Welcome to our newsletter about research on the Middle East at Lund University! Middle East Forum Newsletter #1 May, 2019 The Middle East is an area that affects us all. It is the cradle of human civilization with a recent conflict-ridden history, and aspiring democracy movements that are of global concern. Its immense strategic importance and strong role in the world economy, together with an unp

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-1-may-2019 - 2025-08-23

CMES, The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and a new platform called ip-ACIRR* are working to promote rights for people with disabilities in contexts of armed conflicts and for inclusive post-conflict society building. New cooperation initiative around people with disabilities in conflict areas When CMES researcher Helen Avery was in Sulaimaniya in Kurdistan, she vis

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-cooperation-initiative-around-people-disabilities-conflict-areas - 2025-08-23

Madeleine Kassab is a guest researcher at Middle Eastern Studies. Her research about The Media Coverage of the Syrian Crisis analyses the media coverage of the Syrian crisis from 2011 to 2013. It is a comparison between Al-Jazeera and Al-Manar channels through quantitative and qualitative analysis. The Syrian crisis is characterized by the intertwining of factors and variables at the local, region

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/media-coverage-syrian-crisis-presentation-sol-sprak-och-litteraturcentrum-lund-university - 2025-08-23

Madeleine Kassab is a guest researcher at Middle Eastern Studies. Her research about The Media Coverage of the Syrian Crisis analyses the media coverage of the Syrian crisis from 2011 to 2013. It is a comparison between Al-Jazeera and Al-Manar channels through quantitative and qualitative analysis. The Media Coverage of the Syrian Crisis- a presentation at SOL, Språk- och litteraturcentrum Lund Un

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/media-coverage-syrian-crisis - 2025-08-23

Monday the 27th of May, CMES affiliated researcher, the Syria scholar and ethnographic filmmaker Joshka Wessels will present her upcoming book which will be published by Bloomsbury/IB Tauris entitled "Documenting Syria: Film-making, Video Activism and Revolution". "Documenting Syria: Film-making, Video Activism and Revolution". Cover: I.B. Tauris Joshka's book is the world's first history of Syria

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/worlds-first-history-syrian-documentary-cinema - 2025-08-23

This year's Graduate Student Conference was entitled "The Middle East in the Contemporary World". The conference is as an opportunity for students at CMES and more widely at Lund University to present and discuss their own research and ideas. One of the presentations was The Hurdles of the Patriarchy – Women and Politics in Lebanon by Julia van Zijl. Women in political positions and democratic tra

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/women-and-politics-lebanon-one-many-interesting-presentations-graduate-student-conference - 2025-08-23

CMES researchers Helen Avery and Spyros Sofos are working to build a university-wide post-conflict research network with strong and diverse international connections. This brings together scholars and practitioners working on reconstruction of social fabrics and physical/technical infrastructure, institution building, rehabilitation of populations, memory, justice and reconciliation, transitions t

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/university-wide-post-conflict-research-network - 2025-08-23

Helen Avery's work concerns sustainability transitions in the Middle East, with a particular focus on strategies for environmentally and socially sustainable society building. Research interests include organisational development, creativity and transdisciplinarity in higher education, internationalisation strategies, as well as participatory and future-oriented methodologies in a variety of setti

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-helen-avery-meeting-research-colleagues-kurdistan - 2025-08-23

"The following include some of the most innovative approaches to Islamic State to date, and promise a wave of fresh voices on one of the most important challenges to global order." Daesh media production is complex, multifaceted, and is arguably a representational microcosm of the organization as a whole. Claiming universality as an Islamic State for the entire Muslim Umma, debates about its state

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/where-media-meets-statecraft-daesh-promotion-governmental-competence-through-its-media-new-essay - 2025-08-23

Project Mosaic launches this May with its first event, a roundtable on the theme "Trust in Democratic Societies" on Thursday, May 23 between 15:00-18:00 to be held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. In the roundtable, Prof. Dr. Nader El-Bizri (Department of Philosophy, American University in Beirut) and Assoc. Prof. Edward Alam (Department of Philosophy and Theology, Notre Dame Univers

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/trust-democratic-societies-roundtable-swedish-research-institute-istanbul - 2025-08-23

Cherine Hussein is a guest researcher at CMES and has published a chapter in an edited book collection on Palestine. Her chapter is called "The Single State Solution: Vision, Obstacles and Dilemmas of a Re-Emergent Alternative in Flux". The book title is “From the River to the Sea- Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of "Peace" "From the River to the Sea: Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of ‘Peac

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/single-state-solution-vision-obstacles-and-dilemmas-re-emergent-alternative-flux - 2025-08-23

Måste alla verkligen ta i hand i Sverige? Ska vi ha skolavslutning i kyrkan eller separata badtider i simhallar? Bör huvuddukar och heltäckande plagg för kvinnor förbjudas? Det finns fortfarande möjlighet att anmäla sig till sommarkursen som tar sin utgångspunkt i några av de senaste årens hetaste debatter om religion och ställer frågor kring var gränsen går för samförstånd. Lärare är islamologen

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/sen-anmalan-sommarkurs-nar-gud-tar-plats-dagsaktuella-debatter-om-religion-course-swedish - 2025-08-23

CMES arrangerar tre seminarier om Mellanöstern i år: 1 Mellanöstern bortom Islamiska staten. Vad händer nu? 2 Svenska kommuner efter IS - att arbeta med återvändare och förhindra nya resande till terrorgrupper. 3 Kultur, religion, heder och klan. Hur förstår vi Mellanöstern? Mellanöstern bortom Islamiska staten. Vad händer nu? 3/7 2019 10:00 - 11:00 Händelseutvecklingen i Mellanöstern har varit om

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-almedalen-2019-swedish - 2025-08-23

One million people in the north part of Iran are confronting serious problems with accessibility to water, due to salinization. The guest researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern studies Alireza Motevalli is now working with a study in order to map the vulnerability in the area. Alireza Motevalli Proper management of groundwater resources plays an important role in securing water availability f

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/coastal-areas-are-facing-huge-risk-water-salinization - 2025-08-23

Arab spring, the abuse of women and a visit to Carthage. The CMES´master students study trip to Tunis was full of meetings and here you can read about some of them. Mrs. Ibtihel Abdellatif, Truth and Dignity Commission On Friday morning we met Mrs Abdellatif, who set up Nissaat Tunisiet, an organisation supporting women after the revolution, and a member of Tunisia’s truth and dignity commission.

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/master-students-study-trip-tunis - 2025-08-23

Teaching students at Armenia's oldest and foremost university is a grateful and rewarding task. Svante Lundgren from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies speaks of experience. Svante Lundgren Yerevan State University is Armenia's oldest, largest and most prestigious university. It turns one hundred years this year and was thus founded during the short time, 1918-20, when the country was independe

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/lectures-armenia-very-much-appreciated - 2025-08-23

Edinburgh University are launching a free online course "The Sharia and Islamic Law: An Introduction". The course brings together a range of academic to help learners think critically about religious law and its many diverse manifestations in different times and places.  

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/free-online-course-sharia-and-islamic-law-introduction - 2025-08-23

The documentary film "Reformisten – den kvindelige imam" is about Sherin Khankan, Scandinavia's first female imam. In 2016, Sherin Mariam opened the Mosque in Copenhagen, one of the first mosques in Europe led by women. They struggle for a reading of the Quran marked by tolerance, equality and Islamic feminism. The film has attracted a lot of attention and started this year's Copenhagen Internatio

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/filmreformisten-den-kvindelige-imam-wednesday-may-8 - 2025-08-23

Congratulations to Nazanin Shahrokni, Assistant Professor at Syracuse Univesrsity and Guest Researcher at CMES for this academic year for the completion of her book Women in Place: The Politics of Gender Segregation in Iran, an outline of which she presented in a CMES public lecture back in February in a packed lecture hall. Women in Place offers a gripping inquiry into gender segregation policies

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/women-place-politics-gender-segregation-iran - 2025-08-23

Fanny Christou and Spyros Sofos have just had a chapter published in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture, published in association with the International Association for Media and Communication Research. Their contribution in the book focuses on the “Physical and Virtual Spaces Among the Palestinian Diaspora in Malmo” and is based on extensive fieldwork in Skåne and elsew

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/physical-and-virtual-spaces-among-palestinian-diaspora-malmo - 2025-08-23