Calls for Participation

Pathways to a Democratic Iran: Challenges and Opportunities

The "Pathways to a Democratic Iran: Challenges and Opportunities" panel, organized by the Iran 1400 Project, explores the complex and fragmented landscape of Iran’s democratic struggle. Iranian civil and political society remains divided along key ideological and strategic lines—Reform vs. Revolution, Theocracy vs. Secularism, and Inside vs. Outside Leadership—hindering collaboration among democratic forces. This panel seeks to address these divisions by fostering a shared discourse and drawing from the experiences of successful liberal democracies.

Organized by: Nadia Butt
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to N.Butt@em.uni-frankfurt.de by February 19, 2025. 

Beyond Borders: The Political Impact of Early Arab American Writers

Contrary to prevailing misconceptions about early Arab writers and their political engagement, early Arab literary works were marked by a distinct political awareness and a deep concern for the issues affecting both the Arab region and the homeland. This is evident in their treatment of critical political matters, including their participation in representing the Syrian community at conferences following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, their involvement in establishing relief committees to aid those impacted by natural disasters and famines in Lebanon, and their responses to the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine. This panel explores the political activism of early Arab American writers, emphasizing their role in mobilizing and reshaping the perspectives of the Arab community both in the United States and in the homeland.

Organized by: Maeed Almarhabi
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to mmmarhabi@uqu.edu.sa by February 19, 2025. 

Modernity Framed: The Politics of Art Through the Lens of Economy and Class Struggle in Iran Between Revolutions

This panel explores Iranian art within the "revolutionary century" (1905-1979), the transformative period spanning the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution. It investigates how broader socio-political contestations—specifically those arising from Iran's transition from an agrarian society to a globally integrated petro-state—manifested within the realm of artistic production. The long course of the Constitutional Revolution fundamentally reshaped Iranian society through the transformation of statecraft and the legal system, and by creating novel class divisions. The establishment of new institutions, alongside the expansion of early industries during the tumultuous years of post-revolutionary civil war, World War I, and the interwar period, fueled these tensions toward modernity. The industrial exploitation of oil since the beginning of Pahlavi rule in Iran catapulted class struggles and the competition among various visions of modernity in Iran to a new level. Finally, the 1979 Revolution put an end to this chapter and began a new one. This panel foregrounds the role of visual arts and their producers as significant elements in negotiating the different stages of these tensions throughout the period between the two revolutions. Visual arts—encompassing painting, photography, political cartoons, and film—became crucial arenas where their producers, often in dialogue with or in opposition to state power and various social groups, actively shaped the perceptions of modernization, class struggle, and revolutionary ideologies.

Organized by: Siamack Hajimohammad
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to shajim2@uic.edu by February 18, 2025. 

Navigating Identity and Memory Through Armenian Performance and Art

The panel explores the complex interplay of Armenian identity, cultural resilience, and memory as exhibited through various forms of artistic and theatrical expression. The discussions delve into how Armenians, within the contexts of the Ottoman Empire and contemporary Turkey, negotiate and reimagine their identities through narrative, performance, and the visual arts. These interactions create dialogues between the past and present, enabling the forging of new narratives that reflect belonging and cultural agency. The papers highlight the processes of cultural negotiation and resilience within the Armenian community, demonstrating how performance and art function as significant platforms for constructing and challenging identities against the backdrop of tumultuous historical developments.

Organized by: Basak Yagmur Karaca
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to karaca@usc.edu by February 18, 2025. 

Palestine, Indigenous Studies, and Environmental Justice

This session explores the intersections of Palestinian literature, Indigenous Studies, and environmental justice within the broader framework of settler colonialism. Palestinian writers and poets have long used literature to resist displacement, narrate their connection to the land, and challenge colonial ecologies of destruction. By engaging with Indigenous literary traditions and environmental humanities, this session examines how Palestinian literature articulates struggles over land, water, and ecological sovereignty as part of a broader decolonial movement.

We invite papers that analyze Palestinian literary texts through the lenses of Indigenous Studies and environmental justice. Possible topics include representations of land and nature in Palestinian poetry and prose, the impact of colonial environmental policies on literary narratives, Indigenous ecological knowledge in Palestinian writing, and comparative studies with other Indigenous literary traditions. Papers from literature, environmental humanities, Indigenous Studies, and related fields are welcome.

Organized by: Ahlam Abulaila
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to ahlamanbar_12@hotmail.com​​​​​​​ by February 18, 2025. 

Mediascapes, Stardom, and Popular Music Consumption Within, Across, and Beyond National Boundaries in the Contemporary Arab World

Studies of music, culture, and society in the Arab world have historically focused on well delineated urban and rural environments in historical context and also on discernible networks and flows connecting, as an example, Andalusia and the greater Maghreb to the Eastern Mediterranean. Throughout the twentieth century, specific cities (Cairo, Beirut, Algiers) have functioned as commercial, cultural, and ideological centers, visible not only for their localized identities but for their roles in impacting a broader landscape, often with pronounced Pan-Arab or anti-colonial dimensions. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the increasingly affluent and technologically advanced Gulf States, along with Saudi Arabia, had risen to a large-scale regional—and in many ways global—prominence initially associated with the petroleum industry, but progressively steeped in matters of diplomatic urgency and cultural resonance. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Kuwait and Jeddah assumed important positions in the commercial music infrastructure of the Arabian Peninsula while today, Dubai and Riyadh are high-profile, state-sponsoring, profit-reaping, state-of-the-art media hubs that have reconfigured the regional balance of power and influence and in many ways redefined the cultural geography of the Arab world, in ways that have integrated Peninsular, North African, and Iraqi vernaculars into a trans-Arab world mediascape once dominated by the colloquial inflections of Cairene and Eastern Mediterranean music producers, performers, and publics. These three paper presentations engage with how localized and delocalized Arab music style sensibilities and celebrity culture circulates in the era of digital consumption and social media, in the era of Rotana, Instagram, and Arab/Iraq/Saudi Idol, each interrogating the plurality and multidimensionality of public spheres amid contemporary articulations of acute social dynamics (national, sectarian, class, gendered).

This panel already have three presenters and we are looking for more people to join us. 

Organized by: George Murer
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to gmurer@gradcenter.cuny.edu​​​​​​​ by February 12, 2025. 

Pathways to a Democratic Iran: Challenges and Opportunities

The "Pathways to a Democratic Iran: Challenges and Opportunities" panel, organized by the Iran 1400 Project, explores the complex and fragmented landscape of Iran’s democratic struggle. Iranian civil and political society remains divided along key ideological and strategic lines—Reform vs. Revolution, Theocracy vs. Secularism, and Inside vs. Outside Leadership—hindering collaboration among democratic forces. This panel seeks to address these divisions by fostering a shared discourse and drawing from the experiences of successful liberal democracies.

Panelists will examine historical precedents, socio-political movements, international influences, and institutional reforms to propose viable democratic pathways. Key discussions include lessons from past democratic movements, the socio-economic and cultural dynamics of democratization, the role of international actors, and sustainable institutional frameworks.

Proposed Papers:
Historical Trajectories of Democracy in Iran – Analyzing key democratic movements from the 1906 Constitutional Revolution to today.
Women’s Role in Iran’s Democratic Movement – Exploring women’s activism, including conservative factions, and barriers to progress.
Merging Narratives for a Unified Democratic Vision – Addressing ideological divides and fostering cohesive democratic discourse.
Challenges of Iranian Expats in Opposition Movements – Investigating the legitimacy and coordination issues among expatriate opposition groups.

The International Community and Iran’s Democratic Prospects – Examining diplomatic, economic, and political strategies supporting Iran’s transition.

This panel will provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of Iran’s democratic potential, aiming to generate meaningful discourse and inform practical strategies for political change. All panelists adhere to MESA’s submission requirements, and the panel encourages audience engagement. We look forward to contributing to this critical discussion at MESA 2025.

Organized by: Vafa Mostaghim
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to vafam@iran1400.org by February 13, 2025. 

Disability, Debility & Disaster in the SSWANA Region

This panel seeks to highlight how contemporary mobilizations around 'disability' routed through Global North liberal and human rights frameworks have tended to occlude questions of imperial empire, military occupation, settler colonialism, and the material and toxic afterlives of war and violence in the SSWANA (South Asia, South-West Asia & North Africa) region.

From the indiscriminate mass maiming of Palestinians by Israeli settler forces across Occupied Palestine, to the toxic legacies left by U.S. and European colonial empire across the geographies of Afghanistan, Yemen, Algeria, and the Pacific Ocean, among other locations, this panel aims to challenge the geopolitical production of mass impairment and disability, insisting upon complicating normative assumptions of ‘disability’ within liberal disability politics and disability studies. It takes into consideration Helen Meekosha’s call for disability activists and scholars to “confront as a central issue the production of impairment in the global South” and Jasbir Puar’s work on disability and debility to rethink our normative assumptions of what ‘disability’ is.

By also engaging with feminist/queer materialist and transnational analyses of impairment and disability, each panelist will seek to (a) challenge disability studies frameworks that occlude the geopolitical production of impairment and disability in the Global South, and (b) account for the material and affective afterlives of nuclear, ecological, and chemical toxicities impressed upon human and other-than-human ecosystems and entanglements.

My own talk examines the toxic material afterlives of US empire in contemporary Afghanistan, looking at how military burn pits and toxic chemicals left have devitalized Afghanistan’s landscape, affecting soil, air, water, and nonhuman ecosystems. How can SSWANA/MENA studies and critical disability studies grapple with the relationship between impairment, ecology, and empire?

Organized by: Amir Aziz
Please submit an abstract (max. 300-400 words) and short bio to amir.aziz@berkeley.edu by February 12, 2025, 10 PM (PT).

Carceralocracy and Practices of Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa

This round table brings together scholars studying political imprisonment in the Middle East and North Africa, their ties to the region-wide encasement in global machineries of war and genocide, and most important strategies of resilience, resistance, and liberation developed by both prisoners, their families and larger communities in response to the ever-intensifying violence and silencing against them. Political imprisonment has long functioned as a tool of control across the Middle East and North Africa. From the 19th century state-led modernization to colonial rule, post-independence and revolutionary states, those deemed a threat to raisons d'êtat have long faced long-term imprisonment. This process intensified as countries underwent neoliberal transformations beginning in the 1970s. With the wave of uprisings that began with Lebanon in 2005, peaking with the Arab uprisings beginning in late 2010, historically rooted systems of imprisonment to repress dissent became even more violent, developing into what we describe as “carcelarocracy” – a style of governance centered on political incarceration. For example, today, Egypt has over 100,000 political prisoners while until the recent seemingly miraculous end to the rule of Bashar al-Assad Syria had as many as twice that number in even worse conditions, while at the end of 2024 Israel held more than 9,400 Palestinians, most in violation of international law.

Participants in this round-table will address the dynamics of political imprisonment in Egypt, Palestine/Israel, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and the countries of the Gulf among others, and will look not only developments in carceral systems and their broader political and strategic economies, but also how artistic creativity, from letters and poetry to visual arts and music, are created and deployed by those trapped within the prisons blighting the region -both the prisoners and their families and communities - to sustain struggles for freedom that continue to face overwhelming odds.

Organized by: Mark LeVine
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to mlevine@uci.edu by February 13, 2025. 

Gaza/Genocide/Media

Panel considers the varied ways that media and media infrastructures of various kinds have been implicated in the Gaza genocide -- at once as a weapon in the hands of the Israeli state and as a resistance platform for Gazans under bombardment.

Organized by: Rebecca Stein
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to rlstein@duke.edu by February 13, 2025. 

Theorizing Mohabbat: Love as an Epistemological Framework in Islamic Studies and the Study of Religion

The round table discussion will explore the concept of mohabbat (love) as a theoretical framework for understanding Islamic Studies, Muslim communities, and the broader study of contemporary religion. By foregrounding mohabbat, the discussion seeks to challenge dominant theoretical frameworks rooted in Western academic paradigms and expand the conceptual tools available to scholars engaging with religious traditions and lived experiences. The panel interrogates whether mohabbat—as an emotional, ethical, and metaphysical construct—can serve as a viable framework in itself for critically studying Islamic texts, histories, and societies while engaging with global and cross-religious dialogues. Through multidisciplinary perspectives, participants will address the possibilities and limitations that mohabbat offers: Can love be a lens for understanding the relational dynamics between humans and the divine [Allah, Imam, Prophet, peoples], within communal and interfaith contexts, or across power structures? What are the risks of romanticizing or depoliticizing love in critical scholarship? We aim to situate mohabbat as a generative, contested, and transformative framework within the study of religion. Dominant frameworks for the anthropological and sociological study of Islam and Muslims often prioritize legal, historical, and political analyses, leaving underexplored the emotive, affective, and interrelational dimensions of Muslim life and thought. When discussed, these actions are analyzed from a rationalization, agency meaning-making, or Western-logic lens. While mohabbat is a foundational concept in Islamic traditions, it remains undertheorized as a lens for understanding the complexities of religion and community. This round table seeks to define mohabbat in its theological, ethical, and cultural dimensions within Islamic thought and interrogate its resonance with both- other Islamic concepts like ‘ishq, rahma, and mawadda and larger religious traditions such as agape, prema, and Indigenous epistemologies of care. It seeks to examine it's methodological implications- exploring how mohabbat might reshape the methodologies employed in the study of Islamic Studies and Muslim communities.

Organized by: Arwa Palanpurwala
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to akp2170@columbia.edu by February 13, 2025. 

Lebanon and its new Foreign Policy Doctrine

Lebanon, a small country with a complex institutional setup, has struggled to identify its foreign policy doctrine over the past decades. Lebanon’s foreign policymaking reflects its geographic location, the composition of its sectarian makeup, and its reliance on commerce and trade. Foreign intervention has been key in shaping the country’s foreign policy mainly due to political sectarianism which has made Lebanon vulnerable to interventions from regional and international actors. As such, every community has its own regional or international backer and seeks to impose its agenda on the state.

From the Civil War until 2005, Syria gained the upper hand in shaping Lebanon’s foreign policy, later replaced with Iran and local ally Hezbollah. The recent political events have further exposed the disintegration of the state institutions and the voluntary resignation of political authority from its role. According to several experts, there are no clear foundations for Lebanese foreign policy today, and no diplomatic action to ensure the security and safety of the Lebanese or defend the country’s national interests.

As such, this panel aims to identify Lebanon’s “foreign policy doctrines” after the Taef Agreement (1989), assess how domestic divisions and polarization have led to foreign policy paralysis, and highlight whether “positive neutrality” and pro-active diplomacy can be options for Lebanon to navigate regional conflicts.

Organized by: Leila Solh
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to ls31@aub.edu.lb by February 12, 2025. 

Law, Leisure, and Politics: Children and Youth as Historical Actors

This panel considers the role of children and youth as historical and political actors in the modern Middle East examining their experiences as political protestors seeking political change, participants in leisure activities designed to create and contest identity, and defendants in criminal cases as the legal framework changed in the post-colonial period. Histories of childhood and children/youth across Middle Eastern societies have increased in recent years as scholars hone in on new sources, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks. These papers draw on legal documents, popular media, and government sources to engage youth’s experiences in what is normatively seen as adults’ spheres: law enforcement, cultural representation, and political participation.

Organized by: Kimberly Katz
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to kkatz@towson.edu by February 12, 2025. 

"Syria is our mother": Navigating Syrian and Lebanese Narratives in Arab American Historiography

More than a century, immigrants from the Levant to the U.S. brought with them talents and energy that would in time help shape communities from New York City to Los Angeles. Their literary output influenced Arabic prose and poetry. The stories they told celebrated a rich past and propelled communal affiliation and built a foundation for narratives of hope, deracination, and acculturation, and patriotism. Syria to them was a well defined idea and a place; a nation for Arabic speaking Levantines. Her borders were outlined to include population centers from Gaza City to Aleppo and from Beirut to Deir Al Zur. They also brought with them, and acted on, anti-Ottoman sentiments dep worries of impending colonial ambitions. Syria the idea permeated the immigrants' writings and future aspirations.

This panel proposes to share and discuss examples of two understudied aspects of Arab American life: 1. Contextually understanding attachment to Syria. 2. Marking and explaining intra Syrian debates/ discord over independent status for Lebanon and how Arab American identity subsumed both attachments. / Lebanese

Organized by: Hani Bawardi
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to bawardi@umich.edu by February 12, 2025. 

Armenian Theatre in Context: Histories, Representations, and Cultural Expressions

Armenian theatre has long served as a vital cultural platform for artistic expression and communal identity both in the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) and republican Turkey (1923- ). From its early foundations in the Ottoman Empire to its diasporic developments, Armenian theatre has navigated linguistic, political, and social boundaries, continuously adapting to shifting historical contexts. It has played a crucial role in shaping both local and transnational theatrical traditions, influencing and being influenced by the broader cultural landscapes in which it operates. Theatre has functioned as both a site of resilience and a space of negotiation, exploring questions of belonging, visibility, and self-representation. While sometimes constrained by dominant political and social structures, it has also been a powerful medium for contesting exclusion, reimagining identity, and fostering collective memory. This panel examines the many dimensions of Armenian theatre—its aesthetic innovations, cultural transmissions, and socio-political entanglements—across different historical periods and local contexts.

Organized by: Basak Yagmur Karaca
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to karaca@usc.edu by February 12, 2025. 

Mothering Palestine

Perhaps the most devastating stories to come out of Gaza have been ones of mothers and their children: mothers losing their children, children losing their mothers, women who underwent fertility treatment for years to get pregnant only to lose their babies, pregnant women undergoing c-sections without anaesthesia, incubators losing power, and other harrowing stories. Mothers and children were not the only victims in Gaza, but the stories and images of mothers and their children are emblematic of what was so unbearable about watching the genocide unfold in high definition. It is also, we suggest, because of the long cultural significance of the relationship between Palestinian mothers and their children: the various ways in which Israel has attacked the fabric of Palestinian communal life and continuity through them, and also the ways in which the Palestinian people resist Israel’s aggression, from casting mothers as symbols of national sacrifice (imm al-shahid) to mothers who participate in various ways in armed actions against Zionist colonialism.
This panel seeks papers that analyze Palestinian motherhood in its encounter with Zionist settler colonial violence and expansion, as well as its place in Palestinian history and culture and the various ways in which mothers resist through and with their children. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Representations of Palestinian mothers and motherhood in literature, art, or film
Palestinian cultural symbols that connect motherhood and the national struggle
The role Palestinian mothers play in everyday acts of resistance
The various ways in which Israel separates mothers from their children (regardless of their age)
The impact of attacks on mothers and their children on the broader Palestinian society
The long-term effects of the genocide’s attack on mothers and children

Organized by: Asma Al-Naser
Please send an abstract (200 words) and a short bio to asma.alnaser@gmail.com by February 19, 2025. 

Diplomatic moves on Beirut amid geopolitical violence and transition in Lebanon

The construction of the second largest American embassy compound in the world in the relatively small village of Awkar, Lebanon has generated international news headlines and viral speculation regarding its purpose. Beyond the intimidating physical scale of the 43 acre project set to open in 2025, successive US embassies of Beirut have played a pivotal role in Lebanon’s short postcolonial history, heavily influencing government leadership appointments, political parties, the development and maintenance of military and security forces as well as a range of culture, media and municipal development programs, which reached a peak in the pre-civil war 1960s. At the same time, today China is building a massive complex of its own in Beirut, a cultural center, music conservatory and opera house, just a few kilometers from Awkar on the Dbayeh coast, revealing a possibly different diplomatic approach to the country.

This roundtable seeks to investigate how the US and other great powers’ relations and influence on Lebanon will continue to evolve with the rapidly changing power dynamics in its immediate region, including the fall of the Syrian regime and the assassination of Hezbollah leadership, both pillars in the composition of contemporary Lebanese political culture. As Lebanon, and its neighbors (Palestine/Syria) seek to rebuild and cope with tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure damages from US/Israeli bombardments, how do/will these latest moves by global powers on Beirut interact with historical processes and broader transnational trends? Possible themes to explore include embassy development and expansion, diplomatic activity, postwar reconstruction and contracts, cultural and knowledge production, international aid and support for political activism, institutional and ideological development, economic development, diaspora influence or other themes. How do we position ourselves and our work, as academics, writers, researchers and activists in this turbulent period within Lebanon and in its connection to its neighbors?

Organized by: Habib Battah
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to habib.battah@gmail.com​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ by February 12, 2025. 

Pathways of Contagion: The Politics of Disease and Mobility in Nineteenth Century’s Middle East

Studying infectious diseases in motion reveals the complexities of social, religious, and economic movements. In the nineteenth century, rapid technological advances in transportation and the pressures of Western imperialism accelerated the movement of people, goods, and knowledge—along with the spread of diseases—to unprecedented levels. Concerns over the swift transmission of infectious diseases, coupled with vested interests in promoting free markets, compelled many governments to pursue dual, often conflicting, objectives: fostering the free movement of capital and goods while restricting the mobility of populations deemed undesirable. As public health concerns became increasingly internationalized, medical discourse was shaped as much by politicians in conference halls as by medical and scientific professionals. Early scholarship emphasized maritime movements, particularly the role of steamships in spreading disease, and viewed European imperialist pressure as the driving force behind disease control efforts. More recent studies, however, have challenged this Eurocentric focus by foregrounding existing overland mobility networks and examining how these routes facilitated both commerce and contagion. This panel explores these themes by focusing on Egypt, Iran, the Levant, and Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on regional economic migration and religious movements. Key topics include challenging conventional narratives about the maritime transmission of diseases, analyzing how local governments balanced facilitating profitable crop trade with controlling disease, tracing the circulation of medical knowledge that shaped perceptions of diseased geographies, and examining the intersection of public health concerns with state formation and sovereignty.

Organized by: Benan Grams
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to bgrams@loyno.edu​​​​​​​ by February 12, 2025. 

East Asia and the Middle East: New political and economic interconnections

The interactions between the wider East Asia and the Middle East go way back in history, with constant exchanges of goods and thoughts haracterizing the theme of relations between the “two Easts”. Speaking of recent developments, there has been ever-increasing engagements between the wider East Asia and the Middle East: Key issues in Middle Eastern geopolitics impacted inter-regional relations and warranted a larger role of East Asian countries as mediators, while development plans of Middle Eastern states rendered technology transfers and participation from East Asian stakeholders welcomed even sought for. The growingly influential concept of international economic corridors has also drawn attention from both regions, creating both synergy and divergence between states or state blocs.

As the engagements grow in complexity and significance, questions arise regarding the driving factors of this new round of synergy, its prospects and limitations. It is within such a context that this roundtable aims to engage scholars from international relations, economics, Global South studies, and other relevant disciplines and address the changing dynamics between the two regions by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and highlight the burgeoning connections between East Asia and the Middle East.

We welcome contributions that address themes including but not confined to:
The mediating role of East Asian states in key geostrategic issues of the Middle East;
Changes in East Asian states' policies towards the Middle East (and vice versa), their drivers and implications;
Development and outlook of industrial cooperation and technology transfers between East Asia and the Middle East;
Alignment and divergence between states of East Asia and the Middle East in the development of international economic corridors and their implications.

By addressing these questions, the roundtable aims to provide new perspectives for understanding the relations between East Asia and the Middle East, hence lays the groundwork for informed policy discussions.

Organized by: Rufei Li
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to saidli@pku.edu.cn by February 12, 2025. 

Islam in Southeast Asia: Intellectual Sufism, Colonialism, and Cultural Transformations

This session explores the intersection of intellectual Sufism, colonial encounters, and cultural transformations in Southeast Asia, focusing on the pivotal role of Islamic mysticism in shaping regional identities, literature, and resistance movements. Scholars are invited to examine how figures like Hamzah Fansuri bridged Persian Sufi traditions and local cultural contexts, creating a unique synthesis of Islamic thought and Malay literary expression.

The session seeks to investigate the influence of Sufi philosophy on the sociopolitical landscape, particularly its role in anti-colonial discourses and the development of a distinct Southeast Asian Islamic identity. Contributions addressing themes of self-awareness, Unity of Being, poverty, and annihilation, as well as the impact of Persian and Arabic intellectual heritage on the Malay world, are encouraged. By engaging with these intersections, this session aims to illuminate the enduring legacy of Sufism in Southeast Asia's spiritual and cultural transformations.

Organized by: Leyla Tajer
Submit a 200-250 words abstract and a short bio (150 words) to Leyla Tajer (leilatajer@gmail.com) by Feb 11, 2025.

Discourses Beyond Borders A Tapestry Unveiling Saudi Arabia

Over the past few decades, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has emerged as a significant hub for increased interaction and interest among Middle Eastern states and globally. A key factor in this development is the evolution of the GCC states' foreign policies, influenced by internal events, the policies of other nations, and their vision to achieve specific geopolitical objectives. Diplomacy plays a crucial role in foreign policy, manifesting through alliances, international trade, cultural exchanges, and interfaith dialogues, both regionally and globally. In this evolving Middle Eastern landscape, Saudi Arabia's role has expanded beyond mere diplomatic negotiations. It has become a central player in tackling some of the most pressing regional issues in the Middle East, aligned with the ambitious goals outlined in Vision 2030.
This strategic framework seeks to diversify the country's economy, empower its citizens, foster an attractive environment for local and international investors, and bolster Saudi Arabia's global standing. Achieving these goals requires a comprehensive strategy that integrates economic diversification and sustainable leadership, redefining Saudi Arabia's regional influence. This session invites researchers and experts from diverse disciplines to view Saudi Arabia's diplomatic dynamics as an emerging leader in the Middle East. It also seeks to explore the strategies Saudi Arabia employs to maintain sustainable diplomacy in its regional and global interactions.

Organized by: Alexander Woodman
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to alexwoodman.ucla@gmail.com by February 12, 2025

Conducting fieldwork on sex, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health in the Middle East and North Africa: Part III

Incredulity, skepticism, disbelief, doubt. These are common reactions to researchers who propose to study sex, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health in the Middle East and North Africa. From ethics boards and dissertation committee members to journal editors and funding bodies, concerns about the sensitivities associated with studying sex in the region abound. And when researchers successfully complete their projects, they are often met with some form of the question, “How on earth did you do that?”

This roundtable offers a space to critically engage with approaches to conducting fieldwork on sex, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health in the region. Researchers in very different career stages with projects in a range of countries will reflect on their experiences. Through a candid exploration of successes and challenges, this session will demystify the fieldwork process, allow for sharing and exchange, and spur discussion on what constitutes “best” practices. Our aim is to challenge long held assumptions of what fieldwork in on sex in the Middle East and North Africa “looks like” in different disciplines. In reflecting on positionalities and praxis, presenters will set the stage for a broader discussion that we hope will help build a sense of community and foster new collaborations.

Our proposed session builds on the successful roundtables we held at MESA in 2023 and 2024. Based on these previous interactive sessions, the focus this year will be on ethical issues that emerge when conducting fieldwork on sex, sexuality, and sexual health in the region. This session will explore some of the administrative challenges, such as getting permission from ethics boards both inside and outside the region, and ethical dilemmas that arise when conducting fieldwork on these topics.

Organized by: Angel Foster
Please submit an abstract and a short bio to angel.foster@uottawa.ca by February 11, 2025

Securitization and the Environment in the Middle East

This panel explores the relationship between national and everyday securitization and the environment in the contemporary Middle East. The implications of securitization and militarization on the environment and human-environment relationships in the Middle East have been studied. Amid the contemporary escalation of securitization and militarization in everyday life, states and non-state actors have also been investing in technopolitical solutions to some environmental problems, including air pollution, waste, toxicity, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, soil degradation, forest fires, agricultural insecurity, and others. In this panel, we will explore how securitization and militarization are integrated into or manifest in these endeavors. The panel invites ethnographic studies focusing, not limited to, the mutual relationship between securitization and environmental policies and their implications for human-environment relationships, human socioeconomic welfare, and everyday conceptualizations of environment, security and insecurity. We plan to theoretically question how focusing on the relationship between securitization and the environment and environmental policies can contribute to the political ecological accounts of the Middle East.

Organized by: Ziya Kaya
Please submit an abstract (minimum 300 words) and a short bio to ziya.kaya@utrgv.edu​​​​​​​ by February 11, 2025

Gender Roles, Economic Structures, and the Legal System in the Ottoman Context

This panel explores the relationship between gender and economic life in the Ottoman domain in the context of law from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. We seek to examine how gender roles shaped and were shaped by economic structures, including labor participation, property rights, and financial institutions, as seen through the courts and legal procedure. Discussion may also address women's agency, particularly the influence of social norms, legal frameworks, and state policies in shaping the economic agency of women in the Ottoman regions of the period in question.  

We welcome contributions that engage with these themes through diverse methodological approaches, including archival research and comparative perspectives. 

Organized by: Reda Rafei
Please submit an abstract (200 words) and a short bio to rrafei@hotmail.com by February 8

Lebanon as a Site of Internationalist Solidarity

This panel looks at the time when Lebanon was a crossroads for internationalism from the 1960s to the 1980s. Whether it was the resurgent Lebanese left or the rise of the Palestinian movement in this time period, Lebanon became a rich space for imagining political alternatives and forging shared connections between individuals and groups. Scholarly focus has paid attention to the rise of Beirut as an “Arab Hanoi,” the role of Palestinians in fostering internationalist linkages, and the rise of transnational postcolonial magazines within this liminal space. Our panel pushes this further by looking at various case studies to see how militant struggle, armed and political, developed out of the fecund political, cultural, and geographic conditions made possible in Lebanon.

The papers of this panel collectively look at the various manifestations of resistance and solidarity that unfolded within Lebanon. Collectively, the papers on this panel engage with diverse historical sources in multiple languages to excavate the diverse and multinational alliances made possible in the fulcrum that was Lebanon in the 1960s to 1980s. The first paper looks at the various foreign groups that came to Lebanon to work with the Palestinian movement from Europe, Asia, and Latin America as a unified ideological project. The second paper looks at how the secretary general of El Salvador’s Communist Party forged alliances with the Palestinian movement in the early 1980s as an example of the shared struggle Latin American movements had with Palestinians who viewed American and Israeli actions in their respective spaces as a common resistance.

Feminist and Queer Perspectives on Migrant Detention and Deportation in the MENA Region

Yemen and the US/EU Relations: Between Security and Development

The Politics of Courts in the MENA region

We invite scholars who are interested in studying judicial institutions and legal decision-making from a variety of approaches. The existing literature on judiciaries in the region usually focuses on formal and technical descriptions of the judicial role and decisions. Approaching the judiciary not as neutral arbiters of justice but as political actors that influence governance, policy-making, and social action, we are interested in studies that scrutinise a wide range of themes, including the judicialization of politics, judicial activism and independence, judicial reform, economic and corporate influence on the judiciary, public perception and legitimacy of courts, the role of courts in the protection of human rights, political trials and resistance, and the role of courts in governing dissent. A primary goal of the panel is to bring together and form connections between scholars who work on socio-legal themes in the MENA region.

Organized by: Sıla Uluçay and Lama Karame
Please submit abstract and bio via email to Sıla Uluçay (silaulucay@gmail.com) and Lama Karame (lama.karame@law.ox.ac.uk) by February 12. 

Syria's Revolution in Context

In December 2024, Syrian revolutionaries stormed into Damascus and toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, bringing a decades-old dictatorship to an abrupt and unexpected end. This historic development raises several questions about the future of Syria. The Syrian Studies Association proposes an interdisciplinary panel to offer greater context for understanding what has unfolded and what may unfold in the future. Contributions should make a clear connection to their contemporary relevance.

Topics of possible interest include, but are not limited to, Islamic political movements, the position of religious and ethnic minorities in Syria, gender and/or sexuality in Syria, forced migration and displacement to and from Syria, legacies of single-party Ba’athist rule, historic moments of political transformation, the impact of sanctions on Syria’s economy, political detention in Syria, political theory by Syrian thinkers (e.g., democratization, confederation, economic thought, etc.), relevant cultural production, and more.

Organized by: Joshua Donovan
Interested scholars should submit a brief abstract of approximately 300 words and a brief bio to Joshua Donovan (donovaik@bc.edu) by Feb. 8th

Intersex in Classical Islamic Discourse

This panel considers perspectives on the khunthā in Islamic societies. The khunthā (intersex person) in classical Islamic discourse is defined as an individual embodying both male and female physical characteristics. Previous scholarship has largely focused on a limited array of legal texts, predominantly within the Ḥanafī legal tradition, which has resulted in a narrow understanding of the khunthā’s status in classical Islamic societies as articulated by a small group of jurists whose discussions were often recursive and self-referential. Adopting a genealogical approach, this panel traces the terms intersex and khunthā within classical Muslim culture and engages with previously unexplored sources to offer a broader perspective on how the khunthā was represented in Islamic scriptures, as well as in Muslim medical, legal, and literary texts.

Organized by: Indira Gesink
Please submit an abstract and bio via email to Indira Gesink (igesink@bw.edu) by February 10.  

Actors of Conflict and Peace in the Middle East: Changing Dynamics and Emerging Identities

The Middle East has long been shaped by a complex interplay of internal and external actors influencing both conflict and peace processes. Recent geopolitical shifts, including foreign interventions, regional rivalries, and mass migrations, have contributed to the emergence of new identities and the resurgence of existing ones, ranging from tribal groups and militias to extremist organizations. As global and regional powers reshape the security landscape, understanding the role of these actors becomes crucial in analyzing both the escalation of conflicts and the mechanisms for sustainable peace.

This panel brings together scholars examining the evolving roles of state and non-state actors in Middle Eastern conflicts, as well as their contributions to peace initiatives. It seeks to explore questions such as: What role do local and transnational identities play in sustaining or mitigating conflict? How do migration flows impact social and political structures in conflict-prone areas? What are the viable pathways for sustainable peace in a region marked by protracted violence?
By addressing these questions through empirical or theoretical contributions, the panel aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of conflict and peace in the Middle East, fostering informed policy discussions on conflict resolution. The panel will engage scholars, policymakers, NGOs, analysts, and practitioners working on Middle East politics, conflict resolution, international relations, and security studies.

Organized by: Busra Nur Ozguler Aktel
Please submit abstract and bio via email to Busra Nur Ozguler Aktel (busran.o.a@gmail.com) by February 12. 

Interactions Among Ottoman Ethno-Cultural Movements (1908-1918)

After the Young Turk Revolution, the new Ottoman state ended the restrictions of the Hamidian era, allowing many ethno-cultural movements to become more organized. A new sense of Ottoman patriotism and constitutionalism brought together various movements, such as Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian, Greek, Jewish, among others. The leaders of these movements were products of the same Ottoman system, and in some cases, they knew each other personally.

This panel idea will explore the interactions, inspirations, and tensions among these ethno-cultural movements during the period from the Young Turk Revolution to World War I. The goal is to offer original insights and new perspectives on these interactions by using primary sources such as periodicals, archives, and memoirs.

My contribution will focus on the interactions between Turkism and Kurdism in this period. If you are working on similar interactions among Ottoman ethno-communal movements, I encourage you to submit a short abstract and your bio. 

Organized by: Ahmet Akturk
Please submit abstract and bio via email to Ahmet Akturk (aakturk@georgiasouthern.edu) by February 8. 

Whose Civility, Whose Tolerance? Reflections on Emerging Grammars of Citizenship in MENA

How are state-led projects and popular discourses of toleration, civility, and civilizational heritage deployed in contemporary MENA - and to what effects? At a tumultuous time when violence, sectarian and racial exclusion, incivility, and destruction seem ubiquitous and inescapable in the region and beyond, ethnographers are increasingly finding these projects and discourses about tolerance and civility deployed in highly paradoxical circumstances: Tolerance within authoritarian rentier states, civility within popular sentiments dismissive of movements for mass democracy and popular sovereignty, and the like. Such paradoxical circumstances make it all the more important for scholars to attend to the ways in which those who contest power mobilize civility and tolerance’s ‘polemical thrust.’ This focus enables scholars to make statements about the past, social change, and the future (Dzenovska 2018; Thiranagama, Kelly and Forment 2018), how states conceal their ‘dark side’ (Balibar 2015; Brown 2006), to whom such discourses apply and become relevant, and the everyday pressures that ‘putting up with’, and ‘dealing with’ Others place on affective bonds between individuals (Bejan 2017).

We invite scholars working on top-down and bottom-up discourses and social practices of tolerance, civility and/or coexistence, how they are re-shaping local and regional hierarchies, notions of belonging and citizenship. Topics can include (but are not limited to):

i) Activist and civil society calls for public decorum, respect, order, etc;
ii) State-led and/or public-private projects which mobilize discourses of civilization and heritage in media, civil society, and the arts;
iii) Political mobilization and popular discourses against hate speech, blasphemy, persecution, intolerance and incivility within pluralist and heterogeneous lived spaces;
iv) Racialized, gendered, or class-based discourses of civility, tolerance and coexistence.

Organized by: Peiyu Yang
Please submit abstracts of 200 words via email to Beth Derderian (bderderian@wooster.edu) and Kerem Uşşaklı (kussakli@brandeis.edu) by February 9. 

New Approaches to Arab Asian Solidarity

Projects connecting Middle Eastern and East Asian Studies in cross-regional perspective have been growing in number. Despite such development, the approaches and perspectives are still marginal within their parent disciplines. Working together to determine the methods, approaches, and theories underpinning this growing field, and to showcase the research innovations and to discuss challenges, is essential for this comparative movement to become an established field of study. In the contemporary world, Arab-Asian collaboration has drawn significant political attention, but humanistic approaches are often left out of the conversation. Can we push these studies forward by uncovering solidarity’s complexities in the light of interdisciplinary conversation? What scholarly exchanges across disciplinary boundaries can contribute to better defining solidarity as an object of study, and the Arab-Asian relationship(s) more broadly as a field?

This panel invites contributions from scholars working on regional Asian and MENA literatures, comparative literature, world and regional history, political science, international relations, Global South studies, and other connected disciplines. Proposals may address questions such as:

1.What theoretical approaches to solidarity are particularly useful in the Arab-Asian context? How is Arab-Asian solidarity being used strategically by regional political actors to find alignments and support in a complicated global time? What is the role of translation in constructing or deconstructing solidarities in the Arab-Asian context?
2. What are the challenges inherent for the scholar in studying cross-regional solidarity and exchange? What can interdisciplinary and collaborative work bring to the table that uniquely addresses the particularities of this emerging subject and field of study?
3. How do literary exchanges, cultural exchanges, translations, political visits, etc. inform and overlap with each other? What historical and cultural forces undergird inter-regional relationships, both collaborative and competitive? How do politics and art interact in the Arab-Asia relationship, both throughout the history of both regions and today?

Organized by: Peiyu Yang
Submit your abstract and a short bio to Peiyu Yang (pyang21@gmu.edu) by February 8.

Maghreb Literature as World Literature

This panel is the first step toward a volume in Bloomsbury’s "Literature as World Literature" series, edited by Tristan Leperlier (CNRS) and Mohamed-Salah Omri (Oxford). It will explore “Maghreb literature” (excluding Egypt) from transnational and plurilingual perspectives, encompassing all literary languages used in the region—oral or written—including Arabic, Tamazight (and their dialects), French, diaspora languages and even Latin.

The first set of questions explores the notion of “Maghreb literature.” Does this geographic and partly political space correspond to any “significant geography” for writers? Are there networks—through studies, journals, festivals—that transcend borders, whether within the region or via third countries? However, we should avoid overestimating the literary importance of this region compared to the national level or that of linguistic areas.

Secondly we examine the positioning of Maghreb literatures within their linguistic areas. Many writers publish abroad, particularly in Paris (for French) and Beirut (for Arabic), gaining international recognition but sometimes facing accusations at home of being disconnected and catering to a foreign readership. This raises questions about national literatures and their canons. Is a unified Tamazight literature emerging, beyond the national divides? How are first- or second-generation diasporic writers, using languages like Italian, Catalan, or English, integrated into the national literatures in the Maghreb?

The third focus is on the translation of the diverse Maghreb literatures—within the region’s languages and internationally. How are they received in those new contexts of publication? What are the actors, institutions, literary policies driving these circulations? Examples may include Cold War Communist networks, Pakistani publishers, or feminist Dutch translators.
Case studies are welcome, but contributions offering socio-historical or comparative perspectives are preferred, especially those exploring the interplay between actors and books circulations, literary recognition and politics.

Organized by: Tristan Leperlier and Mohamed-Salah Omri
Please send 300 words abstract and bio to tristan.leperlier@cnrs.fr and mohamed-salah.omri@ames.ox.ac.uk by February 10.

Somatization of Disasters: Rethinking Event and Embodied Temporalities in the Middle East

Nawal Hassan, Preservation & the Poor. In Tribute

Dr. Nawal Hassan was the person who wrote the first letter to UNESCO, calling for alGamalleya/ Islamic Cairo to become a World Heritage site. She worked all her adult life advocating for the preservation of the area, as well as for the inclusion of the poor in development. She conducted many development projects from her office in the area, with her organization, The Center for Egyptian Civilization Studies, which brought international scholars to study the area. She was long ahead of her times, advocating for sustainable development before there was such a term. She uniquely combined her interests in Islamic art and architecture with advocating for including the community in its restoration and development. In her early years, she served as an assistant to renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, and became the archivist of his papers. But her own work involved her with Nubian, Bedouin, Al-Gournawi, and many artisans from traditional areas in Cairo. She also pushed for the preservation of folkloric art and local crafts, many of which were dying out with modernization. The session aims to highlight her work and the challenges of preservation in Islamic Cairo.

Organized by: Kathleen Kamphoefner
Submit your abstract and a short bio to Kathleen Kamphoefner (krkamp@aucegypt.com) by February 10, 2025. 

Roundtable: Wise Women and New Approaches: Honoring Those Who Study Iranian and ME (SWANA) Gender and Women Issues

Scholars will more informally present their insights based on dedication to this topic, developing new approaches, and delving into innovative areas of inquiry. How has their work added additional appreciation and comprehension to our gender understandings? For the benefit of beginning researchers in the audience, some may talk about challenges of their research process.

Some of the areas for discussion might include the following: Over time, have political developments and in-country changes affected their work? Have they been able to maintain connections with communities and interlocutors? Have their relationships with communities, interlocutors, and friends evolved over time and why? How have Facebook, zoom, and internet developments affected their work? What new sources of information have they found? Have they been able to incorporate societal change and repertoires of choices in publications? How do they explain modifications, resistance, uprisings, protests, and strife over gender and women in their research society/ies and subsequent developments? What new organizations and groups have they uncovered?

Scholars will talk more briefly about how focus on their research society has brought them deeper awareness and perceptions about gender dynamics, organization, struggle, and modifications. Middle Eastern societies have low statistics on women’s formal employment involvement, although in some countries, female educational attainments outdo those of males. How can this be explained? What changes in levels and types of migration regarding gender have scholars apprehended? What developments have scholars found over time regarding women’s political participation and/or leadership? What changes have they discerned in areas of sexuality, marriage, informal marriage, sexual relationships, and family dynamics and how do they explain these? What about changes in clothing, covering, religiosity, ritual, and female and male ideals? What differences in gender dynamics and women’s activities can be detected among the various countries of SWANA and what are the explanations?

Organized by: Mary Elaine Hegland
Submit your abstract and a short bio to Mary Elaine Hegland (MHegland@scu.edu) by February 10, 2025. 

Using Games in the MES Classroom

This roundtable will explore how presenters use games, like Reacting To The Past (RTTP) or other types of simulations in the Middle East Studies classroom, broadly defined. It aims to be interdisciplinary and to facilitate a conversation on the practical and pedagogical level about the use of games. Can they teach empathy? Can they help with intercultural understanding? What are their limits? What should instructors keep in mind when utilizing them?

Organized by: Victoria Hightower
Submit your abstract and a short bio to Victoria Hightower (victoria.hightower@ung.edu) by February 3, 2025. 

Arabic Speculative Literature amidst Destruction, Repression & Trauma

The challenges to Arabic culture today range from the fear of extinction to the loss of one´s home and collective memories, and from war to censorship. How does Arabic literature deal with such severe existential and political threats? How can it preserve cultural heritage, restore hope, and contribute to visions for the future?

The envisaged panel seeks to explore Arabic speculative literature from Palestine and beyond. It welcomes analytical engagements with primary texts as well as conceptual investigations of literary forms which may range from magical realisms to appearances of the fantastic, science fiction, utopias/dystopias, and futurisms.

The panel is inspired by the project “Magical Realisms and Speculative Literature” hosted by Beatrice Gründler at the Cluster of Excellence “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective” (Freie Universität Berlin): https://www.temporal-communities.de/research/future-perfect/projects/magical-realisms-speculative-literature/index.htmlhttps://www.temporal-communities.de/research/future-perfect/projects/magical-realisms-speculative-literature/index.html. The project hosts a regular colloquium accessible both in-person and online. If interested in joining these events, please just get in touch.

Organized by: Hanan Natour (Freie Universität Berlin)
Please submit a 300-word abstract and a short bio (150 words) to Hanan Natour (hanan.natour@fu-berlin.de) by February 10th.

Capital and Social History in the Middle East

This panel explores the synchronicity and relevance between capital flows and social history in the Middle East, broadly defined. Economic scholarship has construed various abstract frameworks around capital, from theoretical foundations to laws of commodity exchange and metamorphoses of value. These macroeconomic frameworks often rely on dehumanized metrics like currency, profit, productivity, and financial institutions. Yet, capital doesn’t operate in isolation with society; economic systems are embedded in social relations, cultural practices, and power structures. By centering human agencies and their lived experiences in examining global flow of capital, this panel illuminates nuanced historical contingencies and structural changes in social history, offering insights into patterns of crisis, dependency, and inequality.

This panel welcomes scholars from interdisciplinary approaches, with particular focus on the 18th to 20th centuries. Topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Capital and Islamic institutions
- Cultural changes and consumption patterns
- Colonialism, empire, and global capital
- Gender, labor, and capital
- Urbanization and social structures
- Resistance and social movements
- Technology, capital, and society

Organized by: Xiaoyue Yasin Li
Please submit your 300-word abstract and a short bio to Xiaoyue Yasin Li (yasinli@tulane.edu) by February 6, 2025 for full consideration

Internal Migration: Ruralization of Urban Areas

As most of the literature focuses on the process of urbanization, we seek to shed light on the process of the ruralization of urban areas. The session aims to focus on how rural practices, social settings, and values persist and adapt within urban spaces. The process of the ruralization of cities could allow us to better understand certain phenomena, including informal settlements, informal governance structures, resistance to the values of urbanization, and informal economies.

We aim to focus on how internal migration dynamics from rural to urban areas could result in socio-spatial transformation in urban spaces.
This could include (but is not limited to) how ruralization impacts:
1-The cultural landscape of urban areas
2-Housing and spatial organization
3-Economic structures
4-Governance and political participation

Organized by: Sama Alsheikh
Submit your abstract and a short bio to Sama Alsheikh (sama.mamdouh2017@feps.edu.eg) by February 10, 2025. 

Ottoman and post-Ottoman archaeologies

We invite scholars interested in encounters with and perceptions of the past in the Ottoman Empire and post-Ottoman lands to submit abstracts for a proposed MESA panel. We are especially interested in encounters with and perceptions of the past by diverse communities of the empire/successor states both in the center and provinces. Our focus is on 'indigenous' archaeologies, expanding the cast of characters -both state and non-state actors- that engaged with the topic and understand the reasons and goals of these engagements and perceptions, though we are open to other, similar topics as well. 

Organized by: Artemis Papatheodorou and Ceren Abi
Submit your abstract (no more than 300 words) and a short bio to Ceren (ceren.abi@gmail.com) by January 31, 2025. 

Science and Technology Studies in the Middle East

Universities Confronting Genocide: Resistance, Repression, and Transnational Mobilizations

History, Gender, and Genre in Arabic Literature

This session organized by Nada Ayad (Cooper Union) and Brady Ryan (University of Connecticut) explores the intersection of gender, genre, and history in Arabic literature. We invite proposals that address:
- Gendered literary histories
- Gendered literary interventions in history
- Gendered theories of specific genres, gendered innovations and interventions in specific genres, and/or critiques of specific genres
- Connections between women’s movements and literary forms, genres, histories
- Specific authors or works that pose gendered questions of history and/or genre

Organized by: Nada Ayad and Brady Ryan
Submit a 300-word abstract and short bio (under 100 words) to Brady Ryan (brady.ryan@uconn.edu) by February 6 for full consideration.

Literary Representations of Prostitution

This session organized by Nada Ayad (Cooper Union) and Brady Ryan (University of Connecticut) explores representations of prostitution in literature. We invite proposals that address:
- Specific case studies or comparisons of prostitution in modern or pre-modern literature
- Representations of prostitution in specific genres
- Connections between literary representations of prostitution and the nation and nationalism, modernism and modernity, colonialism and anticolonial critique, women’s movements, and/or the postcolonial state
- Connections between literary representations of prostitution and economies, transactions and exchange between classes, languages, and/or cultures
- Prostitution and literary history
- Prostitution and affect, aesthetics, and/or politics

Organized by: Nada Ayad and Brady Ryan
Submit a 300-word abstract and short bio (under 100 words) to Brady Ryan (brady.ryan@uconn.edu) by February 6 for full consideration.

Entangled Power: Clinical and Cultural Readings of Sadomasochism

Muslim Women under the Discourse of Indigenous Feminism​​​​​​

In this round table, I would like to touch indigenous feminism as an emancipatory movement regardless of political purposes, which tend to reduce the context of colonization to settler states mostly in North America. It is an effort to find a place for indigenous women who experience “internal colonized Other” under the ethno-theocratic state in Iran. Islamic regime constitutionally suppressing non-Persian and non-Shia Muslim women by the idea of a centralized nation-state and imposing the narrative of political Shia Islam.

Organized by: Naima Mohammadi 
Submit a 300-400 words abstract and a short bio (100-300 words) to Naima Mohammadi (naima.mohammadi@yahoo.com) by January 31. 

Feminist Criticism of the Quran

This session will explore the emerging field of feminist criticism of the Quran, examining how gender perspectives can reshape our understanding of the text and its interpretations. As scholars increasingly engage with religious texts through a feminist lens, this discourse invites critical inquiries into the feminist Interpretations, the Quran’s portrayal of women, gender roles, and the implications for contemporary Muslim societies.

Participants will discuss various methodologies employed in feminist critiques, evaluating How feminist interpretations have reproduced patriarchal values ​​under the guise of erasing them. The session will highlight key themes such as the roles women play in Quranic narratives, the implications of language and imagery, and the historical context that shapes these interpretations. By contrasting feminist criticism with feminist readings, we aim to uncover new insights and foster a more inclusive understanding of the Quran.
Additionally, the session will feature case studies that illustrate feminist criticisms of specific verses and narratives in the Quran, showcasing the diversity of thought within this critical framework. We will also consider the challenges faced by scholars in this field, including potential pushback from traditionalist circles and the need for ongoing dialogue.

Join us for a dynamic discussion that celebrates the contributions of feminist and secular scholars to Quranic studies and promotes a re-examination of religious texts that encourages inclusivity and empowerment. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of feminist criticism and its potential to enrich contemporary conversations around gender and Islam.

Organized by: Zahra Mohagheghian
Submit a 300-word abstract and a short bio (150 words) to Zahra Mohagheghian (z.mohaghegh@gmail.com) by February 10. 

Franklin Books and the Cultural Cold War in Comparative Contexts

This session will bring together scholars working with materials (whether archival or the translated books themselves) related to the Franklin Book Publications program that operated from 1953-1979. There has been a recent surge in interest in Franklin's activities in the Middle East following the rise of scholarship addressing the cultural Cold War, dating back to Frances Stoner Saunders's The Cultural Cold War but more recently represented by studies including but not limited to Greg Barnhisel's Cold War Modernists: Art Literature, & American Cultural Diplomacy; Peter Kalliney's The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature; Jini Kim Watson's Cold War Reckonings: Authoritarianism and the Genres of Decolonization; and Pamela Lee's Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present, among others. Research directly related to Franklin's activities, however, remains limited to some scattered articles, Amanda Laugesen's 2017 Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War, and Mahdi Ganjavi's 2023 Education and the Cultural Cold War in the Middle East: The Franklin Book Programs in Iran.

Because of the outsize influence Franklin had on book publishing throughout the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and beyond, operating out of offices in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, Tabriz, Tehran, Kabul, Lahore, Islamabad, and Dacca, to name only a few, there remain significant opportunities for comparative analysis of Franklin's operations across linguistic and national contexts. I am therefore seeking papers on Franklin's publishing efforts in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu so that we might begin this work together. Papers that situate Franklin within the context of the cultural Cold War are especially welcome, though I am also interested in reading abstracts taking up the United States Information Services/United States Information Agency role in the cultural Cold War as well. The final panel description will reflect the interests of the accepted papers.

Organized by: Levi Thompson
Submit an abstract with a short bio to Levi Thompson (levi.thompson@austin.utexas.edu) by February 5.

Rethinking Occidentalism: The East Explores the West

Since its tangential emergence in Said’s Orientalism in 1978, the term Occidentalism accrued multiple significations. Most notably, the term is argued to stage a counter- or reverse-discourse of Orientalism, operating on similar dichotomic and oppositional paradigms. Occidentalism, in this light, defines the East’s response to the West and its construction of a “Western other by reversing, so to speak, the Orientalist coin” (El-Enany vii). Numerous studies on the concept of Occidentalism have taken a similar approach, most notably Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit’s Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, which labels Occidentalism as “dehumanizing picture of the West painted by its enemies” (5).

This session queries if we can conceive East-West relations differently, apart from the Orientalist logic that inheres in studies of Occidentalism. It explores novel dynamics in the encounters of “Eastern” travelers, poets, novelists, and among others, with the so-called West—dynamics that do not quite align with, or perhaps even challenge, oppositional, antagonist, and differentialist discourses. In what ways do these texts complicate narratives of alterity? What perspectives do they offer for a more nuanced understanding of East-West relations to move beyond monolithic assumptions? Is it possible that these encounters—rather than painting dehumanizing pictures of the West and provoking resentment and hard feelings—might address “our common human concerns” (Al-Azm 7) that involve both East and West (e.g., violence of modernity, war, gender inequality, environmental concerns, among others)? Can they enact new lines of solidarity between East and West, perhaps even empathetic identifications, that prevalent analytical frameworks are not able to discern? Is Occidentalism a useful term of analysis in this regard? How can we reformulate this concept for a more progressive politics in action?

Organized by: Varol Kahveci
Submit a 300-word abstract with a short bio to Varol Kahveci (vk2421@columbia.edu) by February 5 for full consideration.

Islam in Southeast Asia: Intellectual Sufism, Colonialism, and Cultural Transformations

This session explores the intersection of intellectual Sufism, colonial encounters, and cultural transformations in Southeast Asia, focusing on the pivotal role of Islamic mysticism in shaping regional identities, literature, and resistance movements. Scholars are invited to examine how figures like Hamzah Fansuri bridged Persian Sufi traditions and local cultural contexts, creating a unique synthesis of Islamic thought and Malay literary expression.

The session seeks to investigate the influence of Sufi philosophy on the sociopolitical landscape, particularly its role in anti-colonial discourses and the development of a distinct Southeast Asian Islamic identity. Contributions addressing themes of self-awareness, Unity of Being, poverty, and annihilation, as well as the impact of Persian and Arabic intellectual heritage on the Malay world, are encouraged. By engaging with these intersections, this session aims to illuminate the enduring legacy of Sufism in Southeast Asia's spiritual and cultural transformations.

Reimagining Middle Eastern Studies Classroom: Gaming and Digital Platforms for Pedagogy, Research, and Representation