Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

08/10/2026

"According to surveys, the AfD is currently polling as the strongest political party in Germany, at around 28% and would come first if a federal election were held now. Nevertheless, its bigger victory may lie somewhere else. " Nitin Sinha reflects on the recent victory of the far-right AfD party in Germany.

Beyond votes, the far-right party’s growing influence lies in its ability to make migration the scapegoat for all issues from housing, welfare, security to identity.

06/10/2026

***** Call for Applications *****

ZMO seeks to recruit a postdoctoral scholar from February 2027 for two years. The ideal candidate pursues a historical project connected to at least one of ZMO’s research units, with a regional focus on South or Southeast Asia. The candidate is expected to contribute to ZMO through their publications, participation in ZMO’s scholarly life, as well as through public
outreach. Furthermore, they should develop an application for further funding at ZMO, which should be submitted to the German Research Association (DFG), the ERC, or a similar funding agency, in accordance with the candidate’s preferences and advice from ZMO. If successful, the project position would offer the candidate medium term employment at ZMO.

Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) is a public-funded research centre for
interdisciplinary research on the history, society and cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East and their interconnections among one another and with Europe. The centre currently employs about 30 research fellows from diverse national backgrounds, the majority of them anthropologists, historians, and scholars of Islam. ZMO is one of three humanities’ research centres which together form Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren Berlin (GWZ) e.V. ZMO is part of the Leibniz Association. With more than 220 employees at two sites in Berlin, GWZ e.V. is one of the leading extra-university research centres in the humanities.

Application in a single PDF including a CV, copies of relevant degrees and a project outline of a maximum of 3 pages (not including sources/bibliography) as well as a writing sample should be sent by 3 November 2026 to [email protected]. The interviews are expected to take place in mid-November.

For the full call: www.zmo.de/en/about-us/career/job-offers

01/10/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Birgitte Holst on her new book "Authoritarianism, Displacement and Syrian Family Life
Reckoning with the State", Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York, 2026.

Syrians living in refuge in Lebanon and Turkey during the war in Syria continued to reckon with the Syrian State as a direct and indirect force in their lives. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life in Syrian families with a variety of political standpoints, this book demonstrates how the experience of displacement was shaped by ongoing deliberations on the ways in which the Syrian State had and continued to intersect people’s lives. It provides new perspectives on the co-constitution of authoritarian rule and displacement in a Middle East context.

Birgitte Stampe Holst is Associated Researcher at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. Her research interests focus on investigating processes of political and social change from the point of view of everyday life. Having lived and worked in Syria before the uprising in 2011, she examines these questions predominantly regarding Syrians living in refuge in Syria's neighbour countries. Her work has been published in journals such as Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, Conflict and Society, and Journal of Refugee Studies.

29/09/2026

Studio Matbuğat is live! 💻

Explore the new digital platform accompanying the Audio Matbuğat podcast. What shaped the public discourse of the Volga-Ural Tatars in the early 20th century? How did Old Tatar sound, and how do language, history, and memory intersect?

The new platform conceived by Diliara Brileva transforms the historical periodical page into a multi-sensory experience. Each podcast episode now extends into a rich constellation of materials: original printed pages, careful transcriptions, vocabulary notes, audio readings, and related visuals.
www.studiomatbugat.com

Curated by Diliara Brileva | Artwork by Niiaz Khaziakhmetov

Old Tatar print in text, sound & image

28/09/2026

This is one of 15 fully-funded PhD positions in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “A Sociology of Post-Imperial Islamic Legal Cultures: Insights from Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia” (MINARET-DN), an EU-funded consortium made up of 11 leading universities and research centres across Europe.

As a partner institution, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren Berlin e.V.) is now advertising the position of a research fellow (m/f/div), to start on 1 September 2027. A 36-month full-time EU MSCA employment contract will be offered. Remuneration is paid in accordance with MSCA regulations.

The research fellow is expected to complete a doctoral dissertation in Modern History, Social and Cultural Anthropology, or Central Asian Studies. To this end, they will enrol as a PhD candidate at a Berlin university. A 36-month full-time EU MSCA employment contract will be offered. Remuneration is paid in accordance with MSCA regulations. Additional funds for research and conference travel, visa fees (if required), and publications are available. The position is based in Berlin, yet there will be regular travel as part of the doctoral network.

For the full call: www.zmo.de/en/about-us/career/job-offers

24/09/2026

Iran is once again dominating international headlines. Some of the proposed strategies for weakening its rulers, however, seem to have been drawn from a map rather than from an understanding of the country.
An analysis by Arash Beidollahkhani

Israel's campaign to fracture Iran could give its deeply unpopular rulers a powerful appeal to national survival.

16/09/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Ergün Özgür Liy on her new book “Highly Qualified Immigrants and Refugees Agency, Challenges and Opportunities across Europe – Türkiye” (transcript Verlag, 2026).

How do highly qualified immigrants and refugees navigate integration into the labor market, citizenship, and broader participation in society? Based on examples of scholars, artists, doctors, journalists and many other qualified professionals from Syria, Georgia and Caucasus in Europe and Türkiye, the contributors analyze career paths, professional transitions, and available opportunities, as well as administrative, legal, and social barriers. The volume further considers the influence of diaspora and migrant communities, transnational solidarity, and political networks on their experiences. The focus is on the agency of immigrants and refugees, highlighting their socio-economic, political contributions to host countries.

Ergün Özgür Liy is a Gerda Henkel Fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and a guest researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin. She holds a PhD in organisational behaviour and obtained academic degrees in global politics and international relations, banking, and public administration. She is a signatory to the ‘Peace Petition’ of Academics for Peace and has spent the past decade researching immigrants and refugees. Her research focuses on critical scholarship, culture and values, highly qualified individuals, diasporas, forced displacement, immigrants and refugees, and the Adyghe, Abkhaz-Abaza, Ubykh and North Caucasian peoples. She focuses on the Black Sea, Caucasus, European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions.

03/09/2026

🔔 NEW BOOK 📚
"Geschichte Saudi-Arabiens - Vom Wüstenemirat zur Großmacht am Golf" von Ulrike Freitag, erschienen bei C.H. Beck Wissen.

Mekka und Medina begründen Saudi-Arabiens religiösen Einfluss, Öl und Gas seine wirtschaftliche Macht, aber auch politisch und kulturell wird das Land zunehmend zum Global Player. Ulrike Freitag schildert die Geschichte des Wüstenstaats von der Gründung eines saudischen Emirats über die Integration unterschiedlicher Herrschaftsgebiete im 20. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Der Schwerpunkt ihrer souveränen, anschaulichen Darstellung liegt auf dem atemberaubenden Wandel im 21. Jahrhundert, der durch spektakuläre Giga-Projekte wie «The Line» – einer klimaneutralen, 170 Kilometer langen Stadt – international Aufsehen erregt.

https://www.beck-shop.de/freitag-geschichte-saudi-arabiens/product/40728003