Featured Research

Mapping methodological nationalism in Middle Eastern studies: Toward a transnational understanding of the 2011 Arab uprisings? (Jonas Nabbe)

This article assesses the prevalence and implications of the research foci methodological nationalism, methodological globalism, and transnationalism in publications regarding the 2011 Arab uprisings. We propose a new typology that contrasts state-centered methodological nationalism with the cosmopolitan lens of methodological globalism as two opposite ends of a spectrum.

Cutting the Keys to the Mediterranean: Tunisia in the context of Migration (Brendan Van Crout)

My name is Brendan Van Crout, a final-year International Relations undergraduate at the University of Exeter. From 11 to 20 April, I had unprecedented access to NGOs, academics and citizens’ movements that deal with migration, particularly in the state of Tunisia and the wider Middle East and North Africa region. I will discuss my experiences and thoughts from a short but intensive trip to Tunisia.

Access Denied: A qualitative Study on transgender health policy in Egypt (Nora Noralla)

For this paper, I conducted an interdisciplinary qualitative study to investigate transgender experiences accessing gender-affirming healthcare (GAH) in Egypt. I outline how the current health policy on GAH was developed and its negative impact, celebrating the resilience of transgender people in navigating the hostile anti-transgender environment, and conclude by offering some health policy recommendations to improve the GAH situation.

Non-State Actors and Foreign Policy Agency: Insights from Area Studies (Co-edited by Marianna Charountaki, Christos Kourtelis and Daniela Irrera)

This edited volume discusses non-state actors as agents of foreign policy. It questions whether non-state actors can act as foreign policy makers and if the contemporary role of non-state actors constitutes a theoretical challenge to foreign policy. Chapters demonstrate the impact of non-state entities through the lenses of their direct role as decision-makers, with examples drawn from the African continent, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

Islamic Theology and Extraterrestrial Life: New Frontiers in Science and Religion (Co-edited by Jörg Matthias Determann and Shoaib Ahmed Malik)

Over the last thirty years, humanity has discovered thousands of planets outside of our solar system. The discovery of extraterrestrial life could be imminent. This book explains how such a discovery might impact Islamic theology. It is the foundational reference on the subject, comprising a variety of different insights from both Sunni and Shi’i positions, from different Muslim contexts, and with chapters that compare and contrast Islamic perspectives with Christianity.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Power Struggle over ‘Muslimness’: Reification, Securitization, and Identification (Jérémy Dieudonné)

This paper questions the apparent hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia and highlights its discursive construction. It explores the centrality of ‘Muslimness’ in both countries’ discourses and how it both shapes and is shaped by their opposition. At the same time, it seeks to uncover how these discourses construct a specific regional and ‘Muslim’ dynamic.

Canada as a Settler Colony on the Question of Palestine (co-edited by Jeremy Wildeman and M. Muhannad Ayyash)

Canada as a Settler Colony on the Question of Palestine explores Canada-Palestine relations through a settler colonial lens. The authors argue that there are direct parallels between Canada’s settler colonial project and its support for the Israeli settler colonial dispossession of Palestinians. Chapters reflect on community politics and activism, migration, orientalism, and critical race theory.

Communications in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire (Burçe Çelik)

The history of communications in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey contradicts the widespread belief that communications is a byproduct of modern capitalism and other Western forces. Burçe Çelik uses a decolonial perspective to analyze the historical commodification and militarization of communications and how it affected production and practice for oppressed populations like women, the working class, and ethnic and religious minorities.

Identity politics and ethnic humour in contemporary Jordan (Yousef Barahmeh)

Following political turbulence and instability in the Middle East, Jordan has become a home for a large number of Palestinians, Iraqis, and Syrians, and now includes a significant number of Egyptians in its workforce. This growing diversity in the population has impacted the country not only socially and economically but quite noticeably in terms of identity politics and ethnic humour (how do indigenous people perceive the other(s) and how do others perceive the indigenous people?).

Gender Trouble in the Land of the Nile: Transgender Identities, the Judiciary and Islam in Egypt (Nora Noralla)

The paper provides a socio-political context analysis to outline Al-Azhar’s discourse on transgender identities and its influence on law and policy in Egypt. Transgender identities in Egypt represent an issue governed by Islamic Sharia more than anything else. Scholars at Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, viewed transgender identities as a danger to the fabric of society if not regulated. Thus, in the 1980s, several Fatwas were issued to examine the compatibility of transgender identities with Sharia.

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