Valentine Moghadam, professor of sociology and director of the international affairs program at Northeastern University, spoke at the Mershon Center today on "Women and Gender after the Arab Spring: Promises and Perils of Democratization."

Moghadam’s current areas of research include globalization, transnational social movements and networks, economic citizenship, and gender and development in the Middle East and North Africa.  Her visit was organized by Mershon Center Director Craig Jenkins.

Among her many publications, Moghadam is author of Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (first published 1993; 2^nd ed., 2003; updated 3^rd ed., 2013); Women, Work and Economic Reform in the Middle East and North Africa (1998); Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks (2005), which won the American Political Science Association's Victoria Schuck award for best book on women and politics for 2005; and Globalization and Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement (2009, updated 2^nd ed., 2012).

Moghadam's presentation at the Mershon Center focused on three early cases of the Arab Spring – Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco – to discuss causes and likely outcomes, gender dynamics, and prospects for successful democratic transitions. A comparative and international perspective highlighted similarities and differences across the Arab cases and between the Arab Spring and other "democracy waves."

The event can be viewed as a streaming video in Flash, RealPlayer, and Windows Media, or downloaded as a podcast from the Mershon subscription page.

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Valentine Moghadam, professor of sociology and director of the international affairs program at Northeastern University, speaks on "Women and Gender after the Arab Spring" at the Mershon Center.