New Graduate Section Report | Pathways to Publishing: Navigating Early Careers in Middle East Studies

At the 2025 BRISMES Annual Conference held at Newcastle University, the Graduate Section organised a roundtable event entitled Pathways to Publishing: Navigating Early Careers in Middle East Studies. The session brought together representatives from four leading publishers alongside an experienced academic scholar to offer doctoral students and early career researchers practical guidance on the publishing landscape in Middle East studies and related disciplines.

The panel comprised five speakers, each addressing a distinct dimension of the publishing process. The session was structured to move from the foundational question of transforming a thesis into a book, through the practicalities of writing proposals and navigating peer review, to the specifics of journal submission, and finally to a reflective academic perspective on the personal and professional dimensions of scholarly publishing. The event concluded with a lively question-and-answer session that addressed topics including the differences between university presses and commercial publishers, submitting to multiple publishers, the role of series editors, open access, and the use of artificial intelligence in academic writing.

This report synthesises the key insights from the roundtable discussion. It is organised by speaker, preserving the order and structure of the session, and concludes with a thematic summary of the questions and answers that followed.

BRISMES extends its thanks to the Graduate Section Co-Presidents, Motasem Abuzaid and Yara Zebian, and the panellists for compiling this important resource.