The Middle East Institute is pleased to host Professor Asef Bayat from the University of Illinois for two public talks as part of our MEI Prominent Speaker Series. Professor Bayat will be speaking on pertinent Middle East current issues and will share his perspectives and insights on them. The venue for the talks will be the MEI Seminar Room, Level 6, Block B, 29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Singapore 119620. Details of the two public talks are as follows: Session I Title: After the Arab Spring Day/Date: Tuesday, 22 July 2014 Session II Title: Imagining a Post-Islamist Democracy Day/Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2014 ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Asef Bayat is the Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor in Global and Transnational Studies and Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois. Prior to coming to Illinois, Professor Bayat taught sociology and Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo for 16 years, before joining the Leiden University to serve (between 2003-2010) as the director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), and the Chair of Society and Culture of the Modern Middle East. His research areas range from social movements and non-movements, religion-politics-everyday life, Islam and the modern world, to urban space and politics, and international development. Dr. Bayat’s recent books include Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn (Stanford University Press, 2007), Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2010), and (with Linda Herrera) Being Young and Muslim: Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford University Press, 2010).