecund valleys. More often it was the mountains and hill country Jon C. Swanson • 15 min read
MER Article Sojourners and Settlers: An Introduction The full moon over Mecca marked the end of the holy month of pilgrimage. Ten thousand miles away in California, a Yemeni work crew gathered around a pickup truck with its precious cargo of sheep destined for sacrifice. A group of cowboys looked on, bewildered. These farmworkers are part of a two-dec Jonathan Friedlander, Joe Stork • 2 min read
