Graphic Politics: A visual history of activism and resistance in the Arab world from the middle to late twentieth century

This doctoral study is situated in the broader context of design for social and political change, exploring the overlap between visual communication design and political engagement in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (the Arab world), with a specific focus on revolutionary uprisings from the end of the Second World War until the early 1980s. The research provides an alternative view, facilitating a deeper understanding of Arab politics through an Arabcentric and visual communication design perspective, addressing a gap in knowledge attributed partly to the reliance on Western-centric approaches to theorizing and analysis, especially in relation to the study of Arab politics. In addition, the study fills a gap resulting from the large number of studies that explore the history of radical politics in the Arab world from singular disciplinary historical, political, economic, or social perspectives, but rarely an integrated disciplinary perspective incorporating visual communication design.

This is a body of knowledge relating to Arab culture and identity, developed through the study of its visual language of dissent and relying on a unique research methodology that expands our understanding of the interdisciplinary overlap between visual communication design and political engagement. This multi-layered interdisciplinary approach is also one of the study’s main contributions to knowledge, drawing on theories from multiple disciplines as the basis for its descriptive and analytical frameworks. In other words, providing an alternative visual perspective that facilitates a deeper understanding of Arab radical politics through an Arab-centric and visual analysis of materials developed by politically engaged visual communication designers whose work reflected the ideologies and sentiments of the time.