Acknowledgments

This project has incurred many debts over the years. It would not have been possible without funding from the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (#1433642), the American Institute for Yemeni Studies’ Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, several Kugelman Citizen Peacebuilding Research Fellowships, the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies’ Research Award, funding from the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Department of Sociology at University of California, Irvine (UCI), and a Type I Faculty Research Grant from the University of Pittsburgh. I am especially grateful to all of the members of UCI’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding – and especially Larry and Dulcie Kugelman – for their exemplary enthusiasm for graduate student research. Parts of this book have appeared previously in Social Forces (Moss Reference Moss2020) and Social Problems (Moss Reference Moss2016b). I thank the editors at Oxford University Press for permission to reprint parts of these articles here.

I do not have the words to adequately thank the activists and organizers who spent many precious hours speaking with me about their experiences. Many went out of their way to facilitate my fieldwork, host me in their homes, share meals, and help me find my way, literally and figuratively. Special thanks are due (in no particular order) to Rabyaah Althaibani and her family, Ibrahim Al Qataby, Mazen Obaid, Safa Mubgar and the girls, Adel Aulaqi, Shaima Saif, the Al-Hakimi family, the Mashjari family, Ilham Ali, Khaled Ahmed, Ayat Mneina, Abdallah Omeish, Rihab Elhaj, Walid Raghei and his parents, and Gihan Badi and her family for their gracious assistance and overwhelming hospitality. I certainly would not have made it to Libya and back, given the timing of my trip after the 2013 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, without Abdallah, Rihab, and Walid. Thanks also to the many organizers I met along the way who invited and welcomed me to their events.

I am deeply indebted to the many scholars who have commented on this work in part and in full. David Snow, my exceptional advisor and mentor of many years, has always counseled me with wisdom and patience; I have been beyond lucky to have him as a guide and dear friend. Yang Su’s candid insights, belief in my abilities, and coaching make me a better scholar; I continue to strive to “have more swagger” (but also not too much). David Meyer is a tireless guide who never neglects to ask how I am doing; thank you for helping to shepherd this book into reality. A debt is also owed to David J. Frank for being such a wonderfully wise and positive mentor over these many years.

Many others lent their labor to making this book better, suffering through early drafts of the manuscript and its article-length components to help me get out of my own way. These individuals include the participants of my book workshop in 2018 – Sidney Tarrow, Roger Waldinger, Wendy Pearlman, and Clifford Bob – as well as Lauren Duquette-Rury, Charles Kurzman, Rory McVeigh, Josh Bloom, Suzanne Staggenborg, Phillip Ayoub, Andy Andrews, John Markoff, Jackie Smith, Alejandro Portes, Colin Beck, John McCarthy, Jack Delehanty, Gerasimos Tsourapas, Ali Chaudhary, Kim Ebert, Marcus Michaelsen, Maria Koinova, Marlies Glasius, Fiona Adamson, Bahar Baser, L. E. Picard, Mohammed Bamyeh, Judy Stepan-Norris, and Charles Ragin. The participants of the 2020 Culture and Politics Workshop at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the 2019 New York University Abu Dhabi conference on “Theorizing Social Change, Institutions, and Culture,” especially Zeynep Ozgen, Edward Kiser, Elisabeth Anderson, and Michelle O’Brien, all provided extremely helpful comments on different drafts. I am also deeply appreciative of the research assistance of Mark Robison and Eli Williams at the University of Notre Dame. The ever-cheerful John Ewing did an exceptional job helping me to edit the manuscript, and Trent Hancock produced a masterfully digitized index with grace and patience. Thank you both for your efforts on my behalf. I also thank the anonymous reviewers who provided feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Many friends, mentors, and colleagues – including Ali Kadivar, Aliza Luft, Ann Hironaka, Ann Mische, Atef Said, Brandon Gorman, David Cunningham, Diana Fu, Edelina Burciaga, Edward Lemon, Eric Schoon, Francesca Polletta, Gillian Kennedy, Hank Johnston, Irene Bloemraad, Jaime Kucinskas, Jean Beaman, Jeffrey Lane, Junia Howell, Katie Bolzendahl, Karida Brown, Kraig Beyerlein, Maria Abascal, Mark Paterson, Michael Goodhart, Nina Bandelj, Pamela Oliver, Roberta Lessor, Roger Rouse, Saipira Furstenberg, Sharon Quinsaat, Tarun Banerjee, William Carbonaro, and Waverly Duck – have been sources of invaluable advice and support. Melanie Hughes and her spouse, Britton, made Pittsburgh feel like home for us. Our years spent in California would have been deeply impoverished without the friendships of Beth Gardner, Amber Tierney, Savannah Steele, Zaib Tufail, Matt Rafalow, Mariam Ashtiani, Josh and Laina Malnight, Sahar Khan, Burrel Vann, Martín Jacinto, and many others. I will never forget the generosity of Hibba Abugideiri, Catherine Warrick, Barbara Romaine, Brian Jones, and Rick Eckstein of Villanova University, and of Jane Satterfield, Ned Balbo, Barbara Vann, and Lovell Smith at Loyola University in Maryland. Thank you for seeing me and appreciating my efforts; I will forever appreciate yours.

I spent almost every day revising this book with the brilliant sociologist Jessica Simes and the most incredible group of scholar-writer friends, including Cati Connell, Sultan Doughan, Merav Shohet, Jackie Jahn, Ana Villarreal, Paula Austin, Sarah Miller, and Saida Grundy. Thank you all for your encouragement and commiseration this year and beyond; your unwavering comradeship has made my heart full. The final months of revising this book amid a global pandemic, the 2020 US presidential election, and a move to the Midwest would have been overwhelming without the unconditional love and laughter from Sarah Gregory, my oldest friend from across the pond.

My penchant for asking questions and challenging the answers is owed to my parents, Nancy and John. Thank you for always being so enthusiastic and understanding about my plans. All of my family members have been tremendous sources of encouragement and support during this project. Special thanks are also due to Kate and Don Picard for helping to make this work possible. To anyone I may have forgotten, please know that I value you beyond words.

In closing, this book is dedicated to Layla Picard. She has been my daily source of inspiration to keep this project going. I am beyond lucky to have such a brilliant and all-around wonderful person as my wife and best friend.