The Alwaleed Centre’s Interdisciplinary Seminar Series 2026/27

The Alwaleed Centre’s interdisciplinary research seminar series takes place during the academic year 2026/27 and aims to broaden knowledge production of contemporary Islam and the Globalised Muslim world through collaborative seminars with colleagues across the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS).

About the Seminar Series

The series brings together scholars, practitioners, and artists to critically engage with questions pertaining to the study of contemporary Islam and the globalised Muslim world from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

The vast majority of our seminars will be co-badged with colleagues in schools and research networks across CAHSS, including: The School of Divinity, The Edinburgh College of Art, the School of Social and Political Sciences, The School of History, Classics and Archaeology, The Middle East Research Group (MERG), and CRITIQUE.

Please join us for these important and timely conversations.

Students, staff, and members of the public are all welcome!

How to attend

All seminars are free to attend, but registration is required. 

You can register for each seminar via its respective events page.  

Visit our events page.

Events calendar

We regularly update the events calendar below, but you can stay up to date with the Alwaleed Centre’s activities by signing up to our mailing list below:

Join our mailing list.

Semester 1

Join us for a keynote lecture by Dr Rizwaan Sabir (Liverpool John Moores University) on bringing Critical Muslim Studies into Critical Studies on Terrorism. 

Critical Terrorism Studies has witnessed a growing engagement with decolonial and postcolonial perspectives over the past years that have challenged the continued Eurocentrism of the discipline and its dominant approaches. Despite these advances, the field continues to grapple with enduring forms of Eurocentrism in its conceptual frameworks, research agendas, and scholarly conversations. It is therefore time for CTS to consider a more radical re-orientation of the direction it has been taking since its foundation. Critical Muslim Studies has developed a rich body of scholarship that interrogates the racialisation of Muslim identities, the colonial and imperial structures shaping contemporary governance, and the epistemic conditions through which “Muslimness” is produced as a problem within global politics. 

More information and registration.


Join us on 22 September for an event featuring the presentation of a new translation of “Pearls from the Diwan of Imam al-Haddad,” an introduction to the Yemini poet and scholar Imam al-Haddad's life and work and a recitation and explanation of some of his poetry.
 
Although Imam al-Haddad lived in Yemen over 300 years ago, his teachings continue to benefit people in diverse settings in different parts of the world. His poetry illuminates people's hearts in gatherings from California to Jakarta. Now a new English translation of the original Arabic gives us a window into the teachings of a great spiritual master. 
 

Join us on 5 October for a screening of “The Textile Generation”, a one-hour documentary directed by the Syrian-Bahraini filmmaker Haya Altamimi and co-produced by Dr Ann-Christin Zuntz (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Alessandro Columbu (University of Westminster), which brings to the screen the forgotten history of Syrian textile traders in Manchester. 

More information and registration.
 


More information to follow.


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