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MELG Special Issue Call for Papers Research and Methodology in a Post Arab-Spring Environment: Challengesfor the FieldSince January 2011, scholars around the world specializing on the MiddleEast and North Africa, have had to reassess how and what to write aboutthe region. The challenge is compounded by the proliferation of onlinevenues for publication, which offer an efficient option for publishingin an environment that is in constant flux, where today’s seminalinsight becomes outdated in a matter of days or weeks. Moreover,alongside scholars in university settings are journalists and policyresearchers, who arguably write for different audiences, employdifferent modes of writing, and adopt varying approaches (if any) topeer review for quality control. For a double-blind peer reviewedjournal like MELG, these circumstances beg important questions about thefuture of scholarship in the field, and how to promote scholarship in afield that is in flux.Amidst the varying degrees of transformation, volatility, andcounterrevolution, MELG will devote a special issue to the theme ofresearch methods. MELG invites proposals for essays reflecting on thestate of the field and where it is going in a post-Arab Springenvironment. The essays would be approximately 3000-5000 words, haveminimal footnotes, and reflect on method and research design in thecurrent state of affairs in the Middle East and North Africa. Possiblequestions to consider might be:• How might we characterize the current state of scholarship on the MENAgiven the events in the past few years? As a corollary, is the verycategory of “scholarly” far too rarified given the current state ofaffairs in the MENA that call out for writing, analysis and commentary?• How do we produce scholarship in a context that is quickly changingand evolving, often faster than our publication cycle can capture? Orput differently, is a certain level of stability to events in the regiona prerequisite to reliable scholarship, or rather a condition forpublishing relevant scholarship with a shelf life that makes thepublication process economically feasible and meaningful?• Who is writing now in the field that was not writing before, and whatdoes that imply about the nature of the scholarly endeavor in the field?What are the questions being addressed now and how generalizable arethey – if at all – across the different MENA countries? Relatedly, whatcan we infer from those questions not only about the region but alsoabout researchers and the contexts (academic/national/or otherwise) fromwhich they write?• What is the relationship among academics based in the West (be theyfrom Arab descent or not) and those based in the region, and how dothese different voices either relate to, avoid, or counter each other?• How can we adjust our scholarly agenda to account for a situation influx, assuming it is indeed in flux? For instance, can we find bettertools (craft new concepts and adjust our methodologies) to give a betteraccount of the complex reality of the region?• In short, what are the capacities and limits of the scholarlyenterprise in a context of such flux?These questions are not exclusive, but are meant to provoke reflectionamong respected members of the scholarly community.The essays will be collected, and published in volume 7(1), at the startof MELG’s 2015 publication year.To submit a proposal for a contribution to the issue, please submit thefollowing to Anver Emon at anver.emon@utoronto.ca by July 20, 2014.• A curriculum vita• A 250 word statement of the intervention you would like to makeNote: If your proposal is accepted, you will be required to submit youressay in final draft by December 1, 2014.