MENA-related Events Calendar

Organiser: MECACS and CSS Seminar Series Event

Speaker: Professor Wendy Pearlman (Northwestern University)
Chair: Dr Wassim Naboulsi (University of St Andrews)

In The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora, Northwestern University Professor Wendy Pearlman explores how violence not only forced millions of Syrians from their homes but also compelled them to rethink the meaning of home itself. A follow-up to her book We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, this new collection is based on original interviews with more than 500 displaced Syrians on five continents and weaves together their testimonials about losing home and searching for home against the backdrop of revolution and war. In sharing a selection of these stories and updating them with observations from her recent trip to Syria, this lecture offers human context on dramatic questions facing Syria after the fall of the Assad regime and derives broader lessons about migration, identity, and belonging.

Wendy Pearlman is the Jane Long Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She is the author of six books and more than 40 academic articles or book chapters on the Middle East.

MS Teams - register via irevents@st-andrews.ac.uk

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. 

Organiser: LSE Middle East Institute

This talk delivered by Raya Jalabi, Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times, as part of the annual Ian Black Memorial Lecture Series, will examine Syria’s fraught first year in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

In Damascus, the streets hum with the prospect of returning commerce and a flurry of international diplomacy. Yet beyond the capital’s reach, scars of conflict still linger: villages emptied by displacement, communities unsettled by cycles of revenge and the scourge of poverty in a country where trauma, fear and hope for a new future are frenetically enmeshed.

At its centre is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander who has recast himself as the country’s new powerbroker. His efforts to steady a nation scarred by fourteen years of conflict have been defined by competing pressures: restive minorities demanding greater autonomy, the persistence of revenge killings and social upheaval, and the delicate task of reintroducing Syria to the international stage. This lecture will look at how Sharaa has navigated these crosscurrents in his first year, consolidating authority while attempting to stabilise the country and stave off fragmentation — and consider whether his grip on power can hold.

Organiser: AKU-ISMC

This seminar addresses the explosion of interest within Academia in alternative methods for both doing and publishing research. Using his own research project The Native and Refugee as a case study, Malek Rasamny will explore a whole host of non-paper associated media from blogs to websites to documentary film. In particular, he will look at how the medium of film can radically transform research output – from using different styles of filming (journalistic, agit-prop, experimental) to how it can be formatted (from clips and shorts to feature-length documentary films). He will also touch on different approaches to the writing, archiving, curation and pedagogy of your research when utilising these new media approaches. Also included will be a screening of his documentary ‘Spaces of Exception’.

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: Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) 

Speaker: Charles Lister (Middle East Institute)
Chair: Dr Rim Turkmani (LSE)

Twelve months ago, following thirteen years of civil war, the then rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) launched a lightening offensive which saw the group take control of huge swathes of Syrian territory, ultimately leading to the capture of the capital city, Damascus, and the fleeing of long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad, ending fifty-four years of Assad family rule. Shortly after the fall of Assad, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa became the de facto leader of Syria and in January 2025 was appointed President of the Syrian Transitional Government.

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.