Change and Stability. State, Religion and Politics in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the international conference organized by the Department of Middle and Far East Studies at the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. This conference will focus on "Change and Stability. State, Religion and Politics in the Modern Middle East and North Africa" and will take place on the 28th and 29th of May 2009.

The prime objective of the conference is to analyze interactions between institutions of a modern state and traditional structures and values. State-society relations, identities, culture and religion undergo changes which origins may be considered as external to Islamic civilization.

We would like to address such phenomena as: pluralizing political systems, discourse of democracy, secularization, liberalization, as well as durability of authoritarian regimes, de-politization of large social sectors, and mobilizing aspects of political Islam.

We expect to attract a number of participants and to create a space for discussion that will improve our understanding of these dynamic processes.

The conference will include several panel discussions led by invited experts. Researchers in political science, international relations, socio-legal studies, law, area studies, media studies and human rights studies are invited to propose papers corresponding with one of following panels.

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