The Arab Spring continues to inspire and energize movements and people both inside and outside the MENA region. Despite the many setbacks, challenges, and the raucous pessimism, the Tunisian people forcing Ben Ali to flee the country in January 2011 succeeded in transmitting powerful waves of hope and empowerment to millions of Arabs. The rapid success of the unarmed peaceful Egyptian protesters in ousting the formidable dictator, Mubarak, in 18 days created an unprecedented sense of euphoria in the region and beyond. Uprisings erupted in every direction inside the region, sending strong messages to longstanding authoritarian regimes. The specificities of each country produced different trajectories and outcomes for the protesters and the regimes in power. However, these

revolutions had in common the power to restore faith in the agency of the Arab people, and their ability to forge their futures.

Modes of narrating the Arab Spring are not uniform. They range from idealism to pessimism, from celebration to despair. This contrast is understandable considering the vast extent and magnitude of the events, and the dominant paradigms that were traditionally used to understand and predict events in the Arab world, on top of the mounting pressures and difficulties that continue to arise. Nonetheless, the Arab Spring raised new questions, generated new narratives about the power and authority of modern states, and ultimately inspired new forms of resistance and new modes of activism. These new forms and modes connected the Arab revolutions with global movements, brought to light issues of gender and citizenship, promoted the culture of revolutions, and finally asserted the agency and authority of the people.

The international conference “Narrating the Arab Spring” was held in Cairo from 18 to 20 February 2012 to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of Mubarak on the 11^th of February 2011. The 3-day conference was organized by the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW) at the University of Manchester in cooperation with the Department of English Language and Literature at Cairo University, and the Women and Memory Forum. Through panel sessions, roundtable discussions, and testimonies by activists and artists, “Narrating the Arab Spring” aimed to shed light on the emerging modes of narrating the Arab Spring, bringing together participants from the Arab world, the United Kingdom, and beyond to reflect on the momentous events of 2011, and exchange views and experiences. The call for papers invited contributions from diverse specializations to approach issues and topics such as:

• The Arab Spring as a global source of inspiration
• Non-centrality of Tahrir Square: narratives from the Egyptian squares
• Modes of resistance and activism
• Cultures of revolution
• Arab revolutions: diverse contexts and narratives
• Challenges and aspirations of international and social relations
• Discovering the authority and agency of the people
• Reclaiming public space
• Gender and citizenship in the aftermath of revolutions
• Visual and material expressions of empowerment
• Technologies of revolutions
• Role of media in social protests

Organizing Committee: Sahar Abd al-Hakim, Omaima Abu-Bakr, Marylin Booth, Huda Elsadda, Mostafa Kamel al-Sayyed, Michel Ebid, Loubna Youssef.