*Please note the conference is free to attend, but delegates are required to organise and pay for their own travel and accommodation.

DAY 1 Monday 25 March 2013

09:00 – 10:00 Registration (lower ground floor, New Academic Building)

10:00 – 11:00 Opening Ceremony (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Danny Quah (LSE)
• Adnan Shihab-Eldin (KFAS)
• H. E. Majid Abdullah Al-Moneef (Saudi High Economic Council)

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break (lower ground floor)

11:30 – 13:00 Plenary Session – The Arab Spring and the Gulf: dynamics and interpretations (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Hamed Humood AlAjlaan (KFAS): ‘The Arab Spring: Beyond optimism and pessimism’
• Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (Emirates University): ‘The impact of the Arab Spring on the Arab Gulf States’
• F. Gregory Gause, III (University of Vermont): ‘American policy toward the Gulf in the Arab Spring’
• Ghanim Alnajjar (Kuwait University) ‘The political dynamics of human rights’

Chair: David Held (Durham University)

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch (lower ground floor)

14:00 – 15:30 Parallel Workshops

a) New media and generational shifts (Thai theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Kristian Coates Ulrichsen (LSE)
• Marc Owen Jones (Durham University): ‘Surveillance, propaganda & social control: How social media was used to police dissent in the 2011-12 Bahrain Uprising’
• Neil Partrick (LSE Visiting Fellow): ‘The social contract revisited’

Chair: Toby Matthiesen (LSE)

b) Transparency and governance in the GCC (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Mark Thatcher (LSE): ‘Governance and Western policies towards inward investment by Gulf sovereign wealth funds'
• Fahad al-Zumai (Gulf University for Science & Technology): ‘An analysis of corruption anatomy in the GCC’
• Jane Kinninmont (Chatham House): 'Asking for accountability: Corruption as a mobilising issue in the GCC countries'

Chair: Abbas Al-Mejren (KFAS)

DAY 2 Tuesday 26 March 2013

10:00 – 11:30 Policy responses and regional implications (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Jim Krane (University of Cambridge): ‘Rentierism as a theory of change: The case of the Gulf region’
• Steffen Hertog (LSE): ‘Back to the 1970s? Patronage and state dependence of GCC economies after the Arab uprisings’
• Abdullah Baaboud (Qatar University): ‘GCC states responses to the Arab Spring: Contradictions between domestic and regional policies’

Chair: Adnan Shihab-Eldin (KFAS)

11:30 – 12:00 Coffee Break (lower ground floor)

12:00 – 13:30 Parallel Workshops

a)  Women as agents of change (Thai theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Mary Ann Tétreault (Trinity University): ‘Under the radar, over the top: Women as agents of change’
• Alanoud Alsharekh (IISS): ‘The rise of Political Islam and the backlash against female political autonomy’
• Jamila Ali Raja (Consult Yemen): ‘Yemeni women as agents of change during the uprising and in transition: Challenges and opportunities’

Chair: TBC

b) Migration, identity and citizenship (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Ingo Forstenlechner (United Arab Emirates University): ‘Explaining the demographic imbalance and its implications’
• Nasra Shah (Kuwait University): ‘Possible impacts of the Arab Spring on the trends and patterns of non-nationals in the Gulf, especially second generation residents’
• Christopher Davidson (Durham University): ‘National identity-building and the question of citizenship in the small Gulf States’

Chair: John Chalcraft (LSE)

13:30 – 14:30 Lunch (lower ground floor)

14:30 – 16:00 Closing plenary – Geopolitics, economics and security trajectories and trends (Wolfson theatre)

Confirmed speakers:

• Abdullah al-Shayeji (Kuwait University): ‘The impact of the Arab uprisings on the GCC states: The politics of resilience and adaptation’
• Kristin Smith Diwan (American University): ‘The local and the global in the Gulf Arab Spring’
• Anoush Ehteshami (Durham University): ‘The Asianisation of the Gulf: Implications for the global rebalancing of power’

Chair: Danny Quah (LSE)

16:00 - 16:10 Closing remarks from Danny Quah

16:00 - 17:30 Reception (8th Floor, New Academic Building)