The Shiʿi Studies Network is excited to announce a new lecture series, Reflections on Shiʿi Studies. The series aims to act as a forum for scholars working on the academic study of Shiʿi Islam to reflect on the state and fate of the field. Over the past few decades, scholarship on Shiʿism has grown significantly, with major contributions reshaping our understanding of the history and development of Shiʿi Islam from its emergence until the present day. However, dominant analytical frameworks still often reflect reductive assumptions, shaped by sectarian or minority-status framings. This series brings together leading scholars to critically reflect on these dynamics, share insights from their respective areas of focus, and propose new methodological and conceptual approaches to move the field forward.
Join us for the next instalment of this ongoing lecture series where we will be joined by Yusuf Ünal, Postdoctoral Researcher at Universiteit Utrecht.
The lecture will be held online over Zoom. To join, please register here and you will receive a link to join. You will need to register to attend the lecture. For those having difficulty registering with their institutional accounts, please use your personal email address to register instead. If you are still having difficulties, please get in touch.
Yusuf Ünal
Postdoctoral Researcher
Universiteit Utrecht
Yusuf Ünal is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University in the NWO-funded Vici project “Rosewater, Nightingale, and Gunpowder: A Sensory History of the Islamic World, 1500–1900,” which investigates the sensory history of early modern and modern Islam. He is co-editor of the Handbook of Islamic Sensory History, Vol. 3: 1500–1900 (forthcoming with Brill). His work has appeared in the Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies and in several edited volumes on female religious authority and Shi‘i legal theory, and has been translated into Russian, Turkish, and Arabic. His research examines religious transformation, migration, and violence in the early modern Middle East from an interdisciplinary perspective.