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Call for Papers

Call for Papers: Space and Place: Religion, Politics, and Power in the Middle East

19th Annual Duke-UNC Middle East and Islamic Studies Graduate Student Conference

The Islamicate Graduate Student Association invites papers for our 19th Annual Duke-UNC Conference, one of the longest running graduate student Middle East & Islamic Studies conferences in the U.S. This year’s conference, “Space and Place: Religion, Politics, and Power in the Middle East” will be held online via Zoom on March 5th-6th, 2022. A comprehensive schedule will be provided prior to the conference.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • How do certain spaces and places lend to the creation of religious and/or political practices?
  • How have various communities utilized religious spaces to express themselves?
  • How do religious spaces impact societies and communal relationships?
  • How are space and place defined?
  • How do religious spaces overlap? How do religious spaces exclude one another?
  • What are the implications of considering a space to be religious or secular? Furthermore, are secular spaces ever entirely secular?
  • What are some other categories that are used to describe spaces?
  • What are the methods of approaching space and place? How are these terms defined?
  • What are the implications of working with these categorizations in mind?

We are seeking submissions from fields inclusive of, but not limited to: Religious Studies, Political Science, Sociology, History, Art History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Asian Studies, African American Studies, Geography, Women and Gender Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, American Studies, and African Studies. We are also accepting submissions from independent scholars.

Please note that if you are accepted to attend this conference, you will be required to consent to being recorded. Given that this conference is being broadcast on Zoom, we are planning on recording the conference and publishing it for interested viewers to watch after the live conference ends.

Submit a short bio and a maximum 500 word abstract to IGSAcouncil@gmail.com by Friday, December 31, 2021. Applicants will be notified of our decision no later than Monday, January 3rd, 2022. Accepted abstracts must submit their 10-20 page paper by Friday, January 31st, 2021.