COVID and Gender in the Middle East, a recently released book edited by scholar Rita Stephan, is the first book to provide empirical evidence of COVID’s gendered effects. Centered within a feminist framework, this volume gathers an impressive group of Middle Eastern and North African scholars, activists, and policy experts. The book examines a range of national and localized responses…

ANN ARBOR – The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan is the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization, and the torch it carries, “social science in the public interest,” reflects a determined commitment to educating future generations of social scientists. A new book on the design and conduct of social science research in the…

The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has seen an increase in levels of religiosity, particularly among youth, over the last five years.  What implications might this have for the region?  Does this rise in personal religiosity correspond with changes in views about the proper role for religion in politics?  Might this change foreshadow a revival in fortunes of…

Written and released before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, a 2020 Oxfam report suggested that if women were to be paid for their unpaid work, it would be worth nearly US$11 trillion globally. This sum likely varies based on the proportion of women gainfully employed in any region. At 18 percent, the 2021 rate of women’s participation in the…