Lisa Wedeen
Biographic Data
| ID | 223384 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lisa Wedeen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lisa |
| FAMILY NAME | Wedeen |
| SIGNATURE | WEDEEN L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7713-5881 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 460 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
The Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is one of those ubiquitous concerns which, while never going away entirely, seems to return regularly with a difference—with renewed urgency, novel ramifications, and new challenges. In the twenty-first century, we inhabit a world in which extractive capitalism has expanded to reach almost every corner of the earth and every aspect of our lives; in which the planetary environment is at risk, as evidenced by the loss of biodiversit…
Forever Has Fallen: The End of Syria's Assad
When rebel forces seized Damascus on 8 December 2024 and toppled the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, it was impossible not to share in the euphoria over the end of 54 years of brutal dictatorship. After more than a decade of civil war, rebel forces began the offensive that finally brought down the regime, showing Syrians that nothing is permanent, not even dynasties. Political transformation finally came because the regime's backers w…
Conspiracy/Theory
The contributors to Conspiracy/Theory evaluate the relationship between critical theory and conspiracy theory as the basis for political thought, showing how people rely on conspiracy theory or critical theory to make sense of complex and confusing events and social crises
Response to Matthew Rhodes-Purdy and Rachel Navarre’s review of Conspiracy/Theory
Epilogue
Symposium Response to Commentators Honoring Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations: Insights and Implications
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Humor in Dark Times
Chapter two demonstrates the reliability and incompleteness of ideological reproduction by detailing how dramatic comedies operated ideologically among Syria’s citizenry under al-Asad’s emerging market-oriented autocracy before the uprising. The chapter considers the work of Allayth Hajju, one of Syria’s best-known television directors, registering both the grim realities of the decade just past and the evident seductions of the neoliberal turn. …
Fear and Foreboding
By considering recent writings on sectarianism, chapter five investigates why sect, in particular, becomes a relevant category (when it does). In the Syrian case, this means explicating the extent to which sectarian fears about existential survival came to work in tension with fantasies of multisectarian accommodation. Centered on a pair of rumors that both stimulated and exploited a sense of vulnerability justifying regime intervention, the chap…
Conclusion: At a Loss
Authoritarian Apprehensions challenges scholars to consider what the epochal, as well as ambiguous, set of regional events known initially as the Arab Spring mean in larger historical and theoretical terms. Locating the Arab world in a world-historical frame is necessary for any adequate analysis of what these events betoken, and doing so raises certain central questions of modern critical thought. But Authoritarian Apprehensions also prompts thi…
On Uncertainty: Fake News, Post-truth, and the Question of Judgment
Chapter three exposes the mechanisms that make it possible for an excess of information and the velocity of its circulation and consumption to be exploited for political gain. The chapter raises questions about the changing meaning of the distinction between democracy and dictatorship in the context of what appears to be the eroding factual basis of political discussion worldwide. Organized around the thinking of Hannah Arendt and Ludwig Wittgens…
Neoliberal Autocracy and Its Unmaking
Chapter one explores the uneven saturation of ideology and, in particular, the role of ambivalence in status quo conventionality by investigating the marked absence of large-scale protest in Syria’s two most important cities during the first, predominantly peaceful year of the uprising. Whereas accounts of dictatorship take the task to be describing the role of staunch loyalists or highlighting opportunism in the operations of regime maintenance,…
Nationalism, Sentimentality, and Judgment
Chapter four deepens the analysis of political judgment in conditions of uncertainty, shifting attention to the appeals of national sentimentality—the various efforts undertaken by the regime and multiple oppositions to activate people’s affective attachments ideologically. Putting theorists of melodrama, sentimentality, and affect into conversation with political philosophers of judgment, the chapter looks explicitly at the fantasies of repair n…
Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria
If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of authoritarianism worldwide. In Authoritarian Apprehensions, Lisa Wedeen draws on her decades-long engagement with Syria to offer an erudite and compassionate analysis of this extraordinary rush of events-the revolutionary exhilaration of the initial days o…
Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria
Anti-Naturalism and Structure in Interpretive Social Science
Mark Bevir and Jason Blakely’s Interpretive Social Science: An Anti-Naturalist Approach successfully points out the problems with various forms of philosophical naturalism, demonstrating how essentialism, synchrony, and an effort to establish lawlike generalizations bedevil social science on both sides of the interpretive/positivist divide. The authors do an excellent job of identifying the philosophical roots and debates that are tied to the int…
Apsa Active and Award Committees
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria
Could You Please Look into the Camera
Are theatre texts documents of rapidly changing events in times of extreme complexity? If so, then what kind of documents are they? These questions provided the first motivation for writing Could You Please Look into the Camera? The second motivation was purely personal: the Assad regime’s program of arbitrary detention had stepped up the frequency of arrests, creating a republic of fear. This ugly fear that Syrians now share—whether arrested or …
Ideology and Humor in Dark Times: Notes from Syria
Response to William E. Connolly's review of Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power and Performance in Yemen
William E. Connolly's review of Peripheral Visions is what any author should want, a thoughtful, appreciative account of the book's merits and an invitation to push aspects of the argument further than the book currently does. One point of clarification: I did not mean to suggest that Foucault's work should be read only in terms of its emphasis on coherence and control, or that my own is intended as a blanket critique of his. My understanding of …
Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science
The objectivist truth claims traditionally pressed by most political scientists have made the use of ethnographic methods particularly fraught in the discipline. This article explores what ethnography as a method entails. It makes distinctions between positivist and interpretivist ethnographies and highlights some of the substantive contributions ethnography has made to the study of politics. Lamenting the discipline's abandonment of a conversati…
Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen
The Politics of Deliberation: QātChews as Public Spheres in Yemen
Research Article| January 01 2007 The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen Lisa Wedeen Lisa Wedeen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Public Culture (2007) 19 (1): 59–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Lisa Wedeen; The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen. Public C…
Beyond the Crusades: Why Huntington, and Bin Laden, Are Wrong
Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science
This essay makes a case for an anthropological conceptualization of culture as "semiotic practices" and demonstrates how it adds value to political analyses. "Semiotic practices" refers to the processes of meaning-making in which agents' practices (e.g., their work habits, self-policing strategies, and leisure patterns) interact with their language and other symbolic systems. This version of culture can be employed on two levels. First, it refers…
Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science
The objectivist truth claims traditionally pressed by most political scientists have made the use of ethnographic methods particularly fraught in the discipline. This article explores what ethnography as a method entails. It makes distinctions between positivist and interpretivist ethnographies and highlights some of the substantive contributions ethnography has made to the study of politics. Lamenting the discipline's abandonment of a conversati…
Ideology and Humor in Dark Times: Notes from Syria
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations: Insights and Implications
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Acting 'As If: Symbolic Politics and Social Control in Syria
The following anecdote was related to me during my field work in Syria a few days after the event allegedly took place:One day a high-ranking officer visiting the regiment ordered the soldiers to recount their dreams of the night before. A soldier stepped forward and announced: “I saw the image of the leader in the sky, and we mounted ladders of fire to kiss it.” A second soldier followed suit: “I saw the leader holding the sun in his hands, and …
Seeing like a Citizen, Acting like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen
This essay uses a discussion of three recent events in Yemen to dramatize the relationship between state power and the experience of citizenship in the aftermath of national unification in 1990.My analysis depends on readers understanding the differences I am registering among the terms “state,” “nation,” and “regime.” By “state” I mean a common set of institutions capable of distributing goods and services and controlling violence within a demar…
The Politics of Deliberation: QātChews as Public Spheres in Yemen
Research Article| January 01 2007 The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen Lisa Wedeen Lisa Wedeen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Public Culture (2007) 19 (1): 59–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Lisa Wedeen; The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen. Public C…
Low Tide after the Third Wave: Exploring Politics under Authoritarianism
Beyond the Crusades: Why Huntington, and Bin Laden, Are Wrong
Anti-Naturalism and Structure in Interpretive Social Science
Mark Bevir and Jason Blakely’s Interpretive Social Science: An Anti-Naturalist Approach successfully points out the problems with various forms of philosophical naturalism, demonstrating how essentialism, synchrony, and an effort to establish lawlike generalizations bedevil social science on both sides of the interpretive/positivist divide. The authors do an excellent job of identifying the philosophical roots and debates that are tied to the int…
Activities and Appointments
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan
Acting 'As If: Symbolic Politics and Social Control in Syria
The following anecdote was related to me during my field work in Syria a few days after the event allegedly took place:One day a high-ranking officer visiting the regiment ordered the soldiers to recount their dreams of the night before. A soldier stepped forward and announced: “I saw the image of the leader in the sky, and we mounted ladders of fire to kiss it.” A second soldier followed suit: “I saw the leader holding the sun in his hands, and …
Ambiguities of domination: Politics, rhetoric, and symbols in contemporary Syria
Low Tide after the Third Wave: Exploring Politics under Authoritarianism
Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science
This essay makes a case for an anthropological conceptualization of culture as "semiotic practices" and demonstrates how it adds value to political analyses. "Semiotic practices" refers to the processes of meaning-making in which agents' practices (e.g., their work habits, self-policing strategies, and leisure patterns) interact with their language and other symbolic systems. This version of culture can be employed on two levels. First, it refers…
Beyond the Crusades: Why Huntington, and Bin Laden, Are Wrong
Seeing like a Citizen, Acting like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen
This essay uses a discussion of three recent events in Yemen to dramatize the relationship between state power and the experience of citizenship in the aftermath of national unification in 1990.My analysis depends on readers understanding the differences I am registering among the terms “state,” “nation,” and “regime.” By “state” I mean a common set of institutions capable of distributing goods and services and controlling violence within a demar…
The Politics of Deliberation: QātChews as Public Spheres in Yemen
Research Article| January 01 2007 The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen Lisa Wedeen Lisa Wedeen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Public Culture (2007) 19 (1): 59–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Lisa Wedeen; The Politics of Deliberation: Qāt Chews as Public Spheres in Yemen. Public C…
Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen
Response to William E. Connolly's review of Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power and Performance in Yemen
William E. Connolly's review of Peripheral Visions is what any author should want, a thoughtful, appreciative account of the book's merits and an invitation to push aspects of the argument further than the book currently does. One point of clarification: I did not mean to suggest that Foucault's work should be read only in terms of its emphasis on coherence and control, or that my own is intended as a blanket critique of his. My understanding of …
Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science
The objectivist truth claims traditionally pressed by most political scientists have made the use of ethnographic methods particularly fraught in the discipline. This article explores what ethnography as a method entails. It makes distinctions between positivist and interpretivist ethnographies and highlights some of the substantive contributions ethnography has made to the study of politics. Lamenting the discipline's abandonment of a conversati…
Ideology and Humor in Dark Times: Notes from Syria
Could You Please Look into the Camera
Are theatre texts documents of rapidly changing events in times of extreme complexity? If so, then what kind of documents are they? These questions provided the first motivation for writing Could You Please Look into the Camera? The second motivation was purely personal: the Assad regime’s program of arbitrary detention had stepped up the frequency of arrests, creating a republic of fear. This ugly fear that Syrians now share—whether arrested or …
Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria
Apsa Active and Award Committees
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Humor in Dark Times
Chapter two demonstrates the reliability and incompleteness of ideological reproduction by detailing how dramatic comedies operated ideologically among Syria’s citizenry under al-Asad’s emerging market-oriented autocracy before the uprising. The chapter considers the work of Allayth Hajju, one of Syria’s best-known television directors, registering both the grim realities of the decade just past and the evident seductions of the neoliberal turn. …
Fear and Foreboding
By considering recent writings on sectarianism, chapter five investigates why sect, in particular, becomes a relevant category (when it does). In the Syrian case, this means explicating the extent to which sectarian fears about existential survival came to work in tension with fantasies of multisectarian accommodation. Centered on a pair of rumors that both stimulated and exploited a sense of vulnerability justifying regime intervention, the chap…
Conclusion: At a Loss
Authoritarian Apprehensions challenges scholars to consider what the epochal, as well as ambiguous, set of regional events known initially as the Arab Spring mean in larger historical and theoretical terms. Locating the Arab world in a world-historical frame is necessary for any adequate analysis of what these events betoken, and doing so raises certain central questions of modern critical thought. But Authoritarian Apprehensions also prompts thi…
On Uncertainty: Fake News, Post-truth, and the Question of Judgment
Chapter three exposes the mechanisms that make it possible for an excess of information and the velocity of its circulation and consumption to be exploited for political gain. The chapter raises questions about the changing meaning of the distinction between democracy and dictatorship in the context of what appears to be the eroding factual basis of political discussion worldwide. Organized around the thinking of Hannah Arendt and Ludwig Wittgens…
Neoliberal Autocracy and Its Unmaking
Chapter one explores the uneven saturation of ideology and, in particular, the role of ambivalence in status quo conventionality by investigating the marked absence of large-scale protest in Syria’s two most important cities during the first, predominantly peaceful year of the uprising. Whereas accounts of dictatorship take the task to be describing the role of staunch loyalists or highlighting opportunism in the operations of regime maintenance,…
Nationalism, Sentimentality, and Judgment
Chapter four deepens the analysis of political judgment in conditions of uncertainty, shifting attention to the appeals of national sentimentality—the various efforts undertaken by the regime and multiple oppositions to activate people’s affective attachments ideologically. Putting theorists of melodrama, sentimentality, and affect into conversation with political philosophers of judgment, the chapter looks explicitly at the fantasies of repair n…
Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria
If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of authoritarianism worldwide. In Authoritarian Apprehensions, Lisa Wedeen draws on her decades-long engagement with Syria to offer an erudite and compassionate analysis of this extraordinary rush of events-the revolutionary exhilaration of the initial days o…
Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria
Anti-Naturalism and Structure in Interpretive Social Science
Mark Bevir and Jason Blakely’s Interpretive Social Science: An Anti-Naturalist Approach successfully points out the problems with various forms of philosophical naturalism, demonstrating how essentialism, synchrony, and an effort to establish lawlike generalizations bedevil social science on both sides of the interpretive/positivist divide. The authors do an excellent job of identifying the philosophical roots and debates that are tied to the int…
Political science (25 works) · Law (19 works) · Politics (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · History (10 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Law (8 works)