Umut Özkırımlı

Neil Ketchley, Yezid Sayigh and Monica Marks. Protest in the Middle East | Videos | CCCB In this session, Neil Ketchley, speaks about the difficulties presented by this activism, most of them resulting from the repressive power...

The opening event of the Barcelona Summer School 2025 is now available to stream online.

"Protest in the Middle East" w/ Neil Ketchley, Monica Marks and Yezid Sayigh at CCCB

@ibei.org @blanquerna.bsky.social @iemed.bsky.social @catalunyaintl.bsky.social

www.cccb.org/en/multimedi...

Luca Can Özkirimli Larsson
18.03.2013 - 05.07.2018... 05.07.2025 💚

Halfway through, the Barcelona Summer School 2025 has already turned into a blast of ideas, debates, and late-night conversations, leaving everyone both exhausted and exhilarated for what's still to come.

@iemed.bsky.social @ibei.org @blanquerna.bsky.social

"Syria's Morning After: Who Owns the Revolution"

Public lecture by Fawaz Gerges (London School of Economics), with Yezid Sayigh (Carnegie Endowment for Intrenational Peace)

Join us at 18:30. Free admission

Venue: IEMed (Carrer de Girona, 20, L'Eixample, 08010 Barcelona)

Attended a very interesting discussion at Barcelona’s CCCB on Protest in the Middle East, featuring Fred Halliday winner Neil Ketchley, @monicamarks.bsky.social & @yezidsayigh.bsky.social. It’s the kickoff to Barcelona Summer School of Mediterranean & Middle East led by @umutozkirimli.bsky.social

Discussion Perceived Western complicity in the genocide in Gaza has eroded public support for the U.S. while boosting China's appeal • The absence of mass street-level mobilization masks other forms of contention: • Asef Bayat (2003): "The metaphorical [Arab street is not deserted, so much as it is controlled" • Pro-Palestinian activism as an established gateway to oppositional politics in the Arabic-speaking MENA (El Kurd 2020) • Ironic development: A longstanding and hitherto legally protected form of nonviolent activism — i.e. boycotting — is increasingly being legislated against in Western contexts while being freely practiced in autocracies

Example: The economic effects of the boycott in Egypt • Local franchises of Western companies have closed or laid off staff • A number of company CEOs have released public statements disavowing Israel's actions in Gaza • Significant growth in locally produced alternatives to Western products (e.g., water, soft drinks, fast food)

Attended a very interesting discussion at Barcelona’s CCCB on Protest in the Middle East, featuring Fred Halliday winner Neil Ketchley, @monicamarks.bsky.social & @yezidsayigh.bsky.social. It’s the kickoff to Barcelona Summer School of Mediterranean & Middle East led by @umutozkirimli.bsky.social

With the right tag @fawazgerges.bsky.social

Let the brainstorming begin. With @FawazGerges in Barcelona.

Join us tomorrow at CCCB

www.cccb.org/en/activitie...

@ibei.org @blanquerna.bsky.social @iemed.bsky.social @catalunyaintl.bsky.social

#BarcelonaMEDMENA

Here’s the exact address for the location (CCCB) on Google Maps.

Thanks so much to @umutozkirimli.bsky.social for putting this together!

maps.app.goo.gl/kv3xUQPteshc...

In Barcelona? You’re warmly welcome at a panel I’ll be on 6:30pm tomorrow (Monday) evening.

It’s titled “The Future of the Middle East” & I’ll be speaking alongside the wonderful Neil Ketchley from Oxford & Carnegie’s @yezidsayigh.bsky.social. We’ll be doing Q&A too!

Address below ⬇️

The Women's March on Washington: Part II “Together we stand..

Part II of my reflections on the Women’s March on Washington 2017, or how the Right won.

🩷 Social justice battles unfold in the streets and at the ballot box, and precisely there, the Left has been stumbling.

Subscribe to Partisan for free.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/the-womens...

The Women’s March on Washington: Part I “Hey, you..

Part I of my trilogy on the Women’s March on Washington 2017, or how the Right won.

🩷 Behind the signs and chants was a deeper, more combustible question: what does it mean to be a woman, and who gets to decide?

Subscribe to Partisan for free.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/the-womens...

A Love Like No Others A dark hospital room lit only by the faint, pulsing glow of the IV tower, casting slow-moving shadows on the wall like it’s trying not to wake him.

My new Substack, Partisan, post: "A Love Like No Others".

🔮 And then there’s the quiet, slow horror of realizing this is his life. Not a chapter. Not a detour. The whole story.

You can subscribe to Partisan for free.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/a-love-lik...

Neil Ketchley, Yezid Sayigh and Monica Marks | Activities | CCCB As part of the opening event of the Barcelona Summer School of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Professor Neil Ketchley, winner of the 2024 Fred Halliday

Protest in the Middle East at CCCB, 30 June, 18:30

@ibei.org @blanquerna.bsky.social l @iemed.bsky.social @catalunyaintl.bsky.social @lsemiddleeast.bsky.social @lseid.bsky.social @generalitat.bsky.social @monicamarks.bsky.social @yezidsayigh.bsky.social

www.cccb.org/en/activitie...

Neil Ketchley, Yezid Sayigh and Monica Marks | Activities | CCCB As part of the opening event of the Barcelona Summer School of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Professor Neil Ketchley, winner of the 2024 Fred Halliday

📢 Join us for the opening of the Barcelona Summer School of the Middle East & Mediterranean!

🗓 30 June 2025, 18:30–20:30
📍CCCB | Free

Neil Ketchley, Yezid Sayigh & Monica Marks on protest & the future of MENA.

More: cccb.org/en/activitie...

Stop teaching international law. Seriously. In a world where genocide gets standing ovations and civilian bombings earn diplomatic nods, it’s just fiction on the syllabus. If IR departments won’t drop it, students should boycott the classes—or call it what it is: academic fraud.

Stop teaching international law. Seriously. In a world where genocide gets standing ovations and civilian bombings earn diplomatic nods, it’s just fiction on the syllabus. If IR departments won’t drop it, students should boycott the classes—or call it what it is: academic fraud.

The Middle East’s Forgotten Power Brokers Fawaz Gerges joins Faisal Al Yafai on the podcast for a wide-ranging discussion on why the Middle East is so often misunderstood, as set out in Gerges’ new book, “The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for ...

Professor @fawazgerges.bsky.social joined @faisalalyafai.bsky.social on @newlinesmag.bsky.social’s podcast to discuss his new book, The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the #MiddleEast.

🎧 newlinesmag.com/podcast/the-...

@lsemiddleeast.bsky.social #AcademicSky #PoliSky

My new Substack, Partisan post - this time on “Echoes Within”.

Subscribe to Partisan for free.

🎹 "Because Echoes itself is precisely this: a patient, deliberate effort at connection, threading through all those parts we set aside in order to function."

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/echoes-wit...

“Here at the midpoint of the world, / in this salt, in this half-wave / I write my name.” Pablo Neruda

bit.ly/BarcelonaSum...

@monicamarks.bsky.social @yezidsayigh.bsky.social
@solerlecha.bsky.social @laurentalfonso.bsky.social @iemed.bsky.social @catalunyaintl.bsky.social @ibei.org

Last chance to benefit from the early bird discount. Register on or before June 2, Monday, and get a 10%.

‼️ Special discount of 20% for IBEI and Blanquerna students and alumni.
‼️ Multiple discounts for participants taking more than one course.

For more details, see:

🔗 bit.ly/BarcelonaSum...

Black * This piece was originally written and published on December 30, 2017.

Yet another highly personal piece, "Black" - dedicated to Eddie Vedder and @pearljam.com.

Some songs have significance only fleetingly ... But suddenly, for reasons you can’t quite articulate, they become tethered to a specific sliver of your life.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/black

I don't know how many sane voices are left in the midst of this debacle. Monica is one of them. Olmert's article with commentary...

Black * This piece was originally written and published on December 30, 2017.

Yet another highly personal piece, "Black" - dedicated to Eddie Vedder and @pearljam.com.

Some songs have significance only fleetingly ... But suddenly, for reasons you can’t quite articulate, they become tethered to a specific sliver of your life.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/black

This looks excellent, some great classes related to international relations, climate change and more in a week-long session in Barcelona end of June/beginning of July.

I tried pitching a piece on the boycott of No Other Land by PACBI. What happened says a lot about how media works right now.

Read the full story on PARTISAN: “What Editors Talk About When They Talk About a Pitch”

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/what-edito...

What Editors Talk About When They Talk About a Pitch Pitching is less about ideas and more about passing the editors' vibe check.

Why I write more on Substack these days?

Because many so-called “liberal” or “progressive” outlets act like closed clubs. Freelancers know the drill: you don’t just need a good idea—you need to fit the vibe, the clique, the brand.

umutozkirimli.substack.com/p/what-edito...

My Name is Luca On Names, Music, and the Thin Membranes Between Joy and Grief

We thought he'd live in Sweden. We thought he'd *live*. We were still thinking in futures back then—tentative, conditional, but futures.

We said: let’s make this child the opposite of the one in the song. Let’s make him loved. From day one. Maybe that'd be enough.

open.substack.com/pub/umutozki...

I'm investing more in my Substack, Partisan. There are now 3 new sections: Politics, Polemics, and Pieces, offering a fresh mix of analysis, critiques, and personal essays. Dive in—for free.

My latest is a personal memory triggered by Suzanne Vega's recent tweet.

open.substack.com/pub/umutozki...

Here is a short interview on cancel culture I had with Oscar Westra van Holthe in the framework of the European Peace Conference on Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics.

teamcoachzuidas.com/wp-content/u...

I am pleased to announce the European Peace Conference on Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics that will take place in Amsterdam between 21-30 July. I will be speaking on Day 8 & 9 | Framing and blaming in cancel cultures.

Check out the programme here: teamcoachzuidas.com/conference/