Lisa Wedeen
Encyclopedia
Lisa Wedeen is Professor of Political Science
at the University of Chicago
specializing in comparative politics, the Middle East
, political theory, and feminist theory. Wedeen received her Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley
, where she studied with Hanna Pitkin. She has taught courses on nationalism, identity formation, power and resistance, and citizenship. Her work on the Middle East includes Ambiguities of Domination, an ethnographic study of the culture of the spectacle
in Syria
under Hafez al-Assad
. In addition to writing and teaching, Wedeen sits on the Editorial Collective of Public Culture
, an interdisciplinary journal of transnational cultural studies.
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
specializing in comparative politics, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, political theory, and feminist theory. Wedeen received her Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where she studied with Hanna Pitkin. She has taught courses on nationalism, identity formation, power and resistance, and citizenship. Her work on the Middle East includes Ambiguities of Domination, an ethnographic study of the culture of the spectacle
Spectacle (Situationism)
The spectacle is a central notion in the Situationist theory developed by Guy Debord. Guy Debord's 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle, attempted to provide the Situationist International with a Marxian critical theory...
in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
under Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
. In addition to writing and teaching, Wedeen sits on the Editorial Collective of Public Culture
Public Culture
Public Culture is a reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies, founded in 1988 by anthropologists Carol Breckenridge and Arjun Appadurai...
, an interdisciplinary journal of transnational cultural studies.
Selected publications
- Peripheral Visions: Politics, Power, and Performance in Yemen (University of Chicago Press, 2008)
- "Concepts and Commitments in the Study of Democracy" in Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (2004)
- "Seeing Like a Citizen, Acting Like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen" in Comparative Studies in Society and History (2003)
- "Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science" in APSR (2002)
- Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (University of Chicago Press, 1999)