K. Scott Parker is a History Tutor (Distance Learning) for Royal Holloway, University of London. He holds a BSc in History and Religion (College of William and Mary), an MSc in International Relations (Troy State University), an MA in the History of Christianity (Wheaton College), and a PhD in History (Royal Holloway, University of London) focused on the Middle East. He has travelled and researched widely across the Middle East, and was formerly a Research Associate at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland University College.
Middle Eastern Minorities and the Arab Spring: Identity and Community in the Twenty-First Century examines eleven minority groups in the early years of the so-called Arab Spring. Wide-ranging in scope, minorities of diverse religious and ethno-linguistic backgrounds are included from North Africa, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. Each has experienced the Arab Spring differently and uniquely depending upon their context. Of particular concern to the international team of scholars involved in this volume, is the interaction and reaction of minorities to the protest movements across the Arab World that called for greater democratic rights and end to respective autocratic regimes. While some minorities participated in the Arab Spring, others were wary of instability and the unintended effects of regime change – notably the rise of violent Islamism. The full effects of the Arab Spring will not be known for years to come, but for the minorities of the Middle East, the immediate future seems certainly tenuous at best.