Current MES Event Series

Organized by Dr. Na'ama Pat-el , Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, and Dr. Bruce Wells
Each year, we bring 2 or more speakers to deliver a seminar with graduate students and a public talk. The idea is to expose our graduate students to cutting edge research in Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible and to form professional bonds with leading scholars, as well as provide more opportunities for the general public to learn about the Ancient Near East.

Organized by Literature and Culture Faculty in DMES
Beyond Borders is a lecture series housed in UT’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. It actively seeks to situate the study of modern and pre-modern Middle East cultures both within their regional contexts and beyond, from transnational and transregional perspectives. Each semester, the series invites scholars of Middle Eastern literatures, cinema, music, or art to speak about cutting-edge research in these fields; or a Middle Eastern author, translator, artist, filmmaker, or musician to read, discuss, perform, or exhibit recent works. The series encourages interdisciplinary and comparative inquiry, with the aim of promoting the defining paradigm of our department’s literature/culture section: highlighting the diversity and dynamism of cultural and theoretical cross-currents, influences, and new developments in Middle Eastern cultures and related scholarship.

Organized by Dr. Kamran Aghaie, Dr. Mikiya Koyagi, and PhD student David Rahimi
The Iran Lecture Series seeks to foster an academic and intellectual environment at UT Austin to deepen our understanding of Iran from various disciplinary perspectives. Every year, the series invites two scholars of Iran to share their ongoing research in a public lecture.

Details TBA

Organized by Dr. Karen Grumberg (CMES), Dr. Hina Azam (Islamic Studies), Dr. Jonathan Kaplan(Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies), and Isabelle Headrick (History)
Since ancient times, Jews have lived in what we call the Islamic world. Some Middle Eastern Jewish communities, such as those centered in Iran and Iraq, pre-date Islam by centuries, and thrived well after the Muslim conquest of the eighth century, with Jews and Muslims living relatively peacefully side-by-side. The medieval period saw an especially fruitful collaboration between Arabs and Jews on the Iberian Peninsula, during what has come to be known as the Golden Age of Spain; the Hebrew poetry of the era is to this day considered among the finest ever composed. In the early modern period, Jews established flourishing new communities in the Ottoman Empire (including in what they knew as Eretz Yisrael) and North Africa, in the wake of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Modernity brought nationalist sentiments to the Middle East, which eventually contributed to the disintegration of the symbiotic dynamic that characterized the relationship among the Jews and non-Jews of the Middle East. Until the early twentieth century, though, Jews continued to participate in the culture, society, and politics of the lands they considered home for generations. This series examines various dimensions of the Jewish presence in the Islamic world.

Organized by Dr. Nahid Siamdoust
The Middle East Today series was launched in Fall 2022 to attend to current affairs and invite experts in the field to comment on critical political, cultural, social, and economic developments across the Middle East region. The series aims to engage the UT and wider Austin communities in conversations about significant events – often with potential global repercussions – in Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, and Israel-Palestine.

Learn more about The Middle East Today Series here

Organized by Literature and Culture Faculty in DMES
“New Perspectives on Middle Eastern Literatures and Cultures” is an interdisciplinary lecture series that seeks to showcase scholarship by new and established scholars working on cultural production in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and other languages of the region. Each year, we invite speakers whose research on Middle Eastern literature, music, art, film or other visual media engages with innovative theoretical or comparative approaches and offers fresh perspectives on the region. At its core, this series seeks to illuminate the breadth and variegated richness of Middle Eastern cultures, past and present.

Details TBA

Organized by Dr. Jeannette Okur
The Turkish & Ottoman Studies Lecture Series is an interdisciplinary lecture series that carries out the Center for/Department of Middle Eastern Studies’ mission of actively encouraging students, faculty and community members to work comparatively across and beyond national boundaries. The series fosters interdisciplinary outreach across campus and into the community through cross-listed and co-funded events that have curricular, scholarly, or performance content advertised in at least two departments, and that is attended by a wide variety of students, faculty, and Austin community members.  Since 2013, the series has featured guest speakers in the fields of literature, history, political science, anthropology, sociology, ethnomusicology, cinema studies, migration studies, and international relations/public policy studies.

Organized by Dr. Jonathan Kaplan and the Department of Religious Studies
The Workshop on Late Antiquity is a series of lectures from leading faculty in the study of late antiquity, whose work touches upon the broader Middle East and the ancient Mediterranean as well as the religions and civilizations that developed in the region. These lectures draw a diverse range of people from the UT and broader Austin community, including undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff. Primarily this lecture series works to gather scholars and students interested in the study of late antiquity from across the university, who are scattered in a diverse number of program units.

Organized by Dr. Na'ama Pat-el and the Department of Linguistics
The Historical Linguistics Roundtable offers scholars and students across campus an opportunity to present their research, discuss others’ work and exchange ideas with linguists with similar interests. The group will meet several times each semester and everyone is welcome.

Organized by Dr. Hina Azam and Dr. Jeannette Okur
The Islamic Studies Colloquium is an opportunity for graduate students and faculty from across the University to present research on the study of Islam and the Muslim world. Colloquium meetings aim to provide presentation experience and constructive feedback on work in progress, as well as to foster discussion and a sense of cohort among the Islamic studies community on campus. Meetings are open to all UT community, and light refreshments may be served.

Organized by Middle Eastern Studies Graduate Students
Each semester the Department of Middle Eastern Studies hosts multiple lectures through which Ph.D. students can present their latest research. Brown Bag Lectures serve to bring our MES and UT communities together around emerging scholarship. Presenters have the opportunity to engage as an active audience and workshop their ideas in a supportive environment. Speakers have given talks on a wide range of topics, including gothic Hebrew literature, pre-Islamic Yemen, Iranian video distribution, and language use in Arabic and Turkish literature. We welcome participation across disciplines related to Middle Eastern Studies.

Organized by Dr. Olla Al-Shalchi
The Arabic Reading Club meets on Wednesdays from 5-6 pm to explore readings from a wide array of texts, such as short stories, poetry, and news articles. All meetings are open to students who have completed at least 3 semesters (18 credits) of Arabic at UT. Access the weekly readings here.

Organized by Dr. Samy Ayoub
The Islamic Studies Reading Group meets to discuss readings that focus on a centralized topic chosen for the semester. All meetings are open to the UT community.

Organized by Comp Lit PhD Student İpek Şahinler.
The Turkish Literature in Translation Reading Group aims to gather those who are interested in Turkish literature at UT together. It meets every month throughout the semester and the discussions are held in English. This semester, due to COVID-19 circumstances, all of our discussions will be held virtually, through Zoom. The meetings are open to the entire UT community, as well as interested individuals outside UT.

Organized by Dr. Jeannette Okur
The UT Turkish Tea and Conversation Hour (Çay Saati) is an informal gathering open to all intermediate, advanced, and native/heritage speakers of Turkish on the UT Campus. It fosters intercultural friendships and Turkish language practice.

Persian Table is a weekly informal meeting between Persian learners at the University of Texas at Austin, organized by advanced-level students. The objective of Persian Table meetings is to encourage students to form a community of Persian speakers and practice their language skills in actual conversations, regardless of their level of the language.

In Fall 2024, Ava Hosseini will organize Persian Tables, supervised by Persian Program Coordinator Dr. Babak Tabarraee.

Details TBA

Iranian Culture Desk is a series of informal meetings hosted by the Persian coordinator, Dr. Babak Tabarraee  and the Iranian Studies faculty and graduate students. Each meeting loosely revolves around a cultural theme, such as Persian poetry, Yaldā, fortune-telling with Hafiz’ poems, Nowruz, Iranian cuisine, music and dance, etc. The language used in these meetings is mostly English, so all students, staff, and faculty are welcome to attend these meetings.

Initiated in 2020, Persian Film Club presents Persian-language documentaries, short films, and feature-length narrative films subtitled in English on a monthly basis throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. The UT students, staff, and faculty will have access to the streaming link of a documentary for at least a week, followed by a meeting with the filmmaker or faculty members from the Persian program to discuss the film in English and Persian.

If you are interested in joining Persian Film Club and receiving the links to the movies, please contact the Persian Program Coordinator, Dr. Babak Tabarraee.