Acknowledgements List of contributors 1. Introduction: The Methodological and Ethical Challenges of Conducting Research in the Middle East and North Africa Janine A. Clark and Francesco Cavatorta Part 1: Context 2. Encountering the Mukhabarat State Jillian Schwedler and Janine A. Clark 3. What Is So Special about Field Research in Iran? Doing Fieldwork in Religiously Charged Authoritarian Settings Paola Rivetti and Shirin Saeidi 4. Authoritarianism, Gender, and Sociopolitics in Saudi Arabia Gwenn Okruhlik 5. Researching in and on the Palestinian Occupied Territories Benoit Challand 6. Seeing Beyond the Spectacle: Research on and Adjacent to Violence Sarah E. Parkinson 7. Doing Research during Times of Revolution and Counter-revolution Atef Said 8. Researching the Countryside: Farmers, Farming, and Social Transformation in a Time of Economic Liberalization Ray Bush Part 2: Methods 9. Interviewing: Lessons Learned Janine A. Clark 10. Interviewing Salafis: Negotiating Access and Ethics Massimo Ramaioli 11. Interviewing Salafis: Overcoming Mistrust in Middle Eastern and European Contexts Zoltan Pall and Mohamed Ali Adraoui 12. Interviewing and Gender Emanuela Dalmasso 13. Process tracing and the Political Economy of Development in the Middle East David Waldner 14. Ethnography Is an Option: Learning to Learn in Yemen Stacey Philbrick Yadav 15. Coding in Qualitative Research Mohammed Yaghi 16. Quantitative Research in MENA Political Science Miquel Pellicer and Eva Wegner 17. Of Promise and Pitfalls: Population-Based Experimental Research in the Middle East Steven Brooke 18. Online Media as Research Topic and Research Tool: Fact, Fiction and Facebook Elizabeth Monier 19. Researching Twitter Geoffrey Martin Part 3: Ethics 20. Blurred Lines of Inclusion and Exclusion: Research Ethics for Sympathizers Irene Weipert-Fenner 21. Playing with Positionality? Reflections on"Outsider" / "Insider" Status in the Context of Fieldwork in Lebanon's Deeply Divided Polity Paul Kingston 22. Intersectionality Theory and Working with "Both Sides" Lihi Ben Shitrit 23. The (Ambiguous) Fieldwork Experiences of a German Moroccan in Jordan Malika Bouziane Notes Bibliography Index

Selling point: Based on the real-life experiences of researchers who study the politics of the Middle East and North Africa Selling point: Looks at different contexts in which researchers work, such as in areas of violence or entrenched authoritarianism Selling point: Provides a variety of different ethnographic sources, including interviews and surveys

Janine A. Clark is an Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Guelph. She has conducted extensive field research on Islamism, decentralization, and civil society activism in the Middle East and North Africa. She is the author of Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco (Columbia UP) and Islam, Charity and Activism (Indiana UP) and co-editor of Economic Liberalization, Democratization and Civil Society in the Developing World (Macmillan/St. Martin's). Francesco Cavatorta is an Associate Professor in Political Science at Laval University. He has conducted extensive field research on Islamism, party politics in the Arab world and civil society activism in the Middle East and North Africa. He is the author of The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition: Democracy betrayed? (Manchester University Press), co-author Politics and Governance in the Middle East (Palgrave), and co-editor of Salafism after the Arab Awakening: Contending with people's power (Hurst).

Selling point: Based on the real-life experiences of researchers who study the politics of the Middle East and North Africa Selling point: Looks at different contexts in which researchers work, such as in areas of violence or entrenched authoritarianism Selling point: Provides a variety of different ethnographic sources, including interviews and surveys