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Dimitris Soudias is a research associate in the BMBF-funded Re-configurations’ project at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS), Philips University Marburg. He holds a Graduate Diploma in Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo and an MA in Political Science from Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Prior to joining CNMS, Dimitris was a consultant with the Yemen Polling Center, Sana’a, and a research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Free University, Berlin. Among his most recent publications are: Mapping Popular Perceptions: Local Security, Insecurity and Police Work in Yemen together with Mareike Transfeld (Yemen Polling Center, 2014); Negotiating Space – The Evolution of the Egyptian Street, 2000-2011’ (The American University in Cairo Press, 2014); Präsenz und Raum in der Arabischen Revolte together with Christoph Schumann (in Präsenz und Implizites Wissen, edited by Christoph Ernst &#38; Heike Paul, Transcript, 2013). Dimitris is interested in Protest and Resistance, Sociology of Space, Theorization Methods, and Securitization Studies.Dimitris Soudias' project:Theorizing a ‘Sociology of The Square’: Space, Habitus, and Liminality in the 2011 Occupations of Tahrir and Syntagma SquareMy dissertation project aims at theorizing a ‘Sociology of the Square’ through a Situational Analysis (Clarke 2005) based on a comparative case study. Specifically, I want to investigate the manifold, simultaneous, interactive and performative social processes of the 2011 protest occupations of Tahrir Square in Cairo, and Syntagma Square in Athens: starting with the decision of individuals and groups to take their anger and demands to these sites, rather than others; to how and why these occupations enfolded the way they did – with all their specific sets of meanings in terms of symbols, orders, structures and imaginaries. Both occupations are well suited for comparison due to the similarities in the broader social phenomena of contesting power, claiming and producing spaces of resistance, negotiating structures and orders, but also in terms of symbols, slogans, chants, and tactics. Moreover, the vivid transnational exchange between young Egyptians and Greeks at that time suggests a particular relationship between these occupations (Douzinas 2013, Stavrides 2012). By theorizing a ‘Sociology of the Square’ from a comparative case study, (Eisenhardt 1989; Suddaby 2006), my dissertation project can offer researchers a toolkit to analyze protest encampments. My project will further contribute to current discussions on introducing spatial categories in social movement research as a constant (Zajko &#38; Beland 2008; Wahlström 2010), and can build the ground for follow-up studies on the ways in which participation experience impacts future protest behavior.&#160;&#160;&#160;