Interview in Jadaliyya’s NEWTON (#NewTextsOutNow) about my book, Precarious Modernities
[Excerpt]
J: Who do you hope will read this book, and what sort of impact would you like it to have?
CS: I primarily wrote this book for readers interested in the relationship between urban space, politics, and the classed experience of everyday life in the region. My hope is that readers who are not specialists of Morocco or the Maghreb will therefore also find in it useful insights for how social and political transformations can be read through the built and lived environment. I also hope that the book will be read by and inform the work of researchers and practitioners in development, planning, housing, urban heritage, and architecture more broadly—and I have already gotten some encouraging reactions from people in those fields.
Climate Activism with Scientist Rebellion (SR_Netherlands) [because there is no Planet B]
On March 11, 2023 together with a wide coalition of climate activists we blocked the A12 motorway in the centre of The Hague, for the sixth time. We demanded that the Dutch government immediately cut subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The Leiden Newspaper, Mare, followed a Leiden University lecturer (me) and a student who joined in the demonstration. You can read the full piece here.
Marking the (late) Summer of Sustainability at YAL
September 29, 2021
The summer of 2021 arrived on the tail end of a global pandemic that left us all reeling and trying to reassess our relationship to each other, ourselves, and the many other life forms that make up our planet. Members of the Young Academy Leiden designated this summer as one of more intensive reflection on sustainability and our role as scholars, teachers, and citizens in these debates. Read this piece co-authored with Yamila Miguel and Noel de Miranda by following this link.
Young Academy Leiden | LEGO 'show-us-what-you-do' challenge
The members of Young Academy Leiden do research on a large variety of topics. In our first (and perhaps only) LEGO ‘show-us-what-you-do’ challenge, they all made a short movie on their own research, using only LEGO. Watch my short LEGO movie here above. Check out the others at YAL LEGO Movies.
YAL Introductory video about my research and goals for inclusive scholarship
In 2020 I was selected to join the Young Academy Leiden (YAL), a group of committed early career academics and a platform that aims to break down disciplinary and institutional barriers, to create a more inclusive community of scholars that acts as a driving force for fresh ideas within and beyond the university. Watch my introductory video here.
The Middle Eastern City in Three Deconstructed Stereotypes
in ZemZem - The Journal of the Middle-East, North-Africa and Islam
In recent years, the tropes most commonly associated with cities in the MENA have been dominated by images of street revolutions, youth unemployment, congested and chaotic traffic, informal vendors and illegal housing, alongside immense displays of wealth and hyperbolic architecture. In this article I tackle some of the confusing contradictions and reductive stereotypes associated with the so-called ‘Islamic’ or ‘Arab’ city. [Published in Dutch and only available in hardcopy]
Zandlaan Abu Dhabi in de Volkskrant
I contributed to this popular science piece in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, on city planning and sustainable development in the arid inland areas of Abu Dhabi.
Collecting Stories Through Maps
This brief video highlights one of my research interests for the general public. As an anthropologist of space and place, one of the things that I keep returning to is the variety of improvised and bricolage-type practices that people use to make city spaces livable. These practices and the spaces they give birth to are almost never represented in official maps and 'objective' records of space. This has pushed me to collect maps and use cognitive mapping exercises as a methodology to gain access to the stories of ordinary people. The ways in which people use spaces, and how they give meaning to them, is what fascinates me.
Does the Haircut make the Thug? Why Class Matters in post-2011 Morocco
in Leiden Islam Blog
In recent years Arab youth have received increasing attention, symbolizing a contradictory image for the West as either heroic anti-authoritarian protesters or radical Islamists. Neither of these images does justice to their local and complex realities. Read the full piece here.