The 14th international SIEF* congress´s theme is Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World draws upon both the ethnological explorations of human life and its continual change as well as the transforming, yet constant, Camino. Maria Frederika Malmström (Lund University/Columbia University) will participate in the congress with a paper on how political active Cairenes are navigating suspici

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/navigating-ocean-suspicion-affective-politics-and-materiality-cairo - 2025-08-23

Associate Professor Maria Frederika Malmström in conversation with Jonas Otterbeck in London. Associate Professor Maria Frederika Malmström is in London hosted by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (ISMC), to give a talk entitled "Urban Bodies in the Cityscape of Cairo: Passion, Despair and Entanglement". The talk, a conversation with Jona

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/urban-bodies-cityscape-cairo-passion-despair-and-entanglement - 2025-08-23

Ever since the birth of hip-hop in the South Bronx in New York, Islam has been a key feature of the music. Islamologist Anders Ackfeldt at Lund University analyzes several examples of this in his thesis Islamic Semiotic Resources in US Hip-Hop Culture. The hip-hop has, and still is, giving voice to weak and vulnerable groups in American society. And many of today's religious expressions are popula

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/islam-resource-struggle-american-hip-hop - 2025-08-23

The students had the opportunity to learn more about matters such as: History of the Persian language and some common phrases (Mehdi Ghavideldostkohi), Islam and the young people in the Middle East (Anders Ackfeldt) Is populism a European fruit? The experience of the Middle East (Spyros Sofos) Has peace a chance in the Middle East? (Svante Lundgren). Mehdi Ghavideldostkohi Ellen Björklund studies

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/katedralskolans-history-class-had-full-day-lectures-about-middle-east - 2025-08-23

We are pleased to announce the dates of this year's Graduate Student Conference. CMES is pleased to announce this year's Graduate Student Conference, entitled "The Middle East in the Contemporary World". The conference is intended as an opportunity for students at CMES and more widely at Lund University to present and discuss their own research and ideas. Papers will be organised into panels of 3-

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-graduate-student-conference - 2025-08-23

Middle East Forum Newsletter #10 April, 2020 Middle Eastern research news from Lund University. Words from the directorThe covid-19 has turned teaching, research, and ordinary university activities upside down. Still, we do not see the end of it. But the most important lesson to be learned is to adapt to future pandemics and increase resilience of society and university tasks. Indeed, technology s

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-10-april-2020 - 2025-08-23

CMES welcomes affiliated researcher Orwa Ajjoub! CMES is pleased to welcome orwa [dot] ajjoub [at] cme [dot] lu [dot] se (Orwa Ajjoub), who will be working on a report discussing the future of Islamic State. Orwa's research focuses on the theology of Salafi-Jihadi groups. He recently graduated with an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from CMES, with a thesis discussing the theological aspects of the s

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/op-eds-salafi-jihadi-groups - 2025-08-23

On Wednesday 20th of March, CMES staff and students came together to celebrate Nowruz. Nowruz, the Persian New Year Celebration The celebration was organised by Mehdi Ghavideldostkohi as part of CMES' Persian Language instruction, and included staff and students showing off their cooking with a pot-luck dinner including Iranian favourites ash reshteh, fesenjan, and ghormeh sabzi.  

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-celebrates-nowruz - 2025-08-23

Since its launch by Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law back in 2016, the festival has become a tradition which we have consistently supported. This year, we at CMES, support the festival with our MA in Middle Eastern Studies students playing an active role as student ambassadors and through the Centre hosting a Q&A session between Johanna Caminati Engström (LUMID) and

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-proud-be-swedish-human-rights-film-festival-partner-organization-once-more-year - 2025-08-23

CMES Associate Professor Maria Frederika Malmström's upcoming work, published by University of California Press. The Streets Are Talking to Me: Affective Fragments in Sisi's Egypt "This sophisticated book presents new theoretical and analytical light on the momentous events in the Arab world that began in 2011 and, more importantly, life and politics in the Arab world in the aftermath of these eve

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/streets-are-talking-me-affective-fragments-sisis-egypt - 2025-08-23

Anders Ackfeldt's "Spikning" (Nailing) Ceremony for the completion of his PhD thesis. Islamic Semiotic Resources in US Hip-Hop Culture Congratulations to CMES Lecturer Anders Ackfeldt who on Thursday, 21st February nailed his PhD thesis "Islamic Semiotic Resources in US Hip-Hop Culture" to the wall in the LUX building. The "Spikning" (Nailing Ceremony) is a tradition in Swedish universities and sy

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/islamic-semiotic-resources-us-hip-hop-culture - 2025-08-23

Workshop held at the Department of Human Geography, 6-7th February 2019. Following the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 11, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable will be the focus of the workshop’s discussions. Swedish and Turkish scholars contribute to the subject matter from the angle of an advanced capitalist country context and an emergi

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/workshop-financialisation-housing-and-violation-housing-rights-global-north-and-south - 2025-08-23

On the 31st January, Philip Proudfoot (anthropology, University of Bath, UK, and Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden) and Mahdi Zaidan, independent researcher and activist, Beirut, Lebanon, presented a paper in a EuroStorie research seminar organised by the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives at the University of Helsinki. Against abandonment: a

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/against-abandonment-activist-and-humanitarian-responses-lgbt-refugees-athens-and-beirut - 2025-08-23

Source: Wikimedia Commons CMES Persian instructor Mehdi Ghavideldostkohi is contributing to the UPF magazine the Perspective with a piece about the fascinating relation between Persian literature and the current pandemic outbreak – and what this means for human affinity. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, while announcing the extension of quarantine in Spain, spoke to people and recited verses

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/coronavirus-and-persian-literary-humanism - 2025-08-23

Cover: Manchester University Press Three researchers within the Social Science Faculty at Lund University have compiled an anthology challenging the notion of the refugee crisis of 2015. The book also investigates how Germany, Sweden, and Denmark use bureaucracy to control, discipline, and shape asylum seekers’ lives. In 2015, the number of asylum seekers arriving in the EU doubled from the previo

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/how-northern-european-welfare-states-exercise-bureaucratic-violence-asylum-seekers - 2025-08-23

Folkmord, flyktingar och fortlevnad. Cover: Artos & Norma Bokförlag I början av 1900-talet åkte hundratals skandinaviska kvinnor ut i världen för att som missionärer sprida det kristna budskapet samt verka inom sjukvård och undervisning. Ofta handlade det om en livslång gärning under svåra förhållanden. I den här boken möter vi tre sådana kvinnor som dessutom kom att hamna mitt i storpolitikens st

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-book-cmes-svante-lundgren-and-maria-smaberg - 2025-08-23

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash In the seventh anniversary of the Gezi Park protests, Dr. Ömer Turan, Swedish Institute fellow at CMES, has published a chapter, in the volume edited by Maria do Mar Castro Verela, and Baris Ülker (Doing Tolerance, Urban Interventions and Forms of Participation, Barbara Budrich, 2020). Taksim Square’s historical backgroundThe chapter is comprised of three sections

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-publication-cmes-guest-researcher-omer-turan - 2025-08-23

On the 18th April, the town of Armanaz in the north-western countryside of the city of Idlib witnessed an escalation between Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the hegemonic jihadi group in Idlib province, and Hurras al-Din (HAD), the group believed to be Al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria. Reportedly, tensions escalated after HTS members attempted to expel HAD personnel from their bases in Armanaz. The dispute wa

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/about-power-dynamics-between-and-within-jihadi-factions-idlib-new-article-cmes-orwa-ajjoub - 2025-08-23

Photo: Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash The professor is expected to contribute to the Master’s programme The Religious Roots of Europe with its associated research environment focusing on early Islam, early Christianity and early Judaism. Lund University is also the host of the interdisciplinary strategic research area The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW), based here at the Centre for Middl

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/permanent-position-professor-islamic-studies - 2025-08-23

Artist: Houmam AlSayed New article by CMES researcher Kholoud Mansour: This article aims at addressing the representation of the Syrian women in the media, the different barriers to their political participation and the politics of representation. The article uses contemporary empirical evidence to explore this subject, delving deeper into two experiences, the Women’s Advisory Board (WAB) to the U

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/syrian-women-and-their-participation-peace-process - 2025-08-23