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DTSTAMP:20260911T121720
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T160000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:CMENAS 2026 Fall Colloquium Series | Western Sahara: Multi-scalar Struggles\, Recognition and Change in a Thawing Conflict
DESCRIPTION:Irene Fernández-Molina is a senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter. She is a scholar of international relations of the Global South and across the Euro-Mediterranean space\, contested statehood and international recognition politics\, and foreign policy and conflicts in the Maghreb. She previously worked as a research fellow at the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair of the College of Europe (Warsaw)\, Schuman fellow at the Directorate-General for External Policies of the European Parliament (Brussels)\, and PhD research fellow at Complutense University of Madrid. Her research has been published in journals such as *International Affairs*\, *International Studies Review*\, *Review of International Studies*\, *International Political Sociology*\, and the *Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding*. She is the author of *Moroccan Foreign Policy under Mohammed VI\, 1999–2014 *(2016)\, and co-editor of *Global\, Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara’s Protracted Decolonization* (2017)\, and* Foreign Policy in North Africa: Navigating Global\, Regional and Domestic Transformations* (2021).\n\nJoin on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/7J946\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: warsansa@umich.edu\n\n*Part of the International Institute Theme Year: Sovereignty*\nhttps://myumi.ch/ii-theme
UID:150315-21909006@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150315
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Theme Year,Lecture,Discussion,Cmenas Colloquium Series,center for middle eastern and north african studies
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20261103T114652
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261111T180000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:Guest Lecture | Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict
DESCRIPTION:This talk introduces the concept of heritage forensics\, a framework for studying abuses of cultural heritage in contexts of conflict\, genocide\, and ethnic cleansing. Drawing on the new co-authored volume\, *Heritage Forensics: Cultural on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict*\, the presentation examines how cultural sites became entangled in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh during the interwar period (1994-2020). The talk considers how satellite-based heritage forensics is being deployed prospectively\, to monitor hundreds of Armenian sites in Karabakh following Azerbaijan's 2023 takeover of the region and the displacement of its Armenian population. In doing so\, it asks: how can satellite-based monitoring function as a form of \"counter-forensics\,\" turning surveillance technologies developed for military purposes back on the state? Can heritage forensics move us beyond retrospective documentation to actively deter erasure and support truth\, reconciliation\, and accountability wherever cultural heritage is at stake?\n\nLori Khatchadourian is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University\, and co-founder and co-director of Caucasus Heritage Watch. She currently serves as Director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. Khatchadourian’s research spans the fields of archaeology\, social anthropology\, and heritage studies\, with a particular focus on Armenia\, the wider South Caucasus\, and neighboring regions. Current projects explore the archaeology of modernity\, including problems of genocide\, deindustrialization\, and the entanglements of cultural heritage and war. She is the co-author of *Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict* (Cornell\, 2026) and author of Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires (UC Press\, 2016). She is also co-editor of *Rethinking Empire: Materiality\, Metaphysics\, and Imperial Politics* (SAR\, 2026) and *Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics: The Archaeology of Eurasia *(2017).\n\nhttps://umich.zoom.us/j/99311308952\n\nCosponsors: Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies\, Department of Middle East Studies\, Department of Anthropology\, Classical Studies\, Center for Russian\, East European\, and Eurasian Studies\, Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology (IPAMAA) Kelsey Museum\, Archaeology at Michigan\, and NAASR.\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu
UID:150145-21908256@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150145
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:armenia,Lecture,History,Discussion,Armenian Studies,Area Studies
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20261102T143458
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261120T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261120T133000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:Provosts in Conversation: International Education at a Crossroads
DESCRIPTION:This timely dialogue brings together provosts from three Midwestern public universities: University of Michigan\, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign\, and Indiana University Bloomington\, to discuss the current landscape of international education.\n\nThe provosts will share the common threads across their experiences and how each institution has navigated the challenges differently\, along with what's at stake for international students and scholars under current conditions and for students' access to global opportunity. They will also offer their perspectives on how universities might adapt and chart a path forward.\n\nIn Conversation:\n+Laurie McCauley\, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs\, University of Michigan+\n\n+John Coleman\, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs\, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign+\n\n+John Ciorciari\, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor\, Indiana University Bloomington+\n\nRemarks by: \nMike Solomon\, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs–Graduate Studies and Dean\, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies \n\nValeria Bertacco\, Vice Provost for Engaged Learning\n\nConversation moderated by Youngju Ryu\, Director\, International Institute \n\n*(Refreshments will be served at 11:30)\n*\n\n*In-person only event.*\nRegister to attend: https://myumi.ch/9JXEV. \nSubmit questions for the provosts when you register.\n\nOrganized by the U-M International Institute. \nhttps://ii.umich.edu/\n\n- - - - -\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Email Contact:	iimichigan@umich.edu\n\n*Part of the International Institute Theme Year: Sovereignty*\nhttps://myumi.ch/ii-theme
UID:152429-21913723@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/152429
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Theme Year,international studies,International Students,International Education,immigration,Area Studies
LOCATION:Palmer Commons - Great Lakes Room
CONTACT:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260911T121739
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261202T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261202T160000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:CMENAS 2026 Fall Colloquium Series | ‘Vernacular Sovereignty’ Without a State: Kurdish Studies\, Decolonial Thought\, and the Making of Online Kurdistan
DESCRIPTION:What does it mean to imagine a nation without a state? This talk draws on my broader research in Kurdish studies to examine how Kurdish political life has repeatedly been organized around forms of authority and belonging that do not depend on\, or wait for\, a state. Taking my recent article \"The Making of Online Kurdistan\,\" co-authored with Barış Öktem\, as its empirical center\, the talk asks how Kurdish Generation Z constructs national belonging through digital platforms — building a transnational field of community through hashtags\, online seminars\, and digitally organized movements\, even as this same infrastructure exposes Kurdish youth to surveillance and repression across borders. I situate this case within a longer arc of my work on Kurdish politics and within a decolonial reading of Kurdish studies more broadly. Rather than offering a general theory of sovereignty\, the talk uses the Kurdish case to think through a live and unresolved question in the study of stateless nations: what forms can political authority\, legitimacy\, and collective imagination take when territorial statehood is foreclosed\, and what is gained and lost when that struggle moves online.\n\nMashuq Kurt is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Law and Criminology at Royal Holloway\, University of London. His work sits at the intersection of Middle Eastern studies and the sociology of migration and diaspora\, examining how Kurds and other marginalised communities construct political authority and belonging outside the institutions of the nation-state. He is the author of *Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey: Islamism\, Violence and the State* (Pluto Press\, 2017)\, co-editor of the *South Atlantic Quarterly Special Issue: Decolonizing Kurdish Studies *(2024) and the *Contemporary Islam Special Issue: Islam\, Critique and the Canon* (2024)\, and has published in journals including *Current Anthropology*\, *Journal of Middle East Women's Studies*\, and *Social Research: An International Quarterly*. His recent article \"The Making of Online Kurdistan\" (*Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies*\, 2026)\, co-authored with Barış Öktem\, examines how Kurdish Generation Z constructs national belonging through digital platforms. He was a Marie Curie Global Fellow at the London School of Economics and Yale University\, has held visiting positions at Stanford and Sciences Po CERI. A regular contributor to public and policy debates\, he has organised panels and given talks at the UK Parliament\, Chatham House\, and RUSI\, and his commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy\, Le Monde\, and The New Arab\, among others. He is also an award-winning filmmaker: his documentary *The Seven Doors *received the Jean Rouch Award from the American Anthropological Association's Society for Visual Anthropology in 2020.\n\nJoin on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/pgV2y\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: warsansa@umich.edu\n\n*Part of the International Institute Theme Year: Sovereignty*\nhttps://myumi.ch/ii-theme
UID:150314-21909005@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150314
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:center for middle eastern and north african studies,Theme Year,Lecture,Discussion,Cmenas Colloquium Series,cmenas
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
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DTSTAMP:20261006T151638
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261202T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261202T180000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:Manoogian Postdoctoral Lecture | A Captive's Testimony: The Lives and Lies of an Ottoman-Armenian Prisoner in the Bastille
DESCRIPTION:Inside a hefty volume of multilingual documents stored in La Courneuve\, France\, there sits nestled a 60-page work written in early modern Armenian script. In his Manoogian Postdoctoral Lecture\, Daniel Ohanian takes us into the genre-defying pages of this work\, identifying the man (or men?) who produced it\, the lies and truths that it contains\, and the world that it reveals. Through it\, we explore the religious politics of early modern global Catholicism\, French-Ottoman diplomacy\, and the historiographic benefits of focusing attention on the lives of particular individuals.\n\nDaniel Ohanian is a historian of Armenians in the early modern Ottoman Empire. He is currently working on a cultural history of Catholic-Armenian contact in the c. 1700 Mediterranean and on the eighteenth-century travelogue of a merchant-turned-priest named Hovhannes Tovmajanian. Daniel's research has been supported by grants from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation\, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada\, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation\, among others\, and has been published in Turcica: revue d'études turques\, the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association\, and Genocide Studies International.\n\nZoom Webinar ID: 990 5623 7622\n\nCo-sponsors: Department of History (U-M)\, Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies (U-M)\, Department of Middle East Studies (U-M)\, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies (U-M)\, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.\nEmail Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu
UID:153370-21915722@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/153370
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Lecture,history,Discussion,Armenian Studies,Middle East Studies
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - 555
CONTACT:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260816T221327
DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20261209T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20261209T160000
SUMMARY:Lecture / Discussion:CMENAS 2026 Fall Colloquium Series | Middle Eastern Christians: The Struggle for Recognition and Rights
DESCRIPTION:A continued presence of Christians in the Middle East is perceived as at risk due to demographic change\, adverse socio-economic conditions\, political instability\, conflict\, and migration. Indeed\, from making up 12.7% of the population in the Middle East in 1900\, the Christian presence has dwindled to 4% by 2020\, with a notable decline in countries with a considerable Christian population but affected by conflict\, such as Iraq and Syria. Indigenous to the region\, Christians are proud of their contributions to the education\, society\, and politics of the Middle East. Yet\, they struggle to translate these forms of soft power into political actions that address legislation\, practices\, and violence that infringe their rights as citizens. Relationships with powerful Western actors campaigning against the persecution of Christians have led to international visibility but also accusations of undermining national unity from political and societal actors in the region. This paper explores the different strategies pursued by Middle East Christians in the region and diaspora to be recognized as Christians and claim their rights as citizens.\n\nFiona McCallum Guiney is Professor and Head of the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Her research on Middle Eastern Christians focuses on group identity\, the connection between legitimacy and religious leadership\, and group interactions at the state-community and society-community levels\, both in the Middle East and diaspora. Professor Guiney was the Project Leader of the EU funded study ‘Defining and Identifying Middle Eastern Christian Communities in Europe’. She is a former Director of the Institute of Middle East\, Central Asia and Caucasus Studies at the University of St Andrews.\n\nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you\, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: warsansa@umich.edu
UID:150316-21909007@events.umich.edu
URL:https://events.umich.edu/event/150316
CLASS:PUBLIC
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CATEGORIES:Middle East Studies,Lecture,Discussion,Cmenas Colloquium Series,center for middle eastern and north african studies
LOCATION:Weiser Hall - Room 555
CONTACT:
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