Global Middle East Studies Inaugural Annual Symposium

Call for Contributions: Global Middle East Studies Inaugural Annual Symposium

Deadline: Monday, February 3, 2024 (Midnight Central Time)

Global Middle East Studies (GMES) welcomes submissions from undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and faculty from all majors who would like to participate in a full-day event that promotes the research, scholarship, and creative activities of the UIC GMES program. GMES is defined by its interdisciplinary attention to the multilayered experiences of Middle Eastern and North African communities, both within the region and around the world. We seek contributions to a day of stimulating presentations and lively exchange that is critically oriented, historically attuned, and community engaged.

Possible themes include but are not limited to:

• Arts and literature
• Social and political movements
• Economic systems and transformations
• Migration and diaspora studies
• Religion and its social impacts
• Media and digital culture
• Gender and sexuality
• Environmental studies
• Colonialism, settler colonialism, and empire
• Liberation, revolution, and decolonization
• Illness, injury, and trauma
• Political systems and institutions.

Eligible Participants

Submissions are open to the UIC community, including undergraduate and graduate students of all majors, professional students, postdocs, and faculty.

How to Apply 

Various formats will be available:paper presentations, roundtables, digital presentations, interactive skill-building workshops, visual and multimedia art displays, short stories, poetry, and other forms of creative expression. To apply, please complete the online application form no later than February 3, 2025. If you have more than one submission, please consider submitting multiple entries. Selected authors will be contacted by the end of February. For more information and questions, please get in touch with us at gmes@uic.edu.

How to craft a strong submission to participate in the symposium?

The Middle East Studies Association(MESA), the professional association for scholars studying the region, gives helpful advice on how to craft a submission for public conferences.

If your contribution is a research presentation or panel, consider including the following information in your 150-word description:

• Research Question: What question does your research seek to answer?
• Thesis Statement: What is the main argument of your paper?
• Methodology: What theories, models, methods, or approaches are used?
• Research or results: What findings come out of the project? Or what do you expect to find?
• Significance: What are the broader implications of your research? How does it add to the body of knowledge on the subject matter? What could or should change as a result of the overall findings?

If your contribution is creative (an art piece, poem, digital presentation, etc), consider including the following in your 150-word description:

• Thesis Statement: What is the theme or argument of the piece?
• Methodology: How did you create the piece? What was your process?
• Presentation: How do you plan to share your work with the symposium?
• Significance: What is the significance of your piece? Who are you speaking to?

If your contribution is a round table or a workshop, consider including the following in your 150-word description:

• Theme/Summary: What is the common theme or issue that presenters will discuss?
• Significance: What is the purpose or the broader significance of the roundtable/workshop? What do you hope to achieve?
• Presenters: Why have these presenters been selected to participate in the roundtable/workshop?

Sincerely,

GMES Programming Committee