The Working Groups Program (WG) aims at bringing together scholars from across the Arab region, who are at different stages of their academic careers, to work collectively under a research theme or project. Working groups encourage interdisciplinary research within the social sciences. They engage with existing frameworks but also strive to move beyond them to develop alternative approaches based on regional priorities and realities. Working groups also design innovative and diverse outputs targeting different audiences within the region and beyond.
The ACSS Academy is the main training arm of the Working Groups. It is a biennial event that provides an opportunity for junior researchers in the Arab region to receive training and mentoring on the themes of the ACSS working groups, including as well training on critical theory and analysis, advanced writing, professionalization skills and networking.
You can stay up to date with all the latest news on the Working Groups by visiting the Beirut Forum website, the main digital platform for the ACSS Working Groups.
Future of Higher Education in the Arab Region
Established: 2025
The HEWG brings together engaged scholars to expand and deepen ACSS interest in higher education in the Arab region, by examining critical developments in this sector.
Contexts of Violence in the Arab Region
Established: 2022
In 2022, the ACSS formed the Contexts of Violence in the Arab Region Working Group to investigate the new questions that erupted after the Arab uprisings and the COVID-19 attack about states and types of violence in the Arab region…
Critical Security Studies
Established: 2016
The Critical Security Studies Working Group was launched in Spring 2016 and takes a critical approach toward the proliferation of ‘security studies’ literature on and in the region as well as ‘strategic studies’ programs that are developing across the region…
Ethnography as Knowledge
Established: 2019
The Ethnography and Knowledge Working Group is engaged in a collaborative exploration of the critical knowledge that can be generated from attention to embodied, emotional and cognitive aspects of the ethnographic endeavour…
New Regionalisms
Established: 2018
The Working Group on “New Regionalisms” aims to address the continually emergent, inter-connected, inter-penetrated and overlapping nature of regions, with a focus on the Middle East, North Africa region.
Research on the Arts
Established: 2022
Research on the Arts Working Group (RAPWG) seeks to investigate the relationship between arts and the social sciences and identify gaps and research agenda/s on writing on the arts in the Arab region…
Gendering the Archive
Established: 2021
Gendering the Archive Working group (GAWG) was established in 2021 as a multidisciplinary group that brings together researchers and activists engaged in rethinking power dynamics in knowledge production in local and global contexts…
Safeguarding Knowledge Production
Established: 2022
The Safeguarding Knowledge Production in the Arab region (SKPP) Working Group is concerned with how researchers work in difficult conditions shaped by political instability, conflict, and restrictions on academic freedom…
