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Around 70 people gathered at Domkyrkoforum when journalist and author Joakim Medin visited the CMES to discuss press freedom and freedom of expression in the Middle East. Drawing on his recent experiences in Turkey and his new book Imprisoned by Erdoğan, Medin reflected on the risks facing journalists working under authoritarian rule. During the seminar, organised by Centre for Advanced Middle Eas

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/joakim-medin-press-freedom-repression-and-hope-change-turkey - 2026-11-13

How does the growing market for investment migration reshape citizenship, belonging and the role of the state? These questions were at the centre of a recent CMES seminar, where researchers Sara Kalm, Leysan Storie and Markus Gunneflo presented their new MECW-funded research project, Elite Mobility: Investment Migration in the Middle East. The project examines investment migration programmes that

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-mecw-project-explores-investment-migration-middle-east - 2026-11-13

How is North Africa’s renewable energy transition reshaping local communities, landscapes, and power relations? Bringing together researchers from across disciplines and regions, an international workshop at Lund University explored the social, political, and environmental implications of large-scale renewable energy projects, with a particular focus on extractivism, environmental justice, and loc

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/international-workshop-towards-research-agenda-expansion-renewable-energy-frontiers-and-local - 2026-11-13

CMES researcher Hossein Hashemi and his colleagues from engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences, has been recognised as one of the standout studies published by researchers in Sweden. Their paper "Unraveling the link between agricultural patterns and dust storm occurrence in Mesopotamia", has been selected for a special collection celebrating high-impact research published in 2025 by IO

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-research-dust-storm-earns-international-recognition - 2026-11-13

How does armed conflict reshape landscapes? In a new study, CMES researchers Pinar Dinc and Purnendu Sardar (together with Milena Ayvazyan) examine how warfare, extractivism, and environmental degradation have transformed Kurdish-majority regions in Syria and Turkey. The open-access publication reveals how environmental destruction can become intertwined with strategies of territorial control, res

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/armed-conflict-extractivism-and-environmental-degradation-remote-sensing-and-discourse-analysis - 2026-11-13

CMES researchers Mo Hamza and Sinem Kavak have published a new article examining the relationship between social class and forced migrants’ onward mobility. Focusing on Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, the study highlights how class-based resources and constraints shape migration aspirations and opportunities. Read the article here (External link). Article at Lund University Research Portal

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/social-class-and-forced-migrants-secondaryonward-mobility-decision-making-syrians-turkey-and-lebanon - 2026-11-13

CMES researcher Sami Al-Daghistani has published a new article exploring the role of maqāsid (the higher objectives of Islamic law) in shaping ethical approaches to economic life. The study investigates how material and non-material values are negotiated within contemporary discussions of markets, morality, and the common good. Read the article at Brill website (External link) Article at Lund Univ

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/maqasid-and-market-ethical-reasoning-between-material-and-non-material-values - 2026-11-13

What happens when the desert becomes a laboratory for the city of the future? A new MECW research project will critically examine how ambitious smart-city visions are imagined, promoted and translated into urban development across the Gulf region. At a CMES seminar, researchers Lorena Melgaço , Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren and Sandra Kopljar introduced Utopian Desert: Investigating Smart Cities in the G

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-mecw-project-examines-promises-and-tensions-gulf-smart-cities - 2026-11-13

At a CMES seminar on 8 October, Fredrik Meiton of the Swedish Institute for Foreign Affairs (UI) presented a tentative analysis of an emerging regional order in the Middle East, shaped less by ideology than by economic competition, security interests and control over strategic infrastructure. In the seminar, The New Middle East: Bloc Politics and Geoeconomics , Meiton argued that the region is inc

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-regional-blocs-reshape-power-politics-middle-east - 2026-11-13

CMES researcher Sami Al Daghistani has published a chapter in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Muslim Liberation Theologies Read the publication: The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Muslim Liberation Theologies About the author: Sami Al Daghistani “This chapter argues that Islamic liberation theology (ILT) has rarely been theorized in sustained conversation with the modern Islamic economic project, d

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/power-poverty-and-hereafter-islamic-liberation-theology-and-economics - 2026-11-13

This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. An innovative project has received support from the Swedish Institute under its “support for cooperation with academics from Turkey” scheme. “Turkey Beyond Borders: Critical Voices, New Perspectives” aims to foster collaboration between academics in Sweden and scholars from Turkey whose academic freedoms are implicitl

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/seminar-and-vodcast-series-draws-attention-infringements-academic-freedom-turkey-and-provides-forum - 2026-11-13

CMES will offer several part-time internships for Lund University students during the autumn of 2026. - CLOSED Are you a Lund University student with an interest in the Middle East region? The Centre for Advanced Middle East Studies (CMES) offers internships in four projects during 26 October - 31 December. Application deadline is 25 October, 2026. - CLOSED Who We Are CMES supports, coordinates an

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/come-work-us-student-internships-cmes-autumn-2026-closed - 2026-11-13

Read the director’s message, explore the latest research news, discover upcoming events, and browse our recent publications. Read CMES Newsletter here. Subscribe to the CMES-newsletter. Message from the Director It has been a real pleasure to see CMES coming to alive again after the summer. The autumn semester has started with a wonderful sense of energy, curiosity, and collegiality. I have partic

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-62 - 2026-11-13

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi joined Studentafton in Lund for a conversation about her lifelong fight for human rights, democracy and women’s rights in Iran. The event was organised in collaboration with We Have A Dream and the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES). Ebadi was joined on stage by moderator Lisa Strömbom , Associate Professor in Political Science at Lund Univers

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/shirin-ebadi-discusses-human-rights-and-democracy-iran-studentafton - 2026-11-13

Congratulations to Leysan Storie, who recently delivered her docent lecture, Belonging, Gender, and Cultural Citizenship in the Digital Age: Perspectives from the Middle East and beyond. Drawing on her research in the Arabian Gulf, Storie explored how digital media can create spaces for participation and belonging, while also reinforcing boundaries around who is included and how people are expecte

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/congratulations-leysan-storie-her-docent-lecture - 2026-11-13

New article by CMES researcher Orwa Ajjoub in The Conflict Archives - a platform created to showcase work focused on conflict, insurgency and politics across the globe including the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Central America. The website is a collection of news, articles, insights and analyses supported by in-depth analysis and research of contemporary conflict zones by several researcher

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/orwa-ajjoub-after-baghdadis-death-why-did-islamic-state-fighters-give-pledge-their-new-leader - 2026-11-13

How can tourism become a space for political education and solidarity? At a CMES seminar on 22 October, visiting PhD candidate Neixé Castellano LLordella from the University of Barcelona explored this question through ongoing research on Palestinian tourism initiatives. Drawing on interviews, online research and fieldwork in the West Bank, Castellano LLordella examines how Palestinian guides and o

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/alternative-tourism-and-political-narratives-palestine - 2026-11-13

CMES researcher Sami Al Daghistani has published a new article, Imam al-Ghazali’s Epistemology and Economic Thought, in the Journal of Interdisciplinary and Strategic Studies (IJISTRA). Read the article , open access (external link) About the author: Sami Al Daghistani   Abstract The thought of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, read as a unified opus rather than as a set of discrete texts, discloses an e

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/imam-al-ghazalis-epistemology-and-economic-thought - 2026-11-13

CMES researcher Karin Aggestam has published a new book on democratic backsliding in Israel, which includes a chapter by CMES deputy director Lisa Strömbom on agonistic conflict dynamics and contested pasts. This open access book examines the mass protest movement that emerged in Israel in 2023 in response to the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, situating it within the broader political, i

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-book-democratic-backsliding-israel-and-elusive-peace - 2026-11-13

Karin Aggestam, professor of Political Science at Lund University, has been awarded the RJ Sabbatical 2026 grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for a book project on peace diplomacy in Israel–Palestine. Part of the research will be conducted at the University of Oxford. By bridging diplomatic studies with peacebuilding research, the book offers a new approach to understanding how peace diplomacy e

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/karin-aggestam-awarded-research-grant-riksbankens-jubileumsfond - 2026-11-13