Charles Ough presenting at the 2025 BRISMES Conference in Newcastle 

On 2nd July, Charles Ough will present his paper From Revolution to Ruin: Subaltern Politics, Social Change and Sectarian Violence in Mount Lebanon, 1858-60 at the 2025 British Society of Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) annual conference, this year hosted by Newcastle University in the North East of England. Mr Ough looks at the 1858 peasants’ rebellion in the northern Kisrawan region and the subsequent widespread sectarian conflict fought mainly between groups from Mount Lebanon’s Christian and Druze populations. He will delve into how the practices developed by Lebanese subalterns themselves in revolts stretching back to the 1820s influenced 1858 and 1860. Following a top-down imperialist partition agreed between the European Powers and the Ottoman Empire in 1842, how did the people of Mount Lebanon view the changes in their society and envisage a more just future? And how then did this subsequently lead to unprecedented violence, destruction and ruin in 1860? 

The conference theme is “Destruction, Loss, and Recovery in the Middle East” and will include over 80 panels and plenaries both within and beyond this subject. Each year, BRISMES brings together scholars from across the UK and from all disciplines to present and debate on topics related to Middle East Studies. Hosted in 2025 across three days from 1st to the 3rd July by the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, presentations will cover politics, culture and society, language, literature, anthropology, economics, history, linguistics, and translation studies—all with a focus on the MENA region.

We wish Charles Ough good luck with his presentation, confident in his success.