Episode 8:

Arab Youth & Youth Activism

Betty Anderson of Boston University explains the pressures and hopes that have motivated Arab students and Arab youth to speak out for change in the past and at present. Primary Source highlights classroom-friendly literature for teaching about young peoples’ activism.

Guest Bios

Betty S. Anderson

Betty S. Anderson is a professor of history at Boston University, where she is Director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations.  She is an expert on the History of the Middle East, the social and intellectual history of the Arab world, the history of education, and modern world history. In 2016, she published A History of the Modern Middle East:  Rulers, Rogues and Rebels with Stanford University Press. Her latest project examines the economic, educational, political and social changes that have come to Beirut, Amman, and Ramallah over the last 25 years.

Deborah Cunningham

Deborah Cunningham is Senior Program Director at Primary Source, where she has produced programs for teachers on the Middle East since 2004.

Free Resources and Featured Books

Learn more about forms of youth activism in the Arab World and broader Middle East with these free online resources:

Episode Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Qatar Foundation International, which provided the seed funding and support to develop and launch this podcast and to produce this episode.

Thanks to Betty Anderson for sharing her time and expertise so generously.

Image Credits

Anti-Sexual Harassment, Anti-Police Failures Demo, Press Syndicate,” by Hossam El-Hamalawy, used under Creative Commons License Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The image has been cropped.

Featured Music

  • Kim Arar,” by Wind of Anatolia, from the album Live at the 2014 Golden Festival, used with permission from Wind of Anatolia. The track has been excerpted and mixed with narrative.