Read the November CMES Newsletter about upcoming events, recent research activities, and new publications. The CMES Newsletter offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Middle Eastern research. It is distributed regularly to a diverse audience of scholars, both within Lund University and beyond. Each issue features:Message From the DirectorLatest Research NewsUpcoming EventsRecent Publicat

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-47 - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Lisa Strömbom was interviewed in the Danish newspaper Politiken on Israel's relations with the UN, following the UNRWA ban. Lisa Strömbom is Associate Professor in Political Science and researcher at CMES. She studies identities in conflict, conflict transformation and historiography, recognition in intrastate conflict as well as on grassroots peacebuilding. Her main empirical focu

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/lisa-strombom-interviewed-politiken-israels-relations-un - 2025-08-21

LUCSUS researcher Sinem Kavak visited CMES to hold a seminar on Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon. How can we understand the complex dynamics of gender and bodily strategies in the context of forced migration? As part of the CMES Seminar Series, Sinem Kavak, researcher at the Center for Sustainability Studies at Lund University (LUCSUS) and a research affiliate at the Raoul Wallenberg Institut

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/gendered-refugee-bodies-feminist-analysis-syrian-refugee-mobility-turkey-and-lebanon - 2025-08-21

CMES researcher Sami Al-Daghistani has recently published an edited volume on premodern and contemporary economic and environmental approaches in Islamic traditions. Recovering Environmental and Economic Traditions in the Islamic World. Leiden: Brill’s Themes in Islamic Studies Series, Volume 9, 2024.The book is published in Open Access thanks to financial support from Lund University Library Fund

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/recovering-environmental-and-economic-traditions-islamic-world - 2025-08-21

CMES researcher Altea Pericoli has co-authored an article published in The International Spectator. Donelli, F., Pericoli, A. (2024). Foreign aid, identities, and interests: Qatar and the UAE in Sudan. The International Spectator. DOI: 10.1080/03932729.2024.2416892.The article is published with Open Access. Read it here.About Altea PericoliDr. Altea Pericoli is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in ge

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/foreign-aid-identities-and-interests-qatar-and-uae-sudan - 2025-08-21

Det händer mycket i Iran just nu. Irankännaren Laleh Foroughanfar, forskare vid Centrum för Mellanösternstudier vid Lunds universitet, analyserar läget just nu och vad som har lett fram till dagens situation. Laleh Foroughanfar on recent Iran events. Photo: Charlotte Carlberg Barg To the full article

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/det-iranska-samhallet-mer-uppdelat-nagonsin - 2025-08-21

A 4-year fully funded PhD position at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) and Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (CTR) is now open for applications. Application deadline: 22 December 2024.About the PhD PositionThe Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies is coordinating the Strategic Research Area (SRA) and the research program “The Middle East in the Contemporary World”

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/job-opening-phd-student-islamic-studies-islamic-ethics-and-moral-economy-middle-east - 2025-08-21

Applications are now open for the CMES Travel Grant of Spring 2025. Application deadline is 20 December 2024. The Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) supports research with high scientific potential through the Strategic Research Area Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW). CMES provides travel grants for conducting field work in the Middle East and conference/workshop particip

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/call-cmes-travel-grant-spring-2025 - 2025-08-21

CMES researcher Altea Pericoli has published an article in the Durham Middle East Papers. Pericoli A. (2024). Islamic Humanitarianism and Foreign Aid: Gulf States in conflict zones. Durham Middle East Papers, Sir William Luce Fellowship Paper n. 111.The Durham Middle East Papers series covers all aspects of the economy, politics, social science, history, literature and languages of the Middle East

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/islamic-humanitarianism-and-foreign-aid-gulf-states-conflict-zones - 2025-08-21

This Regional Outlook focuses on the recent political developments in Syria and the implications for Rojava. What is currently happening in Syria?Syria is experiencing a significant escalation in violence, with the civil war reigniting in various regions. Islamist militants from the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have made substantial territorial gains in the past week,

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-regional-outlook-fall-assad-regime-challenges-and-opportunities-rojava - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Pinar Dinc has written an article published in the Conversation on the future of the self-governing region in Syria’s north-east, after the fall of the Assad regime. AbstractAfter more than a decade of brutal civil war, it took Islamist militants just 11 days to sweep through Syria and topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The offensive, which has been driven by the Turkish-backed

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/syrias-self-governing-democratic-north-east-comes-under-attack-country-flux - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Adam Almqvist has written a review of Mayssoun Sukarieh’s book "A Global Idea: Youth, City Networks, and the Struggle for the Arab World" (published in 2023). The book review is published in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Review summaryWhy do the same dominant ideas appear in radically different parts of the world? What are the material qualities of a particu

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/book-review-global-idea-youth-city-networks-and-struggle-arab-world - 2025-08-21

The Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) will offer three Arabic language courses during Spring of 2025. Applications are now open for the CMES language courses in Arabic. The following courses are offered during the Spring Semester of 2025:  A1, Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners, Part 2 (Only for students who took A1 Part 1 last term) A2, Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners, Part

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/apply-now-study-arabic-cmes-spring-2025 - 2025-08-21

Read the January CMES Newsletter about upcoming events, recent research activities, and new publications. The CMES Newsletter offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Middle Eastern research. It is distributed regularly to a diverse audience of scholars, both within Lund University and beyond. Each issue features:Message From the DirectorLatest Research NewsUpcoming EventsRecent Publicati

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-48 - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Yafa Shanneik has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for her project "RELI-GENE: Governing Health, Family, and Religion". The study examines how religious and state health policies influence marriage and reproductive practices, particularly in close-knit religious communities in Europe and the Middle East. In many of these communities, marriages within families or th

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/yafa-shanneik-awarded-erc-consolidator-grant - 2025-08-21

CMES researcher Hossein Hashemi has co-authored an article in the Environmental Research Letters. AbstractDust storms have been an increasing concern in the Middle East. Severe drought events and human activities, particularly water and land management, have led to emerging dust sources in the last few decades. This study combines spatio-temporal maps of land susceptibility to dust storm incidence

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/unraveling-link-between-agricultural-patterns-and-dust-storm-occurrence-mesopotamia - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Pinar Dinc has written an article published in the Conversation on the uncertain future of the Kurds in rebel-led Syria. AbstractMore than a month has passed since Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, became the de facto leader of Syria. Since then, he has dropped his nom de guerre in favour of his real name, Ahmed al-Shara, and has s

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/why-kurds-face-uncertain-future-ahmed-al-sharas-rebel-led-syria - 2025-08-21

CMES researcher Hossein Hashemi has co-authored an article in the Journal of Hydrology. AbstractGroundwater drought, as a form of hydrological drought, embodies the distinctive characteristics of the aquifer and human-induced disruptions within the hydrological system. The intricate nature of groundwater flow systems, coupled with challenges in acquiring field observations related to aquifers, pos

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/novel-implementation-pre-processing-approaches-and-hybrid-kernel-based-model-short-and-long-term - 2025-08-21

Orwa Ajjoub (Malmö University) visited CMES for a research seminar on the recent developments in Syria. The first CMES Research Seminar of the spring semester 2025 attracted a large audience at Finngatan 16. The seminar featured Orwa Ajjoub, Ph.D. candidate in Global Politics at Malmö University, as the guest speaker. Ajjoub’s research explores intra-jihadi violence and the Syrian conflict. In add

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/syrian-conflict-over-challenges-and-opportunities-new-administration - 2025-08-21

CMES Researcher Amir Naghibi has written an article published in Global Ecology and Conservation. "Macroecological Predictors to Determine Future Refuges of Luciobarbus Species in the Tigris–Euphrates Basin: Rethinking Conservation Strategies and Management"AbstractFreshwater ecosystems, being highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, experience a greater influence than terrestrial and

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/macroecological-predictors-determine-future-refuges-luciobarbus-species-tigris-euphrates-basin - 2025-08-21