Professor Pascal Menoret

Background

I joined Magdalen College in 2024 from the Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) in Cairo, which I directed for two years. Before moving to Egypt, I was an associate professor of anthropology at Brandeis University and an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. And before that, I was a Harvard Academy Scholar and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. I received my PhD in history from the University of Paris-1 and my BA in philosophy from the University of Aix-Marseille.

Teaching

I teach courses in Asian and Middle East Studies, with a focus on the contemporary Arabian Peninsula, infrastructure studies, ecological anthropology, and critical race theory. I also supervise DPhil and MPhil students.  

Research Interests

My previous work looked at collective action in relation to the built environment. In Joyriding in Riyadh I studied the making of the Saudi capital from the conflicted points of view of urban planners, developers, and car drifters. In Graveyard of Clerics I analyzed the Saudi Islamic movement in the suburban context in which it emerged. My current research sits at the intersection of ecological anthropology and critical race theory. In one of my new projects I look at the lifeworlds of an invasive free floating flower, Eichhornia Crassipes aka Water Hyacinth or Ward al-Nil (Nile rose), as it drifts through the Egyptian waterscape. By studying the alliances between Water Hyacinth and other plant and animal species, including our own, I propose to rethink the contribution of invasives to the landscape. In another project I analyze the role of the enslaved in the making of the Saudi state in the 19th century, based on a careful reading of several Central Arabian chronicles, including Uthman Ibn Bishr’s Sign of Glory in Najdi History.

Selected Publications

1) Urbanism and Joyriding

2019       “Learning from Riyadh: Automobility, Joyriding, and Politics,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 39-1, 131-142.

2014       Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt (Cambridge University Press). 

2013       “The Bleak Romance of Tahliya Street.” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication (with Nadav Samin) 6, 213-228.

2011       “Development, Planning and Urban Unrest in Saudi Arabia.” The Muslim World 101-2, 269-285.

2010       “Rebels Without a Cause? A Politics of Deviance in Saudi Arabia” (with Abdullah al-Otaibi). In Linda Herrera and Asef Bayat (eds.). Being Young and Muslim. New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford University Press).

2009       “Urban Unrest and Non-religious Radicalization in Saudi Arabia.” In Madawi Al- Rasheed and Marat Shterin (eds.). Dying for Faith: Religiously Motivated Violence in the Contemporary World (I.B. Tauris).

2) Islamic Movements in Suburbia

2020       Graveyard of Clerics: Everyday Activism in Saudi Arabia (Stanford University Press).

2018       “Urban Sprawl and Politics in Saudi Arabia.” In Eckart Woertz (ed.), “Wise Cities” in the Mediterranean? Challenges of Urban Sustainability (CIDOB Editions).

2017       “The Suburbanization of Islamic Activism in Saudi Arabia.” City and Society 29-1, 162-186.

2015       “Les Centres d’été en Arabie Saoudite.” In Pierre Vermeren and Philippe Pétriat (eds.), Une Histoire du Proche-Orient au temps présent: Etudes en hommage à Nadine Picaudou (Publications de La Sorbonne).

2011       “Leaving Islamic Activism Behind: Ambiguous Disengagement in Saudi Arabia.” In Joel Beinin and Frederic Vairel (eds.), Social Movements, Mobilization and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford University Press).

2009       “Apprendre à voter? Le cas des élections saoudiennes de 2005.” Genèses 77, 51-75.

2008       “Fighting for the Holy Mosque. The 1979 Mecca Insurgency.” In Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly (eds.). Treading on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (Oxford University Press).

2005       “Le cheikh, l’électeur et le SMS. Logiques électorales et mobilisation islamique en Arabie Saoudite. Transcontinentales 1, 19-33.

2004       “De la rage à l’enthousiasme: le parcours d’un jeune électeur saoudien.” Chroniques Yéménites 12.

2003       “Pouvoirs et oppositions en Arabie Saoudite: de la contestation armée à l’institutionnalisation de l’islamisme.” Maghreb-Machrek 177.

3) Critical Arabian Peninsula Studies

2022       “The Petroptimist: Dancing in the Ruins of Fossil Capitalism.” In Agnès Deboulet and Waleed Mansour (eds.), Middle Eastern Cities in a Time of Climate Crisis (CEDEJ).

2014       Cities in the Arabian Peninsula. Special issue of City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 18-6, 698-770.

2014       The Abu Dhabi Guide: Modern Architecture, 1968-1992/Dalil Abu Dhabi: al-‘imara al-hadathiyya, 1968-1992 (NYU Abu Dhabi/FIND).

2011       From Structural Violence to Violent Activism Around the Persian Gulf, special issue of The Muslim World (with Laurent Bonnefoy and François Burgat) 101-2, 125-368.

2010       L’Arabie, des routes de l’encens à l’ère du pétrole (Gallimard).

2007       “La constitution imaginaire de la jeunesse saoudienne: Islam et protestation en Arabie Saoudite.” In Mounia Bennani-Chraibi and Iman Farag (eds.), Jeunesses des pays arabes, par-delà les menaces et les promesses (CEDEJ).

2005       The Saudi Enigma: A History. London: Zed Books.