MENA-related Events Calendar

Organiser: SOAS Middle East Institute

Speakers: Francesco Belcastro (University of Derby); Edward Wastnidge (Open University)
Chair: Maria Gloria Polimeno (SOAS)

The tumult following the Arab Uprisings has expanded the arenas competed over by regional powers, global actors and non-state players. The United States, once seemingly intent on a hegemonic 'Pax Americana' has stepped back, leaving powers such as Russia, China, India and the EU with opportunities to increase their reach and expand their influence. Meanwhile, regional rivalries and alliances have continued to shape conflict and cooperation in the Middle East.

Palestinian poet Samer Abu Hawwash will be launching his latest work, in conversation with critic and writer Lucy Popescu, with readings from the original Arabic and English. This new collection was published in its original Arabic in the summer of 2024. The 24 poems are an intrepid literary journey into the genocide in Gaza, linking with Palestine’s long years of existential trauma, and documenting the universal human questions that so many are asking in today’s world. 

All welcome. 

Organiser: BRICUP - the British Committee for Universities in Palestine

Speakers: Professor Avi Shlaim; Dr Ghada Karmi; Professor Neve Gordon; Ben Jamal; Professor David Johnson Chair: Dr Nadia Edmond

This in-person event taking place in Central London marks the launch of the 2025 edition of the booklet Why Boycott Israeli Universities and the relaunch Academic Commitment on Palestine, a commitment by UK scholars to human rights in Palestine. The event will include discussion and audience Q&A. 

The Arabic Language and Civilization Center (CLCA) of the Arab World Institute (IMA) invites you to participate to its second “Autumn School”, EDIMA, from this 20th until the 24th of October 2025. 

EDIMA is a series of conferences and workshops around didactics and teaching Arabic as a foreign language. This year’s edition will be centered on TAFL for the youth. 

The autumn school’s full content will be given in Arabic. 

Many great and well-known experts of the language will contribute to the project and give the abovementioned conferences and workshops. You can check the full program on our website. 

All events are free to attend. You can register here.

Dr Jerome Drevon, Senior Analyst on Jihad and Modern Conflict at the International Crisis Group (ICG), and Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute Geneva, will present his work on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's Road to power in Syria. A joint event organised by the Alwaleed Centre and the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law (ECIGL), University of Edinburgh.  

Bringing together practitioners and scholars working on entertainment, arts, literature and language, this interdisciplinary conference is devoted to the complex relationship between mainstream and margin in contemporary Egyptian culture. Egypt’s cultural industries have undergone profound transformations in recent years. How are these transformations serving to unsettle boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, legitimate and illegitimate expression? Are these boundaries more fluid now than in previous eras, or does historicising our ‘exceptional’ contemporary moment reveal more continuities than ruptures? This conference provides an opportunity to think about repositioning Egypt, and the region more broadly, as a place of knowledge production; a place from which theory emerges, not just be applied or localised.

Join Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter) as they discuss their new co-written book 'States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East'. Chaired by Dr Jamie Allinson (University of Edinburgh). Tea, coffee and cakes available from 12:45pm.  

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

Speaker: Badr Tachouche (Lecturer, Anglo-American University in Prague) 

Music occupies a paradoxical position in Islamic tradition: central to the lived realities of Muslim societies yet often contested in the pages of classical jurisprudence. Whereas jurists often classified musicians as artisans yet morally suspect, Sufi thinkers debated its spiritual value, and modern reformist movements weaponized permissive or prohibitive rulings to advance competing political agendas.

Against this backdrop of restriction and controversy, this talk foregrounds the Andalusian legacy of muwashshaḥāt and azjāl as alternative models for engaging with music in Islamic thought. These poetic-musical forms not only emerged from a multireligious and multilingual milieu—blending Arabic with Romance, Hebrew, and Amazigh—but also embody aesthetic and epistemological innovations that extend beyond performance. By situating muwashshaḥāt and azjāl alongside juridical and doctrinal discourses, I propose a more inclusive framework for Islamic studies. I argue that these genres make theology emotionally resonant and intellectually accessible, inviting a rethinking of how Muslims articulate, teach, and experience God-talk in the modern age

Organiser: Department of Media Studies; Centre for Palestine Studies; SOAS Middle East Institute

Speakers: Nadeshda Jayakody, Legal Advisor at eyeWitness to Atrocities; Oriol Galobart, Programme Analyst at eyeWitness to Atrocities; Tareq Shrourou, Director and Principal Lawyer of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

Chair: Dina Matar (SOAS)

This panel will discuss the importance of documenting international crimes and human rights violations in Palestine to seek justice.It will address the role that mobile technology can play in authenticating photographic and video evidence and bridging the gap between human rights documenters and accountability mechanisms, as well as how holding businesses to account is an important aspect of pursuing justice.

Explore the captivating story of Oman's iconic frankincense trees at the 8th Oman Natural Heritage Lecture (ONHL), brought to you by The British Omani Society with the kind sponsorship of Amouage and support from London Speaker Bureau. This year, our distinguished speakers will bring to life the rich history and cultural significance of Oman's frankincense tree, exploring the place of frankincense in history, key contemporary challenges from cultivation to climate change, as well as the commercial opportunities they bring for Oman, including for eco-tourism.

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

Speaker: Michael Shenkar (Associate Professor of Ancient Iranian and Central Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

From the second half of the eighth century, following the Arab conquest, Sogdian culture, art, and religion entered into decline. This decline was not the result of large-scale destruction, since the principal Sogdian cities were not razed, but rather of the irreversible collapse of the unique Sogdian social organisation. The talk examines the evidence for the transformation of Sogdian urban society in this period, with particular attention to settlement patterns and art, continuities, and cultural shifts in the early Islamic era. The discussion is based on new data from the Sanjar-Shah excavations, along with archaeological and historical sources, to reassess the consequences of the Arab conquest for Sogdian civilisation. 

Organisers: SOAS Middle East Institute; Centre for Palestine Studise

Speaker: Gilbert Achcar, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS
Discussants: Dina Matar (SOAS); Nimer Sultany (SOAS)
Chair: Maria Gloria Polimeno (SOAS)

From a foremost expert on the Middle East, The Gaza Catastrophe is a searing indictment of the forces that led to the genocidal war on Gaza and its reverberations across the globe. The Gaza Catastrophe reckons with the lethal consequences and the significance of a war waged by an advanced military-industrial state – with full US participation and support from the West. Renowned political scientist Gilbert Achcar explores the dynamics of a complex historical process that culminated in the war on Gaza and wider conflict in the Middle East. He offers critical insights on the genocide’s regional and international ramifications, as well as radical critiques of Zionism, Hamas and other state and non-state actors.

Registration is open for an upcoming online conference hosted by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, in partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Association and the International Institute for Asian Studies. 

The conference will consist of six panel discussions across the 6th & 7th November that will explore US policy towards Asia one year into the second Trump presidency. The panels will focus, respectively, on China, India and South Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia and will consist of a broad range of experts and specialists.

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

Speaker: Gabriel Said Reynolds (Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology, University of Notre Dame)

The Qur’an’s engagement with Christian stories, including the story of young men and their miraculous “sleep” in a cave, and the story of a clay bird brought to life by the breath of Jesus, points to its emergence in a late antique Christian world. In this talk I will argue that the Qur’an competes with Christian claims by reshaping these stories for its own theological program, thereby undermining their Christian apologetic uses. The clay-bird miracle, for example, was popular among Christians for its presentation of Christ’s divine nature (even as a child). In the Qur’an it becomes simply one of the signs that God works through prophets. These case studies reveal a scripture at once deeply conversant with and strategically resistant to its Christian world.