The Review of Middle East Studies (ROMES), one of the premier journals in Middle East Studies, published Dr. Foley’s article “The Distant Early Warning System”: The Online Public Sphere and the Contemporary Artistic Movement in Saudi Arabia. The article explores how Saudi artists, who have among the largest followings on the country’s social media, have used the online public sphere to build a new social movement. He argues that they have adopted a role akin to Antonio Gramsci’s concept of organic intellectuals – namely, men and women who are not part of the traditional intellectual elite, but who, through the language of culture, articulate feelings and experiences the masses cannot easily express. As a leading Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem observed in June 2019, “people need to listen to the artist.”
