In December 2010, the month of Mohammad Bouazizi's self immolation at Sidi Bouzid, in Tunisia, that sparked the Arab Spring, Sciences Po closed the Middle East and Mediterranean Program. Kepel was elected a senior fellow at Institut Universitaire de France for five years (2010–2015),[20] which allowed him to refocus on fieldwork. He was also offered the visiting “Philippe Roman Professorship in History and International Relations” at the London School of Economics” in 2009–2010.