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New article from CMES. Article written by: Alireza Motevalli, Hamid Reza Moradi, Hossein Hashemi, Saman Javadi, Ronny Berndtsson in the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology.Read the full article here: Link to external website. Highlights• Coastal aquifer salinity risk assessed using a probabilistic approaches.• 26% of aquifer area identified as high-risk (salinity extensity).• Risk intensity
This article presents a scoping and conceptual literature review on environmental politics in North and East Syria/Rojava. Publication written by Pinar Dinc, Maria Andrea Nardi, Mo Hamza.External link to publication.ABSTRACTThis article presents a scoping and conceptual literature review on environmental politics in North and East Syria/Rojava. The review aims to synthesize existing academic resea
How citizen engagement and satellite data are helping researchers understand wildfires in the Middle East. Q&A with Lina Eklund, Researcher at CMES.Q: What is a Mapathon?A Mapathon is an event where participants gather to map a specific topic. Sometimes it’s used to chart disaster-hit areas, such as floods or earthquakes. In other cases, it helps generate data for research projects. Q: How did the
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/mapping-fires - 2026-01-19
CMES researcher Adam Almqvist, has recently published an article in The Journal of Comparative Politics. Read the full article here. External link.AbstractAutocracies have increasingly begun to clothe themselves in the guise of hybrid, semi-official institutions that exhibit a degree of autonomy from the state, such as Government-Organized NGOs (GONGOs), “zombie” election observers, regime-run thi
Yesterday afternoon, CMES researcher PhD candidate Joel W. Abdelmoez marked a major milestone in his academic journey by performing the traditional ritual known as "spikning"—the nailing of a dissertation. The ceremony takes place on the ground floor of Eden, and colleagues and friends gathered to witness the event. Following the ceremony, guests enjoy refreshments in the Political Science departm
On November 20, the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Lund University hosted a highly topical seminar titled “It’s Time to Think About the Future of Palestine-Israel.” The event brought together over 50 participants and featured two distinguished speakers: Professor Haim Yacobi and Dr Rami Nasrallah, from University College London. “We are living in very challenging times, but t
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-seminar-explores-shared-homeland-paradigm-palestine-israel - 2026-01-19
CMES is proud to announce that CMES researcher, Rami Zalfou, PhD Candidate in Economic History, has successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at Lund University. The defense took place on December 1, 2025.Rami’s dissertation, titled:Borders and Pathways. Essays on Syrian Economic Development and Migrant Integration, explores economic development patterns, conflict, and demographic changes in
The ECO-Syria research team at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Lund University, held its second and final workshop on 15–16 September 2025.Titled “ECO-Syria: Exploring Conflict–Environment Interactions for Sustainable Development and Conservation,” the event was part of the ECO-Syria research project funded by the Strategic Research Area Middle East in the Contemporary World
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/eco-syria-workshop-report-now-available-arabic-and-kurdish - 2026-01-19
New article from CMES. Title: Improving the performance of daily pan evaporation (Evp) prediction using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition combined with deep learning modelsRead the article here (external link)AbstractThis study presents a novel approach for the prediction of daily pan evaporation (Evp) based on identifying an optimal combination of model inputs. The Kardeh Dam catchment ar
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/improving-performance-daily-pan-evaporation-evp-prediction - 2026-01-19
Harvesting wind, stirring sands: the expansion of renewable energy frontiers, local resistance, and the European academic gaze on green extractivism in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) 11-12 December 2025, LundThe rapid expansion of wind and solar infrastructure in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA), framed as part of sustainability and green energy transitions, raises urgent questions about l
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/international-workshop-green-extractivism - 2026-01-19
Read full article here. (External link)ABSTRACTThe 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza brought the humanitarian response into the spotlight, alongside the international community’s inability to deal with political obstacles in the humanitarian response. However, humanitarian interventions in the Gaza Strip and their effectiveness have long been debated by scholars and practitio
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/humanitarian-exceptionalism-and-fluctuating-solidarity-gulf-states-aid-gaza - 2026-01-19
CMES director, Karin Aggestam has edited the book Israel: Democratic Backsliding and Elusive Peace. Bringing together scholars in the field, the book offers original analyses organised around three intersecting themes: contestation over Israel’s national identity, patterns of democratic backsliding, and the enduring impact of the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which renders peace elusive
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-book-democratic-backsliding-israeli-politics-and-protracted-conflict - 2026-01-19
Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) is proud to announce that researcher, Joel W. Abdelmoez, PhD Candidate in Political Science, has successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at Lund University. The defense took place on December 19, 2025, at the Department of Political Science.Joel Abdelmoez investigates the conditions and tensions inherent in forging transnational feminist so
The CMES Yearbooks summarize the Centre's activities during the year. Read about:Research projectsResearch seminarsPublic lectures and eventsPolicy-dialogues, workshops, and conferencesCMES Regional OutlookTeaching and Arabic studies at CMESCMES in media and on digital platformsThe ConversationSelected publicationsRead and download the 2024 CMES Yearbook here.
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-yearbook-2025-now-available-read-and-download - 2026-01-19
Read the director’s message, explore the latest research news, discover upcoming events, and browse our recent publications. Read full newsletter here!Season's greetings from the team at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies!CMES organised several major events during the latter part of the autumn semester. A topical public seminar was co-organised with Peace and Conflict Studies, focusing
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-55-0 - 2026-01-19
New publication from CMES researcher Hossein Heshemi and Ronny Berndtsson. Read full article here. (External link)AbstractGroundwater in most parts of the world is an important source of agricultural water supply for food production. Soil salinization, however, threatens groundwater quality and may cause irreparable damage to agricultural land. A key to tackling this threat is to analyze the link
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/mitigation-groundwater-salinity-vulnerability-through-land-cultivation-scenarios - 2026-01-19
Yemen is home to religious and sectarian minorities who represent about 0.5% of the total population. In addition to Muslims, there is a minority of Jews, who’s presence has drastically shrunk over the years due to the multiple violations and displacement they were subjected to. Yemen also has a Bahai minority, who are currently estimated to number around 2,000 individuals. They also have been sub
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/book-minorities-yemen-reality-and-challenges - 2026-01-19
Middle Eastern research news from Lund University. Words from the director: The covid-19 will transform the ways we work and socialize in a manner we can still not oversee. Already now most research and higher teaching are done by distance mode. Even so, many of the planned research activities and meetings during the spring have had to be cancelled or postponed. Also, the Middle East is preparing
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/middle-east-forum-newsletter-9-march-2020 - 2026-01-19
CyberOrient welcomes Anders Ackfeldt at Lund University in Sweden as a new Managing Editor along with Vit Sisler at Charles University. An expanded CyberOrient, an official open-access journal of the American Anthropological Association, is now up and ready for surfing. The renewed website, cyberorient.net, now has archived all past articles in PDF. CyberOrient is devoted to research on the impact
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-anders-ackfeldt-new-editor-journal-cyberorient - 2026-01-19
In January-February 2020, three researchers affiliated with CMES travelled to Khartoum, Sudan for the official kick-off seminar and workshop of a 3-year project that is funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR), FORMAS and SIDA and entitled: "Resilience in Urban Sudan (RUS): An Interdisciplinary Spatial and Temporal Study of Social Cohesion and Resilience to Tackle the Consequences of Climate an
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-affiliated-researchers-launch-climate-research-project-sudan - 2026-01-19
