Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East

Jonathan Wyrtzen is an Associate Professor of Sociology and History whose research engages a set of related thematic areas that include empire and colonialism, state formation and non-state forms of political organization, ethnicity and nationalism, and religion and socio-political action. His work focuses largely on society and politics in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly with regards to interactions catalyzed by the expansion of European empires into this region. His first book, "Making Morocco: Colonial Intervention and the Politics of Identity" (2016 Social Science History Association President's Book Award winner) examines how European colonial intervention in Morocco (1912-1956) established a new type of political field in which notions about and relationships among politics and identity formation were fundamentally transformed. It shows how interactions among a wide range of European and local actors indelibly politicized four key dimensions of Moroccan identity: religion, ethnicity, territory, and the role of the Alawid monarchy.