Published 2 April 2025 Read the March CMES Newsletter about upcoming events, recent research activities, and new publications. The CMES Newsletter offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Middle Eastern research. It is distributed regularly to a diverse audience of scholars, both within Lund University and beyond. Each issue features:Message From the DirectorLatest Research NewsUpcoming E

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-50 - 2025-08-15

Published 3 April 2025 CMES Researcher Pinar Dinc has co-edited a new book about Turkey and its unresolved issues. The Republic of Turkey and its Unresolved Issues: 100 Years and BeyondEditors: Pinar Dinc and Olga Selin HünlerThe book is now available as an open access publication and can be read here.About Pinar DincPinar Dinc has a PhD in Political Science from the Department of Government at th

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/republic-turkey-and-its-unresolved-issues-100-years-and-beyond - 2025-08-15

Published 7 April 2025 CMES Researcher Ronny Berndtsson has co-authored an article for PLOS One. "Enhancement of standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index predictions by machine learning based on regression and soft computing for Iran’s arid and hyper–arid region"IntroductionDrought is a climate risk that affects access to safe water, crop development, ecological stability, and food prod

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/improving-drought-forecasting-irans-arid-regions-using-machine-learning-and-soft-computing - 2025-08-15

Published 9 April 2025 CMES Researcher Lina Eklund and the collaboration Decentralised Damage Mapping Group have been granted a prestigious award by the European Space Agency. The European Space Agency's Earth Observation Excellence Award is presented annually to early-career researchers, in recognition of outstanding contributions to scientific advancement and innovation using Earth observation d

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/lina-eklund-wins-european-space-agencys-earth-observation-excellence-award - 2025-08-15

Published 11 April 2025 Professor Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi (University of Oslo) visited CMES for a research seminar on Iran's mothers of "martyrs". What does mothering and grieving mean to those who mother not just on the margins but to those who are pressured, forced and/or assumed to speak and embrace the language of martyrdom in times of sorrow? On March 10, during a CMES Research Seminar,

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-research-seminar-irans-mothers-martyrs-public-dissent-times-sorrow - 2025-08-15

Published 16 April 2025 CMES researchers took part in a leadership program within Lund University’s Strategic Research Areas. CMES researchers Pinar Dinc and Hossein Hashemi, representing The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW), took part in the Strategic Research Area (SRA) Leadership Development program at Lund University during the 2024–2025 academic year.Running from August 2024 to Ma

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-researchers-participated-sra-leadership-development-program - 2025-08-15

Published 17 April 2025 Applications are now open for the CMES Travel Grant of Autumn 2025. Application deadline is 30 May 2025. The Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) supports research with high scientific potential through the Strategic Research Area Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW). CMES provides travel grants for conducting field work in the Middle East and conferenc

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/call-cmes-travel-grant-autumn-2025 - 2025-08-15

Published 7 May 2024 Photo: Salim Alsabbagh Join us on 30 May for an evening with Samir Abu Eid at the Department of Political Science! Welcome to an evening with Samir Abu Eid, Honorary Doctor in Social Science at Lund University and Foreign Correspondent in the Middle East for Swedish Public Service Television (SVT).The event is chaired by Karin Aggestam, CMES DIrector and Professor of Political

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-public-seminar-samir-abu-eid-inside-israeli-palestinian-conflict - 2025-08-15

Published 15 May 2024 Watch an interview with CMES Director Karin Aggestam In this episode of the "Distinguished Diplomatic Interviews" series, the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy hosts Dr Karin Aggestam, Professor of Political Science. She is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies and Scientific Coordinator of the Strategic Research Area (SRA) Middle East in the Contempor

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/protracted-conflict-negotiation-and-water-cooperation-middle-east - 2025-08-15

Published 16 May 2024 CMES researcher Heba Taha has published a chapter about Palestinians in Israeli international aid imaginaries. The chapter, "Dislocating Development: Palestinians in Israeli International Aid Imaginaries in the 1950s and 1960s", was published in the edited volume Resisting Domination in Palestine: Mechanisms and Techniques of Control, Coloniality and Settler Colonialism (IB T

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/palestinians-israeli-international-aid - 2025-08-15

Published 17 May 2024 CMES researcher Svante Lundgren has authored an article in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kurdische Studien 11. The article "Assyrians and Kurds in Sweden - A Strained Relation" was published in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kurdische Studien 11.Read more about the Vienna Yearbook for Kurdish Studies Svante Lundgren

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/assyrians-and-kurds-sweden - 2025-08-15

Published 20 May 2024 Source: Shahi et al. 2024 CMES researcher Hossein Hashemi has co-authored an article published in the journal Chemosphere. The article, "Transport and retention of functionalized graphene oxide nanoparticles in saturated/unsaturated porous media: Effects of flow velocity, ionic strength and initial particle concentration", was authored by Mahsa Shahi (Lund University), Mohamm

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/nanoparticle-infection-soils-and-groundwater - 2025-08-15

Published 21 May 2024 CMES researcher Amir Naghibi has co-authored an article published in the journal Diversity. The article "Climate-Change-Driven Shifts in Aegilops tauschii Species Distribution: Implications for Food Security and Ecological Conservation" was co-authored by Shirin Mahmoodi (Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center), Mohammad Jaffar Aghaei (National Plant

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/climate-change-and-plant-diversity-iran - 2025-08-15

Published 22 May 2024 CMES researcher Heba Taha has co-authored an article in the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. The article, "The Atomic Future: Technology, Labor and World Peace in the Thought of ʿAli Rashid Shaʿath", was co-authored by Heba Taha and Pelle Valentin Olsen. AbstractIn 1946, one year after the atomic bombings of Japan, Palestinian thinker ʿAli Rashid Shaʿath (190

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/atomic-future-arab-world - 2025-08-15

Published 30 May 2024 Figure from Mousavi et al. 2024 CMES researcher Amir Naghibi has co-authored an article published in the Journal of Water and Climate Change. The article "Assessing the impact of global carbon dioxide changes on atmospheric fluctuations in Iran through satellite data analysis" was co-authored by Seyed-Mohsen Mousavi (Shahid Beheshti University), Naghmeh Mobarghaee Dinan (Shah

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-iran - 2025-08-15

Published 28 May 2024 CMES Director Karin Aggestam briefs the committee members The Foreign Affairs Committee from the Swedish parliament (Riksdagen) visited Lund University on May 27. CMES Director Karin Aggestam was invited to give a presentation about CMES and Middle East research at Lund University. The committee was also briefed on several other issues at Lund University, ranging from coopera

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/swedish-foreign-affairs-committee-visits-lund-university - 2025-08-15

Published 29 May 2024 Photo: Lotta Lundmark CMES Director Karin Aggestam participated in a podcast hosted by Folk och Försvar. AbstractThe war that broke out in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7 and Israel's response has once again highlighted the endurance of wars and heightened regional tensions in the Middle East.  At the same time, there are ongoing wars and conflicts in Syria and Y

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/prospect-peace-middle-east-0 - 2025-08-15

Published 31 May 2024 The Swedish Middle East correspondent Samir Abu Eid is being awarded his honorary doctorate at Lund University today. Full house yesterday when Middle East correspondent Samir Abu Eid, Swedish Television, held a CMES public lecture about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has also been interviewed about his excitement over receiving an honorary doctorate at Lund University

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/samir-abu-eid-honorary-doctor-lund-university - 2025-08-15

Published 3 June 2024 Photos: Linda Eitrem Holmgren On 31 May, CMES hosted an end-of-semester lunch for our students, interns and staff. The participants of the Israel-Palestine reading course, our various Arabic language classes and our research interns were given certificates for their work this semester. Together with CMES staff, they enjoyed some delicious Levantine cuisine in the beautiful CM

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-certificate-ceremony - 2025-08-15

Published 4 June 2024 The city of Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank (Photo: Nour Tayeh/Unsplash) CMES is happy to announce the new MECW project for 2024-2027 which will focus on civil society actors in the Occupied Palestinian Territories This project explores the complex history of Swedish humanitarian initiatives in the occupied Palestinian territories through the concept of frictional humanita

https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/new-mecw-project-frictional-homebuilding-swedish-civil-society-actors-occupied-palestinian - 2025-08-15