Following the release of the World Humanities Report in August 2023, a second phase was initiated to produce a critical mapping of topics, research, teaching methods, scholars, and institutions involved in shaping and reshaping humanities knowledge in and around the region. 

The mapping includes the diverse landscape of formal (registered) and informal organizations, platforms, and collectives, producing knowledge—through visual arts, archival work, feminist research, among others—about the connections and disruptions that shape the region’s future. A critical understanding of this landscape helps illuminate the effect that humanities knowledge creation has on society; more importantly, it reveals the infrastructures of humanistic knowledge production, the definition and reformulation of the humanities fields, the intersections of research with society, and the ways innovative collaborations and new disciplines are emerging. 

Given the region’s realities, this project addresses crisis, urgency, and emergency, and how they affect both academic and public knowledge production. The need for a critical mapping arose because no state or regional institutions in the Arab region comprehensively and reliably gather and publicly share such information. Accordingly, there is little understanding of how well disciplines and fields are represented in universities, research centers, and other knowledge spaces; how to identify the characteristics of scholarly communities regionally or in different countries; and how and where new generations of scholars, activists, and artists are introduced to research and careers in the humanities.

To undertake the study, the ACSS project team conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) and administered a questionnaire to more than 20 institutions and collectives. Analysis of the data is underway to examine the relationship between criticality and knowledge production in the Arab region. The mapping project supports the potential of South-South networks to redefine geographical demarcations and foster critical thought both within and outside the university setting.

The CZ program supports research and dialogue on the intersections of nation, identity, and history by:

• Funding research projects within the Small Grants Program.
• Organizing webinars, roundtables, and panels at ACSS convenings such as the Research Forum and the Biennial Conference, where the CZ program organized a roundtable titled “The Responsibility of the Intellectual in Times of Crisis.”
• Organizing panels and sessions at public conferences and partners’ events, including a panel session titled “Reading Constantine Zurayk in the Context of the Continuing Nakba” at the Institute of Palestine Studies (IPS).
• A roundtable session on “The Nakba, Constantine Zurayk and the History of the Present” at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting (MESA).

The Arab Regional Forum on the Humanities, co-organized with UNESCO and the International Center for Human Sciences (CISH), was held twice under the title: “Re-centering the Humanities: The Arab Regional Forum on Humanities”. The first forum took place in Byblos/Jbeil, Lebanon, in May 2017, and the second was held virtually on April 6 and 7, 2021. The Forum aimed to share the developments of follow-up initiatives in the Arab region regarding the key recommendations of the World Humanities Conference (August 2017). It also aimed to discuss challenges and opportunities for humanities education and research, the policy–research nexus, and regional and international collaboration opportunities. These Forums have the potential to develop into regular convenings to bolster and promote the humanities across the Arab region.