Search results

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 such as Skype, Zoom, and Teams has proven inva

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-10-april-2020 - 2025-09-29

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 - 2025-09-29

On Wednesday 20th of March, CMES staff and students came together to celebrate Nowruz. 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 - 2025-09-29

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 - 2025-09-29

CMES Associate Professor Maria Frederika Malmström's upcoming work, published by University of California Press. "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 events. Focusing on the qualities of the sensory world, Maria Frederik

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/streets-are-talking-me-affective-fragments-sisis-egypt - 2025-09-29

Anders Ackfeldt's "Spikning" (Nailing) Ceremony for the completion of his PhD thesis. 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 symbolises the completion of the PhD project and it

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/islamic-semiotic-resources-us-hip-hop-culture - 2025-09-29

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 - 2025-09-29

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. Titled "Against abando

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/against-abandonment-activist-and-humanitarian-responses-lgbt-refugees-athens-and-beirut - 2025-09-29

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 of Sa’di (d.1291) the 13th

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/coronavirus-and-persian-literary-humanism - 2025-09-29

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 previous year, totalling at over 1.3 mill

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/how-northern-european-welfare-states-exercise-bureaucratic-violence-asylum-seekers - 2025-09-29

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 stormar. Alma Johansson från Sverige, Bodil Biørn från Norge och Maria

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-book-cmes-svante-lundgren-and-maria-smaberg - 2025-09-29

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. It starts with Taksim Square’s h

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-publication-cmes-guest-researcher-omer-turan - 2025-09-29

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 - 2025-09-29

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 Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at the Fa

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/permanent-position-professor-islamic-studies - 2025-09-29

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 UN Special Envoy and Wom

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/syrian-women-and-their-participation-peace-process - 2025-09-29

The city of Idlib, which is the last bastion of the Syria opposition, has witnessed an escalation between two jihadi groups namely: Hayet Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din and its allies. Orwa Ajjoub have provided a contextual analysis of the situation, the ideological debate it has generated between jihadi-Salafi ideologues. He also touched upon the the internal strife within th

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-researcher-orwa-ajjoub-commenting-escalation-jihadi-gruops-al-aan-tv - 2025-09-29

"The economy decimated, Lebanon was falling apart at the seams. Then came the August 4 explosion in the Beirut port, and the medical, economic and social catastrophe took on gargantuan proportions. The dead have not been counted yet, as many are still under the rubble, but over 5,000 are wounded. More than 300,000 are said to be homeless." "The Beirut port is a key node in the Lebanese transport s

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/im-devastated-beirut-city-i-thought-i-hated-cmes-rola-el-husseini-conversation - 2025-09-29

Can populism have a progressive dimension? Can we speak about left and right-wing populism? Or does it lack ideological /value content in itself? Can populism enhance democracy or is it detrimental to it? Our next debate will be asking these questions.Do get in touch if you would like to submit an article and contribute to the debate by emailing: spyros [dot] sofos [at] cme [dot] lu [dot] se (Spyr

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/call-contributions - 2025-09-29

"On June 14, the U.S.-led international coalition targeted the car of Abu al-Qassam al-Urdini, a senior leader of al-Qaeda (AQ) affiliate Hurras al-Din (HAD), and his fellow jihadi Bilal al-San’ani on the outskirts of Idlib. Two days later, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Idlib’s dominant jihadi group, arrested a former senior commander, Abu Salah al-Uzbeki, who had defected from HTS to join Ansar al-

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/hts-and-al-qaeda-syria-reconciling-irreconcilable-cmes-orwa-ajjoub - 2025-09-29

On behalf of the Swedish Government, SciLifeLab develops and provides advanced technologies, instruments and expertise to researchers in academia, industry and healthcare throughout Sweden. Johan Malmström has served as Scientific Director of Integrated Structural Biology (ISB), one of the platforms within SciLifeLabs, since 1 June of this year. What is the platform’s mission? “In collaboration wi

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/johan-malmstrom-scientific-director-scilifelab-platform-isb - 2025-09-29