Twelfth Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies - “The Middle East in Myth and Reality”
Reykjavik, Iceland, 22–24 September 2022
The Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies (NSMES) (nsmes.org), the University of Iceland and the Middle Eastern Studies Program at the University of Iceland are pleased to announce the call for papers for the Twelfth Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies. NSMES is an independent non-profit association for scholars in the Nordic countries working on the Middle East. It covers all subjects in the humanities and social sciences, from antiquity to the present day. The NSMES conference takes place every third year in one of the Nordic countries, is held in English, and is also open for participants beyond the Nordic countries. This time the theme for the multidisciplinary conference is “The Middle East in Myth and Reality”.
The Middle East is a term laden with notions, implications, projections and clichés. Often defined as a “cradle of civilization”, the region it defines has not only been the setting for premodern events and narratives of lasting impact upon the world at large; it has also been mythicised from outside like few other places in the modern era, and remains globally contested both in myth and in reality. Simultaneously desired and detested, a source of inspiration and symbol of otherness, its real-life experiences often seem to clash with past and present expectations and prejudices. Conceptions and perceptions of the region both from within and from neighbouring and distant parts of the world have accumulated over a long span of time, resulting in a plethora of material available for academic study.
Paper proposals are encouraged to explore and discuss social, political, geographical, historical and religious myths and realities from all fields and disciplines of the Middle Eastern studies, including – but not limited to – the following fields: Middle Eastern history, anthropology, archaeology, religion, politics, sociology, language, and literature. To this may be added the study of identity, religion, gender, immigration, minorities and many other phenomena. Papers on other relevant themes pertinent to current Middle Eastern Studies are also welcome.