Beyond the Square:
Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings

Julie Mehretu in conversation with Ahmed Kanna Monday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m.
The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University

Terreform Center for Advanced Urban Research, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, announces the publication of Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings, the fifth book in its Urban Research (UR) series. With eleven essays by leading scholars, the book includes a special section featuring art works by internationally acclaimed artist Julie Mehretu. A conversation with Julie Mehretu and Ahmed Kanna, professor of anthropology at the University of the Pacific, will take place on Monday, Sept. 26, 6pm, at the Hagop Kevorkian Center at New York University. It will be followed by a Q&A with the editors and contributors.

The mass protest movements that have convulsed the Arab region since December 2010 have spawned numerous critiques and analyses focused on the use of squares and other public spaces. Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings shifts attention away from specific public spaces–and in particular Tahrir Square in Cairo–to consider the broader urban context in which the uprisings unfolded. In establishing the centrality of space and spatial concerns to the political transformations in the region, Beyond the Square provides a distinctive analysis of one of the most significant political events of our time.

Editors:Deen Sharp and Claire Panetta
Contributors: Khaled Adham; Susana Galán; Azam Khatam; C. Lanthier; Ed McAllister; Julie Mehretu; G. Ollamh; Duygu Parmaksizoglu; Aseel Sawalha; Helga Tawil-Souri
Paperback: $28
ISBN 978-0-9960041-4-5

About the speakers:

Julie Mehretu is a world renowned painter. She is the recipient of many awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship (2005), the Berlin Prize: Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany (2007), the Barnett and Annalee Newman Award (2013), and the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015). Mehretu has exhibited extensively in the US and internationally. Her solo exhibition Julie Mehretu: Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae is currently on view at Marian Goodman Gallery. More information available here.

Ahmed Kanna is associate professor of anthropology at the University of the Pacific and author of Dubai, The City as Corporation.

Deen Sharp is doctoral candidate in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program, specializing in geography, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Claire Panetta is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Terreform Center for Advanced Urban Research <terreform.info> is a nonprofit research and advocacy group founded in 2005 by Michael Sorkin. Its mission is to investigate the forms, policies, technologies, and practices that will yield equitable, sustainable, and beautiful cities for our urbanizing planet. Future books from UR cover projects ranging from the practical to the utopian, from community-generated plans for neighborhood transformation, to visionary speculations by designers, and to collations of critical arguments about issues that shape urban growth and survival.

UR (Urban Research): URpub.org