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Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford

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Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford

Enhancing research, teaching, and public understanding of Islam and Islamicate societies&communities

The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies is the central forum for the study of Islam and Muslim societies at Stanford University. We support research on Islam and Muslim societies across the globe, coordinate coursework across disciplines, and aim to deepen public understanding of Islam through events, digital media initiatives, and K-12 outreach.

05/29/2026

🖋️📜📚 Islam and Science Graduate Student Workshop

🗓️ Saturday, June 6, 2026
⏰ 9:30AM - 3:30 PM
🏫 Building 200, Room 307
450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ To RSVP, please email Fyza Jazra at [email protected]

Join us for an interdisciplinary graduate workshop featuring student paper presentations on research in Art History, Department of Languages, Cultures, and Languages, History of Science, Ottoman History, and Religious Studies. Each presentation will be 15-20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute response from an assigned respondent.

A Q&A discussion will take place after each presentation panel.

9:30-10:00 a.m.: Breakfast and opening remarks

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Panel presentation I

12:30-1:30 p.m.: Lunch

1:30-3:00 p.m.: Panel presentation II

3:00-3:30 p.m.: Coffee and closing remarks

05/26/2026

Abbasi Program Student Spotlight: Husna Nashnoush 🎓📚

“I had never had the opportunity to formally study my own religion before. There was something deeply meaningful about being able to explore it in an academic setting.” - Husna Nashnoush, pursuing a B.A. in political science and an M.A. in sociology, with minors in human rights and Islamic studies.

For Husna Nashnoush, choosing the global studies minor with a specialization in Islamic studies wasn't just an academic decision—it was personal. Read more about Husna's story by visiting our website at the link in bio. 🔗

Congratulations to Husna and all of our graduating students! 🌟

05/08/2026

📣🌐📰 Allies in Propaganda: The Ottoman–German Campaign Against the British Empire in World War I | Ceren Uçan

🗓️ Wed, May 20, 2026
⏰ 12:00-1:30 PM
🏫 Encina Commons 123
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/AlliesinPropaganda

Sponsored by: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies,

On August 2, 1914, the Ottoman and German Empires concluded an alliance, and on October 29, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I as part of the Central Powers. Soon thereafter, the Ottoman Sultan proclaimed jihad, while from December 1914, the German Foreign Office began promoting uprisings against the Allies. Throughout the war, Ottoman and German authorities produced a wide range of propaganda materials, including pamphlets, leaflets, and newspapers.

This talk examines the largely overlooked Ottoman–German propaganda campaign against the British Empire, exploring how it sought to mobilize Muslim opinion and challenge British imperial authority.

𝗖𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗨𝗰𝗮𝗻 is an Assistant Professor of History at Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey, and currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

05/08/2026

📣📣 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙭𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝘼𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙘 𝙞𝙣 𝙄𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙗𝙪𝙡 | 𝘼𝙅 𝙉𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙖𝙛𝙛

This talk will explore one of the most eccentric and brilliant figures of the nineteenth century, Ahmad Faris al-Shidya, who embodied, intellectually and personally, a series of irresolvable paradoxes. PhD student, 𝗔𝗷 𝗡𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗮𝗳𝗳, will examine al-Shidyaq’s life and works from his time as a translator for the English Protestant missionaries’ printing press in Malta (1836-1848) to his Muslim shift working for the Ottoman Empire as the editor of its Arabic language propaganda press in Istanbul (1859-1887).

🗓️ Tuesday, May 12, 2026
⏰ 4:30-6:00 PM
🏫 Encina Commons 123
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/AJNaddaff

Hosted by: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies Forum

𝗔𝗷 𝗡𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗮𝗳𝗳 is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. He is a two-time Fulbright research grant recipient, a 2019 recipient of the Overseas Press Club Award, and was a 2019 fellow of the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad.

05/06/2026

🌍📝 The Paradoxes of Making Modern Arabic in Istanbul | AJ Naddaff

🗓️ Tuesday, May 12, 2026
⏰ 4:30-6:00 PM
🏫 Encina Commons 123
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/AJNaddaff

Sponsored by: Abbasi Student Network (ASN) of Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies Forum

To quote Kamran Rastegar, Professor of International Literary and Cultural Studies at Tufts University, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyāq was a “Muslim-Christian. A sedentary-traveler. An ascetic sensualist. A modernist classicist. A literary gutter-mouth. A pious unbeliever.” He was, intellectually and personally, a series of irresolvable paradoxes. This talk will examine al-Shidyāq’s life and works from his time as a translator for the English Protestant missionaries' printing press in Malta (1836-1848) to his Muslim shift working for the Ottoman Empire as the editor of its Arabic language propaganda press in Istanbul (1859-1887).

AJ Naddaff, from Dedham, Massachusetts, is pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. He graduated from Davidson College in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and received a master’s degree in Arabic literature and Near Eastern studies from the American University of Beirut in 2022.

04/30/2026

✏️🌸 Writing the Life Process with Sima Shakhsari
📅 Wednesday, May 6

Writing in Times of War and Fascism
⏰ 2:30-3:30 p.m.
📍 Stanford Humanities Center Board Room
424 Santa Teresa St, Stanford, CA 94305

The Sexuality of Liberation: Iranian Diaspora and Loaned Life
⏰ 4:30-6:30 p.m.
📍 Stanford Humanities Center Board Room
424 Santa Teresa St, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/SimaShakhsari
Event Sponsors: The Stanford Humanities Center and Middle Eastern Studies Forum at Stanford University
This talk examines the deployment of sexuality in the "liberatory" discourses and projects that have led to the U.S./Israeli war on Iran. Whether it is the hyper-sexualized body of the Iranian woman as the object of liberation, or the sexist, homophobic, and transphobic slogans and gestures used by the pro-war elements among the Iranian diaspora in North America and Europe, I argue that the cultivation of a “democratic future" for Iran by war enthusiasts, while employing pinkwashing, sexual liberation rhetoric, and affective trajectories of freedom, is deeply invested in cis heteronormativity, and is contingent on the conditional form and temporality of the loaned life of the Iranian population at large.

Sima Shakhsari is an Associate Professor and former Chair at the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

04/22/2026

📚📣 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠: 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙𝙨 & 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙇𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣 with Yasemin Ipek

🗓️ Wednesday, April 29, 2026
⏰ 12:00-1:30 PM
🏫 Encina Commons 123
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/IpekStanford

Event sponsors: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, ,

Join us for a book talk with Prof. 𝗬𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗽𝗲𝗸! She will present a story of Lebanon through the lens of activist lifeworlds, showing how, amid crisis, both political structures and everyday life become terrains of generative possibility. Through an ethnographic investigation into the relationship between crisis and political imagination, Yasemin examines activism as an open-ended process, looking at the diversity of experiences that leads to political engagements.

As she follows a range of self-identified activists, she demonstrates how class-based and other inequalities at local and global scales shape their lived realities and political imaginations.

𝗬𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗽𝗲𝗸 is an Assistant Professor in the Global Affairs Program at George Mason University.

04/16/2026

🔔🏛️📚 𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙡: 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 with 𝗘𝘀𝗿𝗮 𝗔𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗻

🗓️ Tuesday, April 30, 2026
⏰ 5:30-7:00 PM
🏫 355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/AkcanStanford

Hosted by: Stanford Department of Art & Art History, Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies

Akcan will introduce her new book that explores architecture’s role in healing after conflicts and disasters by discussing buildings and spaces in relation to transitional justice and energy transition. Focusing on lands held by the former Ottoman Empire and putting forth the concept of resettler nationalism as a source of partition and displacement, the book locates spaces of political and ecological harm, and advocates for healing on individual, communal and planetary levels. It construes healing as a matter of rights and a holistic notion of justice to be achieved retroactively, and calls for instituting accountability and reparations against internal social, state and business-led violence.

𝗘𝘀𝗿𝗮 𝗔𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗻 is professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University and the 2025-2026 Marta Sutton Weeks Fellow at The Stanford Humanities Center.

04/15/2026

📣☀️🌎 𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨, 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮, & 𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙛𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙛𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣 | 𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵 𝗔𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗱𝘇𝗮𝗶

🗓️ Wednesday, April 22, 2026
⏰ 12:00-1:30 PM
🛜 Webinar Registration: tinyurl/ClimateShock

Sponsored by: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Center for South Asia

Exposure to natural disasters in Afghanistan, especially flooding and other cli-mate-related shocks, poses a growing concern given households’ vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity. Drawing on two household surveys, this virtual talk will assess their effects on food security and household welfare and highlight the need for stronger disaster risk reduction and recovery strategies.

𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵 𝗔𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗱𝘇𝗮𝗶 is an applied economist and External Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade (CREDIT) at the University of Nottingham, UK, and is based in North Carolina.

04/14/2026

📢📢 “𝗢𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴”: 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆, 𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘁𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗢𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲

🗓️ Tuesday, April 21, 2026
⏰ 12:00-1:30 PM
🏫 Encina Commons 123
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305

🎟️ Register: tinyurl.com/Ottomandering

Event sponsors: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies Forum at Stanford University

This talk offers a new perspective on late Ottoman history by examining population politics in the aftermath of the Congress of Berlin (1878). By approaching Hamidian pan-Islamism as a demographic project, it shows how the Ottomans adapted to the new international order by politically and demographically majoritizing Sunni Muslims to maintain sovereignty over contested regions of the empire.

𝗘𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗺 𝗜𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿 is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies

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615 Crothers Way, Encina Commons Suite 124
Stanford, CA
94305

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Website

http://islamicstudies.stanford.edu/

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