Lebanon Unsettled

in collaboration with the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK)

LSE PI: Dr Deen Sharp
Co-PI: Dr May Farhat
Duration: September 2020 – September 2022

Protestors raising Lebanon's flag, which is red and white striped with a green cedar tree in the middle white stripe.
photo_cameraProtests in Beirut, 2019. Photo: Nabiha Hajaig, Flickr.

In 2019, large-scale non-sectarian protests across Lebanon unsettled the political system and challenged the very understanding of Lebanese history, space and identity. This protest movement has provided the opportunity for a new generation in Lebanon to rewrite, and potentially heal, the bitterly disputed histories of the country. This project builds on the openings and momentum that this movement has created.

Lebanon Unsettled will establish, through student workshops and collaborative research, a publicly accessible archive of the recent urban protests in Lebanon. It will place the 2019 uprisings in their larger historical and geographical context. Through utilizing several new and enlarged archival collections, at USEK and beyond, this project will reread Lebanese history through urban revolt from the Ottoman era to the present day. By engaging scholars at LSE and across the scholarly community, this project puts urban protest in Lebanon into dialogue with protests in the Arab region but also across the globe from Asia to Latin America.

This project forms part of the Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme, funded by the Emirates Foundation.


Research Team

Deen Shariff Sharp

Deen Shariff Sharp | Principal Investigator

Deen is a Fellow in Human Geography at the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE. His research focuses on the political economy of urbanisation in the 'Middle East'.

May Farhat

May Farhat | Co-Principal Investigator

May is Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, Lebanese American University.

Maria Bassil

Maria Bassil | Research Assistant

Maria is a PhD candidate in Architecture and City at the CRH – LAVUE ENSA Paris Val-de-Seine and the Paris Nanterre University.

Diala Makki

Diala Makki | Research Assistant

Diala is Research Assistant at the Middle East Centre. Her research interests are primarily around basic services and refugee studies.


Research Team