Inside the Middle East: Q&A with Dr. Madawi Al-Rasheed

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” recorded on March 10, 2015, Dr. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics, discusses the state and society in Saudi Arabia, including the Arab Spring's limited reach in the kingdom, state religion and sectarianism, and empowering women. Dr. Al-Rasheed also addressed these themes in her lecture in the Spring 2015 study group Rethinking the Arab State, led by Professor Michael C. Hudson, titled “Not So Good to be King: the Saudi Monarchy at Crossroads”.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Al-Rasheed, conducted by Aya Majzoub, Associate Editor for the Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy and Master's Candidate at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, here:

About Madawi Al-Rasheed:

Madawi Al-Rasheed is Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre at LSE and Research Fellow at the Open Society Foundation.  She was Professor of Anthropology of Religion at King’s College, London between 1994 and 2013. Previously, she was Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. She also taught at Goldsmith College (University of London) and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. Her research interests include the anthropology of Muslim societies; religion, politics and state in Saudi Arabia; Islamist movements, civil society and mobilization; gender, religion and politics; transnational connections and the Arab Gulf; and human development.