Category: Section activities

Annual Meeting of the Belgian Association for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society – BASICS

‘Becoming a stranger’ : Ambivalent familiarities and political subjectivation of Egyptian artists in Berlin

Through an interdisciplinary approach, combining political sociology, anthropology of art, as well as migration studies, this thesis contributes to an ethnographically informed conceptualisation of ‘becoming a stranger’. The focus on Egyptian artists residing in Europe offers a case study to examine the mobility from counter-revolutionary Egypt to cosmopolitan creative Berlin, and its effects on the reconfiguration of artistic practices and political engagement. The research explores various meanings of the stranger: the ghost, the marginal, the deviant, the foreigner, the outsider, the queer, and the other, while considering strangeness conjointly as psychological alienation and physical dislocation.
Following an intersectional approach, the study explores how the experience of ghurba (estrangement) is the continuation between the socio-economic and political order that informs the impetus for leaving, the racial conditions that structure the arrival in Berlin, and the artists’ aspiration to position their practice within the globalised art worlds. In this context, the thesis argues that artists conjointly embody and endure ghurba.
Based on a two-year collaborative ethnography with artists in Berlin, this work sheds light their trajectories and the conditions of productions and circulations of their creative practices. It highlights how artists affectively and reflectively (dis)engage towards labelling processes and how their renewed political engagement is framed around a critique of power structures in terms of Western and/or heterosexual hegemonies. Notably, in the aftermath of October 7th 2023, the repression against solidarity to Palestine strongly affected the Berlin arts and cultural field through censorship and silencing. The thesis analyses how these dynamics reconfigured an understanding of the political and contentious artistic practices and reshaped the contours of artists’ estrangement experience.

The reading committee of this doctoral thesis in Middle East Studies  is composed of :

Dr. Leyla Dakhli, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Prof. Islam Dayeh, Ghent University
Prof. Lisa Franke, Ghent University
Dr. Samuli Schielke, Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient
Prof. Hanan Toukan, Bard College Berlin
Prof. Robin Vandevoordt, Ghent University
And the presence of Prof. Aymon Kreil, Ghent University (PhD Supervisor)

Date: Friday 18th of September at 2pm

Venue: Ghent University, Auditorium Vandenhove, Pavilion Charles Vandenhove (Campus Boekentoren), Rozier 1, 9000 Gent

If you are interested to joining online, you can send Ophélie an email : ophelie.mercier@ugent.be

We have three open research positions within the ERC HAIR Project: Hair, Identity, Beauty, and the Self in Muslim Contexts: Emotional Landscapes and Changing Femininities Beyond the Veil (PI Prof. Lisa Franke). We invite applications for 2 PhD positions of 4 years, one with fieldwork in Egypt and one in Lebanon., and one Postdoctoral position of 3 years with fieldwork in the United Arab Emirates.

Application deadline: 31 July 2026

Further details and application links:
Egypt PhD: [https://www.ugent.be/en/work/scientific/doctoral-fellow-119]
Lebanon PhD: [https://www.ugent.be/en/work/scientific/doctoral-fellow-120]
UAE Postdoc: [https://jobs.ugent.be/job/Ghent-Postdoctoral-Researcher-9000/1364355957/]

Please share widely with interested candidates and networks.
#ERCHAIR #ERCStG #PhDPosition #PostdocPosition #MiddleEastStudies #GenderStudies #IslamicStudies #Anthropology #Egypt #Lebanon #UAE #AcademicJobs #ResearchJobs

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement: Project ERC-StG HAIR 101220422)

This conference will explore questions around language, script, and social interaction in contexts where nomadic and settled populations interact and live in close proximity to one another.

Conference dates: 11-13 April 2027

Location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

Deadline abstracts: 14 September 2026

How to apply: send your abstract (max. 300 words) to aicap@ugent.be

Call for papers

We are looking for papers that explore questions around language, script, and social interaction in a context where nomadic and settled populations interact and live in close proximity to one another. While papers focusing on language and epigraphy are welcome, the theme of the conference is by no means limited to these fields. We also encourage contributions adopting anthropological, historical, or archaeological perspectives on the conference theme.

We are particularly interested in contributions that engage with the following:

• Development and use of scripts and writing cultures in nomadic contexts (e.g. Tifinagh, Libyco-Berber, Nomadic Ancient North Arabian, etc.)
• Use of languages and scripts of power in ‘peripheral’ spaces (e.g. Ancient Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Ancient Egyptian, etc.)
• Use of epigraphy in central and peripheral spaces to mark ritual sites
• How are ties of kinship, society, and identity formed and maintained within and across central and peripheral spheres?
• Movement between central and peripheral spaces.

Time span: pre-Islamic period to modern times.

Regional focus: we are interested in contributions that focus on the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Near-East and Central Asia.

Theme and rationale

This conference will be held in AlUla, an oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. This oasis has long occupation history with writing appearing in the first half of the first millennium BCE. The incredibly rich and varied epigraphic landscape of AlUla attests to the importance of a place of permanent water in an otherwise arid landscape. The desert environments of the Arabian Peninsula, and elsewhere, have invited the development of adaptable ways of life such as nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism (e.g. Magee 2014). Oases, on the other hand, have long attracted human settlement, because their permanent access to water made agriculture possible. At the same time, the presence of water also makes oases an important resource for those passing through the area either as (semi) nomadic pastoralists or as travellers (including traders and pilgrims).

                  A perceived dichotomy between ‘the desert and the sown’, or settled and nomadic communities, has long informed historical as well as linguistic approaches to the study of people and societies in arid environments (e.g., Palva 2005). However, researchers from various different disciplines have convincingly shown that distinction between settled and nomadic groups is not as static or impermeable as once thought (e.g. Barker 2012; Magee 2014; Macdonald 1993, 2014; Al-Wer 2025).

                  In Arabic dialectology, for example, recent approaches have shown how features initially associated with settled or nomadic communities can be reconfigured in ways that defy such a division, especially in modern urban settings (e.g., Al-Wer 2007, 2025). Recently, however, Ahmad Al-Jallad has suggested that there already may have been distinct settled and nomadic linguistics features in the languages used in Arabia in the pre-Islamic period (Al-Jallad 2025).

                  The context of pre-Islamic Arabia offers a unique lens through which to examine the languages, scripts, and expressions of identity of both local populations and groups traversing the region over long distances, owing to the remarkable diversity of its epigraphic and linguistic landscape (Macdonald 2000). Preliminary study of the distribution of the inscriptions in the AlUla region shows quite clearly that Dadanitic, Nabataean, and Ancient South Arabian inscriptions cluster in the oases of ancient Dadan and Hegra, while scripts associated with Nomadic groups more densely attested in the wadis surrounding the settled areas. The Early Islamic Arabic inscriptions from the region show an important cluster near the historical city of Qurḥ(Nasif 1988), but also spread along the pilgrimage roads. This highlights the continued presence of travellers in the area, while also raising questions about how to identify a social group as “local” on the basis of its epigraphic habits and about the relationships that existed between the settlement of Qurḥ and its surrounding area.

Bibliography

Al-Jallad, A. 2025. “Was There a Nomadic – Sedentary Split in the Dialect Geography of Pre-Islamic Arabic.” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes 115: 6–28.

Al-Wer, E. 2007. “The Formation of the Dialect of Amman: From Chaos to Order.” In Arabic in the City. RoutledgeCurzon.

Al-Wer, E. 2025. “Sociolinguistics and the Bedouin/Sedentary Split: Jordan as a Case Study.” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes 115: 63–76.

Barker, G. 2012. “The Desert and the Sown: Nomad-Farmer Interactions in the Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan.” Journal of Arid Environments 86: 82–96.

Macdonald, M. C. A. 1993. “Nomads and the Hawran.” Syria 70 (3/4): 303–413.

Macdonald, M. C. A. 2014. “Romans Go Home? Rome and Other ‘Outsiders’ as Viewed from the Syro- Arabian Desert.” In Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity, edited by J. H. F. Dijkstra and G. Fisher. Peeters.

Magee, P. 2014. The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Cambridge University Press.

Nasif, Abdallah. 1988. An Historical and Archaeological Survey with Special Reference to Its Irrigation System. King Saud University.

Palva, Heikki. 2005. “Dialects: Classification.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, edited by Mushira Eid and Kees Versteegh, I A: Ed. Brill.

Call for applications: Summer program with the AlUla Inscriptions Corpus Analysis Project (AICAP) in June 2026

We are pleased to announce that AICAP is offering a summer program for four Saudi students to work on the epigraphic material from AlUla County at Ghent University. The two-week program will take place in Ghent, Belgium, from 22 June until 3 July, 2026.

The program

During these two weeks the students will be offered an introduction to the epigraphic material that AICAP is working on. Depending on the students’ individual skills and interests they will contribute to the project’s database under the supervision of the project’s researchers. Specific assignments can range from creating site descriptions based on the project’s documentation to creating inscription entries for the database. This way the students will gain hands-on experience working with the epigraphic data from AlUla County and with the database that AICAP is developing. All their contributions to records will be credited in the online database.

Who we are?

The AlUla Inscriptions Corpus Analysis Project (AICAP) is a four-year collaboration between Ghent University and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), which runs until May 2028. The project will develop an online, accessible, long-term database of the inscriptions documented in the AlUla County, in Saudi Arabia, by the RCU. The inscriptions include texts from as early as the 6^th century BC up to modern Arabic graffiti.

Conditions:

• Accommodation and travel to Ghent, Belgium will be provided
• Cost of meals will be covered by the project
• For the duration of the program, students will be housed in a hotel in Ghent with max. 2 students per room (strictly gender segregated).

Requirements:

• Applicants must have at least a BA or undergraduate degree in History, Archaeology, linguistics or a related field.
• Sufficient English to work in an academic context is highly recommended, as this is the main working language of the team

How to apply:

Please send an email with the following information to: aicap@ugent.be

• Your CV
• A letter of motivation

Application deadline: 20 April 2026

For more on the project and team members see:

https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/aicap-alula-inscriptions-corpus-analysis-project

Find us on social media:

• on X: @AicapUgent
• on Instagram: @aicap2025

ERC KNOW International Workshop: Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge, 2-4 June 2026, Ghent University

The workshop Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge brings together scholars working on the history of Islamic knowledge, with a particular focus on how scholars engaged with concrete intellectual problems across disciplinary boundaries. Rather than approaching disciplines as fixed and isolated domains, the workshop explores the dynamic ways in which scholarly practices, methods, and concepts travelled across different fields of knowledge. Through a series of pre-circulated papers and discussion-based sessions, participants will reflect on polymathy, problem-solving, and the practical organisation of knowledge in Islamic intellectual history.

This is an in-person event. Registration is required.

Program and registration: https://erc-know.ugent.be/en/problem-areas

On 5 March, once again the BA1 students took the initiative to organize an iftar to bring together students and staff from the department. At sundown everyone gathered to collectively break the fast with a date. After a brief expression of gratitude for the evening by the department coordinator, everyone enjoyed a feast of delicious dishes prepared by all. A successful second edition of our department’s iftar!

Organising committee: Prof. Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University), Prof. Malika Dekkiche (Antwerp University), Dr. Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont (Ghent University)

Venue: Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 6th floor, room 6.60

Date: 17 and 18 December 2025

Rethinking Rural Communities and Tribalism in Islamic Lands (6th –10th / 12th –16th Centuries)

Rural communities and tribal formations have long been integral to the social and economic fabric of the premodern Islamic world. Yet, despite their significance, the complexities of their histories and internal dynamics have received comparatively limited scholarly attention relative to urban settings. The workshop, Rethinking Rural Communities and Tribalism in Islamic Lands (6^th-9^th/12^th-15^th centuries) seeks to address this imbalance by critically examining not only the lived realities, adaptive strategies, and agency of rural populations and tribal groups within Islamic societies, but also the ways in which their histories have been written, represented, and conceptualized.

Recent academic studies have highlighted the village as a focal point for identity construction and collective memory, as well as the entangled relationships that developed among rural populations, their elites, and governing authorities. Tribalism, frequently characterized as a static or divisive phenomenon, is instead approached here as a dynamic and persistent social phenomenon that deserves to be better understood and analyzed. In the context of the premodern Islamic world, tribal affiliations have shaped systems of authority, economic interaction, and social cohesion from the early Islamic period through the medieval era and beyond. Rather than representing vestiges of a bygone era, both tribes and rural communities have demonstrated considerable adaptability in response to shifting political and economic conditions, negotiating degrees of autonomy, resisting various forms of exploitation, and functioning as essential intermediaries between state power and local society.

This workshop seeks to foster a reassessment of the roles played by rural and tribal actors, encouraging new analytical perspectives and methodological approaches within the broader field of premodern Islamic studies.

program

Day 1 Wednesday 17^th – Conceptualising Tribalism and Rural Communities

 08:50 | Welcome

09:10–09:20 | Opening Remarks – Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont (Ghent University)

Session I – Concepts and Frameworks of Tribal and Rural Societies
Chair: Christopher Markiewicz (Ghent University)

09:20–10:10 | Yossef Rapoport (Queen Mary University of London)
Should we still speak about tribes? Arabic terms for families, clans, and tribes in medieval Islamic sources

10:10–11:00 | Amira Bennison (University of Cambridge)
The Reconfiguration of Rural Communities and Tribes in the Thirteenth-Century Western Maghrib

11:00–11:15 | Break

11:15–12:05 | Boris James (Montpellier-3 University)
Tribal Cast or Military Aristocracy: What are Medieval Kurdish Groups Made Of?

12:05–13:30 | Lunch

Session II – Rural–Urban networks, state formation and political authority

Chair: Malika Dekkiche (Antwerp University)

13:30–14:20 | Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont (Ghent University)
“The ‘tribal enclave’ of Bayt Husayn: rural communities, tribes and authority in Rasūlid Yemen”

14:20–15:10 | Elise Voguet (CNRS)
“Nomads and Settlers in the Touat: Local Authority and Taxation in the Sahara (14^th–15^th Centuries)”

15:10–15:25 | Break

15:25–16:15 | Michael Hope (Yonsei University)
Rural elites and the State under the Ilkhanids: negotiating power on the Mongol imperial western frontier (title to be confirmed)

16:15-16:20 | End of day 1, concluding remarks – Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont (Ghent University)

Day 2 – Case studies & comparative perspectives

08:50 | Welcome

Session III – Tribes, Rural Societies, and Imperial Strategies

Chair: John Latham Sprinkle (Vrije University Brussel)

09:00 | Georg Leube (University of Bayreuth)
“Petrified Social Infrastructure? Monumental Epigraphy as an Interface Structuring Urban–Rural Entanglements in the Qaraquyunlu and Aqquyunlu ‘Turkmen’ Realms of the Fifteenth Century CE”

09:50 | Yoan Parrot (Aix-Marseille University)
“A nomadic landscape: Turkmen’s domination over rural areas (Syria, Anatolia and Caucasus, 14^th-15^th century)”

10:40–10:55 | Break

10:55–11:45 | Nicolas Michel (Aix-Marseille University)
“Bedouin/ʿUrbān in Sixteenth-Century Egypt: What We Know, What We Don’t”

11:45-12:00 | Closing Remarks – Jan Dumolyn (Ghent University)

Session IV – Comparative and connected perspective: toward a new conceptual and practical framework?

14:00-16:00: Round Table

16:00-16:10 | Final Remarks – Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont (Ghent University)