Political protests in non-democratic settings are not always contentious.  Some protests—even ones that harshly critique the ruling elite—can even become so routine that the protesters as well as the security agencies appear to be following a script.  Recognizing these routines is crucial to identifying precisely when ruptures or innovations do occur. This presentation will examine anti-Israeli protests in Jordan to explore such routines and ruptures in protest and policing repertoires before and after the outbreak of 2011 uprisings that spread across the Arab world.

Dr. Jillian Schwedler is Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and the Graduate Center, and Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Rafiq Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council.  She is member of the Board of Directors and the Editorial Committee of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), publishers of the quarterly Middle East Report.

Dr. Schwedler’s books include the award-winning Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen (Cambridge 2006) and (with Laleh Khalili) Policing and Prisons in the Middle East (Columbia 2010).  Her articles have appeared in World Politics, Comparative Politics, Middle East Policy, Middle East Report, Journal of Democracy, and Social Movement Studies, among many others.  Her research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, the Fulbright Scholars Program, the American Institute for Yemen Studies, and the Social Science Research Council, among others.