Past Research Projects
Past Research Projects
American-Islamic Exchanges in the Long 19th Century
Spearheaded by Gwendolyn Collaço, Anne S. K. Brown Curator for Military and Society, and in collaboration with the John Hay Library, the John Carter Brown Library, the Brown 2026 initiative, and faculty from the departments of History and History of Art and Architecture, this year-long initiative examined a long, rich history of interactions between the United States and Islamicate societies, characterized by solidarity, fascination and exoticization.
Arts and Social Change
Through annual workshops, curated exhibits and performances, as well as visiting professorships and lectures, this research initiative cultivates a network of scholars passionate about the relationship between the arts and social agency.
Digital Islamic Humanities
This research project led by Professor Elias Muhanna has hosted a series of gatherings, workshops, symposia, and other kinds of research projects, all oriented around the digital study of the Islamic world.
Displacement and the Making of the Modern World
Through a yearlong series of workshops, seminars, courses, and cultural activities, this research project explored themes that integrate disparate studies of displacement.
Engaged Scholarship: The Politics and Ethics of Knowledge Production
This Middle East Studies research project is aimed at generating a critical conversation among scholars from across the disciplines and area studies around the question of what it means to put intellectual work in the service of engaged scholarship, broadly defined.
Islam and the Humanities
Islam and the Humanities aims at forging deliberate connections between the study of Islam and Muslims and topics engaged by scholars in the humanities in general. This entails bringing philosophical concerns to bear on materials pertaining to Islam as well as encouraging the discussion of Islamic perspectives in contemporary theorizing in the academy. The initiative is multidisciplinary by definition and open to all regions and time periods relevant to the study of Islam.
Racialization and Racism in the Middle East and Its Diasporas
This initiative, co-organized and led by professors Nadje Al-Ali and Beshara Doumani, and supported by Africana Studies, is committed to to initiating internal conversations and dialogue within Brown and Middle East studies more broadly and to organizing activities which engage with the global issues of structural racism and exploitation.