Sport as Nation Storydoing: Citizenship Making for the 21st Century
Lecture/seminar
The United Arab Emirates over a decade ago adopted Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as its officially recognised national sport. Scholars and commentators have described it as eccentric and unexpected move within the regional context of unprecedented investments in mega sporting events and mainstream sports…
CAIS Public Lecture Series | Crescent Moon, Hammer, and Sickle: Muslim Socialists, Marxist Muslims, and Islamic Populists in Modern Iran
Lecture/seminar
This presentation explores the fraught and generative encounters between Islam and socialism in modern Iran, from the early days of the Cold War through the post-1979 revolutionary order. It identifies three analytically distinct yet historically overlapping political-theological orientations –…
An Ethnographic Study of Shenzhen Muslims
Lecture/seminar
Shenzhen’s Muslim community—now estimated at over 150 000—has flourished in lockstep with a city that has morphed, in barely four decades, from a coastal fishing village to a tech-driven metropolis. In the late 1980s, the first known Muslim residents were few enough to be counted on one hand; today…
Book Discussion: "International Political Economy and the Global South" (2025)
Book launch
Dr Zaynab El Bernoussi will discuss her new co-authored book with Dr Jessie Moritz on International Political Economy and the Global South: Perspectives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East (2025). The primary goal of this new book is to provide an alternative or…
The Subject Tonight is Love
Performance
This evening brings together two inspiring elements of Persian heritage – poetry and music – which together explore the nature of human existence and love. Drawing from the wisdom of 12th and 13th century poets Rumi, Sa’adi, Khayam and Hafez as well as the modern poems of internationally renowned…
An Archetypal Revival: Reimagining Chivalry in a Cross-Cultural Context
Lecture/seminar
This dissertation investigates the concept of chivalry within Iranian civilization as a dynamic and evolving imaginative framework that shapes ideals of heroism and identity. Moving beyond conventional views of chivalry as a static code of conduct, the study reveals how these ideals have been…
Feeling the Pulse of the Street: Socio-Cultural Demands and Regime Responsiveness in the Arab Monarchies of the Gulf
Lecture
In August 2021, the Kuwaiti government removed statues of Aphrodite from a Burberry shop after it received multiple complaints about them offending people’s cultural and religious sensitivities. Why? While this question may seem simple, current Gulf scholarship, and authoritarian studies more…