MENA-related Events Calendar

Organiser: International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA)

Speaker: Stephanie Döpper (University of Würzburg, Germany)

People in the past lived among the remains of earlier generations and engaged with them in different ways. One example is the reuse of tombs. This talk explores how reusing old tombs in Bronze and Iron Age southeastern Arabia may have helped communities make sense of the present, navigate periods of change, and shape cultural identities. It asks how engaging with the past could strengthen social cohesion, reinforce group identities, and legitimise social elites.

Zoom link (pre-registration is not required): https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/94290594803?pwd=RJfcBElnd7VBW1B8zJE0L4NoMLbfcn.

The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) extends an invitation to a two-day conference on the history, memory, and legacy of Fatimid rule in Sicily. For some 150 years (909–1050s), Sicily formed a part of the Fatimid empire. It was ruled through appointed governors and independent emirs from the Kalbid family, until the political turmoil of the mid-11th century, which paved the way for the Norman conquest. While the Normans ended Muslim rule in Sicily, they emulated the Fatimids’ practices and symbols of authority. Yet the role of the Fatimids in the history of Muslim Sicily has remained obscure due to the scarcity of written sources and material remains from the period.

This interdisciplinary conference will feature scholars working in the field to address this gap in light of newly published sources and documents, recently uncovered materials pertaining to Fatimid rule and its legacy in Sicily.

Are you a UK Higher Education Institution-affiliated researcher working within the humanities and social sciences and planning a project in Türkiye and/or the Black Sea region next year? If so, join us on Wednesday 21th October for a webinar on how the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) can support your research. This webinar will present the range of grants and opportunities available via the BIAA, with a particular focus on the Study (up to £2,000), Research (up to £5,000) and Large Research (up to £10,000) grants, which are currently being advertised with a deadline of 1st November. We will also discuss the range of facilities available at the BIAA’s world-class research centre in Ankara, including the BIAA David H. French Library – one of Türkiye’s premier research libraries, the BIAA laboratory and reference collections, the BIAA’s digital repository and archive and our research support and facilitation services. The BIAA’s research agenda and current Strategic Research Initiatives will also be presented.

The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) and the Dance, Music and Performing Arts of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Islamic Southeast Asia (MENACASEA) research network are pleased to present the fourth MENACASEA Symposium. 

This international gathering brings together scholars, artists and practitioners to explore dance, music, movement and performance traditions across the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia and Muslim contexts in Southeast Asia. The 2026 symposium focuses on the relationship between music, dance, movement and spirituality in Muslim contexts, examining how embodied and musical practices shape religious experience, artistic expression, cultural identity and communal life.

We are delighted to welcome you to a documentary film screening of Guerrilla Archive, jointly hosted by the SOAS Middle East Institute (SMEI) and the Digital Archive of the Middle East (DAME) Project (University of Exeter). The film screening (50 minutes) will be followed by a Q&A session with one of the filmmakers, Shahrzad Mojab, and a drinks reception.

Guerrilla Archive (2025), a documentary film produced by CNRS and directed by Chowra Makaremi, with Setar Faithi and Shahrzad Mojab, explores a previously unseen visual archive – photographs, sounds, and videos documenting the daily lives of Kurdish Peshmergas after the 1979 Iranian revolution. This documentary film traces the threads of militant memory, between armed struggle and community organising, within Komala, a Kurdish communist party opposed the Islamic State. Guerrilla Archive offers an immersion into the counter-archives of violence, where documenting becomes a political act

London Palestine Film Festival (@lpffofficial) returns Nov 13th–27th. This year's programme features UK premieres, Oscar-nominated titles, archival footage and retrospective screenings, creating a vital space to showcase the richness and complexities of Palestinian life. Including Muayad Alayan’s newly released Conversation with the Sea, and don’t miss our screening in tribute to Mohammed Bakri +Q&A at Rio Cinema and Riverside Studios. Check out the full programme and book your tickets now to explore Palestinian culture and resistance through cinema. 

Organiser: SOAS Middle East Institute

Speakers: Madawi Al-Rasheed (Fellow of the British Academy); Maryam Aldossari (Associate Professor in Organisation Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London)

Chair: Adam Hanieh (Director, SOAS Middle East Institute)

The Quest for Democracy in Saudi Arabia brings together scholars and activists to examine the possibilities and challenges of democratic change in Saudi Arabia.

The book challenges the idea that demands for political participation, accountability and rights are somehow absent from Saudi society, and instead places these struggles within their longer political, social and historical context.

The launch will provide an opportunity to reflect on these questions at a particularly important moment: what democracy might mean in the Saudi context, the forces that continue to constrain political change, and the role of social movements, women, activists and wider civil society in imagining and pushing for different political futures.