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Today we celebrated Nowruz, the Persian new year at CMES. Text: Rafah BarhoumNowruz, meaning "new day" in Persian, is an ancient, 3,000-year-old festival marking the Iranian New Year and the spring equinox (March 20/21). Celebrating rebirth and the great victory of light over darkness, it is honored by over 300 million people across the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.Haft Sin هفت سين
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/nowruz-celebration-cmes - 2026-09-27
New Study by CMES Researcher Sinem Kavak: How Climate Change Shapes the Lives of Migrant Farmworkers. Read the article here (External link).HighlightsExamines climate change vulnerability of migrant farmworkers through a critical political economy lens. Synthesises a decade of qualitative data from multiple regions and historicises agri-labour migration in Turkey. Moves beyond hazard-based studies
This article is over 5 years old, and the information may therefore be outdated. 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
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/cmes-affiliated-researchers-launch-climate-research-project-sudan - 2026-09-27
In a new article for The Conversation, CMES researcher Hossein Hashemi reveals how climate change is reshaping Saharan dust storms and their growing impact on Europe. Read the full article: (External link. The Conversation)Saharan dust storms are a natural phenomenon, often experienced in southern Europe, but climate change is altering their intensity, frequency, and paths, with growing consequenc
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/climate-change-altering-saharan-dust-and-europe-downwind - 2026-09-27
Cowritten by CMES researcher Mo Hamza, this article sheds light on the often-overlooked human work that makes so‑called intelligent machines function. Read the full article here: External link to The Loop.Artificial intelligence is frequently presented as autonomous, efficient and almost frictionless. In The invisible labour behind “intelligent” machines, the authors challenge this narrative by sh
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/invisible-labour-behind-intelligent-machines - 2026-09-27
New article co-written by CMES researcher Torsten Janson. In the academic article Stirring Up the Ashes: Exhibiting the Great Fire of Smyrna in the Context of Turkish Politics of Memory, the authors examine how one of the most traumatic events in the late Ottoman period continues to shape historical narratives and public memory today. Focusing on museum exhibitions and commemorative practices, the
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/stirring-ashes-exhibiting-great-fire-smyrna-context-turkish-politics-memory - 2026-09-27
Read the director’s message, explore the latest research news, discover upcoming events, and browse our recent publications. Read CMES newsletter here.Spring is slowly transforming the lawns across Lund into brilliant shades of blue as early flowers come into bloom, also around the Forsman Villa, home to researchers at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies. Another clear sign of the seas
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/read-latest-cmes-newsletter-59 - 2026-09-27
Researchers conducting fieldwork in repressive and illiberal countries face profound ethical, personal and professional challenges — particularly when they are native to the societies they study. These issues were at the centre of a well attended CMES seminar by professor Merouan Mekouar, York University, Canada, that brought together scholars to reflect on risk, responsibility and inequality in a
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/challenges-and-strategies-fieldwork-repressive-and-illiberal-contexts - 2026-09-27
How can the Middle East move towards sustainability and peace amid escalating conflicts and environmental crises? This question was at the heart of a well-attended panel discussion hosted by the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) during Sustainability Week 2026. The event brought together researchers and students from across Lund University to share insights from political science,
https://www.cmes.lu.se/article/sustainable-middle-east-turbulent-world - 2026-09-27
New article from CMES by Torsten Janson and Mattias Kärrholm. Read the article here (external link).This article is devoted to analysing the design and symbolics of the Safra Square (Kikar Safra) and City Hall complex, Western Jerusalem. Built around the historic Town Hall of the British Governate, and inaugurated in 1993, the City Hall complex is strategically located along the bustling Jaffa Str
Spanning two previously separate areas of research – civil society and elites – this book sheds new light on how certain individuals emerge as members of a civil society elite and traces interactions with elite groups from party politics, the state, and the business sector. This edited volume analyses how such processes are influenced by reliance on foreign funding and explores how they play out i
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/uhlin-and-colleagues-civil-society-elites-cambodia-and-indonesia - 2026-09-27
Tell us, why Tunisia? As a PhD student in political science with a focus on comparative politics in the Middle East, I investigate feminist activism and gender politics in the Middle East and North Africa, with a particular focus on Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. What interests me is largely that feminism is usually seen as a European or Western "product" that is exported to the rest of the worl
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/hi-there-joel-w-abdelmoez-just-back-fieldwork-tunisia - 2026-09-27
Daniel Gustafsson has successfully defended his thesis entitled 'The Present People'. Congratulations! Abstract In modern political thought, one of the most recalcitrant, and increasingly pressing, questions of modern democracy is whether, and in what sense, the people can be present. While the presence of the people has, and continues to be, the sine qua non of the democratic form of government,
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/daniel-gustafsson-has-successfully-defended-his-thesis - 2026-09-27
In the interview The Local Sweden journalist Richard Orange set out how the far-right Sweden Democrats have tried to fire up the long-dormant debate over Sweden's membership of the European Union. Lund University professor Ian Manners spoke about what it means and what to do about it. In tweets, interviews, one article in the Aftonbladet tabloid and a second one in Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, Swe
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/manners-how-best-respond-sweden-democrats-swexit-gamble - 2026-09-27
Sindre Gade Viksand has successfully defended his thesis entitled 'A World of Persons'. Congratulations! Abstract This is a study of subjecthood in international thought. Human beings and states, while often held to be opposed to one another, share this: they are international thought’s key subjects. The following chapters attempt to answer the question of why that is. The main argument advanced i
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/sindre-gade-viksand-has-successfully-defended-his-thesis - 2026-09-27
Simon Davidsson has been awarded the Swedish Political Science Association's prize for best thesis by younger researchers presented at the association's annual meeting 2022. Davidsson is awarded the prize for the thesis Testing Paths to Strong Parties in Western Europe or the Efficient Secret Shared. The motivation reads: Davidsson's essay is a careful examination of explanations for the developme
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/simon-davidsson-has-been-awarded-swedish-political-science-associations-prize - 2026-09-27
Isabel Bramsen has written the chapter ‘The web of relations shaping the Philippine peace talks’ in the book Relational Peace Practices edited by Anna Jarstad, Johanna Söderström, and Malin Åkebo. The chapter investigates the interaction between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) during peace talks and discusses this in relation to the larger web of relations shaping t
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/bramsen-web-relations-shaping-philippine-peace-talks - 2026-09-27
Lisa Strömbom has co-authored the article ‘The Abraham Accords’ implications for peace in the Middle East’, published in the latest issue of Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift. The Abraham Accords, signed by Israel and four Arab states in 2020, were one of President Donald Trump’s most renowned foreign policy successes. But what type of peace has emerged following the Abraham Accords? Departing from the
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/lisa-strombom-abraham-accords-implications-peace-middle-east - 2026-09-27
Stina Melander, Julia Bahner and Oskar Krantz have published the article “The Personal is Political – And Then What? Ideology, Representation, and Legitimacy in a Swedish Disability Organisation.” in Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. Abstract Background: Who can or cannot claim to represent other members within the disability rights movement has been discussed for decades, mainly concer
Lisa Strömbom has co-authored the article ”The two-state impasse in Israel/Palestine – The EU caught between egalitarian norms and expansionist realpolitik”, in Frontiers in Political Science. For many years, international actors have viewed a two-state solution based on democratic rights for both peoples in their respective nation-state as the silver-bullet that can solve the Israeli-Palestinian
https://www.svet.lu.se/en/article/strombom-eu-between-democratic-principles-and-expansionist-israeli-ideals - 2026-09-27
