Nov 25
Seeds in the Rubble: Cultural Vitality in the Arab World
This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 20 November by Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, and was chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan, St Antony’s College. This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 20 Nove ... Show More
1h 4m
Nov 21
Egypt’s Role, Identity, and Foreign Policy in a River of De-Nile
This MENA Politics Series Seminar was delivered on Tuesday 18 November in the MEC’s Boardroom by Dr May Darwich (University of Birmingham) and was chaired by Professor Neil Ketchley (St Antony’s College). This paper explains Egypt’s foreign policy stagnation, with a novel argumen ... Show More
34m 45s
Jul 2018
In Memoriam: Faleh A. Jabar (1946–2018)
Speakers: Deniz Kandiyoti, SOAS; Renad Mansour, Chatham House; Charles Tripp, SOAS
Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Director
This memorial honoured the late Faleh A. Jabar and his notable contribution to the study of Iraq and the wider Middle East. This event also marked ... Show More
51m 52s
Aug 2022
Keynote 1: Patrizia Manduchi on Antonio Gramsci, from Sardinia to the Arab World
This keynote lecture took place at the Gramsci in the Middle East & North Africa Conference organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in cooperation with Ghent University from 9-10 May, 2022. The conference explored, through empirically-grounded research, how Gramsci’s work can hel ... Show More
39m 13s
Oct 2023
The Caliph and The Imman & REMENA (S. 13, Ep. 5)
On this week's episode of the podcast, Toby Matthiesen of the University of Bristol joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism. This book is an authoritative account of Islam's schism that for centuries has shaped events in ... Show More
1h 16m
Sep 2020
Majid Daneshgar, "Studying the Qur’an in the Muslim Academy" (Oxford UP, 2019)
“Consider the works of the renowned Nobel-prize-winning African American writer, literary and social critic, and activist Toni Morrison (b. 1931),” writes Majid Daneshgar. “Hers—like Said’s—are popular in the West and cover most of the principal themes covered by Orientalism, inc ... Show More
40m 34s
Feb 2020
Who wants the Caliphate? - Dr Ovamir Anjum
My guest this week, Dr Ovamir Anjum , although abhorring all that Isis may stand for, suggests that its brief rise to notoriety has opened up space for intelligent minded Muslim’s to reimagine a world with a just Caliphate. Dr Anjum calls for a new wave of thinking on the subject ... Show More
1h 8m
Sep 2019
Elizabeth S. Kassab, "Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution: The Egyptian and Syrian Debates" (Columbia UP, 2019)
The "Arab Spring" shook the world in 2011, revealing profound dissatisfaction throughout the Middle East and North Africa, as people throughout the region took to the streets demanding dramatic political change. The uprisings have been analyzed by scholars, journalists, and other ... Show More
59m 23s
Jul 2020
Ahmed El-Shamsy, "Rediscovering the Islamic Classics" (Princeton UP, 2020)
Ahmed El-Shamsy’s Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition (Princeton University Press, 2020) is an astonishing scholarly feat that presents a detailed, sophisticated, and thoroughly enjoyable intellectual and social ... Show More
1h 16m
Feb 2019
Ahmad Atif Ahmad, "Pitfalls of Scholarship: Lessons from Islamic Studies" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
Ahmad Atif Ahmad’s Pitfalls of Scholarship: Lessons from Islamic Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) is a unique reflection on the field of Islamic studies. It is not quite a memoir, although it is reflective of Islamic studies, academia, and higher education in general. It is al ... Show More
1h 8m
Jul 2021
Ismail Fajrie Alatas, "What Is Religious Authority?: Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia" (Princeton UP, 2021)
What Is Religious Authority?: Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia (Princeton UP, 2021) by Ismail Fajrie Alatas draws on groundbreaking anthropological insights to provide a new understanding of Islamic religious authority, showing how religious leaders unite diverse aspe ... Show More
1h 44m
Dr. Shadi Hamid (Brookings Institution; contributing writer, The Atlantic) and Professor Nadia Oweidat (Kansas State University) give a talk for the Middle East Centre Friday seminar series. Chaired by Dr Usaama al-Azami (St Antony's College). It is often noted that the Arab uprisings of 2011 were not started by Islamists, but that these groups were often th ... Show More
<p>Sources/Suggested Reading:</p><ul><li>al-Jallad, Ahmad (forthcoming) "The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A reconstruction based on the Safaitic Inscriptions". Pre-Print Darft (Version 2: April 3, 2021).</li><li>al-Jallad, Ahmad (2019). "The 'One' God ... Show More
