ABSTRACT
Political scientists got busy as they witnessed a series of revolts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2010. The uprisings were triggered by a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi. He lived in Sidi Bouzid, a city approximately 260 kilometers away from Tunis. For months the municipal government had humiliated him and denied his basic rights. On December 17, 2010, in his desperation, he set himself on fire and died on January 4, 2011. His self-immolation and death ignited a series of mass protests. Only ten days after his death, the Tunisian government was overthrown and the wave of change spread to its neighboring countries such as Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Libya. In the months to follow, political scientists embarked upon studying what happened and here, as is the case with studying anything, keen observations mattered. For a political science student, there are mainly two things to observe: 1) the political phenomena themselves, and 2) the academic reactions to the phenomena.
