Islam, the Humanities and the Human

In the early nineteenth century, some of the most consequential developments in Ottoman architecture unfolded not in Istanbul but on the empire’s frontier. This talk explores the ambitious building program of Ali Pasha of Ioannina (r. 1788–1822), the renegade governor of Greece and Albania whose architectural patronage ranged from mosques to dervish lodges and even Orthodox … Read More

Since the 1990s, Jafar Panahi has been a central figure in contemporary Iranian cinema and one of its most acclaimed voices on the global stage. A master of the semi-documentary … Read More

From the era of the Mamluk Sultanate to the age of jet travel, Cairo has long served as an important hub of West African migration. Whether as a stop on the hajj to Mecca or as a final destination, multiple West African communities have made Cairo home. This talk will explore the significance of nearly a millennium of … Read More

The Iranian diaspora, estimated at 5 to 8 million people worldwide, has become increasingly visible, especially in North America and Europe. In response to misrepresentation and marginalization, many have turned … Read More

The Nakba of 1948 is often narrativized as a massive break in Palestinian cultural production. In this presentation, Drs. Ari and Amin will bring nuance to this idea through comparative studies of art made before and after the historical catastrophe. How did iconographies of Palestinian nationalism change over the course of the century? What shifting pressures did … Read More

Join us for a conversation about Dr. Amir Moosavi’s recently published book Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War. The book is the first comparative study of Arabic … Read More

In this ethnography, El Zein listens to the experiences of rappers and their audiences in Amman, Beirut, and Ramallah as they search for ways to engage the political beyond the framework of resistance. Her recently published book, Filling the Head: Listening to Rap in Arabic, theorizes an interdisciplinary approach to political agency rooted the feeling … Read More

In the immediate aftermath of the 1963 Iraqi Ba'ath Party-led coup d’état of the Republic of Iraq and assassination of its democratically elected Prime Minister, Abd al-Karim Qasim, several prominent artists began producing new artworks and public art exhibitions. Iraqi artists drew upon transnational anticolonial symbols and common motifs of the heroic worker, farmer, and revolutionary to visualize … Read More

In the late 1950s, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian returned to Iran after more than a decade in the United States, where she studied at Parsons School of Design and worked as an artist and layout designer at a now-defunct luxury department store, Bonwit Teller. Soon after her return, she joined the Point Four Program, launched by … Read More