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News from the Centre

One of our researchers, Dr Taushi Kara, has helped to curate a new exhibition at the Agag Khan Centre in London – starting from Wed 1st Dec and running until the end of March 2022:

Wladimir Ivanow and Modern Ismaili Studies

The last of the term’s Public Talks is now available on our videos page: – Dr Hussam Ahmed talking about his new book ‘The Last Nahdawi: Taha Hussein and Institution Building in Egypt‘.

To find out about events and talks for next term please go to our ‘Upcoming Events’ page.

The UK exhibition by the Pakistani-American artist, Shahzia Sikander – an event that we are joint-sponsoring with the Bagri Foundation and Jesus College – is open and we thoroughly recommend that you make a visit. The exhibition has been curated by our Islamic Art historian, Dr Vivek Gupta and will run from 16 October to 18 February 2022.

Promiscuous intimacies – courtesy of the Artist, Shahzia Sikander

Article/release: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/british-debut-shahzia-sikanders-promiscuous-intimacies-west-court-gallery

Event: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/events/shahzia-sikander-unbound-exhibition

Registration for the 2021/22 Arabic Language Classes now open

Cambridge University students have the opportunity to enrol in the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies’ Arabic Language Programme. The courses are aimed at graduate students across Cambridge University (other than those taking the Arabic tripos) whose research interests include the Arab and Islamic world. For more details and to enrol go here.

14 Oct 2021

Our first CIS Public Talk with Prof. Abdelwahab El-Affendi and Dr Azmi Bishara on ‘Standing the Democratic Transition Paradigm on its Head: New Reflections after the Arab Revolutions’ – a great audience and some wide-ranging and challenging questions. A video of the event will be available soon.

1 Oct 2021

Dr Paul Anderson, Assistant Director at the Centre, has just published a new article: ‘The Social Life of Syrian Diplomacy: Transnational Kinship Networks of the Asad Regime’ in History and Anthropology 2021. This is available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02757206.2021.1946052?src=

7 July 2021

We are pleased to announce that a special issue of Global Intellectual History, edited by our Research Associate, Dr Taushif Kara (along with Amar Sohal), has just been published online and open access. The theme was “Refusing minority, recasting Islam” and it features an introduction by the two editors, four articles, and an afterword by Faisal Devji. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showAxaArticles?journalCode=rgih20

25 June 2021

Our last event of the term took place on Fri 25 June with the concluding talk in the ‘Malabar to Coromandel’ series. The talk was “Dressing in the Deccan: Clothing and Identity at the Courts of Central India” given by Marika Sardar from the Aga Khan Museum.

17 June 2021

We are looking forward to our symposium ‘Muslims in the UK and Europe’ – with 12 early-career researchers presenting some great papers. This will be held on Thursday 17 June with the keynote running from 9-10am London time. The keynote will be delivered by our Visiting Fellow, Dr Hisham Hellyer, talking about ‘The Muslim-European presence, current and future challenges’ and will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel.

3 June 2021

CIS Public talk on 3 June by our visiting Fellow, Dr Hisham Hellyer, who speak about ‘The New Geopolitics of the Middle East – Back to the Future?’. – go to our videos page for the recording .

28 May 2021

‘Discovering the Deccan’ – William Dalrymple in conversation with George Michell on Friday 28 May in the next of our ‘From-Malabar-to-Coromandel’ Deccan Heritage series. The discussion will explore what attracted William and George to the Deccan; their work and whether their book on the White Mughals was responsible for the restoration of the Residency.

About the Centre

The Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge is a research and outreach centre that aims to promote a constructive and critical understanding of the role of Islam and Muslims in wider society. One important focus of our work is Muslims in the UK and Europe, although we are also interested in Islam and Muslim communities in other parts of the world. We aspire, through rigorous research and dynamic public outreach, to disseminate knowledge and facilitate informed discussion between academics, policy-makers, the media, business and the public with an interest in Islam in the contemporary world.

The Centre of Islamic Studies is part of the University of Cambridge and is supported by a generous donation from Alwaleed Philanthropies.