The London School of Economics and Political Studies (LSE) abruptly cancelled an academic conference on the Arab Spring that it planned to hold last weekend at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, citing “restrictions imposed on the intellectual content of the event that threatened academic freedom,” writes Ursula Lindsey for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The last-minute cancellation took place after Emirati authorities requested that a presentation on the neighbouring kingdom of Bahrain, where a protest movement was harshly repressed with the support of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, be dropped from the programme. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a scholar on Arab politics at the LSE who was scheduled to give the presentation, was stopped and briefly detained on Friday at Dubai airport’s passport control. A security official told him he was on a black list and was not allowed to enter the country.
Full report on The Chronicle of Higher Education site
The last-minute cancellation took place after Emirati authorities requested that a presentation on the neighbouring kingdom of Bahrain, where a protest movement was harshly repressed with the support of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, be dropped from the programme. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a scholar on Arab politics at the LSE who was scheduled to give the presentation, was stopped and briefly detained on Friday at Dubai airport’s passport control. A security official told him he was on a black list and was not allowed to enter the country.
Full report on The Chronicle of Higher Education site
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