MENA-related Events Calendar

Organisers: LSE and University of Sheffield

Registration is now open for the second Kurdish Studies Conference. This interdisciplinary event builds on the inaugural conference at LSE in 2023 and is organised by the Kurdish Studies Series at the LSE Middle East Centre and the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. The Kurdish Studies Series encourages dissemination and discussion of new research on Kurdish politics and society and provides a network for scholars, students and all others with related research interests.

Organiser: Department of the History of Art & Archaeology, SOAS

This talk addresses the diverse history of art, culture, and architecture of Old Mosul as a mosaic of interlocked layers of resilience in the face of protracted adversities. 

Navigating through the local bazaars and destroyed alleyways of Old Mosul, Professor Abdelmonem will trace the impact of the war and ISIS's indiscriminate destruction of cultural, and religious buildings in a city that was the market town and centre for textile trade in Northern Iraq.

Rethinking the Contemporary Art of Iran, edited by Hamid Keshmirshekan, seeks to articulate an alternative narrative of Iranian art in recent times, diverging from the prevalent portrayals often found in publications derived from exhibitions or collections in Western Europe and North America. Its aim is to embrace a diverse range of cultural expressions, each contributing to a vibrant mosaic that represents the multifaceted realities of the country – realities frequently overlooked in recent publications.

Organiser: BRICUP Seminar Series 2023-4

Speaker: Professor Avi Shlaim (University of Oxford)

Amidst Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, and the murderous terror now unleashed by settlers and troops on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, the rhetoric of Israeli national ideology intensifies, and is echoed by Israel’s political and media supporters in Western capitals: Israel is the home and the sanctuary for world Jewry; and it is a democratic bastion in a sea of reactionary and fundamentalist autocracies, and military and plutocratic dictatorships.

In his Verso-published memoir of 2023, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew, Avi Shlaim punctures these myths with his recollections of his childhood as a refugee from Iraq. 

Organiser: SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies

The SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies is thrilled to announce the screening of a captivating series of films from April 27 to June 29, 2024, honouring the remarkable cinematic legacy of Bahman Maghsoudlou.

Join us for an immersive journey through 13 extraordinary movies across 10 sessions, with select sessions graced by the esteemed presence of Dr. Maghsoudlou himself

Organiser: Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter

Speaker: Sami L. De Giosa (Assistant Professor, University of Sharjah)

The focus of Sami’s talk is on the use of spolia from Christian monuments in Egypt utilized within Islamic settings up until the Mamluk period. The instances explored in this talk offer an understanding of the Islamic remembrance and reverence of the past mixed with a need to build monuments at an incessant pace, and the demand for construction material as well as architectural elements. On the other side a deeper, esoteric level is explored with practices found in Egypt amongst the Royal Patronage of the Mamluk sultans, with a specific focus on the aesthetic symbols normally associated with religion, or in the case of Islam their lack thereof.  With the main case study, Sami’s talk examines the foretold and untold of a famous case of Christian spolia utilised in the Mosque of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad situated in the Citadel of Cairo. The historical analysis follows a trail of a high and popular culture, utilitarian as well as occult reasons behind what appears to be a calculated practical move of architectural remnants from the provinces to the Egyptian capital. Far from providing certainties, Sami raises questions about the use of primary sources, of information known and given for granted about monuments and people, and ultimately reflects on the ambivalent nature of history, architectural and textual, and its many ‘veiled’ truths. 

Organiser: Centre for Human Rights Law and the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there has been a continuing though vacillating gulf between the requirements of international law and the UN on the question of Palestine. 

The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity (CUP, 2023) explores the UN's management of the longest-running problem on its agenda, critically assessing tensions between the organization's position and international law. What forms has the UN's failure to respect international law taken, and with what implications?

Organiser: Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)

Speaker: Christopher Phillips (Author and professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London)

Caabu invites you to an in person briefing with Christopher Phillips, author, and professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London, who will discuss his new book, Battleground: 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East, on Tuesday 30 April 2024 at 6.30pm at The Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DE.

Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence: Russia, China, the EU, and the US. Moving through ten key flashpoints, from Syria to Palestine, Phillips argues that the United States’ overextension after the Cold War, and retreat in the 2010s, has imbalanced the region. Today, the Middle East remains blighted by conflicts of unprecedented violence and a post-American scramble for power – leaving its fate in the balance.

Organiser: SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies

"A Mosaic of Metaphors" delves into the life and artistic journey of renowned master of Iranian theatre and cinema, Bahram Beyzaie.

Through a dynamic exploration, writer, producer and director, Bahman Maghsoudlou, traces the evolution of Beyzaei's oeuvre, spanning from his early work "Uncle Moustache (Amou Sibilou)" to later masterpieces such as "Bashu, The Little Stranger." Revealing the essence of both the man and the artist, the documentary portrays Beyzaie's experience as an artist in diaspora, leaving an indelible mark that ensures his legacy will endure long after the film's conclusion.

Organiser: British Institute at Ankara

Speaker: Petra de Bruijn (Leiden University)

Since the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) governs Turkey, religiosity has become more visible in society. Several television series explore the interaction between conservative/religious and modern/secular lifestyles. This lecture focuses on three case studies: the Netflix series Bir Başkadır (Ethos, 2020), Kızılçık Şerbeti (Cranberry Sorbet, 2022-2023) broadcasted on the mainstream private channel Show TV, and the TRT 1 series Yedi Güzel Adam (Seven Nice Men, 2014-2015). After briefly explaining the embedding of the re-emergence of religiosity in Türkiye’s socio-political history, the lecture will supply a short overview of the development towards the presentation of religiosity in television drama. Then, it will zoom in on the three case studies, analysing how conservative/religious lifestyles and modern/secular lifestyles are presented.

Organiser: Middle East and Central Asian Music Forum

• Saeid Kordmafi (SOAS): Performing Transnationality in the Maqam Realm: Reflections on an Ongoing Creative Research Project
• Edoardo Marcarini (SOAS): "This Is Not Real Persian Music": Discourses of Musical Authenticity among Iranian Jews in Israel
• Ayat Al Mata'ni (Sultan Qaboos University) ONLINE: Ethnomusicological Research on Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation in Oman
• Saida Daukeyeva (Wesleyan University) ONLINE: Making the Kazakh Qyl-qobyz: Musical Instrument as Sentient Being
• Margarethe Adams (Stonybrook) ONLINE: Music, Pilgrimage, and Healing in Kazakhstan
• Rim Irscheid (KCL): At Home in the Uncanny: A Sonic Exploration of Urban Aesthetics, Ethics, and Care in Post-Explosion Lebanon and Egypt

For further information, please email: rh@soas.ac.uk

Organiser: PIR Contemporary Middle East Series, University of Edinburgh in collaboration with CRITIQUE Centre for Ethics and Critical Thought, Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law and Race.Ed

Speaker: Dr Lisa Bhungalia 

Dr. Bhungalia will discuss their new book Elastic Empire. Refashioning War Through Aid in Palestine. Elastic Empire traces how foreign aid, on which much of the Palestinian population is dependent, has multiplied the sites and means through which Palestinian life is regulated, surveilled, and policed—this book tells the story of how aid has also become war.

Organiser: SOAS Middle East Institute

The nineteenth century saw the consolidation of the Qajar State and changed relations with the European powers that had been transformed by political, industrial and agricultural revolutions, among them the loss of Britain’s American colonies and the rise of an independent power on the global scene. 

When Iran emerged from its own turbulent eighteenth century, it entered a new world dominated by expanding colonial and imperial forces, notably Britain and Russia. Among the many consequences were the remorseless losses of territories in the North and East, by the end of which Iran took on the outlines of its present borders. At the same time, the encounter with the West gave rise to dissatisfaction, realisations of weakness, many calls for change and ultimately, revolution. 

What does the Idea of Iran mean at this period?

Organiser: SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies

From the ninth to the nineteenth centuries, Persian was the pre-eminent language of learning far beyond Iran, stretching from the Balkans to China.

In his new book, Alexander Jabbari explores what became of this vast Persian literary heritage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Iran and South Asia, as nationalism took hold and the Persianate world fractured into nation-states. He shows how Iranians and South Asians drew from their shared past to produce a 'Persianate modernity', and create a modern genre, literary history. 

Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series

Speaker: Ingrid Hehmeyer (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Discussant: Daniel Varisco (American Institute for Yemeni Studies)

Conference, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, 18 May 2024

This conference is organized to examine the ways in which feminist imagination is changing the face of the Global South by challenging gendered political structures, legal systems, and development trajectories in the Global South. On the one hand, the existing normative attitudes around gender are protected by advocating misogynist tradition and law, thus leading to feminist critique of constitutionalism, especially in Malaysia, India, Iran, and Afghanistan. On the other hand, feminists in the Global South, including Africa, Asia, and South America, encounter the challenges of colonial feminism.

Online short course, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, 23-24 May 2024

The course attempts to introduce participants to understanding ways in which Muslims use the Qur’an in practice in both religious and social contexts. After initially situating the Qur’an as a religious text within the context of Muslim beliefs and perceptions, the remaining sessions will explore the use of the Qur’an in calligraphy, in healing rituals, and in Sufi practices.

Online short course, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, 4-5 June 2024

This two-day course introduces participants to the different approaches to development and how these approaches inform development policies. Participants will be able to share their own understanding of development and explore current datasets on development indicators to investigate the experiences of Muslim-majority countries (MMCs). We will also look at the historical evidence to see what can be learnt from today’s industrialised or high-income countries, and what this implies for the types of policies to promote development in MMCs, including the roles of government, private sector, civil society and NGOs.

Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series

Speaker: Marieke Brandt (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Discussant: Noha Sadek (French Research Centre of the Arabian Peninsula in Kuwait)

Organisers: Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (London) in cooperation with the Academy of Science (Portugal)

The Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (London), in cooperation with the Academy of Science (Portugal), is pleased to announce an advanced training course entitled Manuscripts for Research: An Advanced Course in Arabic Manuscript Studies, which will be held at the prestigious Library of the Academy of Science of Lisbon (founded on 24 December 1779). The course will take place from 8-11 July 2024. 

During this course, participants will have the chance to examine the vibrant collection of manuscripts at the Academy of Science of Lisbon. An outstanding collage of manuscripts covers different subjects and geographies. The course will consist of interactive lectures about codicology and philology and hands-on sessions focusing on a selection of manuscripts from the valuable collection at the Academy of Science. 

The exhibition introduces contemporary art from the Barjeel Foundation, with a focus on the overarching theme of "Boundaries" as both a subject and a tool for meaningfully accessing a diverse array of art from the SWANA region. Delving into the profound implications of walls and borders on artistic expression, the exhibition prompts the question of whether it is the artist's perspective that ultimately transcends these boundaries.

Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series

Speaker: Sabine Schmidtke (Institute of Advanced Study)

Online short course, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, 7-8 October 2024

This course introduces students to the study of manuscripts (codicology). It will allow participants to apply the technical terminology of codicology and understand how writing materials were prepared. We also explore the institutional contexts in which manuscripts were produced and discuss how codicological methods can inform research in history and art history.