Last month, Carnegie Corporation of New York hosted an event marking the launch of the inaugural Arab Social Sciences Report, "Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence." According to lead author, Mohammed Bamyeh, the report uncovers a "silent revolution of knowledge production" in the Arab region. Social transformation has enlivened the region's campuses, think tanks, and social media networks, and recent years have seen a sharp rise in the number of universities and research centers engaged in matters of political science, economics, sociology, and history. Bamyeh stressed the vital role the report has played in highlighting growth and development that may have gone otherwise unnoticed, stating that without this effort, the "silent revolution" would remain an undocumented phenomenon. Grantees in this story The difficulties encountered in developing and publishing the report illustrate the inherent obstacles facing the social sciences in the Arab region. Director General of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS), Seteney Shami, cited the dearth of resources, lack of access to data, and the fragmented nature of research in the Arab world as some of the major challenges currently facing the disciplines. Furthermore, the majority of universities across the region are still in the process of evolving into established research centers, and according to Lisa Anderson, former president of the American University in Cairo (AUC), "75 percent of universities in the Arab region are less than 25 years old.
